How to use AI to alleviate the fear of the blank page

Wondering how to use generative AI effectively in the workplace? Internal Comms teams are using AI to help move past the fear of the blank page to start drafting employee communications.

When we hear the words “writer's block,” most of us think about creative writers who are paid to write. Or maybe your mind goes back to your school days when you were up against a deadline to submit an essay but couldn’t figure out what to write.

Back when I was in school, simply writing your name on an assignment was worth a minimum of 5 points out of 100. If your name was on the page, it’s no longer blank. Maybe that was my teacher's way of helping us move past the blank page syndrome (another word for writer’s block).

But, writer's block can often happen at our jobs, especially for those of us who work in internal comms. Often, we know the message that needs to be conveyed, who we need to write for (the audience), but when we’re starting from scratch, the fear of the blank page can catch up to us.

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Editing is always easier than starting from scratch. One of my favorite writers, Jodi Picoult, has said 'You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page'.

— Mary Kaplan, Product Marketing Manager at LumApps

So, how can we move past the blank page?

Personally, I like to use a method called free writing where I get every little idea and horribly worded sentence onto the page before I edit anything. When I’m ready to edit, reading out loud helps as well. It helps me work out those vocabulary and grammar errors.

Free writing has been shown to help alleviate writer’s block, and the fear of the blank page. Often the best way to cure blank page syndrome is simply to start writing. Your creative process doesn’t have to be linear, and you can give yourself some unstructured time to just freewrite. Editing is always easier than starting from scratch. One of my favorite writers, Jodi Picoult, has said “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”

Many teams that feel extra stuck are turning to the popular and trendy generative content tools, like ChatGPT and its competitors. Generative content tools can help you edit, rewrite, and reword your content, at work and in your personal life!

Employee experience platforms, like LumApps, are working to embed these tools directly in our CMS so anyone needing to communicate with their team can use one simple click of a button to get past the blank page and quickly generate some text to begin editing.

When it comes to generative AI, the key often lies in giving the tool a good prompt. For example, “Write 300 words on our office moving from San Francisco to Cupertino in October of 2023.” Now, you will probably get something back that has descriptions of both San Francisco and Cupertino, that make them sound like lovely vacation spots.

True, this is where a tool like ChatGPT won’t be super helpful since it doesn’t know the details and nuances of your company. But, if you need filler text, like the benefits of a “no meeting Wednesday,” then you may find generative AI to be helpful.

For managers who maybe aren’t trained in written communication, but have a need to communicate with their team, these prompts could prove really useful! Either way, having the ability to easily generate content, from within your Employee Experience Platform, that you can then edit, and send for approvals before it’s published will help the many different types of daily employee communications that are needed at your company.

Book a demo today to learn more about how LumApps is using AI in our product roadmap.

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Internal Comms and AI: alleviate the fear of the blank page

Join this free webinar to learn the magnitude of AI tools, particularly generative content, in alleviating the fear and roadblock of "the blank page."

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