WWN37 : The Write Identity

Last week I wrote to you about the Write Resolution for 2025.

It will surprise literally nobody who has been reading anything I write that I think that the best resolution you could make is to write more and read more.

But do read the post for more details and a plan to execute on, if you done missed it last week.

I had a few people reach out to say it was one of their favourite posts so this week I want to dig a little deeper.

Because while I have zero interest in the age-old argument about whether resolutions “work” or not (they do), there is an underlying layer of change that makes all the difference.

If you really want to change this year, the secret is to focus less on what you’re gonna do different…

…and more on who you’re gonna be.

So this week I just have one question for you, dear reader.

Are you a writer or not?

If you’re a writer, you will write.

If you’re not a writer, you will not.

Now, that flows both ways and normally I focus on the other side, that you only get to call yourself a writer if you’re actually writing.

There are too many little dictionary gurus on social media prancing about talking about writing without actually, y’know, writing.

But it flows this way too.

Writers will write.

And so if you can break your preconceptions of who you are and rebuild them around your core identity of being a writer, you will find yourself writing a whole lot more than if you don’t.

So let me tell you, dear reader, how to do that.

But first, there’s one big problem.

And the problem is that what I’m about to tell you is a…

…Catch-22!

For those who haven’t read the hilarious novel Catch-22…

…firstly, shame on you. Go do that. It’s hysterically funny.

…secondly, the Catch-22 of the Title is explained in this quote which explains that the soldiers could get out of the endless war simply by telling the doctor they were going crazy, but:

Which has since passed into the cultural lexicon as an impossible dilemma where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Or as a scenario where you have to do it before you do it…

…like in the case of being a writer.

Because the simple fact is that the best way to cement your newfound identity as a writer is…

…to write a lot!

And yet I just told you that you had to see yourself as a writer in order to write a lot.

But this particular Catch-22 is not as airtight as the original.

If you want to reframe your brain into seeing yourself as a writer, you gotta commit to writing up front. But then as you do that, you’ll find your perception start to shift.

You just have to commit first. You have to push forward no matter what.

Seth Godin has a lovely little book called The Dip that Wade Skalsky recommended me. I’m not going to rehash it here, go buy and read the book, it’ll take you an hour or two max.

But you will find that “the dip” is the hard part of this process.

Here’s how it’ll go:

You’ll start out fresh-faced and enthusiastic on your new daily writing habit.

Then in the weeks and months ahead, there’ll be days that you just don’t want to do it.

Life will get in the way, your mental state will decay, you’ll have a bad day.

And the temptation will be strong to give in and give up. To skip a day. What does it matter? One day?

But if you skip one day, you’ll find it’s really easy to skip two. Or three.

And then you’ll end 2025 before you know it.

And you still won’t be a writer.

That’s one potential pathway. And I’ll be honest with you:

It’s the most likely one!

But it’s not the only one.

And I’m not saying all this to depress you but to arm you. To prepare you.

Because if you push through the dip, if you commit to your writing habit come chaos or cold weather, if you keep on writing no matter what…

…then one day you’ll realise you’ve reprogrammed your whole identity and suddenly, it all gets a lot easier.

Because on the bad days you find you want to write. To relieve the pressure. To express the pain. To just have a bit of fun.

I’m writing this to you on a day when I’m tired and sore. But I’m enjoying sitting here, looking out at the snow, smelling the coffee and caramel tobacco from Gawith Hoggarth that’s slowly drying out a little next to me, resting my busted knee and letting my creativity run free.

It makes me happy, because it’s who I am.

But more than that…

…when you’ve reprogrammed your identity you’ll find that keeping the streak doesn’t matter so much.

I wrote briefly about that to my cabin crewmembers here (disappears in a few days).

Because when it’s your identity, you can take a break from the practice, and just roll right back into it.

When I sit down to type after a break, I breathe a sigh of deep relief. It feels good to be back in the chair, back at my life’s purpose and work. I miss it.

A break becomes a healthy thing, and not a destructive thing.

It’s a release, not a retreat.

Because the elastic of your identity will snap you right back into a healthy productivity as soon as you sit down to write.

But you have to get through the grind of rewriting who you are first.

So will you do it?

Will you persevere?

Will 2025 be the year you finally start to see yourself as a writer, and not a wannabe?

I hope so. But only you can make it so.

Come back next week and we’ll work on it together. But until then, may your pipe and your pen be part of your identity and not just something you do because you have to,

Before you go though, one of the best ways to build the writing habit into an intrinsic identity change is to build an audience online. It acts as a forcing action for repeated, small, daily writing habits and it’s been one of the most beneficial things in shaping my identity over the last few years.

And the best way to do THAT is to join Create, Publish, Profit. But if you want to do that, do that now, because the first cohort of 2025 starts in just over 24 hours from me sending this email.

If you’re late, you’ll not get in.

And let me sweeten the pot a little by saying if you use my affiliate link below then I’ll grant you any one of my courses as a bonus, totally free. That’s either Speed Daemon Secrets, Effective Editing, Voice Box, or How to Write Bad.

Just join here today.

James Carran, Craftsman Writer

fin

But not quite fin for the fine folks in Craftsman’s Corner who keep the lights on around here. For them, a question, because I rely on them to shape the Write Way in the months and years ahead.