“He who has a Why, can bear any How.”

So said Viktor Frankl, who knew more about enduring hardships than anyone should have to learn.

And it’s true. If you’re unmotivated, then you probably lack a big enough goal.

Providing an amazing life for your family – that’s an incredible and enlightened purpose to live for. It’s also the smallest one that works.

“I want to write a novel because, um, I think it would be neat if people read it and, um, wrote me fan mail…”

No.

Write because you have a burning need to.

Write because it’ll either save your family or save the world.

Stop making excuses and stop making things hard for yourself.

Having said that…

Occasionally having a goal like that isn’t enough.

You can want to save the world – fine. But it’s possible to have that overwhelm you. It’s possible to want to rescue humanity from the bowels of hell and still have off days.

When you know you need to hustle and thinking big isn’t cutting it, then think small.

I cover Big Motivation and Little Motivation in I Wrote This On A Monday. Big Motivation is everything I covered here. It’s why you want to write and what that’ll do for you.

Little Motivation is what you do to get you to your keyboard, close all the tabs, but your phone away and just write.

It shatters procrastination and writer’s block, filling you with an urge – not an ability, an urge – to write.

This is how I enter the writing flow state when it doesn’t come naturally to me.

It’s quick, it’s simple, but you probably haven’t learned to use your brain like this.

So learn to use it here:

https://christianhypnotism.com/monday

When I wrote I Wrote This On A Monday, it wasn’t under ideal conditions.

Far from it. I woke up early (well, it was early for me at the time) in a distant city. I had to head to the airport and fly home, which included all the usual airport hassles and a long delay to the flight.

When I got home, it wasn’t as though I could cloister myself and just write. No, I had laundry to do, muscles to exercise and an airport stink to wash off me.

In between all of that, I wrote.

I kept a schedule for the day. On the titular Monday, I didn’t have breakfast until almost 2pm – by then, I’d written 6500 words.

Yeah, I’d written every one of them. I didn’t copy them from other sources or earlier drafts. I didn’t get AI or a VA to help me out. I typed every single word.

Only then did I have something to eat.

The point of this story isn’t to brag about my writing output. If you read my emails, you know how quickly and easily I can churn out the written word.

No, this is to tell you that you’re out of excuses.

Can’t concentrate? Have chronic fatigue? Need to look after kids?

All of those are valid challenges, but they’re not insurmountable obstacles.

You can find the time and the mental energy to write.

Maybe not 6500 words in a few hours, but tens of thousands of words a week.

How would that change your careers and hobbies – and so your life – being able to write like that, consistently, easily and feeling energised at the end of it all?

You can see for yourself once you read I Wrote This On A Monday:

https://christianhypnotism.com/monday

I’m a prolific writer.

Want proof?

I wrote my book about how to be a prolific writer – I Wrote This On A Monday – in one day. That’s over 10,000 words in one day – a day filled with travel, chores, distractions, fatigue and the usual distractions of life.

Okay, 10,000 words isn’t much. That doesn’t make me Tolkien or anything.

No, it would take three whole weeks of writing like that to create The Fellowship of the Ring.

I stand by my productivity. It’s how I’m able to write so many emails and create so many new products – and how I was able to do this years before ChatGPT showed up.

But that just means I know how to write well. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll learn how to do the same.

Fair enough. Let’s here from others about it then:

~

“Before reading the book I felt like I was forcing myself to write. After trying just a few of the practices Will shares in the book, I immediately noticed I was enjoying writing much more, so much so that I found myself looking for more reasons to write so I could practice! It was a big change in a short time, and I can’t wait to explore the writing world this opens up for me. I highly recommend this to anyone who would benefit from being able to write easier, clearer and actually enjoy it.”

– Simon Kelly

~

“William Batten’s direct, simple to follow guidance has given me the tools to unblock my creativity. For a long time it has been so hard to start various writing projects – I now have a method to make daily writing a joy.”

– Matthew Green

~

“I read this book in one sitting as I was in the headspace to troubleshoot one of my particularly annoying habits of sabotaging my creative output by editing it before it is finished, as I have been working on launching a training for over a year and I am sick of the project, the process, and the cranky, irritated, overly sensitive part of myself that keeps conflating my work with my identity.

“Finding William’s book was like looking up and noticing that a friend is offering a hand.

