Why do we write?

Why do we write? I've been thinking a lot about this. We have arrived, after all, in the world of AI writing for businesses.

It's happening and will continue to do so. Sure, some will circle back to human writers, but for many businesses, the AI content will be enough.

So let me think about why we write...

When I was in high school and college, I wrote because it was assigned. So there is that.

As a young adult, going through some incredibly hard times, I wrote because it was cathartic. There's nothing like getting thoughts out of your head. You can vent, you say what you want to say about how things are unfair, and it just helps you process.

Process. That's another reason to write. Writing helps us crystalize our thoughts.

In the late 2000s I started to write to share my thoughts about college football. It became something I really enjoyed doing. That led to me writing about sports for a news organization. Cool.

Then I started writing about startups. Mostly for fun, but then a local publishing company took notice and had to me to write about the tech/startup scene in Arkansas. There, I wrote for fun but also for money.

I also began writing and helping when I wrote for a website agency. I discovered Copyblogger and away we went! Blogging was the secret weapon (at that time) to getting traffic to a company's website.

So, I wrote to be discovered. You know, the whole SEO thing.

Then I learned how to write better, and funny thing, it looked a lot like writing research papers in college.

So, I wrote for a job I guess, to some extent. At the end it was ultimately writing for Google, SEO.

Then I learned about copywriting, specifically conversion copywriting. Basically, it was learning to sell with words. So, at this point I wrote for persuasion.

There are lots of reasons people write. Education, entertainment, research, reports, persuasion. What do you write for?

If the reason people use content in their business is to generate information and, hopefully, get people to their websites, then perhaps AI writing is enough. But I don't think so.

Now, I am not confusing AI assisted writing with AI writing altogether.

Have we reduced the meaning of writing and content to one thing? That's what I am asking myself.

I believe writing can make a difference, make an impact, can change how someone sees something, and even help them change direction in their life.

How did we get here? How did we get to the point that writing, content, has become a commodity.

Heck, even great journalism has taken a hit. Very rarely do you see good thought pieces anymore, investigations, and sound reporting with sources. Most small publications are gone and we are beholden to a few giant media companies.

And what was left of many smaller publications was decimated by Google recently and will take bigger hits in the coming years.

I guess books still exist.

But writing, is more than about disseminating information.

There is an old saying that says "knowledge is power." I refused that.

It's not knowledge that power, it's the ability to make assessments (wisdom) and apply it to our life's situation.

I'm not sure where we are going from here.

But, please keep writing.

At this point, and in the future, if you are a business, having a human writer might be one of your biggest differentiators.

Why do you write?

Note: I didn't mean for this to be a blog post, but it was too long for a regular LI post.