Why don’t you write like you’re running out of time?

“Why do you write like you’re running out of time?”

“Write day and night like you’re running out of time?”

A chorus begs this question of Alexander Hamilton as he writes pamphlets and stories constantly defending his views and beliefs. (Not familiar with Hamilton? Here’s a hand from out under that rock.)

Alexander Hamilton was known as a man who wrote everything frantically down. He built castles and cathedrals out of paragraphs and words.

But you know what he didn’t do?

Pause in the middle of his writing to go find the link to a specific YouTube video to embed in his defense of the Constitution.

So often, as content marketers or bloggers, we don’t respect the writing process. We write a sentence or two, then we click over to Twitter to find an influencer to tag, or pause to create an image in Canva to plug in your post.

We write like we have all of the time in the world.

I think some of this hesitancy to sit and simply write stems from every marketers’ imposter syndrome. I recall reading Kevan Lee from Buffer’s thoughts on calling yourself a “writer”:

“When I introduced myself to others, I never knew what to say. I couldn’t tell them I was a writer, right? Writers are people like Ernest Hemingway or Elizabeth Gilbert. Well, no. Writers can be anyone, whether you’ve published 20 novels or 20 blog posts. I finally embraced this for myself.”

So we think of ourselves as digital marketers, not writers. And digital marketers don’t need to put up a do not disturb sign and frantically bang out their thoughts on a keyboard before they slip away. They simply put an idea in a Trello card and hope they find the time to write a 1,000 word blog post about it later.

Side note: I typed the entire first draft of this post in a Trello card. The idea sprang up in the middle of the day while listening to Hamilton, and what kind of fraud would I be if I didn’t practice what I preached?

As a content marketer, blogger, copywriter, or any form of digital marketer that involves putting words on a page, you’ll see your writing flourish if you allow yourself simply write. The best words don’t come after dozens of revisions and careful formatting. They come when you write like you’re running out of time. When you write with fervor and passion, and without fear.

So am I saying you should hammer out a blog post in 20 minutes and post it? Of course not (Unless you’re feeling mega ballsy that day — today’s that day for me.) But when a thought springs up in the middle of the day, give yourself a few minutes to type away without disruption. Don’t edit, don’t self-criticize, and don’t look for all of the links and research you need to craft the perfect post. Get your words out, take a walk, and come back later to edit, format, and make your final revisions.

After months of putting idea after idea on my Trello board for a piece to write on Medium, I allowed myself to get these words out. As someone who’s looking to venture into freelance writing, I made notes once a week of a piece that would surely be “the one”. I thought, if only I flesh out this post, someone will see it and magically appear and reach out to me about writing work. But then, I’d get afraid. I’d retreat into my self-doubt. And so that idea would float slowly to the bottom of my Trello board.

And then, I wrote this.

I wrote freely.

I gave into the idea that my thoughts matter and my words are good and people want to read what I write. It’s incredibly liberating to write without fear. I’d treated writing a simple post on Medium like it was a novel. Like I had all the time in the world to get something done. But I don’t. And as soon as you realize that, and give in to the urge to write like you’re running out of time, you’ll notice your words have more flair, more punch, and better flow.

And you might think to yourself: Perhaps I’m a writer after all.