Welcome (back) to the Lighthouse Library. We broke up with content marketing and we explore purposeful ways of building a body of work online. I’ve been stuck with many unfinished drafts lately, and since this is exactly the kind of work I do with clients, I’m bringing you along with me to show you how I’m breaking the spell.

I’m sitting on the tram, phone in one hand and a sandwich in the other. It’s a rainy day, gloomy and grey. My right thumb is going as fast as it can to type the words strung together in my head. No sexy lake view, no undisturbed writing morning for me; I just need to write before the idea escapes me.

This is admittedly how most of my ideas come to me, and following that urge to write is often how I build momentum. And right now, I need that: I have so many unfinished drafts, sitting patiently in my Notes and Google Drive, waiting for me to pick right back up where I left them. It’s been stressing me out more than I care to admit.

It’s not that I’m “behind schedule” – I don’t have a schedule (which I talk about in tip #1 below). It’s more that I’m not making progress on any of the pieces I’ve started, and that just makes me sad and confused. I love writing, I love editing and revising my pieces. I love the satisfaction of hitting the publish button after all that creative thinking and engaging with the wonderful craft of writing. I’m also convinced that my opinion matters, and that if I have a voice and things to say, I need to say them.

So why can’t I move any of my drafts forward?

The unfinished draft is a big topic in my work; in fact, it’s hearing about my business owner friends and their unpublished, ‘almost ready’ writing that I decided to start my business. I can bet right now that I know how to get any of your drafts ready for publication, and I don’t mean this in a braggy sort of way. I just mean that it is part of my skillset. That realization was what led me to starting The Lighthouse Library.

The story I’ve not told yet is this one: my Google Drive and my Notes app look a lot like yours. Chaotic, messy, understandable only to me. My notebooks are full of half-readable ideas that will never see the light. My head is full of twice as many of those.

Still, despite the mess, I’ve managed to hit that publish button repeatedly since I started working in “content” back in 2018.

It doesn’t mean I never run into walls or feel disheartened, questioning the point of posting thoughtful, reflective writing when our broken digital world wants unhinged Substack Notes and hyper growth.

It’s simply that I acknowledge the dips in inspiration and momentum, and the road blocks, as they are: Part of the process of writing and building an intentional body of work in a loud environment.

So I thought this was my perfect opportunity to be a little meta and tell you about the mindset shifts and the practical actions I take to get out of that phase.

So, here are five anti-marketing tips and gentle mindset shifts to get out of a publishing rut.

1. Make nothing time sensitive

Nothing like a deadline to get a nice kick in the bum…but nothing like a deadline to add unnecessary pressure and kill creativity.

When I was the editor at a small online magazine, and was responsible for our publishing schedule, we never had deadlines. If we did, we wasted time moving them around, and often opted for rough timelines instead. We still managed to publish weekly and gather tens of thousands of monthly readers. I’d even go as far as saying that because we didn’t have a schedule that forced us to publish pieces that weren’t up to our standards, we had a loyal and engaged readership. The quality of the writing mattered more.

Instead, we worked with simple processes - but not your hustle bro content marketing’s optimized formula.

We looked at what naturally happened, and named it. First there was ideation, then the writing, then high level editing, then in-line and copy editing. Then there was the title, then graphics, then the publish button, then telling people about it.

Sometimes the process took months (for long pieces), sometimes we barely needed two weeks to go from ideation to publishing. Sometimes three ideas came at once, and only one became a piece. Sometimes there was no ideation, just the writing; sometimes we had to revise the piece six times because the premise was great but the execution needed work.

Today, my process is the same. It’s fluid but simple. At the time of writing, I have a toddler. If my child gets sick, I don’t worry about missing my Tuesday at 10 am publishing schedule. Once I’ve recovered from bad sleep and days of care work, I simply pick up where I left off. I look at where a piece is at, and if it needs six rounds of edits, so be it. And I don’t mean tinkering to perfection, but aligning what I want to say with what’s on paper. The result is that I am still proud of the pieces I wrote 2, 4, 6 months ago, and I still regularly mention and reshare them. That’s worth more to me than being caged into a content calendar.

Tip #1: What’s your writing, editing, publishing step-by-step like? Get curious about what naturally happens in your creative process, name it, and follow that. Write it down on a post-it that you keep by your desk if that helps.

If you need accountability, find kind and supportive people who care about the writing and publishing process like you do, and get together to move forward. Don’t let ‘tyrannical deadlines,’ as a friend of mine says, torture you into hitting publish.

2. Throw the content pillars in the bin

I hate content pillars as much as I hate content calendars. There, I said it.

They may work for marketing teams but they are too stiff for solo business owners and small businesses. Content pillars seem to simplify content creation but if your challenge is following through on your ideas rather than the blank page, their purpose is defeated. If you spend more time wondering * which * content pillar your next idea or piece fits into, they are counter-productive. That’s a road block on the path towards hitting that publish button.

Now, that does not mean “write about anything and everything.” Good writing often has a clear reader, makes a clear point, in a unique way. You can still structure, frame, organize your writing to make a relevant and strong argument, or tell a compelling story – without content pillars.

Tip#2: Get clear on what prompts you to write (the big why), who your readers are, the opinion(s) you want to convey, and your unique point of view. Braindump it, doodle it, mind map it, whatever works.

If you want to explore that way to write and publish, I introduced my editorial line framework here, which works around that, exactly. I use a journalistic lens to content creation, which means that framework makes space for the nuanced and deep thinking that humans are capable of and crave.

Like what you’re reading?

