Everything Changed When I Started Writing In Public

Ev Chapman
September 17, 2021
1 min read

Writing on Twitter ruined me for any other kind of writing.

I've been publishing Atomic essays on Twitter for 6 months now and it's completely changed how I think about writing. I used to think that writers hid away for months and years in a cabin in the woods somewhere only to emerge with a finished manuscript.

That's total bullshit.

There's a new way to write and it's in public. At least 5 people I know are currently writing books and they are doing it while publishing daily on the internet. I am one of them.

Here are 5 reasons why I'll never write in private again:

Micro Consistency. 250 words every day adds up really quickly. If you told me 6 months ago I'd have written over 50k words I would have laughed in your face. Small habits daily build-up to big wins.

Public Accountability. Knowing that people are waiting for me to show up every day is a huge driver for me to stay consistent.

Emergent Ideas. I don't write to a plan. I literally wake up every day and choose something random from my idea library. But after 170 essays you start to see ideas emerge and bubble up to the surface.

Validate Ideas. If I never put my early ideas out I would still be writing about things that just don't matter to my audience. Write and follow the signals.

Expand Ideas. Exposing my ideas in public means I can have conversations around the ideas which in turn improves on the idea as people ask me questions, or give a different perspective.

Think of writing in public as the beginning and not the end of the process and you'll take away much of the pressure to make it amazing.

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