One reason lawyers tell me they don’t write a newsletter or blog (or don’t do it more often) is that they don’t have enough time.
I understand. But I disagree.
No matter how busy you are, you can write something once a week and post it on a blog or email it to a list.
You know that but you don’t do that, you say, because you don’t know what to write.
But you do.
You talk to people every day, about the law, procedure, issues, risks, problems and solutions. People ask questions, you answer them. People tell you about their situation, you tell them their options and what you can do to help them.
You’ve got so much to say, you don’t know where to start.
Start anywhere. With anything.
Make up a question prospective clients or new clients ask and answer it.
In a few minutes, you’ll have the first draft of an article.
If you can talk, you can write.
Actually, you could do that literally. Instead of writing, dictate. Speak, record and have someone else transcribe it, or use the speech-to-text function on your computer or phone.
“Yes, but writing is more difficult than speaking. Writing needs to be more structured and polished,” you say.
To some extent, that’s true. But not to the extent you think.
When you write an email to a client or a friend, how much structure and polish do you give it? My guess, not that much. Just enough to ensure your message is clear and relatively typo-free and out the door it goes.
You’re not writing an appellate brief, you’re writing an email.
And that’s precisely how you should write your newsletter or blog post.
Write (or dictate) an email, not an article. You’ll thank me later.