“It’s short, and to the point, but also full of stories and metaphors that will work in the back of your mind even after you’re finished reading. If you, like me, got your idea of the writer’s life from narcissistic 20-somethings alive during the 1950s, you could probably benefit from an update, and this book shows you how to do that in a way that most resonates with you. It’s not writing that’s the hard part, it’s the getting lined up with yourself, and this book will show you how that’s not so hard at all.

“Thanks, William.”

– Marian Spurgeon

~

“This book was very valuable to me as writing is an integral part of my life and livelihood, but it’s not something I ever got taught how to do well.

“Yes I learned grammar etc, but the inner strategies of how to THINK of writing, how to approach it, and how to enjoy it were all left entirely to luck.

“I especially enjoyed the fact that the book itself is proof of the concepts it is encouraging, like a case study and an instructional walkthrough rolled into one.

“After finishing reading it, now when I think of email campaigns or training modules I need to write, the old feeling of burden and overwhelm has shifted into curiosity and excitement to apply what I learned here.”

– Jonam Tullio Ross

~

All such kind words.

Accurate words, too.

If you’d like to sing my praises and create like you never have, then read I Wrote This On A Monday:

https://christianhypnotism.com/monday

Writers like to write about their experiences.

A lot of their experiences involve turning ideas and intentions into the written word.

So it should shock no one to learn that there’s a lot of writing out there about what writing is like. And, being a poetic bunch, it oozes metaphor.

“How quaint!” says the one who doesn’t get how dark and disturbing many of these metaphors are.

There are metaphors like spilling your guts or bleeding all over the page. That sounds painful, disgusting, exhausting and even dangerous.

Or there’s building roads and bridges for my audience. Tough, satisfying work – but slow, backbreaking and intolerant to even small mistakes.

Writing is like swimming underwater. If that’s how you feel, then you must only write in small bursts, driven by an adrenaline-fueled burning to get it done or die in the process.

Then there’s the classic: writing is like selling your body on the streets. If someone tells me that, I know they probably enjoy the writing process but feel awkward charging money for it.

What’s your metaphor for writing?

If I ask you writing is like what?, what comes to mind?

Tell me that and I’ll tell you exactly how you struggle.

As for my metaphor for writing?

It’s like riding a motorcycle through the countryside.

For me, writing is about freedom and exploration. There’s also a feeling of raw power. Writing takes me to new places I wouldn’t otherwise get to. Every day I write is a day I get closer to my destination. It takes a lot of concentration, energy and balance, but that’s okay because I can pause any time. Big picture, I might know where I’m heading, but every new bend in the road surprises me. There’s always something new to enjoy and I can choose which roads to follow.

It’s also lonely and time-intensive. When I write, I’m exposed. I can make many small mistakes but some bigger mistakes can lead to catastrophes.

That metaphor works for me. It’s not perfect, but it works. When I think about the sun on my face as the natural scenery races past me, an engine purring beneath me, then the urge to write is almost irresistible.

“Good for you, William!”

Okay, fair enough. You don’t care about my writing process – not really. You only care about how you can write faster, easier and with less stress.

Now, that I can help you with.

In I Wrote This On A Monday, there’s a simple exercise for changing your metaphor for writing. It doesn’t involve choosing a new one – it’s not that flexible – but it does help you find a better one that works for you.

After all, my motorcycle analogy isn’t perfect.

But it’s more than good enough to let me enjoy and feel refreshed after writing thousands, even tens of thousands, of words per day.

If you want an analogy more like that, turn to page 16 of the print edition of the book. For the eBook version, it’s cleverly hidden under a chapter heading about how to change your writing metaphor.

Read the entire thing and then get to work changing your story:

https://christianhypnotism.com/monday

Yeah, yeah, ChatGPT is impressive. It and other AI tools are years ahead of what folks predicted before it came along.

It can write well and it can write fast.

But that doesn’t mean you should give up on the writing art form just yet. It’s far from dead. In fact, here are 9 excellent reasons why you should still do your own writing – at least sometimes.

1 – Writing captures your unique personality

ChatGPT writes in a particular style. It’s accessible, courteous and professional.

If you ask it to write in a different style, it tends to come across as someone who speaks like ChatGPT pretending to be this other person. It’s often awkward, strange and unnatural – either still flat or painfully excessive.

