Let me guess. Over the holiday period you've thought at least once about resolutions. The gym, that promotion, finally growing your LinkedIn profile, reading more books... writing more about work, or business, or life?
I'd like to try and help you with that last one.
In my experience, a lot of people really do want to write more. There's a common, innate urge to craft words and put them out there, but most people fall at the first hurdle.
I see a pattern of three common sticking points when it comes to writing:
- What should I write about?
- How can I find the time to write?
- Where do I publish my writing?
We overthink this, a lot, but these challenges are not that difficult to overcome. In this blog I'll give you some ideas for how to face them head on to make writing (and publishing) an enjoyable habit that brings you a bit of joy and helps with personal growth.
What should I write about?
Whether your want to write about personal topics, work-related stuff or fiction, always be on the lookout for topics. Train your awareness muscles. With this front of mind, you'll start to notice topics that could work as a blog post or an essay. Ideas can come from discussions you have at work or with friends, articles you read on the web, from an email you sent, or even a Slack message that you wrote to help someone out.
Blog posts don't have to be earth-shatteringly insightful, or even original. It's legit to write about boring things for the writing practice, but also because what seems boring to you might actually be interesting to others. You won't know until you try, right?
Getting better at writing requires two things: reading and practice. You have to read to learn about good writing, and you have to practice writing to get better at it. I do a lot of photography and there are a lot of parallels with writing. I look at photography books to learn from the masters, and I go out and take photos several times a week. Most of these are trash, some stick around to look back at later, and occasionally there's a banger. The more I go out and practice, the more ideas I have and the more creative I get. It's the same with writing. These days I write a few blog posts a week and most of it is average at best, but this practice makes it easier to get started and over time I'm think I'm getting better.
How can I find the time to write?
People say this like they need to retreat into the wilderness for a week. You don't, unless you're writing a novel which you're probably not. You just need ten minutes at your desk, or on the sofa, or at the breakfast table munching your Shreddies.
You might not crank out a carefully considered blog post in this time, but you could sketch an outline, come up with a wry headline, or write a few paragraphs. That's sufficient for seeding an idea, which is all you need to get started.
Don't think you have to write an essay in one sitting. Who does that? Probably few people, other than seasoned journos or rampant bloggers. It's common to chip away at posts over days, weeks or even months. You can have a number of drafts on the go at any one time – the key is regularly taking a bit of time (10 mins a day) to working on these, and eventually putting them out there.
I find it hard to schedule time to write. It doesn't work too well for me, but I know people who swear by this – blocking 30 mins (or whatever) a day to write something (we've already established it doesn't really matter what). I'd recommend trying to do this initially to build that habit.
Instead of trying to "find" time, try and make better use of those small pockets of time you already have.
Where do I publish my writing?
You don't need to publish your writing anywhere, but if you want put your words online then you have a lot of options. Too many options, in fact!
My advice here is to own your content. Licensing is a little murky on social platforms like LinkedIn, Substack, or Medium ("you grant a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to publish and distribute your content across our network", etc), but generally you will retain copyright. The biggest issue in my mind is portability. By posting on LinkedIn or Medium, for example, you're putting your content on their domain which they own and you have no control over. If you want to move elsewhere, good luck! You're going to have to start again on a new domain.
There's a popular acronym doing the rounds at the moment: POSSE (Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere). The idea is simple – post all your content on your own site and link to that from everywhere else. Essentially, publish your work on your own domain name then distribute links on other platforms. When you own the domain, you can move platforms in the future and your links will (ok, should) continue to work. I've done this several times over the years moving my content from Wordpress to Write.as to a static site and, most recently, to Pagecord (disclaimer: I built Pagecord!).
If your goal is to write more, use a platform that lets you focus on writing and doesn't distract you with the tech or the formatting. There is a little-discussed, but widespread curse put upon technical people the world over that forces them to build their own blogging system then spend the rest of eternity tweaking it, without ever publishing a blog post that isn't about how they built their blogging system. This is a rite of passage, but if you want to get more serious about consistent writing then you need to focus on that, not the platform. The platform needs to get out of your way.
I'm biased, obviously, but I think indie blogging apps are great for this. They're lighter on features and more focused on the writing experience. Plus you're supporting the little guy, not a rug-pulling MegaTech, and that feels good! I built Pagecord because I wanted a completely effortless experience for blogging, and initially you could only write posts by email! It's way more comprehensive today, but I still compose most of my posts from the inbox because it’s so simple. I can just write without distractions.
Just write
That's a lot of words so thanks for getting this far. I mentioned that reading is an essential part of becoming a better writer, so reading this has been a good use of your time!
If writing more is on your list of 2026 goals, hopefully it makes the hurdle feel a little lower. Your own domain, a simple platform that gets out of your way, and ten minutes of focused practice a day – that’s all you need.
Now go craft that draft. Good luck!
If you're looking for somewhere to publish, please try Pagecord. It's entirely free for text-only posts, and the premium plan is the best value deal out there. I'm pretty confident it will help you write more! ✨
