Inadequate

I don't know about the rest of you, but I seem to have a massive lack of confidence when it comes to my PR skills and abilities. I feel like I should have taken way more advantage of PR Techniques (the unit) and PR Media during my time...it's kinda like first year. If I knew then what I know now, I would have been a very different student.

What I'm getting at is, I often sit down to a simple task like writing newsletter copy and feel like I can't do it. A slight panic starts to creep up as I stare at the blank screen, cursor winking away and totally not helping. All the theory in the PR discipline isn't going to help me with this either.

The biggest problem for me that to be able to write about something, to give a story some character, pizzazz etc, I need to know what I'm on about! It’s an issue of substance. Anything less and I just seem to write a pile of clichés, or fluff that comes across as just that. I'm sure everyone else finds this too. I guess here is one aspect of PR theory; the importance of research.

On Tuesday my supervisor handed me an A4 page with about 12 dot points and a whole load of scribbles she'd written down in a meeting. The task: to write 400 words for the newsletter about a recent independent review on one of our programs, which helps disabled people live lives of purpose. The review was basically very good, with a few recommendations for improvement. The dot points outlined the key good and bad points about the program.

I sat and looked at it for 30 mins trying to get an angle together. Here's another thing (I'm sorry, this is all over the place) I've found that after doing so many marketing units, my creative skills have taken a dive. When I sit down to write, it's all report language, unless it's for something casual. It's SO annoying. So when I got some content down, it read like a uni assignment, and I really wasn't happy with it.

Anyways, after 4 hours I had something that at least my supervisor thought was good, it just needed 'tightening up'. 4 hours? If I was actually the PR specialist in any organisation there is no way I'd get away with using half a day to write one story for a newsletter! I just couldn't make it work with what I'd been given.

Then the director of Community Affairs, who I'd emailed 3 hours before for some background info, walks in. With the report. With that baby in my hands I completely re-wrote my pathetic attempt at a story. It contained REAL information about how the actual staff felt about the program, the recommendations had more meat, and it outlined the process the review took. I had an angle! I could add human interest to the story.I did in 30 minutes a far better story than I'd done in 4 hours.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, in the future I'm given a task that I don't have enough info to do properly, I'm going to be pro-active and ask for it! I could have asked for the damn thing hours before. AND I need to be far more confident in my abilities. I think that's a large part of the demon that is writer's block, the niggling idea that you're going to write a pile of rubbish. Does anyone else feel the same? Is this normal? Please enlighten me (and hopefully make me feel better)

Oh and also, I am terribly unproductive in the mornings. Is anyone else the same? I seem to get this massive creative kick at about 2pm, and really start flying along. I guess that’s good if I ever do freelance lol.