Even ghostwriters can struggle to emulate your voice. For machines, it’s even harder.

The best way to have your writing reflect your personality is to write it yourself.

And the more other folks rely on monotonous AI tools, the more your personality will stand out in the crowded spaces.

2 – Humans can write better

This won’t always be true for AIs, but will probably always be true for Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.

After all, LLMs aggregate.

Which means they’re mediocre, learning from the subpar and the brilliant alike.

Now, mediocre is good enough for many tasks – especially when it’s fast and consistent. For anything important, though, you’ll find that a merely good human can still outperform AI.

3 – Writing stimulates ideas

I do this all the time. I hear about it from other writers, too.

You write with one idea in mind, but writing is inherently creative. Soon, new ideas pop into your head. Your vision evolves with each word. Soon, you have something you never could have thought of on your own.

I map out my books before writing. Those maps account for maybe half of the final content. New – usually better – ideas emerge as I write.

A great way to create a new offering is to write the sales letter for a hypothetical ideal solution. The ideas will come to you. It’s the same way to get out of a plot hole – write until you see how it’ll make sense.

Unless, of course, you outsource your writing to a fancy algorithm.

4 – Writing connects you to your work

There’s a huge difference between creating art and commissioning it. The creator pours themselves into it, giving it a piece of their soul. Commissioning it is purely intellectual – developing a list of criteria.

If a machine writes your book, website, script or sales letter for you, you won’t have as much connection to it. You won’t be able to discuss its depths and complexities for years to come.

Listen to Tolkien being interviewed about his works. He talks so deeply and poetically because he knows them intimately. That’s because he wrote them, crafting them from fragments of his own psyche.

This doesn’t matter for simple, disposable content. For content that matters? Don’t let it get away from you. Invest yourself into it – otherwise it won’t speak for you.

5 – You need writing skills anyway

I hope you’re not just copying AI outputs from the tool into your works. I hope you’re reviewing, editing, refining and tweaking it first.

If you’re reviewing and editing someone/something else’s writing, then you still need great writing skills.

These tools make writing faster and easier, but they don’t lower the skills required by much. That’s why bad writers get bad results from AI, while good writers do better with it.

6 – Writing is therapeutic

I get tremendous benefit from writing. It does wonders for my mental health.

If you get it, you don’t need me to explain it.

If you don’t, you’d never believe how drastic it is anyway.

7 – Writing is fun

Weren’t robots supposed to do only the boring tasks for us?

8 – AI makes common mistakes

This goes back to ChatGPT being an LLM. It mimics the way many people write, which means it copies their mistakes.

I’m not talking about grammatical mistakes – ChatGPT knows to not split infinitives. I’m talking about mistakes in the thinking behind the writing.

Ask any marketer – they’ll tell you many folks make the same mistakes in their sales letters. Novelists say the same thing about novels. Guess what? Those mistakes are part of the training data for AI. That’s why you get so much AI-generated content that’s reasonable but not excellent. Excellence transcends the common mistakes.

9 – Readers appreciate the human touch

Money likes speed.

It also likes authenticity.

This is why there’s such a market for artisanal products. Yeah, robots can make chairs and candles, but most folks would rather something with a human touch.

Writing is more intimate than a candle. Wouldn’t you rather read something “hand-crafted” as opposed to oozed out by an algorithm? This is a powerful medium for connecting with your audience. Outsourcing that is, at best, short-sighted.

Now, I’m not saying you should never use AI tools. They have their place. I’m saying you shouldn’t outsource all your writing to them entirely.

And the technology is constantly evolving. This list could become dated real quick.

Until then?

It pays to learn how to write well.

The best way to do that is to write fast and easily.

And the best way to do that is with my book, I Wrote This On A Monday. As the title says, I managed to complete the +10,000-word draft in a single day – a day filled with travel, disruptions and distractions.

This was without any stimulants – not even caffeine.

And I wrote this before ChatGPT hit the market, so I wrote it without AI. It was just me and a word processor.

Ten thousand words in a day adds up.

And it’s easier to write like that than you think.

Want to learn to write more, writer faster and write easily?

It begins with reading and applying I Wrote This On A Monday, available here:

https://christianhypnotism.com/monday