TA #71: 💪 Two Little-Known Tools to Help You Get Unstuck; Brand-New Content Benchmarks

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This week's image, #71: Aubrey Odom on Unsplash

Welcome to the 71st issue of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, content, marketing, life. THANK YOU for being here.

Boston, Sunday, October 11, 2020

Hey, friend.

Before we get going: A sincere request. I'd like to grow this newsletter to 50,000. We are *this close.* So here's my ask: Will you forward this issue to at least one other person who shares our love of writing/marketing/shenanigans, then suggest that they subscribe through the link at the bottom or here: AnnHandley.com/newsletter. When you do, hit Reply to this newsletter and let me know how wonderful you are! I'll write back. I always do.

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I don't believe in Writer's Block.

House framers don't get 2x4 Block.

Dentists don't get Root Canal Block.

Accountants don't get QuickBooks Block. (Babylonian accountants didn't get Abacus Block, either lol.)

But I do think Writer's Wilderness is a thing (no inspiration for miles).

And I subscribe to Writer's Perfectionism (we stop before we start because we act as Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor to our sweet creative souls).

And of course I am Team Captain of the League of Procrastination.

Writing is a matter of showing up to work, day after day, with the right tools and materials: the timber; the QuickBooks subscription; the tooth-grindy thing that dentists use.

So how do you assemble all the parts, the tools, the materials—the words, the inspiration, the ideas?

This week I'm sharing two little-known but uber-practical tools that help me when my creative wheels get stuck in the mud.

Both of these tools are also quirky-fun. Because writing shouldn't feel like doing your taxes.

I
ilys

ilys is a distraction-free writing tool. But now I really want to edit that sentence because while accurate… it's also too clinical.

ilys is Disney's Space Mountain for writing: It's pitch black and you have no idea where you're going and it feels like maybe you shouldn't have agreed to this ride because GET ME OFF NOW.

But you can't. All you can do is buckle up. Hang on. Keep going.

How it works: At ilys.com, input a number of words you want to write. (Be brave. Don't say like 10 because you are Not. A. Softy!)

Start typing. All you see on the screen is the letter you just typed flash in front of your face. Then—poof—GONE.

If you know you made a mistake and reflexively hit the back button, you get a punitive buzzer sound that you KNOW wishes it could deliver an actual shock to you.

You can't see the text in its entirety until you reach your word goal. Only then does ilys deliver your document. It's a frakkin mess.

But your first draft is THERE.

And that feels pretty great.

How you might use ilys:

For first drafts when your inner judge-critic is in a particularly feisty mood
To limber up atrophied writing muscles
To lighten up because this tool is wild and writing shouldn't feel like you're the one in the dentist chair getting that root canal

Cost: $0. ilys is generally a subscription tool. But at the start of Covid, creator Michael Gurevich made ilys free in an effort to give our collective creativity an outlet. So it's free through the end of 2020.

Fun fact: ilys stands for "I Love Your Stories." And if that isn't the positivity 2020 needs, I don't know what is.

II
Splasho's Up-Goer Text Editor

The Up-Goer Text Editor challenges you to explain an idea using only the dictionary's 1,000 most-used English words. Part game. Part puzzle. Weirdly useful.

The Up-Goer Editor is a kind of writing mullet: mostly for fun, but with a business utility to simplify your writing. To quote Einstein: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." He wasn't talking about writing... but let's pretend.

How it works: Type your text in the box. The editor boots out uncommon words, kicking to the curb anything that whiffs of jargony, buzzwordy, or high-falutin' writin'.

How you might use the Up-Goer Editor:

Straight-up fun: It's a great exercise to reframe your thinking in the simplest, most straightforward terms. For example: Guess this movie.
To combat the curse of knowledge. The tool is especially fun if you work in tech, science, or any complex industry. It helps you frame your writing in common language for readability and SEO.
For short descriptions or teasers. I sometimes use this tool to get out of my own head when I write descriptions of my talks and speeches.

Like this speech description from a recent talk on brand newsletters. The words underlined in red were booted out by the Editor. The second sentence says the same thing, but more simply.

