There are a lot of skills you can develop in 2026, and most of them have a limited shelf life.

Writing online does not.

It’s brought me opportunities, security, friends and fulfilment for over a decade, and continues to do so.

Here are 15 advantages you start building from the very first piece you publish, whether you write fiction, non-fiction, or both.

1. You stop being invisible.

The internet is full of people consuming, and almost no one creating with much intention. The moment you publish, you’re already in a category most people will never enter.

Even one article puts you in front of strangers who’d otherwise never know you existed. It’s a very satisfying feeling.

2. You start owning an audience.

Every reader who finds your writing and signs up for your newsletter is someone you can reach directly, forever.

No confused algorithm decides whether they see you. You own that connection (without the fear of losing them like you could on social media platforms), and over time, it becomes the most valuable asset in your career.

3. You think more clearly.

Writing forces you to take vague ideas and make them precise. After a few months of regular writing, I notice I argue more clearly, decide faster, and waste less time spinning in my own head.

The thinking improvement alone is worth showing up to write.

4. You build leverage.

One article can reach a thousand people or more. Your time-to-value ratio collapses in a way no other career allows.

I’ve had pieces that took me twenty minutes to write earn more than some people make in a month of regular work.

5. You become impossible to lay off.

When your income comes from your own audience, your work, and your ideas, no boss can take it away.

The moment you start building this, the threat of redundancy stops being a fear that lives in your chest. Writing becomes an asset that brings attention to your ideas for life.

6. You attract the right people without trying.

Your writing acts as a magnet.

The people who resonate with how you think, what you care about, and how you write find their way to you. Clients, collaborators, friends and partners all show up because of words I wrote months or years ago.

7. You develop a real voice.

Most people go through life sounding like everyone else. Writing online forces you to figure out what you actually think, how you sound, what people respond well to, and what you stand for.

That voice carries into every other part of your life, from how you present yourself in meetings to how you talk to your children.

8. You earn from anywhere.

Writing is the most location-independent career on the planet.

A laptop and Wi-Fi are basically the entire infrastructure. Ok, this one will take a while, but earning doesn’t need to take as long as many think. Gather a few people around you, run a workshop, or coach. It can be fast.

I’ve earned a living from cafés in Ho Chi Minh City, kitchens in Tbilisi, and now a desk in Sofia, Bulgaria.

9. You build a body of work that compounds.

Every article, every email, every story and every book is a brick in a wall that keeps growing.

Years later, that body of work is doing the selling, the discovery of new readers, and the credibility-building, while I count sheep in bed.

10. You get sharper at noticing things.

Writers are observers. You start spotting the small details in conversations, in the news, in your own life that everyone else misses.

That attention bleeds into how you read people, situations, and make decisions.

11. You discover income streams you didn’t know existed.

Sponsorships, affiliate deals, paid newsletters, courses, coaching, books, licensing, speaking gigs, ghostwriting, consulting. Writers can create income streams that most people never even hear about.

The book I just wrote covers the twelve I’ve personally used.

12. You build genuine confidence.

Hitting publish and surviving the full range of responses is one of the fastest ways to build real self-trust. Creating something to completion, ideally daily, builds resilience.

Every piece you put out and don’t die from teaches you that the worst-case scenario you imagined isn’t real.

13. You meet your tribe.

Writers attract writers. Within a year of writing in public, you’ll have a small circle of people who read your work, reply to your emails, and become real friends.

That community has been truly valuable to me, especially when I do my writing solo.

14. You become better with age.

Most careers reward youth and punish age. Writing inverts this.

The older you get, the more lived experience you have, the better your writing gets, and the more authority you carry. There’s no expiry date.

15. You get to design a life you don’t want to escape from.

This is the one that matters most. When your work is built around expressing what you actually think and care about, you stop dreaming about retirement.

You start dreaming about the next thing you want to write.

This is exactly what I cover in my new book, The Never-Retired Writer, which launched recently.

It’s 62 short, actionable chapters on building a writing life that gives you income, freedom, and a body of work that compounds for the rest of your life.

Grab your copy here.

Enjoy!

Alex

A guy I follow on Twitter asked his followers:

‘What’s ONE challenge people face when trying to grow on Twitter?’

I tweet responded:

‘Losing the enjoyment to create and write. You need to find a way to have fun here or you’ll give up.’

He inspired me to write a post on all the ways we can make consistent writing enjoyable.

Here’s what I know to work having written close to 100,000 tweets in the last 12 years:

Be obsessed

The energy around obsession will carry you further than anyone else. Obsession grows out of momentum.

Don’t think, just write, and you will be energised to write more. There’s little more exhilarating than being taken by this current.

Make it a game

Most of us make things personal: ‘I’m just not a writer,’ ‘I’m not cut out for writing every day.’

Sorry, bud, but who cares about you? Let go of yourself and focus on your system. So make your system a fun game. Draw a big X on your wall calendar each day you write.

Be real

Parroting platitudes is going to suck the soul out of you. You will quit if you’re not speaking your truth.

Dig deep and tell us what you really want to tell us. Writing is not a hobby — it’s a crusade.

Be patient

You’re expecting immediate results.

Of course you’re hating this game. Stay in it. Enjoy the process. I wrote 200 articles before anyone took any interest. Now my words reach hundreds of thousands daily.

Write lists

Brainstorming ideas is foundational for my work. I love the process of coming up with lots of ideas to solve specific problems (like writing this post). Start here.

Write down everything you can think of on a topic. How is this not fun?

Focus on results

Let’s be real. You’re not likely to want to keep creating if your content continually gets little engagement, and you see little growth. It’s not just about ‘self-growth.’

You want to win. As such, you must continually learn everything you can to succeed on the platform you are using. You are not ‘above’ learning about what works.

Treat writing as a mindfulness exercise

Just like the walk through the woods, or the meditation you look forward to, writing can be the same.

Sit down, open your mind, connect with your soul, and type freely.

Break

You need to pace yourself. Have short and long breaks.

Rest isn’t laziness — it will fuel and recharge you so that your subsequent writing benefits. Your best writing needs you to take time away from the computer, and having experiences out in the world (that you can write about!).

Know your why(s)

What’s your vision?

Who do you want to attract the attention of? What great things are you building? What exciting results are you working towards?

Remind yourself of your writing purpose daily.

Be fast

Writing fast gives us no option to stall. We must write — this will lead to more fluid words, and therefore better words.

Write a lot. Edit later.

Watch your words accumulate like bricks for some magnificent palace. You can write a book in a weekend.

Tell us your stories

You’ll be surprised how many life tales you can draw upon.

Even seemingly ‘meaningless’ or understated moments can be turned into a meaningful story and post from which readers can gain.

Commit to fun

Look for it.

Ask: How can I have fun in my writing today? 80% of the fun in writing comes from you simply deciding to have fun.

