Your Writing Isn’t Improving Because You Keep Doing the Same Thing
Let’s change it.
When I started to write online, I just wrote. I didn’t edit. I didn’t ask for feedback.
And I never wondered whether I could improve a piece I had published a while ago.
Every single article or video on audience growth I consumed was telling me to be consistent, show up, and publish a lot. So I did that.
But after two years and 150 blog posts, I was frustrated because I didn’t feel like my efforts were leading anywhere.
My audience was growing slowly, and my income was nowhere near my expectations.
After another six months, I had an epiphany: I was stuck because I was repeating the same (unsuccessful) routine over and over again. And as the saying goes:
“If nothing changes, nothing changes.”
While most experts on growing an audience tell you to be consistent and do more of the same, I want to encourage you to take a slightly different approach.
Instead of creating more, create deliberately.
When you just do more of the same, you focus on quantity.
You don’t care whether your work is getting better. You don’t care why you’re not seeing the results you want.
You bury your head in the sand and do more.
Sometimes, you’re lucky and that approach works. But usually, it doesn’t work, and you end up feeling frustrated and depleted.
You feel like you’re doing so much yet not getting rewarded for your efforts. And that’s when most writers give up.
If you, however, take a deliberate approach, your writing process will look like this:
You don’t write anything that comes to your mind. Instead, you know who you’re writing for, what your message is, and what you want to achieve. You have a smart process for validating article ideas, so you only write content that helps you achieve your goals.
Before diving head-first into a new piece, you draft an outline to clarify what the big idea(s) of it should be.
When you’re done writing, you move to an extensive editing routine. You edit for clarity, conciseness, engagement, trust, and potentially even profitability. While editing, you have a clear goal in mind: Making your piece better for your reader.
But that’s just the start.
A deliberate approach is about much more than just the writing process. It also includes:
Constantly analyzing your environment and being up-to-date on industry trends.
Closely following your competitors and successful writers, so you can learn from their approaches.
Regularly analyzing your own numbers and drawing meaningful, data-driven conclusions. This is the most powerful and most overlooked aspect.
Most writers don’t want to dig into numbers and data.
They want to write whatever they want, whenever they want. But they also want to get paid.
And getting paid is all about understanding which value you’re creating.
The value exchange can happen in numerous ways:
If you write for clients, run a paid newsletter, or sell books, you‘ll get paid directly.
But you can also get paid indirectly — for example, through Medium’s Partner Program, which is based on whether readers pay for your work through attention. Another example is running sponsorships or affiliate collaborations on your newsletter.
Regardless of how you monetize your work, being stuck might mean that you’re too focused on quantity over quality.
You might be churning out content (because that’s what you’ve been told) instead of trying to gradually become a better writer.
In fact, you might be asking yourself the wrong questions all the time.
Instead of trying to create more, focus on creating better.
Instead of being on more platforms, leave some.
And instead of constantly doing the same, try doing something a little different until you figure out what works best.
The weird thing about writing is anyone can do it.
We all write, even if we’re not writers. We wrote in school, we write email and text messages, we write notes, and we’re all good enough.
But if you want to write for a living, you have to be much more than good enough.
Slowly improving the quality of your work is hard because you don’t see immediate rewards.
You make improvements, but your outcomes might not change right away. It takes time.
While publishing more leads to rushes of feel-good hormones, deliberate practice works in silence. Plus, it requires paying attention to your weaknesses and mistakes — a hard thing to do.
When you write deliberately, you focus on improving your craft instead of tricking a system, gaming an algorithm, or winning through speed.
You figure out what you suck at, so you can improve it step by step.
Stop trying to create more and more and start being more mindful. Aim for constant improvements. As James Clear writes:
“If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.”
Instead of setting huge goals that feel disappointing, aim for a 1% improvement in anything you do.
Write a headline that’s 1% better than anything you’ve written before.
Come up with an idea that’s 1% better than your previous ones.
You could do that, right?
You don’t become a better writer by accumulating a set number of pieces but by choosing to improve your craft.
This learning-oriented approach allows you to make a living through your writing without churning out content 24/7.
Your next steps
Whether you’re trying to improve your writing or excel at anything else in life, deliberate practice usually follows the same pattern:
You start with a significant goal and break it down into small parts that can be improved independently. In our case, that’d be idea generation, crafting strong titles, writing great introductions, etc.
You pick one area you want to improve and test new strategies. For instance, you could focus on mastering the art of writing compelling and click-worthy headlines.
You do this until you can correct your mistakes and understand what you’ve done wrong in the past.
By the end of this process, you’re able to seamlessly integrate what you learned into your day-to-day process. In our example, this would mean you’re now able to confidently write great titles with little effort.
And now the cycle starts again: You pick the next weakness and work on it.
The greatest difference between merely repeating what you do and practicing deliberately is feedback.
By improving one area at a time, you understand your mistakes and the progress you make.
The second tier would be getting external feedback. If you never ask others for feedback, you might stay stuck with your own opinion and taste.
Improving your craft is about getting uncomfortable, so you can find your blind spots.
Deliberate practice involves pushing past your comfort zone, setting achievable goals, being consistent, and tracking your progress.
As humans, we’re capable of improving our performance in nearly any field if we know how. But learning slowly and mindfully isn’t necessarily fun, and that’s why most people don’t do it.
Don’t be like most people.
Pick depth over speed and grow slowly.
This is awesome! Thanks so much! I have much to work on and this has helped break it down into manageable pieces. Thanks again!
I completely agree, I have thinking and writing about the same thing. Working on learning and getting better. You should be improving with every piece you create.
Thank you.