The Writing Secrets I Stole From Journalists

Now I write faster, clearer, and stress-free using productivity hacks from the newsroom.

I have a confession.

I’ve been stealing. Not money, not time — but writing secrets. From journalists.

You know those people who can bang out 1,500 words while sipping bad coffee in a noisy newsroom — and still hit the deadline without breaking a sweat? Yeah, them. Meanwhile, I used to stare at a blinking cursor for hours, rewriting the same sentence twelve times, and still ending up with garbage.

One day, I thought: what if I stopped pretending I knew how to write, and just copied the pros?

So I did.

I studied journalists like a thief casing a house: their habits, their shortcuts, their weird little rituals.

And once I started stealing their playbook, something strange happened: my drafts got faster, my edits got cleaner, and my stress almost disappeared.

Most “wannabe writers” are lazy liars. Yes, I said it. That’s how I used to be.

I said to myself, “I want to be a writer.” But what did I do? I opened a blank page, stared at it till I was dead, wrote one sad phrase, deleted it, looked at Instagram, ate chips, and then complained that “writing is hard.”

Does that sound familiar?

Don’t tell lies.

You have done it too.

The truth that no one wants to face is that writing isn’t just about writing.

Youwill end up in blank-page hell if you start without a plan, structure, or system. And the cursor will wink at you like it’s making fun of you.

I lived that life. And I despised myself for it. But then I took a trick. Not from a class. Not from some expensive guru. I took it from journalists—the people who can’t afford to wait for inspiration.

The ones that have to write three stories a day or else.

And you know what?

That trick made me a writing machine. I moved from having trouble writing one article a week to writing five, six, or even eight.

This is not a superpower. It feels like cheating because the structure is so basic.

Would you like to read more about me before you get paid? Here you go:

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