Stop Over-Editing Your Content
Writing online is starting to sound the same. It’s perfectly structured, optimized, and hits every beat exactly where you'd expect. Three em-dashes. A bolded one-liner. A hook that arrives exactly on cue. You've read this post a hundred times this week, just under different names.
But on the flip-side, have you noticed which writing is actually getting your attention right now? Can you pinpoint what about it is drawing you in? Is it a creator's late-night confession on Threads? A Substack post that changes your perspective on something? A caption that's raw and confessional in all the right ways?
What is it?
Chances are, it’s probably messy, conversational, and ridden with grammatically questionable phrasing. And people are eating it up.
While everyone is so busy trying to sound smart and professional on the internet, the creators actually making headway are the ones breaking the rules—writing in a messy, stream-of-consciousness style that feels like a real person on the other end.
Why This Is Happening
For years, we were sold the idea that to stand out online, you had to create excellent, high-quality content.
But somewhere along the way, a lot of creators conflated "high-quality" with "perfected to death." Perfect grammar, sharp transitions, tidy formatting—they're all contributing to this. And hey, some of that still matters. But we've reached a point where overly polished writing creates emotional distance between us and our audience instead of the connection we're looking for.
And here's the thing: in a world where AI can spin up decent writing in seconds, good isn't the bar anymore. People are looking for texture, specificity, a weird turn of phrase, and thoughts that weren't smoothed over before they hit the page. A real person on the other end.
The irony is that the stuff creators try hardest to edit out—the tangents, the small confessions, the sentence that doesn't quite work but feels right—might be exactly what's making audiences trust them.
What “Messy Writing” Looks Like
Messy writing feels conversational—like someone is talking to you, not presenting at you. It includes oddly specific details, tangents, emotion, and personality. For example, instead of "Here are 5 productivity habits that changed my life," it could be "5 habits that make me questionably productive."
Or instead of "The 7-step framework I use to grow my newsletter to 10k subscribers," it could be "Honestly, I still don't know why my newsletter is growing."
Or "How to build a personal brand that converts" becomes "I think 'personal brand' might be the worst phrase on the internet."
One sounds optimized for search engines (and for social media five years ago). The other sounds like a person trying to articulate a specific feeling that others might relate to. But one thing to note: the goal is not to write worse. Messy writing is not unclear writing. It doesn't mean abandoning structure or intentionally making your content hard to follow. The goal is to stop stripping down every edge of your personality until your writing becomes interchangeable with everyone else's. The creators standing out right now still know how to communicate clearly. They're just letting more of their personality survive the editing process.
How To Make Your Writing Feel More Human
So if you feel like…
you remove sentences that feel “too emotional”
your writing sounds professional but not personal
you replace specific thoughts with broader, safer statements
your writing technically sounds good, but doesn’t feel memorable
everything you write sounds like it could’ve been written by anyone
Here are a few things to try this week to make your writing feel more like you!
1. Write the first draft stream-of-consciousness style.
The longer you hover over every sentence, the more your natural voice disappears. Try writing a caption in one sitting without editing as you go.
2. Keep the sentence you almost deleted.
Usually the most vulnerable, specific, or honest sentence is the one that actually makes people feel something.
3. Write how you speak.
Not every sentence needs perfect grammar. Read your writing out loud. If you’d never say it that way in real life, rewrite it.
4. Use real details.
Use specific experiences, thoughts, and memories. Instead of “I was burnt out,” try “I stared at my laptop for 45 minutes and still couldn’t answer one email.”
5. Stop trying to sound like a creator.
Some of the best writing online right now feels like a thought you’d text a friend. That’s the energy people are connecting with.
Your Opportunity Here
The creators winning right now aren’t necessarily the best writers. They’re the ones audiences can still feel, so the good news is you don’t need to become a perfect copywriter to build a meaningful personal brand!
You just need to stop editing yourself out of your own content. We're seeing people gravitate toward content that feels ‘more human’ across every platform, which means the creators willing to loosen their grip a little, experiment more, and question the old rules are the ones starting to stand out.
And that’s exactly what we’re diving into inside our upcoming workshop:
Post Like a Rebel: Unconventional Ways to Stand Out Online This Summer
On Monday, May 18th, we’re breaking down the biggest shifts happening on social media right now, why traditional content advice isn’t working the same way anymore, and the five “rebellions” creators are using to get results in 2026.
If your content has been feeling stale, overthought, invisible, or like it’s just not connecting the way it used to, this workshop is for you.
