Confessions of a Content Writer: Things We Google At 2 AM

Dear Diary,

It’s 2 AM, and I’m deep into another content writing spiral. My search history looks like it was written by an AI having an existential crisis. But this is just another day (er, night) in the life of a content writer…

The Late-Night Search History of a Content Writer

12:47 AM: The Basic Research Phase

• “difference between affect and effect for the 47th time”
• “how to spell definitely without autocorrect”
• “how to spell privilege without autocorrect”
• “how to spell necessary without autocorrect”
• “is it principAl or principlE?”
• “are em dashes actually cool or am I just sleep deprived”
• “what about the oxford comma tho”

1:23 AM: The Industry-Specific Dive

• “what is blockchain actually tho”
• “explain NFTs like I’m 5”
• “why do fintech companies love the color blue”

2:15 AM: The Fact-Checking Spiral

• “do fish actually sleep”
• “why is it called a building if it’s already built”
• “where ARE all the baby pigeons”
• “if I’m extra polite to chatGPT, will I be spared in the robot uprising?”

3:08 AM: The Synonym Searches

• “another word for innovative that doesn’t make me sound like a robot”
• “synonyms for ‘game-changing’ because I hate myself”
• “words better than ‘solutions’ please help”
• “what to call something that’s unique when everything is unique”

3:45 AM: The Desperate Hours

• “how many coffees is too many coffees”
• “can you plagiarize yourself”
• “why do I write better at night”
• “jobs that don’t involve writing”
• “how to tell if you’re actually a bot”

Phrases We’ve Had to Double-Check Because English Is Weird

• Is it “another think coming” or “another thing coming”?
• “Deep-seated” or “deep-seeded”?
• “For all intents and purposes” or “for all intensive purposes”?
• “Duck tape” or “duct tape”? (Plot twist: Both are correct for different reasons)

The Questions That Keep Us Up at Night

• Why isn’t “palindrome” a palindrome?
• Why do we park in driveways but drive in parkways?
• Who decided that pineapple on pizza needed an entire internet war?
• Is a hotdog a sandwich? (Don’t @ me)

Things We’ve Typed Into Thesaurus.com at 3:47 AM

• “Good” (because we’ve used it 47 times)
• “Exclusive” (because even though it’s special, it ain’t always elite)
• “Amazing” (because everything can’t be amazing, Susan)
• “Innovative” (because we’re dying inside)

Word to the wise

To all the content writers out there with search histories they’d rather not explain: we see you, we are you, and yes, it’s totally normal to spend two hours researching something you’re going to use in exactly one sentence.

Need help turning your late-night research into coherent content? Great Scot! is here to help bring your stories to life.

Let’s make something great together.

Written at an undisclosed hour by a writer fuelled by coffee and existential questions about grammar.