I write much more for myself than I ever do for you (sorry, but also not sorry)
You might look at my body of work and think WOW, she writes a lot. But everything that you read online is only a fraction of the actual writing & thinking I do every day.
In fact, what you see online is just a natural outcome of the writing I do privately... for myself.
Because if you are only ever writing to produce something, you'll quickly burn out.
You might already be feeling the beginning of creator burnout (or you might already be deep in it). The only way I know to avoid that is to dive deep back into my own personal writing practices & rituals. Where I don't have to worry about hooks, headlines, or what will get attention.
I just get to explore ideas, be curious & fuel my creative spirit.
So far for me, that has been the key to building a sustainable creator business where I can keep producing content that people love, while not burning out in the process.
So if you're looking to build a practice that will sustain you, stoke your curiosity and help you to play the long game in this creator world, here are three things you should do as part of your daily writing practice:
I start each morning with a journal entry. Some people call this morning pages, brain dump, getting everything out of your head, clearing the decks.
Whatever you call it, start your writing session just by writing whatever is on your mind. Get it all down. This might seem like a waste of time considering ALL the content you need to write. But trust me, the clearer you are the easier it will be to do what you need to.
The more you keep in your head the less flow you'll find when you actually come to writing. Your mind needs to feel like all the random thoughts in it are safe and sound and by getting all that out - you've given it (and you) peace of mind.
Clear it all out and get ready for flow.
The actual 'how' of this doesn't need to be complicated. Don't overthink it, my friends.
Grab whatever notes tool you use, and just start writing.
Some days it might be a couple of lines, other days a full few pages of notes. Just take however long you need to clear the decks of your brain.
After I've cleared the decks, I sink deep into my Spark Inbox.
The Spark Inbox is the place I store all my notes from things I've been consuming. It might be some notes from a book I read, a podcast I've listened to, or an article I picked up.
When I'm reading or listening and something stands out to me (a spark. get it?) I capture it & write a quick note to remind myself why that stood out or sparked me.
And all of those spark notes end up in my Spark Inbox.
Then each writing session I choose a note at random. Read the note I left for myself to remind me why I thought this was so interesting and I start writing and exploring the idea.
And I write until I feel like I've explored everything about that idea.
This is one of the most joyful parts of everything I do as a creator. Just me and the idea. Following my curiosity for no other purpose than it is just insanely interesting to me. I don't have to worry if it never sees the light of day in my content production. All that matters at that moment, is that I'm fuelling my creative spirit.
Learn to take the time to do this part and you will constantly feel full & sustained.
And guess what? The more you do explore your curiosity, the more content ideas just pop up! You'll find ideas just kind of spill out of you all over the place.
Instead of staring at blank screens or worrying about where your next ideas will come from, you'll have a list flowing with ideas you can hardly keep up with.
This is why writing for yourself first is SO sustainable.
Because content becomes an OUTCOME of the ideas & the curiosity that sparks you (not something you need to keep finding new ways to produce).
So as you're writing & exploring your ideas, let ideas for content just bubble up. And when you have that moment where you think - Oh that would make a great essay/article/tweet/video/idea write it down.
You'll literally end up with a list of ideas you'll never be able to get through when you treat your creative practice like this.
Once you flip the switch and start writing for yourself first - you'll find the production side of being a creator flows so much more freely. And whenever you do start to feel any burnout creeping in - you simply retreat back into your creative practice even more.
