Can Emailing A Lot Make You A Better Writer?
I have creative dreams too, just like you! But these days, most of the writing I do falls into two categories:
- Feedback on other people’s writing, including to authors who send submissions our way and to my students at Milwaukee School of Engineering, where I’m honored to teach writing as an adjunct professor.
- Emails, which serve as my primary tool of project management. I email folks to keep books moving right along.
I’m hoping to dedicate more time to my own creative writing in 2026! But in the meantime, I wonder—Can sending emails make you a better writer?
There’s lots of reason to say no. For example, email isn’t like creative writing. It’s purpose-driven in such a way that creative expression within email can get in the way of the goal of the email. The best emails, it seems to me, are those that provide exactly the information the recipient needs. Any niceties are mere padding, the kind of fluff your editor tells you to cut!
And email has nothing to do with elements like narrative, plot, and character. Emailing all day long and you still won’t have dedicated attention to how to use your narrative structure to create suspenseful moments in your plot. Even an extended email exchange isn’t likely to reveal any changes or growth in character. A year’s worth of email doesn’t take the reader on a journey any more than a year of expense forms or invoices.
On the other hand…! In my view, successful writing begins with fluency of expression—the ability to sit down and simply write. Keep that editor’s voice out of your head and take your writing from point A to point B with little regard for quality. (The quality, lest anyone think I judge it unimportant, comes in revision!) Email aids with this—purpose-driven writing helps you get to the point. And given that much of our emailing is professional, we must write, no matter how irksome. Not replying has professional consequences. And in this way, email shapes our ability to sit and write.
Email, when done successfully, also calls for skills of brevity and prioritization. These elements are useful in creative writing, in every step of the process, from plotting, character sketches, narrative, etc., etc. Everyone practicing “say what you mean” and “get to the point” will see all their writing improved because of it. (And indeed, to all the wonderful people who email me, think carefully on those elements of brevity! I love it when I get an email from you that lays out exactly what I need to know, all the better for me to act on it!)
Lastly, email encourages discipline. In ideal circumstances, we use email at times dedicated for it. I try to spend time on email in the morning, midday, and before the end of the day. And in each of those periods, I like to deal with all my emails—complete the called-for task immediately (including replying with an answer to a question) or schedule time to complete the task (and reply with when the task is scheduled). This same discipline is useful for creative projects, including scheduling time for creative writing and setting specific goals to accomplish each time you sit down to write.
So though I wouldn’t suggest “more email!” as advice for folks wishing to be more creative in their writing, perhaps email isn’t so antithetical to improving our creative work after all. As for whether those emails will add up to anything on their own, just look at all the collections of letters that people have published! Maybe your own emails could be the basis for your next book. At the least, they keep your fingers warmed up for future creative work.