Chapter 1: The Struggle with Creativity

Recently, I've received a wealth of positive responses from my subscribers. A recurring concern I often encounter is:

"I've been writing for several months, but I'm not seeing any real results. What am I doing wrong?"

Often, it's a matter of being too attached to your own ideas. It can take an experienced guide to help you recognize your blind spots.

Years ago, I participated in a mentorship program designed for military veterans aiming to transition into entrepreneurship and corporate leadership. While I gained valuable insights, the most impactful lessons came from the challenging experiences I faced while in the "hot seat."

During these sessions, the facilitator would invite participants to share their backgrounds and discuss their business progress. Following this, mentors would provide critical feedback on public speaking, the use of ineffective language, and the unsatisfactory strides made toward previously established goals. This critique was delivered professionally, yet it was never easy to absorb.

I took this feedback personally—not in a negative way, but because I viewed the identified flaws as areas for improvement in my personal and professional journey. I have always believed that my identity as a person and a professional are inseparable.

In my experience, I maintain authenticity across all aspects of my life. I've always been able to express my true self in work environments, especially in the Marine Corps and the bail bonds industry, where my personality and interests aligned with the organizational culture.

However, outside of those fields, I can be quite a challenge for an HR department.

One significant advantage of blending personal and business life is that I genuinely valued the constructive criticism I received during these mentorship sessions. And it made a difference.

Yet, my most considerable growth came from realizing that I was investing time in a business that didn't inspire me. My focus was solely on financial gain, with no passion involved. My mentor, a straightforward Senior Chief, could see right through my attempts to sell the perceived value of my business.

To truly succeed in your writing, concentrate on topics that ignite your passion. Engaging writing that captivates readers and earns you income requires extensive reading, research, and writing about subjects you genuinely care about. Choosing an area of interest is crucial.

Moreover, it’s much harder to abandon something you love doing. The worst fate is to be uninteresting.

If you've been writing for an extended period without attracting an audience, it’s possible you’re trying to write in a niche that doesn’t excite you. You might be attempting to sell them something rather than showing them what they truly desire.

Readers can sense when you're motivated solely by profit. They instinctively notice when you're striving to impress rather than being authentic. It comes across as promotional material, which can be quite dull.

The challenge with blogging and social media is that metrics often dominate your thoughts. You may find yourself thinking like a marketer or data analyst rather than a writer. This mindset is a primary creativity killer for novice writers.

Metrics serve to inform you of what resonates, but don’t let them dictate your creative process. If some stories perform better than others, analyze what you did differently. Use that knowledge to enhance your headlines and determine which topics resonate most with your audience.

However, avoid allowing metrics to invade your creative ideation. Once you link the worth of your writing to statistics, your creative output will likely suffer.

At that point, you cease to write for individuals and start writing for an algorithm—one that lacks empathy or loyalty and continuously alters its parameters.

Write as if for a single reader.

As humans, we are driven by emotions, which are integral to our survival instincts. We typically act based on feelings and subsequently justify those actions with rational thought.

Ensure your writing mirrors this dynamic. Start with emotion and then back it up with facts and logic. With every story you craft, ask yourself, "Why should they care?"

Discover how the internet can stifle your creativity and learn effective strategies to overcome it.

Chapter 2: Metrics vs. Emotion

Understand how certain habits may be hindering your creative flow and explore ways to reignite your passion for writing.