How Copywriters Can Create a Sustainable Writing Habit

In 2017, the same year I stepped away from my corporate job to go full-time in my copywriting business, I had the urge to do more writing where I could share my voice. 

As a copywriter, I spend a lot of time getting into other people’s heads to sound and write like them. I love the work. I learn a ton about my clients, and they learn even more about themselves and the writing process. 

But I needed writing time for me. I craved time at the page, writing from my heart. 

So, I signed up for a 30-day writing challenge — National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I completed the challenge in November 2017, writing 50,000 words for the initial (very shitty) draft of Unfussy Life. I edited it again a year later and published it 3.5 years after that NaNoWriMo draft. And then, in 2021, I used NaNoWriMo to draft my next book — Intuitive Writing.

NaNoWriMo’s focus is aimed at those writing fiction, but I’ve always made my own rules. I’ve always enjoyed using the challenge to write whatever I wanted. Usually, that meant something for my business — a big blog series, an email sales sequence, or website copy.

I’ve run the challenge inside the writing community a handful of times. When we surround ourselves with people with similar goals, we’re more likely to achieve them. And at the very least, it makes achieving those goals more fun.

NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo — which happens in April and July, were great for momentum, but I saw a big problem with it.

Almost everyone in my community was burned out on day 30. 

Most people didn’t make it past day 15. Some made it only a few days.

I know they’re not lazy. They’re intelligent, dedicated, and making things happen in their businesses. But why couldn’t they hit 50,000 words in 30 days? Or even a smaller goal like 30,000 words or simply writing for 30 minutes a day. 

If you’re chasing 50,000 words and writing 1,200-word blog posts, that’s about 41 blogs. After cranking out 1,667 words every day for 30 days (while maintaining and even growing their businesses), I saw most entrepreneurs fall into defeat and exhaustion. Not a place to write great content from!

It’s a substantial effort to release 1,667 words a day — even if those words are complete SFD words, even for me. When working on my books or batching a bunch of blogs, my business carries on. I’m copywriting and editing with clients, serving my community, and not to mention enjoying my family and busy life with kids in sports.

I also wondered about the quality of these 30-day writing challenges (all the ones I’ve seen were created by men), often kid and partner-less, and their only job was to write. Sure, anyone could do that. But none of my clients are the kind of business owners who put their entire lives aside to write. Nor do they want to. Many of the creators of these intense 30-day challenges had big fat swaths of time where they could write interrupted. I don’t personally know anyone in that situation. I won’t even go so far as to say it’s a luxury because consistent six-hour blocks of daily time sounds boring to me.

The writing life is fully integrated into our family and business — and it’s nourishing. 

Because these 30 days, challenges focus on quantity — we’re often left with more unusable words than usable ones. The quality stinks.

That quality problem may be okay for many creative business owners, but I saw there could be another gentler way to get to the finish line.

The time and energy it took me to draft, edit, and publish my most recent book — Intuitive Writing, was paltry compared to my first book — Unfussy Life. I hit my word count goal in less than an hour daily while writing with my community.

I was craving a more authentic, grounded, and feminine writing strategy.

Over the past few years, I’ve been learning about the moon and menstrual cycles. I discovered that a woman’s energy isn’t the same every day, just like the moon. No wonder 30-day challenges burn us out!

This has nothing to do with your gender, by the way. We need masculine and feminine energy. We need to balance that. Up until recently, I was very much in my masculine. Working in male-dominated industries in corporate America, climbing those shiny ladders — I was masculine about it. Action, do, push. And out of my feminine — surrender, allow, flow. 

Male hormones are the same every day (barring any health issues). The masculine is the sun — showing up with the same energy at the same times of day every 24-hour cycle. 

Female hormones vary over an average 28-day cycle — just like the moon varies over her reliable 29.5-day cycle. 

A female’s energy fluctuates at every stage of the menstrual cycle, which is why, if you're a menstruating female and you’ve participated (or attempted to) in a 30-day writing challenge, you might have found the words flowed quickly some days. And others, you felt pulled to take a nap or sat at the blank screen feeling hopeless. 

Whatever you feel each day at the page, it’s normal for each day to look different. When we show up to the page and every day differs from the day before, it’s easy to judge ourselves. We wish we could be that speedy and brilliant writer every day when really, that’s just not how we’re designed.

In the past few years, I’ve hosted a NaNoWriMo-style challenge inside my writing community. We had a few “rules” every time: 

• Choose your own word count goal.

• Or, instead of a word count goal, choose a writing streak goal — like write for 15 days out of the month or write for 30 minutes a day.

• Write whatever you want — a book, blogs, website copy, podcast notes, a Ted talk, or a combination of things.

And, as always, permission to break all the rules.

These writing challenges aim to get people into a regular writing habit. But instead of getting into a routine, I saw it burning people out. I've seen my clients quit halfway through, not start at all, keep an intermittent schedule, and not create that new writing routine they crave. 

I see 30-day writing challenges leaving many women feeling like failures. But really, it’s not their fault. The push energy isn’t for everyone.

I propose a freer approach that balances masculine AND feminine (because we need both).

Take a fresh approach that will nurture your inner writer and improve your relationship with writing.

It’s a sustainable approach that has us writing, editing, and publishing more than ever.

Stay tuned for the next round of Finding Flow!