I’ve been getting paid to write for ~20 years, but never really considered myself a professional writer. That changed after I started writing for free.

Today I joined a twitter space made up of 8–10 “shippers” who were part of the January 2022 30-day writing challenge I have been participating in.

The cohort is wrapping up, so the conversation was reflective and positive. When I had a chance to speak, I shared some new insights based on my experience:

I never thought of myself as a writer until about two weeks ago.

I’ve been writing for money for nearly 20 years. I’ve probably written 10000s of articles, blog posts, press releases, op-eds, newsletters, case studies, reports, talking points, internal memos, scripts, copy, tweets…all for money.

I never thought of myself as a writer — and certainly not a professional writer — until about two weeks ago. I’m not totally sure why. At times I think the title was above me (“I’m not good enough”) and sometimes it was beneath me. (“this is dumb. literally no one cares.”).

For the record: “professional writer” does seem like a silly term for different reasons. I won’t make it a habit to actively use it, but at least now it’s not something I actively run away from.

I’ve encountered a bunch of challenges.

They include:

• scheduling dedicated time to write.
• spending way too much of my “writing time” doing everything but. Such as: Tinkering with my Endless Idea Generator Notion template, obsessing over analytics, looking shit up to verify my own thinking.
• fixating on the polish and editing process, the wordsmithing. It’s a hard habit to break. I’ve probably spent 75% of my writing career in editing mode. Self editing, rewriting, copy editing, responding to edits, etc. That doesn’t seem right after 30 days immersed in Ship30’s prolific writing principles.

Transformation occurred on a personal front.

I’ve become a sharper writer for professional purposes, but writing everyday has also helped me become a clearer thinker, a more articulate speaker and a more confident person. My brain is simply less busy because it’s not as filled with half-thoughts colliding with unfinished thinking. It’s given me energy and capacity to be more present for my family, less concerned with whaf people think of me.

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