Write short

A book is composed of many 50-word pieces. Focus on the 50-word chunks. This will enliven you because it’s easy.

Be more conversational

Allow your writing to come out as effortlessly as it would when you’re speaking to a friend in the pub.

Writing doesn’t need to be some dry, formal process. Speak with your fingers.

Plan less

Let writing be an explorative process. Sure, have an outline, but otherwise just write to figure it out.

Write your way through problems to find solutions. Surprise yourself with what appears.

When we don’t know the ending, it’s more interesting.

Be ridiculous

When everyone is writing a thread a month, you’re writing five a week. Be crazy. Create a major unfair advantage.

Be over the top.

Life’s too short otherwise.

Write about what you need help with

Our brains are attuned to solving problems, and enjoy the satisfaction from finding a solution. Let writing be your tool for this. Write to solve your own challenges, and you will help others with theirs too.

Be strong

You’re writing tweets. Your forefathers battled for survival in a trench. You can sit with the discomfort, and you will write.

When you meet pain head-on and you stay in the game, you will be rewarded with creative energy.

Write about what fascinates you

There are hundreds of topics on which you can share. Focus on the stuff that you are interested in.

What do you love nerding out on?

This seems obvious, but many don’t, and they get bored. What do you buy lots of books on, or watch a lot of videos on? Go there.

Final takeaway: if you forget all of what I shared here, do this ⮕

Be willing to write when you’re uncomfortable, bored, alone, scared, dispassionate and not interested.

Be willing to write poor, ugly, uninspiring words.

When you lean into the writing and just write, no matter the situation, an interesting thing will happen:

You will start to feel it. You will start to have fun.

You will have stumbled on the secret.

If you want to make a living with writing, you’ll want to jump on this:

I’m launching The Never-Retired Writer book on Amazon this Saturday, April 25th at 9am ET, for just $0.99 during a special 3-day launch window before it goes up to $9.99.

Keep an eye on your inbox Saturday morning so you can grab it at launch price.

Later,

Alex

‘Personal branding’ is fake and bullshit.

…If you’re trying to be like everyone else, that is.

Many people say to me: ‘Hey Alex, how do you make money doing what you love while getting to live in cool places like Thailand and Poland?’

Being intentional about building a personal brand over many years has made this possible.

These things are out of reach if people don’t know you, trust you or connect with the real you.

Your job is to demonstrate how you are uniquely suited to how you can make someone’s life better.

Seeing this, your people will gather around you like excited flying ants around an evening street lamp.

Personal branding makes this possible.

It’s taken me a while to understand what separates the great brands from the ones that splutter and die.

When I look at the language a lot of people use to promote the idea of personal branding, I see:

• Freedom

• Grow your audience

• Monetise

• Escape the 9-5

• More time for other things

• Close more clients…

Notice, it’s very YOU focused.

I DO believe it’s essential to have goals that serve you and allow you to support yourself and your family.

It’s vital that what you build is sustainable, keeps money coming in, and that you’re not working hard at the expense of your personal joy and sanity.

But many have a lack of PURPOSE that sustains their work over many years.

This is why so many entrepreneurs burn out, need more direction, and lose faith in the process.

I can’t tell you how many friends I’ve made online over the years who are now nowhere to be seen.

Many become carbon copies of everyone else and wonder why something is missing.

I’ve had many phases in my 15-year career working for myself where I felt bored, flat or even angry.

I didn’t know what I was doing it all for, which was painful.

I learned that no personal brand can be sustained if you don’t understand the broader implications of your actions.

This is where natural, burning, even obsessive energy comes from.

It’s about understanding how you are uniquely contributing in the world.

It’s about knowing exactly how you’re needed.

It’s about connecting your purpose and your unique skills to the marketplace.

This is how real personal brands set themselves apart.

I am legitimately excited about working on my business every day because I know it’s about more than getting paid.

I know I am making a difference.

I am fighting a cause.

It’s the fight that energises the crap out of me.

What’s my other little secret?

My inner dragon 🐉.

Wait, what?

You got it.

We all have an inner dragon waiting to be put to use.

He’s usually fast asleep.

The little fucker wakes up when we identify our enemy.

Your dragon gives you energy when there is a fight to be had.

This doesn’t mean living in anger.

It just means you know what deeper problem you’re out here solving - both for yourself and for the world - and that energises you.

Being aware of an antagonist in your life is the missing ingredient many miss.

The things that repeatedly brought you pain and frustration in your past can be seen as an enemy.

No movie or novel in your top five is without a juicy enemy.

Enemies give us something to fight for, and this is what sits at the heart of a purpose-driven life.

“Without enemies around us, we grow lazy. An enemy at our heels sharpens our wits, keeping us focused and alert. It is sometimes better, then, to use enemies as enemies rather than transforming them into friends or allies.“ - Robert Greene

I struggled to express myself at school because I was terrified of rejection.

So I learned that my big enemy was self-suppression.

Now I help others overcome this challenge through my brand and business.

I’ve become a master at communication and human behaviour without realising it was because the enemy awakened the dragon within me.

I now help people become unstoppable, authentic leaders through the brands they build.

I have direction.

This direction benefits both those who follow my ideas, but it also gives me direction, and it raises my value in the marketplace.

Knowing my purpose defines every aspect of my personal brand, from the dragon imagery to my content strategy.

And notice how the focus isn’t on me.

It’s on helping other people overcome an enemy and build a purpose-driven business. And this is enlivening for me.

It’s what makes me want to write about it and get on podcasts about it.

It makes all this bullshit about ‘personal branding’ easy.

So, to build a personal brand that sustains you but also fulfils and energises you…

You must identify your enemy and weave that understanding into all you do.

What are you fighting for?

How are you helping others in this fight?

Reflect on what this might be.

This is the secret sauce.

P.S. If you need some close guidance for writing stuff that will grow your personal brand asset (vital) over the coming months and years…

Online Writing Alchemy shows you how to write stuff that actually builds an audience of people who want to hear more from you.

Buy the course here.

It’s intriguing to extract behaviour patterns in those who left significant legacies behind.

When we find behaviour patterns, we see thinking patterns too.

The Mastery Memo is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

How we think and perceive the world is the most significant contributor to our behaviour.

Here are some thinking habits that unite many of our most influential people:

Read more

Many of us worry that to make money online, we need to be part of some kind of icky pyramid scheme.

To make money, we need to teach others how to make money, who will, in turn, teach others how to make money.

And on and on.

‘Hey bro, I made $40k last week selling a course on how to make $10k!’

Yes, ‘making money online’ is popular, and many hollow and scammy things are happening.

And, sure, you can make great money teaching people about making money.

If done well based on real experience, no issue.

But is there an opportunity for people who want to become known for other things?

Absolutely.

And it’s untapped as hell.

