It’s easy to believe the goal of writing is the finished piece: the book, article or post you finally publish. And yes, those things matter and are worth celebrating. But over time, I’ve started to notice something else happening beneath the surface. Writing will change you.
The person who first picked up the pen to follow the nudge of an idea is not the same person who now holds the finished book in their hands.
The Hidden Outcome of Writing
We tend to measure writing by results:
- Did you finish?
- Did you publish?
- Did it “work”?
But there’s another outcome that’s harder to measure, and perhaps even more valuable.
Writing is transformational.
Every time you show up to the page, something in you begins to shift. Your thoughts untangle and your voice gets clearer.
I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.
― Flannery O’Connor
As you write, questions you’ve been avoiding may rise to the surface or you may discover a fresh insight within the shapes and shadows you scribble.
Writing has a way of bringing things into the light, and once you see them, you can’t unsee them.
Writing From Presence
When I started writing When God Calls a Writer, I wasn’t trying to create a book.
I was trying to understand something that felt alive in me.
There was a nudge and desire to write, but also a lot of doubt. I found myself asking God questions I didn’t have answers to yet, and the only place I knew to take them was the page.
So I wrote in journals, in prayers, and in my mind throughout the daily rythms of my life.
And slowly, over time, clarity came—not all at once, but through the simple act of showing up and paying attention.
The book flowed from my internal conversations with God and my writing became a spiritual practice that God used to shape me.
Writing Influences the Way You Think
Later, when I wrote When God Equips a Writer, my questions had shifted.
I had already said yes to writing, but now I was wrestling with what it meant to keep going. What does perseverance actually look like? How do you stay when it’s hard, when there’s resistance, when the outcome is unclear?
Writing didn’t just help me express answers; it helped me find them.
Because there are things we think we believe or that we are wrestling with, until we try to put them into words. Writing slows you down to notice what’s true, shaky, or needs to be reworked.
And in that process, your thinking deepens and your perspective widens.
Writing Can Be a Place of Healing
Some writing takes you somewhere deeper and that was true for me with Adrift.
Writing that book meant revisiting parts of my story that were tender: loss, transition, and the quiet grief of growing up and moving often as a missionary kid living on ships.
There were moments I had to stop, not because I ran out of words, but because the words were bringing up a deep grief.
Writing my story became a place of healing because it invited me to tell the truth and move through all the emotions it stirred.
There’s something powerful about naming what was and giving language to what we remember and carry within us.
The Person You Become Through Writing
It would be easy to say the greatest outcome of writing a book is the book itself.
And in many ways, that’s true: finishing matters and is worth celebrating!
Sharing your work matters too.
But if I’m honest, the deeper gift has been this:
I am not the same person who started those books.
God continues to use writing as a spiritual formation tool in my life (whether or not it is a Christian piece).
Why This Matters for You
If writing feels slow right now, or unclear, or harder than you expected, I want you to know that something is still happening.
Even if the draft isn’t finished and the project is in the messy middle, good things are growing:
- Your voice is forming.
- Your confidence is growing.
- Your faith is deepening in ways you may not fully see yet.
So maybe the question isn’t just, What am I writing?
Maybe the deeper question is, Who am I becoming as I write?
And will you keep showing up long enough to let that transformation unfold?
Because writing will change you, if you let it.
💬 Let’s Continue the Conversation
How has writing changed you?
I’d love to hear what you’re discovering in your own process—what’s becoming clearer, stronger, or more honest as you keep showing up.
🎥 Watch + Listen
Deanne Welsh is a writing coach and spiritual director serving writers and the founder of Unstoppable Writers. She helps writers show up consistently, finish what they start, and share their words with clarity and confidence—while walking closely with God in the process. Through her teaching, books, and community, Deanne creates space for writers to grow not just in their craft, but in who they are becoming.