Also, what’s a content pillar anyway? Here, I’m tempted to look it up, and turn this piece into another deep dive as to why content pillars suck. This is my segue into my next point.

3. Do with what you know

Here’s another thing you and I are fantastic at, and a pattern I see repeatedly with my clients: Researching. Diving deeper. Asking why. You get an idea for a piece and you get curious; you follow the bread crumbs and two hours later your writing is at that glorious unfinished status and you have to figure out how to fit all that newfound knowledge you’ve acquired into it.

You have enough, you know enough. If writing about that idea in more depth keeps coming back and haunting you, like ideas do, you’ll write about it then.

Tip #3: Unless you decide that your next piece is going to need research, resist the urge to research when you’re in the flow. Protect your clarity when you have it. More often than not, engaging with the idea long enough is what’s missing from getting it ready for publication. Whatever you do, practice following through on that one idea.

And if you need a space to write down all your research ideas, create a space for that. I call mine “Popcorn idea machine” and I often create that for my clients, too. It’s a place to keep the distracting ideas in. I have one for LinkedIn, one for Substack, and a folder for them in my Notes app. It works wonders!

4. Not every idea is meant to be published as it comes into your head; act accordingly

Engaging with an idea is one thing; writing something you feel is relevant and ready enough to publish is another.

Let me explain with a bookish example.

You know how, every now and then, you read a book that ends in a lightbulb moment or an ending you cannot stop thinking about?

In the moment, you think the sentence was masterful, quote-worthy, brilliant writing that led you to the lightbulb. But the reality is that it took a whole story, characters growing and learning, and multiple entry points into the same argument for it to land with you.

It might have even been the result of the three encounters you had this week, the film you watched last night, and this final chapter to get to that lightbulb moment.

Without being aware of the process, you’ve had multiple opportunities to let the point that last chapter or sentence percolate and hit home.

Let’s do a quick exercise. Compare the quotes you’ve taken note of yourself, and the ones you stumbled upon randomly. Which ones do you feel resonate more with you: Those that came to you through the source material, or shared with you through an Instagram post or a random list?

When you’re writing, the same process applies. You might write 3,000 words across multiple notes and Google Docs where you figure out what you really want to say, how, and why. Only then will your brain be ready to write the next 2,000 words in one go, without realizing that all that came before was not “failed” writing but simply thinking and writing practice to get to that final version of your ideas.

Tip #4: Get curious about the process of chaotic writing. How did you publish your last piece? How much did you iterate on the idea? Be gentle with yourself when an idea doesn’t turn into a published piece.

This is much easier to do if you don’t have the pressure of a schedule, as per tip #1. A brilliant, unfinished idea might be hiding its ready-to-publish sibling.

5. Have a format for low-key, in-progress thoughts and stories

For me, it’s the very piece you’re reading. All the “letters” I publish on here are more blog-style pieces that aren’t as developed or foundational as my other essays. My essays take me weeks if not months of work (lots of iterations happen, as per tip #4), and I can still get behind them months after they’ve been published.

These letters, on the other hand, are often short-lived. They’re anchored in the idea that not everything will feel “ready” or entirely true to my thinking. For example, I wrote my letter on consistency as a cage nearly six months ago and I have lots of notes on it. If I had to write a foundational essay about it, I’d frame my argument and my stories differently. I’d expand on my view of consistency in a world that rewards speed over substance. But it was still worth sharing, and me spending time writing it was also part of the process of developing my thinking on consistency. You learn a lot by hitting publish, and it’s easier to do when you have a writing format that makes space for experimentation.

Notice, though, how I’m not writing about all my in-progress thoughts. I chose to frame it so it makes sense for my publication, and so it’s easy for you, reader, to follow my thinking.

Tip #5: Do you have a piece format that makes space for “in progress” thoughts? How do you naturally engage with your ideas and expertise? Here’s your nudge to acknowledge and make space for that part of your writing.

My recommendation would be to call it something you feel affection for. The idea of sending a letter from my lighthouse library feels cozy and makes me want to send it; an extra reason to hit the publish button.

Bonus tip: Start over, write about it, and hit publish

This piece of writing is becoming increasingly more meta.

I’ve been stuck with my unfinished drafts, so I’m writing about it, and here’s a summary of how I’m following my own tips:

• Felt frustrated about my unfinished drafts, got an idea on the tram, wrote about it, and committed to finishing it. (bonus tip!)
• While I usually set myself the goal of publishing one essay per month, I did not set myself any deadline, not even a month or week when it’d be published. (tip #1)
• I worked with opinions and angles I already write with (adding nuance to the content marketing conversation, questioning mainstream marketing advice, placing my writing and tips in the context of a loud and busy digital landscape). (tip #2)
• I resisted the urge to research the history of content pillars and kept writing about what was in my head instead. (tip #3)
• Used my Popcorn idea machine note in my Notes app to save extra ideas that came up as I wrote, but that were more distracting than helpful to make my main point. (tip #4)
• Reminded myself that I could write in-progress thoughts, because my ‘letters’ piece format is meant for that. (tip #5)

As a final note, I know that these tips are not easy, quick ones. They are not meant to be. Getting over a posting rut is hard, especially when you aspire to write with purpose – so it makes sense –

There we have it. I’m about to hit publish and break the spell of the unfinished draft – at least for a while. Which mindset shift or tip caught your attention? Which one will you try first?

Bits of news: My website is live!

Take a peek and have a nosey around ✨ It explains how I can help you to move away from hustle bro content marketing and support you on your publishing journey. Together, let’s create a strategy built anchored in your unique point of view, and publish writing that makes sense for your business, your professional dreams, and your creative self.