• Making ceramics

• Dog training

• Graphic design

• Being a real-life ninja

• Campervanning

• Public speaking

• Spirituality

• Self-confidence

• Fishtank maintenance

• Poetry

• Meditation

• Video-games

• Documentary film-making

• Poker

etc.

Can you make money teaching these things?

Of course.

When everyone else is teaching the same overdone, lifeless shit, you can really stand out here.

You don’t need a million followers to succeed, either.

As long as you address one or all of the following reasons people buy ANYTHING…

You ready?

Tie these in with your personal brand and message, and people will want what you’re selling:

• Help them save time

• Help them make money

• Help them raise their status

• Give them peace of mind.

Speak to one or two, or ideally, ALL of these things.

If you’re a film-maker, and you want to make money selling your training, then make sure people understand that by following your work they:

• Save time because your training makes them faster and better.

• They make more money because they can charge more for quality film production.

• Increase their status because they are learning how to make dope films.

• Have more peace of mind because they follow a legit dude who knows his stuff.

Gather your 1000 true fans by speaking real shit and being consistent on this cool thing called ‘The World Wide Internets.’

Get creative.

Make videos, share audios, tell us your gripes, show us your studio and your freaking cat Jasper.

Go deep and have fun.

You don’t need to be part of a pyramid scheme to build a thriving business.

Be real. Be a human. Be a personality. Share your obsessions.

People will fall in love with you.

They will buy from you.

And you’ll be earning money from what you love.

P.S. If you need some close guidance for writing stuff that will grow your personal brand asset (vital) over the coming months and years…

Online Writing Alchemy shows you how to write stuff that actually builds an audience of people who want to hear more from you.

Buy the course here.

People say I’m a writing machine.

But what I really am is a man with momentum.

I’ve been writing and sharing online for a good fifteen years.

I still share writing that flops, but often, these were more experimental posts or I was at the mercy of an algorithm change.

I’ve shared hundreds of articles and thousands of posts. The amount of feedback I’ve now received that shows me what works is enough to put me in a good position to share my best tips.

If you’re struggling to write posts that engage, absorb the following ideas that helped me the most:

Excellent writing has more to do with the emotional state you create in yourself as you write than any clever template or tactic used.

Readers are hungry for honesty, so learn to become comfortable being honest in your writing.

Use the simple story structure of hook, build and payoff to deliver your words, but beyond that, don’t worry about using complicated templates and formats.

You will struggle to write over the long term if you don’t view writing as a craft to enjoy and master.

The more you can help your reader experience pain, the more satisfying their relief will be when you give them the solution.

Good writing only comes when you are willing to make mistakes, so allow yourself to make them initially.

Readers want to read things about people that remind them of themselves, so you need to write like a human in the way you might speak to a close friend.

Free-write whatever words come to mind to get loose before you write so you can extract the best insights for better writing.

Write like you’re talking to a younger, less experienced you or a close friend you genuinely want to help.

If you want to grow your influence online with writing, double down on writing that has already proven itself to get a strong response.

Stop talking in concepts and start talking in specifics.

Readers don’t want more information, so excellent writing is simple and readable, with all the erroneous fat cut.

Think of yourself as an entertainer, which starts by entertaining yourself as you write.

If you can’t think of anything to write, think of a problem you have, and write your way to the solution.

Instead of telling your readers what to do, show them through examples, descriptions, stories and anecdotes.

Good writers are masters at painting clear images in the minds of their readers.

On a noisy Internet, you must master grabbing people’s attention through strong, often provocative opening lines.

Write about problems and solutions because all readers really want are solutions and relief to their problems.

The best writers in the world have written a lot of words.

If you want to write well, stop trying to write and just write, even if it starts out as complete and utter rubbish.

The more you write, the easier it gets to write.

Alex

P.S. If you need some close guidance for writing stuff that will grow your personal brand asset (vital) over the coming months and years…

Online Writing Alchemy shows you how to write stuff that actually builds an audience of people who want to hear more from you.

Buy the course here.

Do you think success as an entrepreneur is more about doing the right thing or… being free from mental limitations?

One of the benefits of having been in the online business game for so long is I get a zoomed-out vision of how things unfold.

I’ve seen things play out over a decade.

I’ve visited that place where I want to quit many times.

Read more

Many struggle to make any impact online at all.

You share your ideas, and your posts just don’t fly.

All that work for three measly likes.

It’s annoying as all hell.

I know because I wrote posts for a year before anyone gave a rat’s ass.

After sharing thousands of posts, I write to over 200,000 followers and subscribers.

Every article I wrote helped me iterate closer to writing things people enjoyed.

So, why do some creators do so well, and others fall flat?

In 16 years of writing online, I’ve seen several variables that contribute.

Interestingly, my work as a psychology coach had the greatest positive impact on my writing.

I’ve coached hundreds to overcome anxiety and self-sabotage for over eight years.

I learned that we get anxious and our creativity is blocked when self-conscious.

I also saw this very clearly in my own anxiety.

Self-focused = Low-performance.

We feel more joy and well-being when we’re not thinking about ourselves so much and adopting what I call a ‘leader’s mind.’

Other-focused = High-performance.

Thinking of others and being of service is what leaders do.

Wanting to be liked and trying to impress is what losers do.

It’s a matter of orientation.

And so it is with great writing.

Secret = Great writing flows from a leader’s mindset, which increases your performance.

It’s why you can follow a supposedly winning writing template and flop.

If you are energised, your writing will be better because your readers feel the energy and see you genuinely care.

If you are focused on genuinely helping people, you will be energised.

So, ask yourself, ‘What would truly help, lift, or entertain others?’

There’s something about this approach that opens your channels and makes your words flutter off the page.

Write to one person. That person could even be a younger you.

Write to one person you genuinely care to help.

This thinking makes all the difference.

I still sometimes forget, I do try too hard, and I do get self-conscious.

But then I go back to where my mind is oriented.

This is why good writing and mindset are so closely linked.

“If you want to learn how to think, you should learn how to write.” — Jordan Peterson

Getting this doesn’t happen overnight.

You will write things that suck until you die.

Because experimentation is part of the game too.

This is a craft to develop.

And what a freaking fun craft it can be.

So, find someone to write to today with love.

Ask how you can improve their life so they come away from your work feeling better.

Write to that.

Enjoy.

Alex

P.S. If you need some close guidance for writing stuff that will grow your personal brand asset (vital) over the coming months and years…

Online Writing Alchemy shows you how to write stuff that actually builds an audience of people who want to hear more from you.

Buy the course here.

I get it.

You got something ‘wrong’ a few times. Now you have evidence pointing to your ineptitude.

You tried a thing, and someone gave you negative feedback. Now you feel bad because you made it about you.

You started that new project (which took guts, by the way) and released it to the world. Your beloved creation was met by two likes (one from your mum) and the rest…crickets.

12 views.

