Becoming the Sort of Writer Who Changes Readers’ Lives
How to write with impact, change the world, and love your work
When the student is ready the teacher appears, and sometimes when you’re ready to really embrace a message, it starts cropping up in multiple places. Three different people I’ve interacted with in three different contexts this week referred to how we need to start “acting like the sort of person we want to be” to instigate change.
It seems obvious that you should act like the sort of person you want to be, but all too often we don’t. We talk about the sort of person we want to be, and we plan to be the sort of person we want to be. If we’re into manifestation, maybe we even visualise the sort of person we want to be. But we keep acting the same way we always did.
Say we want to be fit and healthy. We might talk about how we’re going to do it. We might even do some meal planning, join a gym, download an activity tracking app.
But we don’t actually make and eat the healthy meals, go to the gym and get the activity in. Worse, we go out for the night, drink four beers and eat a double portion of loaded potato skins with extra sour cream instead (weirdly specific I know - moving on.).
Acting like the sort of person you want to be isn’t easy, but it is simple. It’s about asking yourself: What would a person dedicated to their own health and fitness do? And then doing it.
As a writer I want to change my readers lives. I want to have a positive impact on how my readers think and the actions they take. I also want to love my work and feel like I’m thriving during my working day. So how does that kind of writer act? I think they do all or most of the following.
Pick topics to write about carefully, based not on what’s popular or trending, but what can really help their readers
Spend time and effort on research to find the best information, the most reliable sources and the most helpful resources for those readers
Practice patience, putting articles aside for a while so they can revisit their shitty first drafts with fresh eyes, and edit them to be as useful, impactful and concise as possible
Offer readers well-researched, high-value ideas, action steps and resources that will help them actually make the changes they need to
Make time for deep work and real thinking time, consistently, even if it means ridiculously early mornings most days, and prioritising ruthlessly
Have the courage to put their work out into the world, even if it sometimes addresses difficult subjects, and even if some people won’t like it, without compromise and without apology
Put themselves into their work, not by making their writing a personal rant, but by being real, raw, and authentic, which ultimately makes the writing better and creates more value for readers
As James Clear puts it:
"Your best performances will come when you are working in a way that is a full expression of you. The work becomes a natural display of your personality. This is when you not only get better results, but also love the activity — because in doing the craft, you feel alive."
So that’s how I’m showing up this week, and hopefully for the rest of this year. How about you?
Some thoughts from others I’ve been enjoying this week
10 Systems That Helped Us Go From 0 To 4,500+ Subscribers On Substack (In 6 Months) by
How Mikala Jamison turned her newsletter into a book deal from On Substack
Why Writers Need to Keep Their Finger on the Pulse of Their Market from
Level Up Your Book Sales: Advanced Strategies for 2025 Without Social Media from
What else I’ve been up to this week
Reading: Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
Planning: A strategy to grow this newsletter consistently, joyfully and authentically this year (thanks
for this week’s masterclass)Paying attention to: Updates on US politics (depressing as they are right now) from
and The Bulwark(Re)Watching: This video »
This week’s Medium post
(It’s been a busy week so no new Medium post for you this week, but here’s one from the archives that ties nicely into today’s theme. Friend link, as always, so you can read for free if you’re not a member.)
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Looks like a great set of tips and resources... to write a post about!
Hey, that's my article! 🎉
Appreciate the mention, Karen :)