The Middle Isn’t Messy. It’s Merely the Middle.
Let’s talk about this idea of the messy middle.
I’ve seen this idea coming up a lot in the online business world.
Their theory is that you're in a mess right now, and it's temporary because it will all be over someday.
But will it?
We don't escape the messy middle. Instead, we embrace the entire process, being okay with what is instead of always trying to get to what's next.
It's as if you won't always be in this messy middle with your business, blog, content creation, and writing project.
If you're wading into something in your business that's new to you, it's only new. It's different, so it feels uncomfortable because you're probably not good at it yet.
Examples from my writing life right now:
My content plan for the next few months is fluid — not messy.
There’s a big sales page I need to rewrite. It’s not a mess — it needs some love and my undivided attention.
Maybe your examples look like this:
You’re thinking about writing your first book but the ideas are all over the place (not a mess).
Your 1:1 practice is full and you want to start coaching groups but don’t know the first step. Not a mess — you only need clarity on step one.
You have a few draft blogs that you want to publish. They’re not a mess, they’re just drafts.
It's not messy — it's only new.
And…
It’s not the middle — you just don’t like it.
Because I'm so focused on using positive, uplifting language that doesn't unconsciously limit anyone in all my writing and teaching, as soon as I saw the term "messy," it didn't sit with me.
First of all, who likes a mess? Most of us prefer things to be orderly, tidy, and clean. Even if you're none of those things and work just fine with piles of paper on your desk and laundry scattered on the floor. Perhaps you're surrounded by chaos, and it doesn't bother you. You're not trying to escape the chaos or defeat the villain to get to the next level. You're in it. You see the order within the chaos and move forward one action step at a time.
You might want every writing project to feel orderly, organized, and straightforward.
Is the problem with the messy middle that you don't (and can't) control every aspect of it?
Perhaps you're just not in the smooth as cocoa butter phase of your writing project, or you're not spending enough time with it to find your flow.
Maybe you simply need to hire someone to create order so you can jump back in and maintain it.
Does the messy middle need a reframe, or should we stop calling it that altogether?
Messy: Definitions
"In a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly (of a place, etc, person, situation)
Difficult or unpleasant to deal with (of a situation)
Dirty and disorderly" - PowerThesaurus
Let's reframe it. What if messy is stunning? What if messy things are actually positive things or simply neutral?
A nest
A pile of rocks
A bundle of twinkle lights
A toddler with chocolate all over his face
Let’s explore the definitions of messy as applied to writing…
Disorder in your writing: Trust that order is in there. The universe appears chaotic but is working in perfect order.
Difficulty or unpleasantness in your writing: Sometimes writing feels challenging. So are you checking out, avoiding, or merely thinking about writing, and it feels messy only because you're not in it? Dive in, put in the time, and allow yourself the time to find your flow with it. Just as you untangle a neck mess (a term I learned from Kaimana Lani, Divine Drip Jewelry), you focus on only that tangle of necklaces, unraveling, weaving, and separating each chain from the pile so it can be beautiful on its own.
Dirty writing: There's a 99.99% chance that a surrendered first draft (SFD) will have typos, missing words, and look dirty. Pull up your writing chair and invest some time in cleaning it.
It's a gorgeous spectacle.
The problem with calling your writing messy is that there's an expectation that it needs to be something different.
What if we drop that expectation altogether?
What if we detach from the idea that writing is messy?
Or that there was a middle?
How do we know we're in the middle phase of our writing or our business?
Beginner was the beginning; it wasn't messy.
In a later stage of business, as we uplevel, grow, expand, create more offers, and get more visible, is that somehow less messy? Like we're not going to be messy anymore. We might always be searching for that next bit of clarity.
Just as you’re writing your 300th Substack article. Your drafts today might resemble your drafts when you started.
Take the next aligned step — remember, we can do this without seeing the whole path — and the next one after that.
Some questions to ask yourself:
What do I expect this writing to look like right now?
Do I expect this writing to look different in the next phase?
What other words could I use to describe this phase of my writing?
Your drafts only need some editing and refining. Just like I reframed the idea of the shitty first draft to the surrendered first draft, it feels so much more expansive than shitty.
And unedited or draft simply sounds so much better than messy. It's okay. That's just the creativity that came out of your mind onto the page.
The next time you feel stuck in the "messy middle," detach from your emotions and choose ONE THING to do next.
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