‘Wonderful,’ you whisper sarcastically.

‘This must mean I’m not good enough,’ you murmur.

‘I’m stupid,’ you proclaim.

But, are you really, though?

Take a closer look at the thing you did that prompted you to come to your hastily-informed self-diagnosis.

You did it a few times.

Perhaps you did it once last year, and you did it this year.

How many times have you given a talk on stage?

‘Probably, four.’

How many articles have you written?

‘Um, like maybe forty.’

Well. There you go.

Now we’re seeing this for what it is.

We’re out of illusion and back to reality.

Maybe you’re not the colossal moron you’d initially thought.

Maybe you just haven’t put in the time and attention required to improve.

Because, after all, it’s time and attention that all the geniuses put towards the object of their craft.

Regardless of all the clever hacks and tips and tricks that exist out there, it’s time spent with a thing that is the deciding factor.

Every one of the greats spent the first fifty hours looking like a straight doofus.

Even Leonardo DaVinci.

That first sketchbook - the one his mama threw away - looked like a spider covered in black ink walked all over it.

But they all became great because they committed time, energy and attention to their craft while others were in the pub.

Maybe you’re not stupid.

Maybe you just need time.

Maybe you need to pick that thing up again and put in the hours.

Repetitions are fuel.

Repetition creates trust.

It strengthens the trust others have in you, but importantly, it builds the trust you have in yourself.

Pick it up. Throw it. Again and again and again and again.

Do it for one hundred days.

Then, you can return to me and tell me you’re not cut out for it.

Alex

P.S. You don’t want to publish a book or article to zero audience.

Online Writing Alchemy shows you how to write stuff that actually builds an audience of people who want to hear more from you.

Buy the course here.

16 years of making a living from creativity taught me not to grind through creative blocks.

I’ve learned that forcing creativity when the tank is empty is one of the least productive things I can do, and I spent years doing it before I figured that out.

These days, I use a handful of shortcuts that keep the ideas flowing and the work feeling fun.

None of them are complicated, and most of them look lazy from the outside.

1. Lie down and stare at the ceiling.

When I’m stuck, I get up from my desk, walk to my bedroom, and lie down with a notebook next to me.

Pressure lifts when I change environments, and within ten minutes, ideas start poking out like gophers at a golf course.

I give myself permission to do seemingly lazy things because this is often when I’m at my most creative.

Read more

I’ve wanted to write fiction stories for over a decade, but I always found ways to get in my own way.

The dream sat in a drawer while I built a non-fiction career, wrote seven non-fiction books, grew an audience of 190,000 people, and convinced myself that blogging, coaching and writing emails was close enough to the creative work my soul actually wanted.

It was close, but it wasn’t quite it.

So a few months ago, I committed to writing my first novel, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller called North of Nothing, and I made it a non-negotiable practice.

I spend at least an hour on it every day. Sometimes more than four. I protect the hours like an angry badger protects its sett. It is the most energising thing I’ve done in fifteen years of working online.

Here’s why I’m betting on fiction in the coming years:

1. The AI slop flood is your opportunity.

Everyone and their grandma can now generate 60,000 words of bland, soulless fiction in a weekend.

You can literally just tell Claude to write a book, and in a few minutes, it’s done. But these stories are poor. They lack creative discernment, are often incoherent in their story structure, and don’t actually represent any of the creative choices that make it yours. And writing a story that is truly yours is the best part.

Amazon will see an upsurge in novels that are purely AI-generated, reading like microwave meals prepared by committee. It’s technically complete, but spiritually dead, and an author without the satisfaction of having created something of their own.

This is brilliant news for current and aspiring fiction authors.

Readers are not stupid. They can feel the difference between a book assembled and one crafted. When the shelves are full of slop, genuine quality stands out, especially when written by someone who builds a personal and relatable brand around their writing.

The writers who slow the F down, who craft the ideas and the words with intention and finesse, who make creative decisions a machine cannot make, and who bring their own taste and obsessions to the work are going to own the next decade of fiction.

Whether they use AI in their process or not, the final quality is what wins.

The bar for “generic competency” just dropped to zero. The bar for “remarkable” hasn’t moved. And that gap is where a massive opportunity lives.

2. Honouring a creative dream is non-negotiable if you want to stay sane.

I spent over a decade building a career that was good, profitable, and satisfying in many ways, but it wasn’t the thing that really spoke to my soul or my need for the fullest form of creative expression.

Fiction was always there, waiting, and I kept putting it off because non-fiction was working and the timing was never right, and I wasn’t sure I’d be good enough and a hundred other excuses that all boiled down to fear.

When I finally committed to writing this novel, I had more energy. My enthusiasm for ALL my work improved. I started waking up excited again, like I did in the early years when everything was new.

Because when you honour the creative work you’ve been avoiding, you stop leaking energy into the gap between what you’re doing and what you actually want. That gap was costing me more than I realised, and closing it has been important for my mental health and my creative output.

3. AI makes the actual process of writing a novel dramatically more enjoyable.

I use AI every day on my novel. I know, I know. I’m not one of those AI doomers who rage against the smallest hint of AI support for something creative. I’m learning that it’s powerful as heck when used properly, with respect for the tool.

The way I’ve seen it used best is to view myself as a film director would a production crew. I make every creative decision. I choose the characters, the structure, the scenes, the emotional beats, and the voice. I talk with the AI as I construct scenes.

The AI handles the grunt work that used to make novelists lose their minds or quit, things like maintaining continuity across 80,000 words, ensuring all the necessary creative beats and obligatory scenes for a particular genre are included, catching errors, and generating detailed outlines for chapters.

The output is mine. The voice is mine. The creative architecture is mine. But the process is three to seven times faster, and infinitely more fun, because I get to focus on the parts I actually love instead of the administrative slog that kills most people’s motivation before they reach chapter four.

This is exciting because I believe it opens the door to quality novel-writing that would otherwise have remained shut to thousands of aspiring authors with a vision.

4. Making a solid living from fiction is no longer a pipe dream for brokies.

There was a lot I hadn’t realised about the fiction market in 2025-26.

For example, US adult fiction sales hit $3.26 billion last year, up 12.6%.

The global fiction book market is nearly $11 billion and projected to hit $12.4 billion by 2030. Audiobooks alone are a $2.2 billion market in the US, growing at 13% a year and projected to reach $35 billion globally by 2030.

Self-published authors now capture 51% of ebook unit sales on Amazon. Indie authors account for 56% of the sci-fi top 100 and 49% of romance. The Kindle Unlimited fund paid out $677 million to authors in 2024.

One book every three years doesn’t cut it unless you’re George RR Martin.

But with AI as your creative partner, you can realistically produce 2-4 quality books a year (AI is NOT writing the damn book - that’s for slop sellers), and that volume is what turns fiction from a beautiful hobby into a real income. Series beat standalones. With more books, your backlist compounds over time. And the readers are there, spending money, hungry for good stories.

