How to start writing your newsletter

Writing long-form content feels like a big deal, and if you're a human from Earth, you've probably made it feel even bigger than it is.

You've thought about it so much that it started feeling like pressure. Like people who write newsletters have some superpower (I wish we did), or maybe they spend hours on a single piece. You might think you lack something to write about, that your life isn't interesting enough, or that you just need the perfect tool, the one that will help you write faster and better. But deep down, you and I both know you're just stalling. Your brain is looking for a way to make you feel good about writing without actually writing.

"I don't like to write," they say. No one started this because they like to, but because they got used to it, and now it feels normal.

"I can just ask AI to write 1500 words", while you can, there is a caveat to that. AI will write it for you, but I am not sorry to say, my friend: you might be the only one to read the article.

If you are thinking of taking long-form as an interest, this letter is for you. This is not about the steps that make you a better writer. It's about how to stay consistent with writing your long-form. Writing is just thinking out loud in words. That is all it is.

The Four Pillars: Live, Plan, Write, Review

This is all it takes me to write a newsletter every single time. Instead of waiting for the perfect time to write, I use the imperfect time I have. Something is better than nothing.

First, I live the life. If you stay all day indoors, every day, playing video games here and there, you will always feel like you have nothing to talk about. But if you're out there sometimes living, working when you have to, going to the gym to keep fit, by the end of the day, you will always have something to say to someone out here who is going through it. You might be the one to help them with your experience and your writing.

Second, plan what to write about. The best writers plan before they start writing. Not because they don't know what to write about, but because they want to make sure the thinking is right and get a better understanding of what they're writing about. Plan when to write, and what your writing routine will look like. This will help you stay consistent.

Third, write it down. Yes, this is the part most people start from, then feel overwhelmed and quit. You shouldn't skip the two steps above before this one. Writing is beautiful when you know what to write about and you have the experience. It's much easier that way. Now you can focus on writing, without going back and forth.

Lastly, review what you've written. Don't make the mistake of writing and sending it out without reviewing. There is always one error you might have missed, and you can only find it when you review your words.

How My Writing System Actually Works

I write every morning, and by now it's like a routine, something I always look forward to the night before. It's been easy for me to write for a while now because of the system I have in place.

My system starts with walking. I think deeply during my walking sessions every day, when I'm jogging, or when I'm bathing. Most of the time, my best ideas come from these three moments. The moment I have an idea, I think more about it, then I write it down in my system scratchpad. I make sure I write it in detail so that when I come back to it, I understand how it came about and what I want to talk about.

This is not the only way my newsletter ideas are born. Sometimes I get ideas from the internet, but I don't write the full content there, so it doesn't feed my writing.

Whenever I want to start a new newsletter, I go to my scratchpad and look for something I can write about. This frees my mind. Instead of thinking heavily about what to write about, I just pick one. The next step is research, which is easy for me; I click a button, and the app generates the research for me. I take a glance through it, then I start writing. I write for 90 minutes every morning and get 800+ words down.

Some newsletters I send, some I keep for a later date, if I notice it's not right for now, or it will be much better later. I write one to two newsletters every week. There are days when I stop early, but those days hardly occur more than once a month. This particular newsletter was written in one 90-minute session.

To some, that is a very long time to sit and write. But you don't see it as a long time when you're in it. The time will pass either way. It's up to you to do something you can read in five years and be glad you started.

I write for myself, honestly. Apart from the gym, here, right now, in this seat, is the only place I find peace. It's also a channel to market my product. What more can I ask for?

I take five minutes every Sunday to review my writing, make changes here and there, then click the magic button, ta-da, it restructures the newsletter, sets the headings, and formats the text. I focus on writing in plain text because I know my system does the rest of the work.

You can start without a system, but if you want to stay consistent, you need one. That's why I took my old system and built something focused specifically on newsletter writing, for newsletter owners and writers who want to send one newsletter weekly without losing their sanity. You write your newsletter; the system handles the formatting and converts it to social content for Substack, X, and LinkedIn, and posts automatically. You don't need to write a newsletter and also write all your social posts every time.

I'm giving access on Thursday, stay tuned.

P.S. Access drops Thursday. If you want to write your newsletter without also managing every social post that comes with it, that's exactly what this is built for.