10 Compelling Reasons to Start Writing Today

10 Compelling Reasons to Start Writing Today

You’ve seen it in our tagline, in our email signatures, and probably heard it coming out of our mouths: Good things come to those who WRITE!

We adopted that statement to capture the transformative power of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). For us, writing is more than just a means of communication; it’s a catalyst for personal growth, professional development, and unlocking one’s full potential.

So what are these “good things” that will come when you take up writing? And who (besides us) says so?

In this post, we’ll explore ten proven benefits of writing and some of the examples and science behind that tagline. So, what does writing do for you?

1. Enhances Critical Thinking

Let’s start with one that both creatives and hard-nosed business types can get behind: writing helps you think critically about whatever your topic may be. As one study of college sudents expressed it:

“As a set of cognitive abilities, critical thinking skills provide students with tangible academic, personal, and professional benefits…. Results indicated that the writing group significantly improved critical thinking skills whereas the nonwriting group did not. Specifically, analysis and inference skills increased significantly in the writing group but not the nonwriting group. Writing students also showed greater gains in evaluation skills.”

And there’s a feedback loop to the writing process. When you write, you’re forced to organize your thoughts, analyze concepts from multiple angles, and coherently articulate your ideas. This process sharpens your ability to think critically, question assumptions, and arrive at well-reasoned conclusions.

In turn, critical thinking encourages curiosity, enhances creativity, and reinforces problem-solving skills, making your writing richer and more nuanced.

2. Stimulates Creativity

Picking up on that last observation, I’ve always thought of the label “creative writing” as a redundant phrase. All writing is creative.

Whether you’re crafting a fictional narrative or exploring a non-fiction topic, the process of stringing words together in a meaningful way engages your imagination and fosters creative expression. As you write, you’ll find yourself making unexpected connections, exploring new perspectives, and generating innovative ideas.

This creative stimulation can spill over into other areas of your life, making you more resourceful and better equipped to tackle challenges. As Julia Cameron writes in The Artist’s Way,

“Writing leads to reading leads to writing leads to reading leads to writing.”

If you check the books I’ve written and co-authored, you’ll understand how deeply that quote resonates with me.

3. Prompts Emotional Catharsis

For many, writing serves as a powerful outlet for processing emotions, working through challenges, and achieving a sense of catharsis. Whether you’re journaling about your day, pouring your heart into a personal essay, sharing the emotional development of your main character, or instigating important business, political, or social change, the act of putting your thoughts and feelings into words can be incredibly therapeutic.

One paper focused on the “wide range of physical, cognitive, and emotional benefits” from journaling and listed emotional catharsis as the top theoretical process underlying those proven benefits. Another writer reviewed the benefits and created a website called Cathartic.co to encourage anonymous expressive writing as a way to achieve them.

4. Improves Communication Skills

As with critical thinking, writing forces you to organize and express those ideas in ways that are understandable and useful to others. Studies have shown that writing tasks help improve communication skills across the board. As a 2023 paper reported:

“The findings revealed that there is significant improvement not only in the writing skills of experimental group students but also listening, speaking, and reading skills, leading to effective communication skills.”

Working with words on paper or screen spills over into how we relate to others.

5. Drives Personal Growth and Self-Discovery

And how we relate to ourselves. Writing can be a powerful tool for self-discovery and personal growth. As you explore your thoughts and emotions through the written word, you may uncover hidden truths, confront limiting beliefs, and gain a deeper understanding of yourself. As Isabel Allende is quoted:

“Writing is the path to self-discovery, revealing the depths of one’s own soul.”

This introspective journey can lead to increased self-awareness, personal empowerment, and a greater sense of purpose. There is even evidence that writing about a specific traumatic event leaves us “emotionally stronger, less upset, and less cognitively avoidant about the particular difficult life event” we wrote about.

6. Improves Focus and Discipline

Writing inherently requires us to focus and exercise self-dicipline. As Harper Lee put it:

“Writing is a process of self-discipline you must learn before you can call yourself a writer.”

To produce coherent and well-structured writing, you must block out distractions, maintain concentration, and persist through challenges. And research shows that writing by hand on paper is even more effective at stimulating brain activity that increases our learning and retention.

This cultivation of focus and discipline through writing can have far-reaching benefits, enhancing your productivity and ability to tackle complex tasks in various areas of your life.

7. Provides Intellectual Stimulation

Engaging in the writing process should be an intellectually stimulating endeavor. It requires your attention, not just on the words in front of you as you work, but on the world around you — the sources for what you’re writing.

“A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.”

— Susan Sontag

In yet another positive feedback loop, as you research, analyze, and synthesize information, you’ll expand your knowledge base, challenge your assumptions, and develop a deeper understanding of the world. Writing encourages you to explore new ideas, consider alternative perspectives, and continually learn and grow.

8. Preserves Ideas and Experiences

How many times have you heard the advice to keep a notepad by your bed to jot down those ideas that come to you at night, but might disappear again by morning? Great advice.

But writing’s power of preservation goes far beyond note-taking. Here’s one of my favorite observations on the impact of writing, quoted in Read ‘Em & Reap:

“[W]hat sublimity of mind was his who dreamed of finding means to communicate his deepest thoughts to any other person, though distant by mighty intervals of place and time! Of talking with those who are in India; of speaking to those who are not yet born and will not be born for a thousand or ten thousand years; and with what facility, by the different arrangements of twenty characters upon a page!”

— Galileo

Whether you’re telling a suspenseful or amusing story, teaching your expertise on a particular subject, or chronicling your life’s journey, writing serves as a powerful tool for preserving and sharing your unique perspective and experiences across time and space.

9. Gives a Sense of Accomplishment

Talk to any author about the feeling they experience when they open the box with the first physical copy of their book inside. It’s very close to the birth of a child.

But it doesn’t have to be a book. I get a similar, smaller burst of those same brain chemicals when I hit “publish” on a blog post, or “send” on an informative email. Or even upon coming up with just the right word or phrase in the middle of writing.

While I quibble with the notion of a “born writer” because I know people can learn to write well, the feeling she identifies is spot on:

“For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word.”

— Catherine Drinker Bowen

The satisfaction of seeing your thoughts and ideas take shape on the page, and the pride of sharing your work with others, can be incredibly rewarding and motivating — fueling your confidence and inspiring you to take on new writing challenges, fostering a cycle of personal and creative growth.

10. Delivers Income and Recognition

I hesitated to include the “income” part, though it’s on every list out there. The truth is that writing as a direct source of income works for only a small percentage of writers.

But combining it with “recognition” connects us to the many indirect income streams that can flow from writing, such as coaching, consulting, teaching, or as marketing tools for almost any other business endeavor. Writing a book, or an authoritative blog, or informational articles will get you recognized as an authority in your field. It will open doors to new opportunities you haven’t yet imagined.

As an Inc. Magazine article explained some years ago,

“writing a book is a great way to establish yourself as a credible industry expert. You can create a brand platform for yourself, increase your market value, differentiate yourself from competitors, and discover new ways to grow your authority in your field.”

I’ll wrap by reminding that the benefits of writing are numerous and far-reaching. From improved critical thinking and enhanced creativity to emotional catharsis and personal growth, the act of putting words on paper (or screen) can profoundly impact your life. So, embrace the power of writing, and let it guide you on a journey of self-discovery, intellectual stimulation, and personal fulfillment.

That’s why we say, Good things come to those who WRITE!

Not those who wait.

Those who write.

Start today, and if you have already, keep going.