Why Most Writers Suck
And How To Not be One of Them
Morning.
This week, I'll be sending you 4 mails in this newsletter. It's a mindset-oriented program designed to unleash your creativity and personality. Keep these e-mails warm, and whenever you're in doubt, you can read them again.
How many times did you scroll through a writing platform and said to yourself:
“Wow, this writer is so good.”
Rarely, because the vast majority of content produced on the Internet is mediocre. Doubly true since robots have taken control of the underbelly of production. Many articles are consumed with a completely flat encephallogram.
Writers are average because they write with the handbrake on. Not that they're no good. Many of them are. They have the talent to be good. All the knowledge to write beautiful things. But they don't allow themselves to be. They don't trust themselves.
Think templates are the way. Take refuge behind good spelling for passable but forgettable copy. Thinks that writing is like the working life and that you have to constantly pretend to be someone you're not in order to be appreciated by people you don't even know.
Listen to the musty advice that you need to find prompts in order to have valid ideas. They're not connected to their powers. Their arts are not aligned with their hearts. They're afraid to be themselves. They write with solid masks. They try to perform, but not to be real.
Writer friends, the competition is stiff. And most of the advice you'll find online is designed to drown you. Produced to make money for the person writing the advice, not to make you happy in your art.
My aim is to make you, first and foremost, fulfilled artists. Then, to make money. But without fulfillment, money is useless. It's this kind of cold calculation that destroys too many writers.
After more than a decade of writing thousands of posts online, I've put together for you what I've taken years to understand and apply.
I took far too long to dare to be me.
Don't make the same mistakes.
I made them all.
Don't write what people want to hear
Some writers wonder how to get likes. And write only for the glory. Trying to please everyone. Prevent themselves from the slightest deviation. Prevent themselves from taking risks. Their writing becomes as boring as an afternoon in a remote, rain-soaked village with no electricity.
Don't confuse clear with sterile
Some, in their desire to be clear, erase everything that makes up the soul of their prose. They erase the grit, humor, and oddness that makes them human. They erase their personality, thinking it's too much. But that's exactly what your readers want. You. You'll never be too much for the right people.
Many are too afraid of their true opinions
Afraid of being too intense or too much. But it's exactly this intensity that will create real fans. Thoughtcrime existed in medieval times. This is 2025. Whatever you think, there will be haters. You might as well embrace who you are.
To be a professional is not to be boring
Becoming a writer or blogger is exactly the opposite of corporate who has to weigh every word. It's permission to be what you've always wanted to be. The ability to do you want. The chance to have fun, to invent words and turns of phrase, to choose subjects that nobody else is talking about. Writing is freedom.
Some writers are template addicts
Read them once and you've read all their articles. They always use the same structure, academic, boring, as if they had a school assignment to hand in. They don't allow themselves any excesses. Intro, text, quote, outro, a sleeping pill and a one-way ticket to infinite sleep.
Don't be ventriloquists
Some writers don't have an original idea. Their complete works are quotes and ideas by other writers. They only repeat what they've learned from teachers, thought leaders, philosophers, writers... but never dare to put their own stamp on their writing. All their work becomes is an exposé of someone else's work. They don't even realize that they're not developing their own personality, but are just being parrots.
As if they were afraid to expose their own ideas. And that writing by proxy was the only way to write. The thing is, the vast majority of people don't give a damn about what that writer or philosopher thought decades or hundreds of years ago. Especially in the age of AI, when information is so easy to find. Readers are dying for exciting stories. Not things they can find in a search.
Some dare, then change their minds
They write something bold. Then second-guess it. Then soften it. Then lose the magic. They were within a hair's breadth of making us feel a few emotions. Now they're back in the box of voiceless writers threatened by the robot takeover.
Many forget that it's supposed to be fun
They treat it like a job. They try to sound smart. They're trying to impress. They forget to enjoy. Writing becomes another mask they wear. It wasn't enough to have to pretend in real life. Now you have to pretend in your hobby too. This type of writer will write a few things. Then he'll break down from exhaustion because he's turned his escape into a new prison.
The writers we love the most sound like they’re having a blast.
You don’t want to suck… right?
Only one thing to do. Be yourself. Write what you want to write. Be passionate. Have fun. Forget the rules. Invent your words. Claim your style. Let your creativity take over.
All the brakes, all the limits, all the cages... destroy them.
Be yourself. Dare to write your truths.
Even if they don't please everyone.
How do you know if you're on the right track?
Simple question to ask yourself: are you having fun?
If you're not having fun? Why do you write? Go do something that makes you happy. What's the point of doing things that make you miserable?
We need to reconnect with the joy of writing. But above all, to the joy of writing things that come from our hearts. Words we're proud to produce. Lines we're happy to sign.
Exercise : The Anti-Algorithm Draft
Write a post that:
Has no hook
Breaks every format rule
Is just you talking like a human
Have fun doing it
Let your soul write, not your brain.
You can tag me if you want. I’ll read your piece.
I may even share it in this newsletter.
Even though I haven't written in a month, there are still miraculously 1,000 pairs of eyes on every email (thanks everyone!). You can benefit from this audience.
See you tomorrow.
PS: I want to launch a new service. It's experimental. I'd like to review some blog posts. I did it for friends. They were happy. But I'd like to extend this service. I'm looking for 5 writers who would like me to review their post for free in exchange for feedback on the quality of the review. (a post between 300 and 1000 words)
Send me a mail with a link to one of your posts and I analyze it with the eyes of a writer who has been writing for over ten years online and with the experience of over 1 million words produced.
The point is not to criticize your writing because I don't believe in criticism. But to give suggestions that you may or may not follow. Editing, flow of ideas and transitions, personalization... I'm renting you my brain for the length of a blog post.
If you're interested, just say hi in mail or directly in private message on substack.
I don't bite :)
Hi! I’m perusing your page and enjoying your work; always nice to read like minded minds, yeah? I think you’re laying out the articles well with the links to previous articles. I will steal that trick, thank you… feel free to comb through my thicket of stuff, subscribe for free and perhaps we’ll jive and riff together in the Substack environment.
Okay, enough ego petting, back to reading you!
Fantastic.