Writing Success Takes Time, and You Are Well On Your Way

Progress isn't always flashy or exciting. Here’s how to stay motivated when your writing growth feels slow, invisible, or messy.

If you’ve been telling yourself, “I should be further along in my writing career by now,” stop right there.

That voice in your head—the one comparing you to other writers, measuring your progress against someone else’s highlight reel—isn’t helping you.

It’s lying to you.

It’s easy to feel like everyone else is landing book deals, stacking bylines, or going viral on LinkedIn while you’re still figuring things out. But in reality, comparison is a lie, and timelines are made up.

Most real writing progress is invisible. Drafts that go nowhere. Skills that sharpen quietly. Confidence that builds with each rep. That’s not falling behind. It’s the foundational work that drives writing success.

I can’t even count the drafts and projects I once wrote off as total failures. But every misstep, every rejection… that’s where the real growth happens. Not in the wins, but in what we learn when it all went wrong.

Don’t confuse quiet progress with failure. You might not be seeing results yet, but that doesn’t mean you’re not growing.

🔒 Full subscribers: Read on and let’s dig deeper into how to track meaningful progress, recognize your quiet wins, and define success on your own terms.