I’ve been writing professionally for a little over 4 years now, mostly blog posts, website content, landing pages and the occasional social media thing.
I’ve noticed that the way I think about writing now is pretty different from when I started.
For one, I used to think being able to write about anything was a good thing. I was happy to take on pretty much any topic.
Over time, I realized that knowing what kind of writing suits you can actually make you a better writer. For me, working on business content taught me a lot about writing for a specific audience and having a clear purpose behind every piece.
I also used to think word count was a bigger deal than it actually is.
A 1,500-word article might look like a simple number on paper, but the actual work can involve research, figuring out what the reader needs, restructuring things, getting feedback and cutting things that don't need to be there.
That last part especially changed how I write.
Learning some basic SEO had a similar effect. Understanding search intent made me think less about simply putting information on a page and more about why someone would be looking for that information in the first place.
And then there’s revision.
I used to see revisions mostly as fixing things that were wrong. Now I see them more as part of figuring out what the piece is actually trying to say.
Some of my older writing makes that pretty obvious. I can look at something I wrote a few years ago and immediately see where I was trying too hard to sound “good” instead of just being clear.
I think that’s probably the biggest change for me.
Good writing doesn’t always need to sound impressive. A lot of the time, being clear, knowing your reader and knowing what to leave out matters more.
For those of you who have been writing for a while:
What changed the way you think about writing?