This is all good news for authors who make the most of the current landscape.

5. Fiction is expanding into formats that didn’t exist five years ago.

A novel is no longer just a novel.

It’s an audiobook. It’s a serialised story on Substack or Kindle Vella. It’s a comic adaptation. It’s an AI-narrated audio drama. Heck, it may even be a video game or movie one day. And the tools to create all of these are becoming accessible to solo creators in ways that would have been unthinkable even two years ago.

I look at my novel, and I see a book, yes, but I also see a potential audio series, a graphic novel adaptation, and, maybe, eventually, a film. That might sound delusional. I don’t care. The infrastructure for turning a story into a multi-format experience is being built right now, and the fiction writers who are creating quality stories today are the ones who will have something worth adapting tomorrow.

Paid serialisation on platforms like Substack also means you don’t have to wait until the book is finished to start building an audience and generating revenue from your fiction. You can share the work as you create it.

I plan to start adding serialised novels to my fiction Substack ‘Story Cabin’ soon.

More reasons I’m excited about fiction, worth noting:

6. Fiction readers are the most loyal audience you’ll ever build.

Non-fiction readers follow topics first and authors second. But for fiction readers, they develop a loyalty to your work you won’t see elsewhere.

When someone loves your novel and falls in love with your characters, they buy everything you’ve ever written and everything you write next.

The backlist loyalty in fiction is something non-fiction writers rarely experience, and it compounds in ways that make your income more stable and more predictable with every book you publish.

7. Writing fiction makes all your other writing better.

Since I started writing my novel, my non-fiction emails have become sharper, my articles more vivid, and my ability to hold a reader’s attention has improved. A lot of this also comes down to having a real creative outlet that energises me.

Fiction also teaches you pacing, emotional resonance, subtext, and the discipline of cutting anything that doesn’t earn its place.

Those skills transfer directly into every other form of writing you do.

8. The male reader gap in sci-fi is an interesting market opportunity.

This may be more relevant to me personally, based on the types of stories I put out. I learned that 70% of sci-fi buyers are men, but publishing and agenting skews 78% female. This mismatch leads to new sci-fi releases being selected and shaped by people whose tastes don’t fully reflect what most sci-fi buyers actually want.

Male readers are turning to classics because new releases don’t serve them. An independent UK press launched in 2026 specifically to address this gap.

If you write sci-fi or thriller fiction aimed at male readers, you’re entering one of the most genuinely underserved markets in publishing.

If you’ve got a novel in you and you’ve been putting it off, I get it. I put mine off for years.

But the tools, the market, and the opportunity have never been better aligned than they are right now.

Stay posted here as I share more about this fiction journey in public. Yes, this means I’ll be writing less about online writing and more about fiction.

If you’re interested in hearing more about the latter, stay subscribed. And even if you don’t plan to write fiction, you’ll still gain a ton from what I’m learning in the fiction world.

Toodles for now,

Alex

P.S. You don’t want to publish a book to zero audience.

Online Writing Alchemy shows you how to write stuff that actually builds an audience of people who want to hear more from you.

Buy the course here.

I come across many who are frustrated with the effect they seem to have (and lack thereof) on other people.

They want to grow their businesses, resonate, connect, sell things, and make an impact.

But one thing we can miss that sits at the heart of this level of influence is trust.

We’re continually telegraphing our intentions consciously and subconsciously.

And people make quick judgements based on our actions.

Whether we can influence another human or not lies in trust.

If it’s lacking, they won’t stick around long.

Here’s what to do if you want to develop more trusting relationships, both with your close friends and those who follow you:

Follow your promises through with actions.

Far too many people undermine the importance of doing the things you said you were going to do.

This is not only vital in instilling trust in others, but it strengthens your own self-identity as someone responsible you believe in.

This is why consistent people instil more trust.

Sometimes it can seem trivial to follow through on something you said that didn’t hold much meaning to you, but every little thing you do is felt and seen in some way in the world.

When we continually fail to follow our words with actions, people - slowly but surely - begin to lose their faith in you.

“Being impeccable with your word is the correct use of your energy; it means to use your energy in the direction of truth and love for yourself.” Don Miguel Ruiz.

Don’t be so self-absorbed.

This is the trend for many in the modern age.

Read more

I’ve been writing and publishing non-fiction online for over fifteen years, across blogging, social content, courses, and emails.

I built a lot of skill and confidence in this world.

But for the last few months, I’ve been dedicating more time to writing fiction. And over the past few weeks I’ve been knee deep in writing a science fiction novel I’ve become obsessed with.

It’s also rearranging everything I thought I knew about the art of writing.

Here are 9 things the switch is teaching me.

1. The editing instinct transfers perfectly.

Years of cutting non-fiction to the bone gave me something most first-time novelists don’t have, which is the ability to kill a scene or a sentence I love because it doesn’t earn its place.

I’ve become good at murdering my poor darlings with a blunt spade.

Most people who attempt a novel can’t do this because they wrote it, so it stays, and you end up with a book that ate all the pies.

Fifteen years of trimming emails to 400 words trained me to cut with less flinching, and fiction rewards that instinct even more than non-fiction.

2. Audience psychology is audience psychology.

Writing emails that hold attention taught me pacing, tension, and when to NOT write stuff.

Fiction runs on the same engine. A chapter ending works like a subject line, and a scene builds tension the same way an email builds toward a click.

The formats are different, but the underlying psychology of keeping a reader’s attention is identical.

3. Structuring an argument is structuring a scene.

Every non-fiction piece I’ve written has a setup, a tension point, and a resolution.

Fiction scenes work the same way.

A character (in non-fiction, this is me, or a main character seen through the reader’s eyes) walks in wanting something, meets resistance, and leaves changed or defeated.

The shape was already in my hands from years of writing articles. I just didn’t know it until I started building scenes and realised I’d been doing a version of this for a decade.

4. Your voice has to disappear.

In non-fiction, I spent years making sure everything sounded like me. And that’s the whole point.

In fiction, the voice has to belong to the character, and the character isn’t me (unless I’m the actual narrator in a story, which is rare).

I’m writing several different people who think differently, talk differently, and notice different things about the world.

Every time I let my own voice leak through, the character flattened into a version of me giving a lecture.

Learning to disappear behind the character and let them think with their own background and personality is one of the hardest and most interesting adjustments I’ve had to make.

Having said that - and I’m not there yet - when i write more novels, I’m sure a writing style will emerge across my books that people will recognise as mine, and that’s good too.

5. You have to stop making the point.

This one took me a while to integrate.

In non-fiction, I show the reader solutions to problems with guidelines that create clarity.

In fiction, you lay the pieces out and let the reader assemble the meaning themselves.

The urge to resolve a problem more quickly in a scene is strong when you’ve spent a decade doing exactly that.

