Following on from yesterday’s post and some suggested  titles to write about today I decided to do a list post. These are always popular or so I am told. Love to hear what you think people should know about writing. Please comment below.

Why should you write? Here are six things about writing you should probably know, on first reflection.

1) It’s fun.

Sometimes it can be frustrating, but it’s also fun. I never really thought I would say that. Not sure I found it fun whilst at school – there again I found most of academia pretty dull. Still now I quite enjoy writing.

To make it more fun you can have games with yourself. Like how many words can you write in 10 minutes. Can you write something without having to edit it, etc. Even more fun is if you find people to write with. Writing groups are pretty cool.

2) It’s surprisingly therapeutic

Especially the idea of morning pages.  These are when you write first thing in the morning long hand for three pages. I only recently started to do this, but already I can see the benefits. You just write about whatever comes into your mind. And it helps to clear your mind and leads to you becoming more creative and more productive.

3) It is great for your memories.

There is a reason why people write notes. It helps you remember. So by extension there are two benefits here. Firstly our memory is enhanced and secondly if we do forget we can always look back to our writing!

4) It helps us to think.

The very act of writing and putting down ideas onto paper helps us become more clear in what it is we want to do.

5) The more you write the higher your chances of being part of the 1%.  

James Altucher suggests it takes 17 years to become a great writer, but you will be better than most in just a few months. According to this website there are just under 1 billion websites online, of which  250 million are likely active. So let’s just make some faulty assumptions for fun. Most writers have a blog and lets assume that all the 250 million sites are blogs. This would mean that even as one of 250 million you are in the best 3.5% of writers in the world. And if you write regularly who knows you will probably be part of the 1%!

Even with 105 million blogs in the world that means that Recommend HemingwayApp and Grammarly to improve your writing plus critiques from people worthy of getting it from.

6) Writing keeps you healthy

There is a fascinating study about nuns, started back in 1986. According to Wikipedia it is still ongoing. Why does that mean you should write, I hear you ask.

Well according to the survey those who have good writing skills are less likely to get Alzheimers:

Roughly 80% of nuns whose writing was measured as lacking in linguistic density went on to develop Alzheimer’s disease in old age; Yet of those whose writing was not lacking, only 10% later developed the disease. Src: 

Overall, findings of the Nun Study suggest “that traits in early, mid, and late life have strong relationships with the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as the mental and cognitive disabilities of old age.

Let me know why you think people should write in the comments.

Time spent writing: 50 minutes.
Time From Starting Writing to Finishing: 4 hours
Time Editing: 0 minutes
How Happy I am with Result: 5