Why ‘be yourself’ is crap advice for writers

Alex Mathers
2 min readSep 3, 2024

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Most of us want our writing to connect emotionally with our readers.

When they engage, they are more likely to share our work, buy our products down the line, and come back for more.

When we think about writing more engaging words, the standard advice is to be authentic.

This is absolutely true.

The last thing your writing needs is for it to be comparable to some slop produced by an emotionless Chat GPT-esque robot.

You want your words to come alive and feel like they flowed out of an actual human.

That’s how people relate and connect.

That’s what excellent writing is all about.

And so many of us equate authenticity with good writing.

But here’s where there is often a disconnect:

We take authenticity and take it to mean ‘being ourselves.’

But what does ‘be yourself’ really mean? It’s a non-phrase.

None of us have a single personality that defines us. You know this yourself because your personality shifts and morphs like waves at a beach, depending on your environment.

So play with the strange beauty of this.

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Alex Mathers

Helping you develop a consistent writing habit with impact. Regular tips: https://www.masteryden.com