Learning to shut up and trust the scene is an art I’m still learning.

6. Fiction punishes me for knowing the ending.

In non-fiction, I always know where I’m going before I start writing, and the whole piece is built to get the reader there.

In fiction, the best scenes or stories happened when I let the characters surprise me.

I also don’t know the ending until I’m a good three-quarters of the way through writing the full book.

Non-fiction trained me to control the destination, and fiction is teaching me that the most interesting writing happens when I loosen my grip and follow the story instead of steering it.

7. You can’t write fiction from the teacher’s chair.

Non-fiction positions you as the person who knows the answers.

Fiction requires you to inhabit characters who don’t know, who are wrong, and who fumble through decisions. You have to step out of the authority role completely.

Every time a character started explaining what they’d learned instead of just acting on what they felt, I knew I was writing from my chair instead of from inside them.

8. Not everything gets resolved.

Non-fiction gives the reader an answer, and that’s the contract.

Fiction often works best when the question stays open: a character makes a choice, and you never tell the reader whether it was the right one. You leave it to the reader to reflect on.

I kept trying to tie things up neatly because that’s what over a decade of how-to writing trained me to do, and some of the best scenes in my novel are the ones where I resisted that instinct and let the tension be felt.

Years of non-fiction didn’t prepare me for the challenges of fiction-writing, but it gave me more than I expected.

I’m excited to share more about this fiction journey through Mastery Den in the coming months, so make sure you’re subscribed.

I know what it’s like to feel hopelessly lost.

There are so many options, and you don’t know what’s your best bet.

Mind magician Dan Koe made such a good point recently about how being lost is part of the process.

We all go through this phase.

You will first not be sure of what to do.

But now you need to find something to focus on.

Don’t overcomplicate it.

(I sucked at this. Now I keep it simple).

Trying to do too many things trips up 98% of people.

So identify ONE exciting objective that’s a bit of a stretch.

It’s the ONE goal you’re putting above all else for now.

• 5 client sales next month.

• A major course launching September 14th.

• A 10k month within 3 months.

• 50 speaking engagements by the close of this year.

It might sound cheesy, but it needs to speak to your potential, not necessarily where you are now.

All my successes - from building a design business to writing books to growing an online following - started by setting an audacious singular target.

The goal should feel a bit frightening.

You feel that thudding?

Yes, your heart rate should be quickening at the thought.

Make the commitment to that thing today.

Do as I do and write the goal somewhere you see it daily.

Find someone to hold you accountable.

Most do not identify the commitment.

And most don’t follow through.

But you will.

Now you must bring focus + intensity + consistency to your objective.

These will set you far apart from the crowd.

Surprise us with your relentlessness on a single target.

That’s how you make a dent.

By the way, do you want to go deeper into ideas like these and apply them so your audience grows so you make more money?

My Online Writing Alchemy course shows you how to master writing things that resonate better than 99% of online writing slop.

When you do, you’ll regularly enjoy that warm, fuzzy feeling of readers sending you emails of thanks.

Write something daily. Post it. You’ll have an asset few will enjoy in the coming years.

Grab it here.

You can also join us as a paid subscriber so you can support me as a writer, and access all the locked, archive posts to help take your writing and brand-building to higher levels:

I pivoted hard into fiction this year and continued my long-stalled study of the craft of writing novels and short stories.

I expected it to slow down my non-fiction output while I learned something new.

Instead, it made my articles and emails sharper, more vivid, and harder to click away from.

Here are twelve lessons from fiction that changed how I write everything else.

1. Open in the middle of something happening.

Fiction writers call this “in medias res,” meaning dropping the reader into the action rather than building up to it.

Most non-fiction opens with throat-clearing and context-setting that loses people in the first three seconds.

Start with the moment, the tension, or the problem already in motion and fill in the background later.

Your reader decides whether to stay in the first two lines, so make those lines feel like walking into a scene already underway.

2. Every sentence must earn its place or get cut.

Fiction taught me that filler is death, and readers feel it even when they cannot name it.

A sentence that restates the previous one, adds nothing new, or exists because you liked the sound of it will make readers drift.

I now read every paragraph, asking whether each line pulls weight or just takes up space.

Cutting twenty per cent of your draft almost always makes the remaining eighty per cent land with more oomph.

3. Concrete details beat abstract claims every time.

“He was nervous” is weak, but “he kept checking the door” shows you something real.

Non-fiction writers love abstractions like “consistency matters” or “mindset is key” and these phrases slide off readers without sticking.

When you replace a vague claim with a specific image or example, the reader sees it in their mind and that image stays.

Fiction forced me to show rather than tell, and my non-fiction became more persuasive the moment I applied the same rule.

4. Withhold information strategically to create pull.

In fiction you learn that giving the reader everything up front kills their reason to keep reading.

You drop hints, raise questions, and delay the full reveal until the tension has built.

Non-fiction writers dump all their value in the first paragraph and wonder why nobody finishes the piece.

I started structuring articles the way I structure stories, with an open loop at the start that only closes at the end, and completion rates climbed.

5. Your reader needs to feel something, not just learn something.

As Stephen King wrote, “I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.”

Information alone does not move people or make them remember what they read.

Compare “procrastination reduces productivity” with “I sat there for three hours refreshing Twitter while the cursor blinked at me, and by the time I finally wrote a sentence, the day was gone and I hated myself a little.” The first is a fact you already knew, and the second is a feeling you recognise in your chest.

Fiction taught me that emotion is the delivery mechanism for meaning, and if you want your ideas to land, you have to make the reader feel the problem before you offer the solution.

I stopped writing to inform and started writing to affect, and the difference showed up in every metric I track.

6. Conflict makes people care.

Every story needs friction between what a character wants and what stands in the way, and non-fiction works the same way.

If you write about a solution without first making the reader feel the weight of the problem, your advice floats in a vacuum.

7. Your voice is your only real competitive advantage.

Raymond Carver said, “That’s all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones.”

Fiction taught me that two writers can tell the same story and produce completely different experiences based solely on their voice.

Non-fiction writers chase trends, formats, and templates while ignoring the one thing that cannot be copied.

When I stopped trying to sound professional and started writing the way I actually think, people began recognising my work without seeing my name attached.

8. Subtext does more work than text.

In fiction, what a character does not say often matters more than what they do say.

Non-fiction writers tend to over-explain, spelling out every implication as if the reader cannot be trusted to connect dots.

I learned to leave room for the reader to participate, to arrive at conclusions I pointed toward rather than handed over.

Writing that respects the reader’s intelligence creates a feeling of discovery, and discovery is what makes ideas stick.

9. Endings should resonate, not just conclude.

A good story ends in a way that echoes backwards through everything that came before and forward into the reader’s thinking.

Most non-fiction just stops, often with a generic call to action that feels bolted on.

