JJ's Commonlog

You can write to express or impress.

Writing to express yourself means journaling and taking notes. Writing this way sharpens your mind, enhances your communication skills, and helps you grow. In contrast, when you write for others, like authors, content writers, or screenwriters do, you want to educate, entertain, or empower them.

You can keep your writing private or share it with the world, like I did here. There are countless platforms where you can share your thoughts, like Medium, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Even if you’re not a professional writer, I’d encourage you to write for yourself. It’s a great way to improve your thinking and communication.

“Man becomes what he thinks.” The clearer your thoughts become, the better you’ll be at everything – from seeing the world to interacting. Writing is the foundation of success. You should write and express yourself as a way to think. It’s up to you if you publish your work or not.

There’s an endless well of ideas when you write to express yourself. But when you’re writing for others, especially to impress them, writer’s block and anxiety can creep in. Because I’m writing for me, I don’t worry about what people will think. Sure, I read comments and engage with readers, but my main goal is to improve myself.

I’ve found this approach to be incredibly helpful in my own life. Go ahead, pick up that pen or open that laptop and start writing!

Whenever I sit down to work, be it writing or coding, I face a wall of resistance. I’ll distract myself with videos, trivia, or Twitter. But all I need is a gentle push, like little stretching before a run.

Dictation is my warm-up. It lets me capture ideas while walking or whenever inspiration hits. Once I sit at my computer, I can polish the draft by reading, editing, or swapping words. This simple act gets me moving, like taking that first step of a walk.

Soon enough, I’m in the flow, adding flavor with metaphors and tidying up the text. As they say, you can fix a bad page but not a blank one. And when words already fill my screen, it’s so much easier to dive in and continue writing.

If you face challenge of writer’s block, may be try dictating your thoughts. Break the resistance. Get a page filled with rough draft. Then rest will take care of itself.