Writing Hurts, But It Helps
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When President Woodrow Wilson was asked how long he spent preparing speeches he said:
“That depends on the length of the speech. If it is a ten-minute speech it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it; if it is a half-hour speech it takes me a week; if I can talk as long as I want to it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.”
Same, Mr. President. I am ready now. That's why it hurts so bad. For reference, this article is 855 words and took me over 3 hours to write–caption and all (WordCounter tells me that's less than 5 minutes of "speaking time").
Mark Twain is said to have said something similar in a quote I saw in a marketer’s email signature a few years ago. It felt so true it made me laugh:
“I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.”
I hate writing.
It’s the hardest part of my job and one of the hardest parts of life. It's part compulsion, part discipline. There are times when I cannot not write. Sometimes I have to. It’s like there’s something jammed in my head that I’m trying to rip out.
But, most of the time, I force myself to write. I probably spend at least 10 hours a week writing. A clear email in the morning? Coming right up. Thoughtful out-of-office message? You betcha. Taglines, headlines, and all that branding stuff? Like it's my job.
That’s the stuff everyone does.
I’m talking about writing. Real writing. Sit down. Open file. Cursor flashing. Write. Something. Anything. Which, more often than not, is preceded by my never ending stream of incomplete thoughts, mistyped gibberish on a note in my phone, recording a brain dump speech to text, and circling back with it later when I have time to “write a short letter.”
Ironically, as much as I hate writing, if I had it my way, I’d rather spend most of my week writing. Not because I love the act of pen to paper or the clickity clack of my keyboard.
If you’re an expert, leader, or hope to be one someday, there is no single skill with a higher return on investment than the discipline of writing.
I write because writing helps me. It's part of my life.
So, as much as I hate writing, here’s 7 reasons I do it anyway:
↳ Writing helps me think. David C. Baker has haunted me with the phrase, “There’s clarity in articulation.” It’s only bothered me so much because it’s made me think–and write. When I think more clearly, I advise more clearly. When I advise more clearly, I do better work.
↳ Writing helps me grow. When you write, you learn what you know. And it’s humbling. It forces you to know what you’re talking about, take a stance, and say something worth hearing. It will help you sell more, do better work, and say something people actually want to listen to.
↳ Writing helps me see. It’s a great accountability partner. Writing forces me to engage. Look. Listen. Learn. Writing shapes my mind to experience intentionally rather than just letting everything go in one eye and out the other. The more I write, the more I think about writing, and the more I find myself looking for things to write about. I notice things. See things differently.
↳ Writing helps me talk. Writing trains your mind—and eventually, your mouth—to communicate better. My friend, Hudson Hancock , sent me a clip of Vinh Giang–basically you should write the way you talk. Easier said than done. But writing helps me close that gap so I can speak clearly and write naturally. If you can write about something, you can talk about it.
↳ Writing helps me be me. I can be myself. Say whatever I want. Be serious–faith, business, psychology. Have fun–family, Star Wars, bad jokes. I am who I am and writing helps me embrace that. It gives me a place to share what I know in a way I actually enjoy to help others. It doesn’t get much better than that.
↳ Writing helps me give. Most of what I know, I’ve learned from books and the content they inspire: podcasts, interviews, blogs, keynotes, reels. The people I’ve learned the most from, that have changed the way I think, that have changed my life–wrote the book. If I hope to do that for someone one day, I know what I need to do.
↳ Writing helps me help. I tell people I’m going to help them. The more I write, the more helpful I become. I write to use everything I’ve learned, seen, and said to actually help businesses grow. It makes me ready for hard conversations. It helps me sell big ideas. It filters out what matters and what doesn’t. Writing helps me do better.
Writing isn't easy, but it makes everything else easier.
So that seems like the write thing to do.