I Don’t Hate Writing, I Just Hate Editing

In high school, I scored A’s in Chinese and English for comprehension, oral, and listening. I got an F in writing.

This made no sense to me. I had ideas. I could articulate them in conversation. I understood what good writing looked like when I read it. But the moment I sat down to write, nothing came out.

For years I accepted a simple explanation: I’m not a writer. Then LLMs came along and saved me.

I Couldn’t Write

In Year 3 of university, I got a chance to write one article every day for a media outlet. A dream opportunity for someone who wanted to share ideas. I quit after a week.

Every day I would sit at my laptop and stare at the screen for hours. I couldn’t start a single word.

The strange thing: I had random ideas all the time - theories about politics, thoughts on startups and tech, observations about management. I could talk about them for hours when it was fun. But writing them down? Impossible.

Writing on Mobile with No Edits Works for Me

Since LLMs, a new habit emerged. I started typing on my phone - long sentences with no stops, no punctuation, no concern for typos. Just raw thoughts. No paragraphs, no structure, no choice of wording. I just write.

Then I use prompts to convert the mess into structured notes in my Obsidian vault. The output isn’t perfect - sometimes too wordy - but it captures what was stuck in my head. I can work from there.

Since then, the number of new notes in my Obsidian has exploded.

That’s when it hit me: I don’t hate writing. I just hate editing.

Why This Matters

If you’re a founder, you know writing matters. Blog posts, investor updates, product announcements, hiring pitches - the job demands it. Especially once your team grows beyond a classroom of 20-30 people, writing becomes how you communicate at scale.

But many founders I know avoid writing. They have ideas but struggle to share them.

Maybe you’ve told yourself you’re “not a writer.” Maybe you’ve stared at blank pages and given up.

But here’s the thing: if you can talk about your ideas, you can write about them. You might just be conflating two different skills - creating and editing - and hating the combination.

How I Do It

Step 1: Brain dump. Open your phone. Type whatever comes to mind. Long sentences with no stops. Don’t care about typos. No structure, no paragraphs, no editing. Just get it out.

Step 2: Let LLM structure it immediately. The key is making this frictionless on your phone. I use Termux with Claude Code so I can see the edits right away. Writing notes on desktop and having LLM rewrite later works too, but I like the immediate feedback loop.

Step 3: Make use of the output. Create agents that turn your raw thoughts into something useful. I have one that generates social media posts from my random notes. Another guides me through writing blog posts paragraph by paragraph. You’re not editing anymore - you’re collaborating.

The key: separate creation from editing. Doing both at once is what makes writing feel impossible.

Conclusion

For decades I believed I couldn’t write. Turns out I just needed someone else to do the editing.

If you’re a founder who avoids writing, let an LLM handle that part. You might discover you don’t hate writing either.

You just hate editing.