When you’re setting yourself up from scratch, it can feel like this endless list that never quite gets ticked off. You need a bio, you need a logo, you need to work out where you’re going to publish, and then there’s Medium, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Substack, Pinterest, LinkedIn and probably another five platforms you haven’t even heard of yet. You’re trying to understand algorithms while simultaneously trying to remember what an algorithm actually is.

And if you’re over 40, there’s another layer to it. We’re learning so much, so quickly, that sometimes it feels as though the whole brain is on fire. Not necessarily in a bad way, either. There’s something incredibly invigorating about it. You suddenly find yourself learning things you never expected to learn. One minute you’re writing an article, the next you’re designing a book cover, figuring out a Redbubble listing, creating a social post or trying to understand how to make your Substack look less like it was assembled in 2007. Then you realise you’ve actually done quite a lot.

Some days I sit down thinking I have approximately 10,000 things to do, and somehow I end up doing them. Three Redbubble designs, an article for Medium, something for Substack, a post for Bluesky, a few social posts, perhaps a new idea for a book and maybe a bit of marketing thrown in somewhere. Then I wonder why I’m so tired when I’ve been sitting at a desk all day. It can feel like constantly playing catch-up. There’s always another platform to understand, another profile to update, another piece of content to create and another brilliant idea that suddenly appears when you already have twelve unfinished ones sitting in front of you.

But there’s another side to it that I really like. All of this learning seems to wake something up. Maybe it’s because many of us spent years doing what needed to be done. Work, family, responsibilities, bills and routines. Creativity was there somewhere, but it didn’t always get much room. Then you start writing, and suddenly there are all these doors. You can write, design, make videos, create books, sell things, publish articles, build little digital products and learn marketing. You can experiment with photography, illustration, audio or whatever else catches your attention.

A writer doesn’t necessarily have to remain just a writer anymore. A designer can write. A writer can design. An artist can publish. A publisher can become a marketer. You can be several things at once. In some ways, that’s one of the most exciting parts of creating online. We have access to tools and opportunities that simply weren’t there when many of us were younger. You can have an idea in the morning and, with enough persistence, have something tangible sitting in front of you by the afternoon.

And then there’s AI. I think this is one of the reasons the whole thing feels so different from when many of us were younger. AI can help organise the thoughts that are bouncing around your head. It can help you turn a vague idea into something workable, explain something you don’t understand, help you plan a project or give you a starting point when your brain is full of half-formed ideas. It doesn’t replace creativity. For me, it gives creativity somewhere to go. Because having ideas has never really been the problem. The problem is having twenty of them arrive at once and wanting to do all of them immediately.

And yes, making money from all of this is hard. You can spend hours writing something and hear absolutely nothing back. You can create a book that you’re proud of and watch the sales page sit there looking remarkably peaceful. You can post something you think is brilliant and receive the online equivalent of a tumbleweed rolling past. Then, occasionally, something happens. Someone reads your article. Someone buys something you made. Someone comments on your post. Someone tells you they liked your book. The amount might be tiny. Sometimes it might not even be money. But it gives you that little spark. It says, this thing I made actually reached another person.

I think that matters more than we sometimes admit. Of course I’d love everything I create to make money. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. It’s wonderful when something you’ve spent hours creating actually earns something, because there’s a feeling of being acknowledged. But I’m beginning to realise that the joy isn’t only in the money. It’s in proving to yourself that you can still learn something completely new. That you can build something from nothing. That you can have an idea on Monday and see it sitting somewhere in the world by Friday.

There is something wonderful about that. Maybe my brain is overloaded. Maybe I have far too many tabs open, both on my laptop and inside my head. Maybe I’m trying to learn ten different things at once and occasionally wondering why I can’t remember what I was supposed to be doing five minutes ago. But after years of thinking I was probably past the stage of discovering completely new things about myself, I’m finding the opposite.

There’s still a lot of life in there. And apparently, quite a lot of ideas too. It makes me want to be better, and it's really refreshing.

That’s why I created Getting Started as a Writer.👇

Cally

Writing with heart, publishing with purpose.🪶

Writing today can feel like learning an entirely new language.

There are platforms to understand, profiles to create, content to plan, social media to figure out and an endless stream of advice telling you what you should be doing next.

It’s a practical beginner’s course for anyone who wants to understand the modern writing world without having to piece everything together themselves. It covers Medium, Substack, freelance writing, content creation, AI as a writing assistant, building an audience, creating a writing routine and ways to explore earning from your writing.

It also includes 40 headline templates, a writer’s content planner, freelance pitch templates and an AI prompt pack for writers.

If you’re sitting there with a head full of ideas but no idea where to start, I made it to give you somewhere to begin.

Getting Started as a Writer: A Comprehensive Course.