Don't Write Every Day, Please! (Content Creation)
There's a silly joke I like...
There’s this silly joke we have in Bulgaria about a guy who decided to write a book.
He wrote the book, showed it to an editor and the editor said, “This needs a lot of work. You have to read more.”
And the guy said, “I’m a writer, not a reader.”
It used to be funny because it’s silly. Now, it’s funny because it’s true.
Online writers are writers, not readers.
“Post every day on Medium” writers are writers, not readers.
Solopreneurs who want to write one sales page and sell the hell out of their digital product — they’re writers, not readers.
The people who blindly follow writing structures, do surface-level research and try to hack each platform by commenting on big accounts…
Writers. Not readers.
And I get it. I also want you to be successful and rich. Hell, I want it for myself, too.
But for some reason, writing’s become the easy way out. You write every day, develop a writing habit, and Alakazam Presto, you’re retired on royalties.
I invite you to challenge that narrative. Writing holds a huge potential, but it’s not easy — and writing every day won’t necessarily make it easier.
Instead of writing more, here’s what you do.
Write less.
“They” say the minute you finish writing one thing, you should publish it and start another. Or send it to agents and start another.
Why?
Let’s take a moment to look at athletes.
The article continues:
“3x3 hour practices throughout the week is a good training stimulus for many athletes. Most sport teams work strategy and team skills in addition to fitness training into their weekly programs.”
Plus, recovery is one of the most important things for an athlete. Lack of quality recovery leads to injuries and poor mental state, leading to poor performance.
During her work with top female athletes, high-performance coach Kristin Weitzel says she discovered “You’re only as good as your ability to recover.”
There are two different categories of recovery:
Immediate or short-term recovery — This is the most common form of recovery and occurs within hours after an exercise session or event. Short-term recovery includes low intensity exercise after working out and during the cool down phase.
Long-term recovery — This refers to recovery periods that are built into a seasonal training schedule and may include days or weeks incorporated into an annual athletic program. — The importance of rest and recovery for athletes, Michigan State University
Not convinced by athletes? Let’s look at CEOs.
While they take alarmingly little time off, stories of CEOs doubling profit, or businesses improving productivity while leaders are away continue to emerge. Increasingly more organizational psychologists encourage CEOs and C-level executives to take more vacation days and/or sabbaticals.
So why is it that everyone else should take breaks (as a means of achieving success) except for writers, who are supposed to write every day, no matter what?
Here’s my advice:
Read every day.
Journal every day. Just get thoughts on paper, no pressure.
Draft every day (as in, scribble ideas, questions, new information you found interesting).
Actually write (with the idea of publishing your writing) 1–3x per week. Then, when you’re relaxed, and have some ideas and information already in your brain, writing becomes faster, easier and better.
Read more.
Instead of developing a writing habit, let’s develop a reading habit, shall we?
Let’s get up every morning and spend an hour reading. Read anything that interests you; don’t limit yourself.
If anything, what you read will show you what you should be writing.
Trust me, if you’re meant to write, as in, if there’s but a single writer’s cell in your body, reading more will make you want to write more. Much more!
Publish more.
Here’s what most writers do: they’ll write one thing, publish it and forget about it.
Some don’t even publish it. They have the word equivalent of “War and Peace” on their computers, and nothing has seen the light of day.
If you want to be successful online, here’s the strategy I suggest: write less, publish more.
Take what you’ve already written on, say, Substack, and turn it into:
Medium post
YouTube video
A few LinkedIn Posts
A few IG posts
A few tweets
Combine your best pieces and turn them into an eBook on Amazon
After a year, you can improve and repost anything you want. Whoever’s read it has forgotten it, and you’ve accumulated a new audience.
Why lose your great ideas to the online noise by publishing them just once?
Sell more.
I’m sorry if I’ll burst a romantic bubble for many of you, but if you don’t make money writing, it’s a hobby, not a business (or even a side hustle).
It’s so tempting to leave the selling to the platforms. We just write for Medium and get paid (peanuts, unless we know how to sell our writing for attention).
We write on Substack and hope for paid subscribers.
We post on social media, get followers and hope opportunities “just come”.
Instead of writing every day, think about what you’re selling with every piece of content you publish.
Are you selling a free subscription to your newsletter? (Still a sale; people pay you with their e-mail addresses).
Are you selling a paid subscription to your newsletter?
Are you selling a product or a service?
What are you selling? And why should anyone care?
I’m worried the “write every day” advice is killing your dreams.
You’re so busy writing, you don’t stop to think what kind of business you’re building, what strategy is best for it and how to make it happen.
You don’t learn business; you don’t learn marketing; you don’t even learn writing.
You just write.
Is that really smart, do you think?
If you want to be smarter about your writing business…
I’ll link a few tools below to help you write intentionally and build an audience from scratch.
Here’s what I think would help:
Figure out what type of solopreneur you are, what are your natural strengths and what role writing could play in your business. Take the “What type of solopreneur are you?” Solopreneur Assessment below.
Create a writing process. Read the post here.
Learn how to write an Irresistible Substack Description so people click “subscribe” before they know what hit them. Watch the webinar replay below.
The writing process post is free for everyone.
If you want to watch the webinar or take the Solopreneurship Assessment, consider becoming a paid subscriber of Smarter Solopreneurs because my goal for all my paid subscribers is to help them build 6-figure businesses as fast as they can. ❤
Either way, have a wonderful weekend and keep showing up. As Marie Forleo says, this world needs that special gift that only you have.
Paid subs will be able to see the links to the webinar and the assessment below. ↘