I started treating my final lines like the last image in a film, something that lingers after the screen goes dark.

Your ending is the last thing the reader carries with them, so make it worth remembering.

10. Transformation is the spine of anything worth reading.

In fiction, a character who ends the story unchanged is a character who wasted the reader’s time.

Non-fiction works the same way, whether the transformation happens to you in the backstory or to the reader by the end.

Every piece I write now has a clear arc from old belief to new understanding, and that arc is what gives the piece shape.

11. Cut your favourite line if it does not serve the piece.

Writers call this “killing your darlings” and it means removing the clever phrase or beautiful sentence that you love but that distracts from what the piece needs to do.

I have cut lines I spent ten minutes crafting because they were showing off rather than serving the reader.

Your loyalty belongs to the piece, not to any individual sentence, and the willingness to cut good writing for the sake of better writing separates amateurs from professionals.

The draft is not a museum for your favourite sentences. It is a machine that requires every part to work toward the same purpose.

12. Make the reader curious before you make them informed.

Fiction hooks you with questions before it provides answers.

That sequence is not accidental.

The brain is wired to seek closure on open loops, so if you raise a question early, the reader will stay to find the resolution.

Non-fiction writers love to lead with the answer, which removes the only reason someone has to keep reading.

I restructured my articles to pose the problem vividly before revealing what solved it, and people started reading all the way to the end.

Fiction and non-fiction are not as separate as I thought, and the lessons transfer in both directions.

If you want to write non-fiction that holds attention, study how storytellers have been doing it for thousands of years.

The craft is the same; only the surface changes.

By the way, you can read my fiction stories at my Story Cabin Substack here. A subscribe is appreciated!

Alex

By the way, do you want to go deeper into ideas like these and apply them so your audience grows?

My Online Writing Alchemy course shows you how to master writing things that resonate better than 99% of online writing slop.

When you do, you’ll regularly enjoy that warm, fuzzy feeling of readers sending you emails of thanks.

Write something daily. Post it. You’ll have an asset few will enjoy in the coming years.

Grab it here.

You can also join us as a paid subscriber so you can support me as a writer, and access all the locked, archive posts to help take your writing and brand-building to higher levels:

Subscribe now

I struggled to have people listen to me or read my writing for many years.

As I wrote more and came out of my shell, certain things I did lead to positive responses.

Here are some of the most reliable things I do to ensure people resonate with my words:

1. Introduce problems you know others contend with.

People are attuned to things that threaten them.

When you speak about a problem or challenge others can relate to, their ears will prick, and they will listen.

2. Use fine details.

Sweeping descriptions and vague concepts are like speaking in mumbles.

People can’t see textures, and they want them. Be specific; use clear examples; add colour and sound, and touch.

This amplifies the user experience.

3. Use fewer words than you think you need.

Most people over-explain. They repeat the same point three different ways because they don’t trust the reader to get it.

Trim the fat. Say it once, clearly, and move on. When you use fewer words, each one carries more weight.

People respect communicators who don’t waste their time.

Read more

I’ve written and shared online articles for over seventeen years.

I know what it’s like to feel that nervous tension after hitting ‘publish,’ only to get two measly likes (one from my best friend).

But if we want to grow an audience, have our posts be shared, develop trust in a growing list of subscribers and get paid good money for our knowledge, we need to know how to predictably encourage engagement in our content.

I’m not talking about just collecting vanity numbers, so you feel good.

This is about encouraging connection, resonance and interest in your ideal reader.

You want them to be engaged, so they take action, whether to sign up for your newsletter, book a call with you or whatever.

The Internet is a continually-evolving beast with no hard and fast rules. Creating content and growing an audience will always have an experimentation element.

But there are things you can do that will help.

Here are seven ideas:

1. Show your flaws.

Many of us create content to try to look good and sound clever.

That’s nice, but if you’re coming across too perfect, it can diminish your authenticity in the eyes of the reader.

Being on point with your ideas is essential for, say, a how-to guide.

But even then, showing perhaps how you overcame struggle before you found your solutions can boost how your post is ultimately received.

When we can reveal some flaws, this can open people up to you and prompt interest, not because they see themselves as superior to you - but because they see themselves in you.

2. Hook them faster.

Attention is the currency of the modern age.

It is becoming more challenging, no doubt, to grab attention. Why? Because there are so many things competing for yours.

Because of this, you need to be intentional about how you craft your posts if you don’t want to lose someone’s attention. This is why the title of your post needs to grab people. It needs to pique their curiosity.

It must spark an emotional reaction.

The same applies to the post itself, especially the opening few seconds. For writing, if you dawdle and talk about vague concepts, they will be gone. Get right into the action - straight to the point.

How can you expect someone to get to the end of your post if they aren’t coming through the door in the first place?

That’s how to win in this attention culture.

3. Do the best it can be done.

I frequently encourage people to publish their creations, even if they don’t yet feel ready. That’s good.

This keeps you moving and out of fear. But this doesn’t mean you can’t strive towards creating the best version of what you’re trying to create.

If you’re writing a how-to guide on making ceramic toy cars, you want to aim to make it the best.

This is how content picks up speed fast.

This is why creating highly niched content that gets to the heart of highly focused ideas is key.

If you’re too broad, you dilute your share’s value.

4. Infuse more personality.

Personality in an AI age is becoming increasingly more significant. People follow people, not robots.

People can spark an emotional reaction in the reader through personality.

What do I mean by personality?

Show us what you stand for. Say what others aren’t willing to say. Infuse some humour and playfulness. Use colourful words. Use assertive language.

Show us your ‘weird.’

What’s something you love to do that most others do not? Show us this.

This creates a memorable and often likeable picture of you with which people will gel.

5. Say something many disagree with.

Most writers are terrified of causing friction.

They water down their opinions until everything sounds like a greeting card. ‘Be kind.’ ‘Work smarter, not harder.’

Yawn.

The posts that get the most engagement aren’t the ones everyone agrees with. They’re the ones that make people feel something, even if it’s annoyance.

I’m not saying be controversial for the sake of it. That’s lazy.

I’m saying stop hedging your bets. Stop writing like you’re afraid someone might @ you.

When you state an opinion with conviction, people will either love you or argue with you.

Both are engagement. Both build connection. Indifference kills you.

6. Create strategic partnerships.

A lot of the growth you see with people with large online followings results from two primary things.

They combine sharing consistent, valuable content with opening up their content to other people’s audiences.

You get juice when you put fresh eyeballs on your posts from a new audience of, say, 50,000 people.

You need to get creative about how you access other creators’ audiences.

You can pay for newsletter recommendations on Substack, RTs on Twitter, or comments on LinkedIn (like you would buy ads).

You can get interviewed on other people’s podcasts. You can guest post on someone else’s newsletter.

You can also offer to swap access to your audience for someone else’s.