Cost: $0. For my international friends, it's also available in Norwegian and Spanish.

Fun fact: Splasho creator Theo Sanderson was inspired by an xkcd diagram of the Saturn V rocket. To explain how the complex rocket worked, Randall Munroe labeled the diagram using only the 1,000 most common words.

Give these tools a go! Let me know how you find them useful.

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QUICKIES

💯 How to Create the Perfect Pipeline. I met Kenda Macdonald in Denmark in February. We became best friends immediately—because she's smart, funny, and likes animals as much as I do. So I tapped her to lead one of our MarketingProfs webcasts for our PRO (paid) community. That 75-minute session happened last month, and it became one of the highest-rated events ever. What do you do with pure gold? You share it. So we're making Kenda's 90-minute session on Creating the Perfect Pipeline available to you for free. But only through October 22, so you'd better hustle if you want in!

BTW 👉 👉 👉 If you're a writer or content creator you might think, Eh? Pipeline, schmipe-line. But guess what plays a major role in pipeline perfection...? Hint: Starts with Cont. Ends in Ent.

📊 11th Annual Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, Trends: 2021. Things that happened in 2009: Captain Sully landed a plane in the Hudson River. The world lost Michael Jackson. And the first-ever Content Marketing Benchmark report came mewling into the hot lights of the content marketing world. As its godparents, Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi and I swaddled it with whitepapers and—over the years—fattened it with juicy blog posts, videos, tweets. Now that mewling baby is a robust 11-year-old. They grow up so fast.

Go deeper 👉 👉 👉 Fully 94% of content marketers reported that their organizations have adjusted their content marketing strategy because of the pandemic.

🎃 Pumpkin Spice Couches: A Case Study in the Power of Copywriting. How do you sell two used couches upholstered in the exact, unfortunate color of the poop emoji...?

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

Your Grammarian Personality Quiz: Are you a descriptivist or prescriptivist?

LOVE LETTERS
Shouts from around the Internet.

💌 To Anna Crowe at Search Engine Journal for including me in this super-helpful piece: 39 Inspiring Examples of Contact Us Pages.

💌 To Hattie and Elliot and the fine folks at Taxi for Email for coverage of my Litmus Live talk.

💌 To Koen Denolf at The Fat Lady for coverage of my UBA Trends Day talk.

💌 To Skyword for including me in 365 marketing quotes to inspire you every day for the next year.

💌 And to FelicityPR for the book love!

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Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a mask.

I'll be back on October 25.

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, buy a book. Or forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here: www.annhandley.com/newsletter.

SELECT PUBLIC EVENTS

📅 October 6 + 13: Meltwater Social Media Festival [online]

📅 October 13-15: Content Marketing World [online]

📅 October 20: OptIn Live 2020 [online]

📅 November 4 & 5: MarketingProfs B2B Forum. The worst part about going to an event is getting back to the office; all the good vibes + inspiration fade away with the day-to-day grind. We've solved that by combining our PRO community + the B2B Forum into one year-long community + resource. The details.

📅 November 9: World Business Forum, Australia

📅 November 12: SharpSpring Agency Accelerator Series [at LinkedIn]

📅 November 30-December 2: Digital Sales and Marketing World [online]

📅 Your Date Here: Book me to speak

➡️ ➡️ ➡️ Not into this? No problem: Unsubscribe right here.

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Ann Handley is the author of Everybody Writes and other books.
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TA #71: 💪 Two Little-Known Tools to Help You Get Unstuck; Brand-New Content Benchmarks

Older messages

TA #70: 💌 What I Learned About Writing from Dumpling School; 20 Questions to Stronger Content

TA #69: ☕ Pumpkin Spice Newsletter: A Case Study in the Power of Copywriting

TA #68: ✨ How This Storytelling Program Mopped Up; 10 Tips to Make Your Social Media More Conversational

TA #67: 🕸️ A Writer's Hierarchy of Needs; the Most Important Skills of 2020 Leaders

TA #66: 🐝 Why Imposter Syndrome Can Be Your BFF; Not All Buzzwords Are Lousy

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