The Writing You Didn’t Know You Could Hire Out
Most people think of hiring a writer for the obvious things: website copy, blog posts, maybe a brochure if they're feeling fancy. But there's an entire universe of writing work happening behind the scenes of your life and business—the kind of writing that eats up hours of your time, causes disproportionate stress, and often gets put off indefinitely because it feels too important to delegate but too overwhelming to tackle.
You know that feeling when you sit down to write something "simple" and three hours later you're still staring at a blank page, questioning your ability to string words together coherently? That's usually a sign you've stumbled into one of these hidden writing tasks—the ones that seem straightforward until you're actually doing them.
Here's what most people don't realize: if it requires translating thoughts into words that serve a specific purpose, it's writing work. And if it's writing work, you can hire it out.
The Email That's Been Sitting in Your Drafts for Three Weeks
We've all been there. You need to send a delicate email—maybe declining a project without burning bridges, addressing a conflict with a colleague, or explaining a complex situation to a client. It's just an email, you tell yourself. How hard can it be?
Turns out, very hard. Because this isn't just communication; it's diplomacy in digital form. The wrong tone could damage a relationship. The wrong words could escalate a situation. The wrong approach could cost you opportunities.
So the email sits in your drafts folder, growing more intimidating by the day. You start it, delete it, start again. You workshop different versions in your head while you're trying to fall asleep. You ask friends to read drafts, but they're not familiar enough with the context to know if you're striking the right balance.
This is specialized writing work. It requires understanding your goals, your audience, your constraints, and the subtle art of saying difficult things in ways that preserve relationships while achieving your objectives. A professional writer can craft that email in a fraction of the time it would take you, without the emotional labor of wrestling with every word choice.
The Personal Statement That Keeps Getting "Refined"
Whether it's for graduate school, a fellowship application, or a career change, personal statements occupy a unique circle of writing hell. They ask you to distill your entire professional narrative into a few pages while somehow being both humble and confident, passionate and measured, personal and professional.
The problem isn't that you don't know your own story—it's that you know it too well. You're too close to see which details matter to your audience and which are just noise. You can't tell if you're being authentically vulnerable or just oversharing. You don't know if your accomplishments sound impressive or if you're underselling yourself.
Plus, there's the paralyzing knowledge that this document could determine the trajectory of your career. No pressure.
A skilled writer brings the distance you can't achieve on your own. They can see your story clearly, identify the through-lines that you've lost sight of, and craft a narrative that serves your goals without the emotional overwhelm of trying to be objective about your own life.
The Award Nomination You Keep Meaning to Submit
Your colleague deserves recognition for their work, but nominating them requires writing a compelling case for why they should win. Or maybe you're the one being asked to submit materials for your own nomination, which brings its own special brand of discomfort.
Award nominations are a particular form of persuasive writing that requires balancing specific evidence with broader impact, individual achievement with collaborative context. They need to tell a story that makes the case compelling while staying within strict word limits and formatting requirements.
This isn't just listing accomplishments—it's strategic storytelling with high stakes. Getting it right could change someone's career trajectory. Getting it wrong means missed opportunities for recognition and advancement.
The Bio That Makes You Want to Disappear
"Just write a quick bio for the conference program." "We need a brief author bio for your article." "Can you send over something about yourself for the website?"
These requests sound simple, but biographical writing about yourself is surprisingly complex. You need to strike the right balance between authority and approachability, include relevant credentials without sounding boastful, and capture your professional essence in a few sentences that work across different contexts.
The version that works for a corporate website might be too formal for a creative conference. The bio that's perfect for an academic journal might be too stuffy for a podcast introduction. And writing about yourself always brings up questions of what to include, what to leave out, and how to sound professional without sounding like you wrote your own Wikipedia page.
The Speech You're Dreading
You've been asked to speak at a retirement party, deliver a toast at a wedding, present an award, or give remarks at a company event. It's an honor, really. It's also terrifying.
These occasions require a specific kind of writing that balances humor with sincerity, personal connection with universal appeal, appropriate length with meaningful content. You need to know your audience, understand the tone of the event, and craft something that feels both planned and spontaneous.