To do all this, you want to gradually build up a Rolodex of connections through relationship-building.

7. Engage yourself.

Whether you’re creating content for Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Medium, it will help you become known in the circles relevant to your area of focus.

Make a list of 10-15 larger accounts that attract the kinds of people you want to connect with.

Comment on their posts every day and engage with their followers. Share lots of value and unique insight (and personality). It feels like hard work, but your community grows one person at a time.

You are making friends, not acquaintances.

It’s social media for a reason. Become known, and these people will flow back to support your own content.

Let’s go get this bread and have fun while we do it.

Alex

By the way, do you want to go deeper into ideas like these and apply them so your audience grows?

My Online Writing Alchemy course shows you how to master writing things that resonate better than 99% of online writing slop.

When you do, you’ll regularly enjoy that warm, fuzzy feeling of readers sending you emails of thanks.

Write something daily. Post it. You’ll have an asset few will enjoy in the coming years.

Grab it here.

You can also join us as a paid subscriber so you can support me as a writer, and access all the locked, archive posts to help take your writing and brand-building to higher levels:

I publish a lot each week, but I rarely know exactly what I’ll write until I sit down to write.

Often I’m not feeling creative and don’t much care to write anything, to be honest.

It could be I’m burned out from writing on similar topics, using the same structures.

This is why it’s helpful to shift the plan of attack sometimes.

There are so many ways we can create written or other posts; we needn’t lose the spark.

Here are some different post-types that may trigger fresh thinking for you:

• Listicles: Create a list of 5, 10, or 20 tips, habits or recommendations that help with a specific challenge or problem.

• How-to guides: Create a step-by-step guide to completing a specific task or solving a particular problem.

• Quick tips: Share a quick and actionable tip related to your area of expertise.

• Opinion pieces: Share your perspective on a current event or industry trend.

• Product reviews: Share your thoughts and experiences with a product or service related to your niche.

Read more

I’m not always motivated and often just want to sit in a dark room and sulk.

But I’ve learned a ton over 17 years of near-daily writing that helps me get into the zone and just create.

Here are 9 tips that ensure you stay motivated to create consistently:

1. The most prolific creators rarely feel motivated before they start.

They start, regardless of how they feel, and work themselves into being motivated.

The habit eventually becomes so strong, I can’t not write, and my feelings at that moment have nothing to do with it.

2. Stop thinking you need to know everything in advance before starting.

You need to be OK with not knowing and create anyway.

This means writing into the uncertainty. Being willing to first draft slop.

Edit into something beautiful later.

Read more

In anything you do in life, you’re in either one of two modes:

1. You’re creating a disadvantage for yourself through a poor habit, OR:

2. You’re creating an ‘unfair’ advantage for yourself through a helpful action or habit.

You’re lying to yourself if you expect life to be ‘fair,’ and some actions create more of an advantage than others.

Here are some helpful habits I’ve used as a writer to get me that ‘unfair’ advantage over the years:

1. Write at least 250 words every day.

Share it publicly as much as you can.

Do this even if you don’t feel like it. This act of daily accumulated words is like paying yourself before the bank takes your cash.

If you do it and follow through with it day after day, you will have the edge over 95% of your competition.

2. Join a community.

Free or paid, or create your own.

Speak to — and become known by other writers, so you can help each other out with the lessons you’ve learned.

Writing can be lonely, so having this helps. Have others give you accountability.

Share your wins, and promote each other’s work.

3. Write about stuff you’re obsessed with.

Stop writing about stuff that merely ‘interests’ you.

Your advantage lies in tripling down on what you love geeking out about. What is that for you? (Comment below).

Write more about that.

4. Fall in love with prolific.

An interesting thing happens when we start writing in big volumes.

Our writing gets seen by more and benefits from exponential improvement. We become insanely creative, and our confidence grows. We become more efficient and procrastinate less.

Many think writing a lot loses you time. It is one of the most efficient things you can do. Write four books a year, not one every five years.

Write an article every day, not every week.

Become a writing machine.

Our true nature isn’t to sit idly.

5. Create strategic partnerships.

Get to know people who have large followings and help them out as much as you can.

Many will return favours in the form of comments and shares. You can invest in their support; or literally send them something you wrote — many will share and comment.

6. Read a lot.

A lot of people see reading as an optional luxury. If you want to get ahead as a great writer, you need to read a lot.

Allow yourself to welcome reading into your life again.

You want to live a life immersed in your craft, and this means absorbing other people’s words too.

Read people who write well and inspire you, and the topics about which you want to write.

Stephen King:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

7. Dedicate yourself to mastering writing.

Commit to being great.

This commitment is enlivening. Immerse yourself in the works of outstanding writers, including fiction writers. Study the craft.

Writing shouldn’t be a ‘chore,’ or you will quickly stop.

You want nothing less than to become one of the most impactful writers in the world.

8. Brainstorm every day.

Become an idea machine. Use James Altucher’s idea of combining ideas through ‘idea sex.’

This will train your brain to be more creative. Original ideas win in writing. No one wants to read what they’ve read before.

Creative synergy through brainstorming and writing lists solves this.

9. Become a creative athlete.

Writing isn’t a purely intellectual pursuit.

Many have seen it as such, drink and smoke heavily, sit on a chair all day, and then wonder why they go weeks feeling low, with ‘writer’s block.’

Exercising daily and eating well will immediately give you an edge many writers simply don’t have.

10. Develop daily awareness.

Mindfulness is the secret to tapping into a creative flow that lies beneath worried, unhelpful thoughts.

Every great writer knows that their best writing comes without effort. We write best when we’re not overthinking.

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” — Ray Bradbury

11. Get emotional.

Use emotionally-charged ideas and vivid stories.

If — while you write — you don’t really understand, feel or connect with what you’re saying, the reader won’t either.

Excellent writing needs to strike an emotional spark in the reader — and you need to feel that spark as you write it first.

12. Use stories.

Stories well told, where we witness the transformation of a character, engage more than any other tool.

They tap into what makes us human. Our brains are programmed to seek out meaning, and stories are the catalyst.

As Lisa Cron says, thanks to millennia of using stories to help others live vicariously through our experiences, we are literally ‘wired for story.’

Make use of them to take your writing to the highest levels.

13. Do more of what works.

Stop trying to be clever and purely ‘original’.

Use what works — both in your own work and referring to the work of others. Emulate, but then apply your own unique angle, voice and stories.

If it’s been proven to work, using it is a significant advantage, pure and simple.

Want to learn how to apply your habit for consistent writing so your audience grows?

My Online Writing Alchemy course shows you exactly how to write things that resonate in a way that grows your online following fast.

When you do, you’ll regularly enjoy that warm, fuzzy feeling of readers sending you emails of thanks.

Write something daily. Post it. You’ll have an asset few will enjoy in the coming years.

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