Write Better and Faster (and Reach More People) When You Practice in Public

When I was in college, practicing in public meant sitting under an oak tree on campus, flipping open my spiral-bound notebook, and scratching out a poem as students walked the path beside me.
Creative writing classes gave me another way to practice in public, when my poems were workshopped by my peers.
As a young adult building a freelance writing career, I submitted my work to literary journals and magazines-that was about the only way I could practice in public. Those low-tech days limited how and where we could share our words.
Today, the world has exploded with numerous ways to practice in public-I can share my work with you using tools I couldn’t have dreamed of when I sat under that oak tree on campus. Some of my content goes out through my coaching newsletter, my Substack newsletter called Story Hatchery, social media, and my website.
Tools to Practice in Public
At the click of a button, from the palms of our hands, we can instantly share our work with the world using:
websites
newsletter apps like Substack, Beehiiv, and Ghost
social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Threads
Each time we hit “publish” or “post,” we’re practicing in public.
And each time we turn around and write another piece, we have more experience, more input, and more empowerment to become a better writer.
Benefits for Writers Who Practice in Public
Jeff Goins and others urge us to “practice in public,” because “there is no better way to improve than to put your work out there, sharing it for the whole world to see.”1
Of course there are good reasons to practice in private, but when we look up from the pages of our journal and share ideas with others through tools like newsletters and social media, we find readers. We build our platform. We experiment.
Heavens, there are loads of benefits from practicing in public! Let’s dive in and see why it’s worth it to start…
1. Save Time and Write with Intent
If you write in private more than in public, you’re likely not achieving your goals. Marion Roach Smith argues that writing privately in response to a prompt wastes valuable time-time that could be dedicated to a work in progress. Writing with purpose and sharing it with the public, though, allows you to focus on creating meaningful content. Save time; write with intent, boldly practicing in public.
2. Write Better and Faster: Experiment, Adjust, Improve
When writers learn new literary techniques, it’s fun to experiment with them in a low-stakes setting like LinkedIn or Instagram.
Practicing in public allows for rapid improvement. Similar to that oft-referenced experiment where pottery students rapidly refined their skills by making numerous pots (instead of laboring over a single pot), writers hone their techniques through continual practice and sharing-the more the better!
By sharing your work, you experiment and receive immediate feedback. This iterative process allows you to adjust and improve, refining your craft over time.
Because you’re sharing more often, you find ways to express your ideas more efficiently, making you a faster writer, too. Try time-savers like this:
create platform-specific templates or outlines to copy and use each time you begin-you’ll save time and get started sooner
use dictation to speak drafts into existence (there are so many options for how we can do this on our phones!)
set a timer and freewrite as fast as possible to get a solid draft out
connect with a friend and share your idea with that person in a recorded Zoom session or put your voice recorder on the table if you’re in person-the transcript can be your draft
3. Learn to Write Tight.
Strunk and White said it succinctly: “Omit needless words.”2 Character and word limits of newsletters and social media force us to omit needless words and “write tight.” By keeping our content concise and clear, we practice a core writing skill regularly in short form,