The Moment I Knew I Had Written Enough

Burned out was an understatement. I had been writing for several websites in the health and fitness world along with a few magazines (remember those?). I was consistently churning out around 15 to 20 articles per month. it felt as though word count requirements kept creeping up, they wanted more cited sources, and an increasing demand for authenticity.

I was writing a lot.

Add to it my unwavering sincerity to stick to my rules for writing all of those programs, workouts, diets, and motivational techniques which were “write only what you have experienced to work or worked for someone else.”

Mark Twain was my training partner

A quote from Mark Twain has stuck with me for years and it is especially fitting for my writing prowess.

He said, “Write what you know.”

I not only applied this thought to my actual writing, but I also took it to heart when dabbling into anything related to my own business, personal training, and even reading. It’s an easy mindset to fall back on especially when your back is against the wall when choosing freelance gigs.

But the writing landscape started to shift and I was finding myself no longer possessing the freedom to write what I wanted.

In the past, I had free reign on what topics I wanted to touch on. I would propose numerous topics to editors and, without fail, get the green light. Now I was being handed prearranged topics sent down the pipe from hired, third-party SEO companies poised to take my work and knead and mold it into uniformed and templated clickbait.

We did it for the algorithm

This SEO-rich game of tennis went on for a while. Over time fewer of my ideas were accepted and I found myself (unbeknownst to me at the time) acting like an AI machine.

I would get sent assignments, topics, and strict templates and then begin the monotone, repetitious, and humdrum process of churning out the same drivel I would never read myself.

Proofreading became a horrible reminder of what I had become.

I was no longer writing what I knew. I was writing for the algorithm and following the rules of the SEO gods–those faceless hires who dictated every key I struck.

I was done.

I spoke to one of the owners of a site I was writing for and more or less told him I had written everything I could about training, nutrition, and motivation. I was tapped out, drained, and empty of all and any motivation to write any more about bench presses and protein intake.

**

And that is where I stand today. After several years away from a regular writing schedule, I find myself with an idea or two to write one day but still don’t see the purpose.

The health and fitness landscape has changed so much over the past few years… but that’s another story…