The stakes feel impossibly high because these are moments that matter to people. The retiree deserves words that honor their career. The couple deserves a toast that captures their love story. The award recipient deserves remarks that recognize their achievement.
But you're not a speechwriter, and you shouldn't have to become one for these important moments.
The Grant Application That's Due Next Week
Grant writing is its own specialized field, but many people don't realize they can hire help until they're deep in the weeds of their first application. Grant applications require translating your vision into language that resonates with funders, supporting every claim with evidence, and threading the needle between ambitious goals and realistic outcomes.
Each funder has different priorities, different language they respond to, different criteria for evaluation. What works for a foundation focused on innovation might not work for a government agency prioritizing measurable outcomes. The same project might need to be presented completely differently depending on the audience.
This isn't just about writing—it's about strategic communication that requires understanding both your project and your audience at a deep level.
The Thank You Letter That Actually Matters
Not the quick email thank you, but the meaningful letters that acknowledge significant contributions, express deep gratitude, or mark important transitions. These might be thank you letters to mentors, donors, longtime clients, or team members who are moving on.
These letters require capturing the specific impact someone has had while expressing genuine appreciation in a way that doesn't sound generic or obligatory. They need to feel personal and heartfelt while being professionally appropriate.
The challenge is that the people who deserve these letters are often the ones who have had the most significant impact on your life or work. The gratitude feels too big for words, the relationship too complex to summarize, the appreciation too deep to adequately express.
The Content That Bridges Your Expertise and Your Audience
You're an expert in your field, but translating that expertise into content that serves your audience is a different skill entirely. Whether it's blog posts that establish thought leadership, articles that explain complex concepts to non-experts, or case studies that demonstrate your impact, this work requires understanding both your domain knowledge and your audience's needs.
The challenge isn't what to say—you have plenty to say. The challenge is how to say it in a way that provides value without overwhelming, demonstrates expertise without alienating, and serves your business goals without feeling sales-heavy.
This is strategic content creation that requires both subject matter understanding and communication expertise.
When to Stop Wrestling and Start Delegating
The pattern is always the same: what seems like a simple writing task reveals itself to be complex strategic communication. You think it should take an hour; it takes a day. You think you just need to get the words down; you realize you need to solve deeper problems about audience, purpose, and positioning.
Here's how to recognize when you've encountered one of these hidden writing challenges:
You've started and stopped multiple times.
You find yourself procrastinating on what should be straightforward tasks.
You're spending more time thinking about the writing than actually writing.
You're asking multiple people for feedback but their suggestions conflict.
You feel like the stakes are too high to get it wrong.
These are all signs that you're dealing with specialized writing work that requires skills beyond just putting words on a page.
The Real Cost of DIY
When you try to handle these tasks yourself, you're not just spending time—you're spending emotional energy, mental bandwidth, and opportunity cost. You're taking focus away from the work only you can do while struggling with work that someone else could handle more efficiently.
More importantly, you're often not getting the best possible outcome. The email you finally send after weeks of agonizing probably isn't as effective as it could be. The personal statement you submit after countless revisions might not represent you as compellingly as possible. The speech you deliver might accomplish the goal without truly honoring the moment.
Professional writers don't just save you time—they bring skills, perspective, and distance that produce better results.
What's Possible When You're Not Wrestling with Words
When you delegate these hidden writing tasks, you free up mental space for the work that requires your specific expertise, your unique perspective, your irreplaceable input. You stop spending weekends crafting emails and start spending them on activities that actually restore you. You stop procrastinating on important communications and start maintaining the relationships and opportunities that matter to your life and work.
Most importantly, you get better outcomes. The people in your life receive more thoughtful communication. Your professional opportunities are presented more compellingly. Your expertise reaches your audience more effectively.
You don't have to be good at everything. You just have to be good at recognizing when something requires specialized skills and finding the right person to provide them.
The next time you find yourself staring at a blank page, wrestling with words that should come easily, or procrastinating on writing that feels disproportionately difficult, consider this: maybe the problem isn't that you're bad at writing. Maybe the problem is that you're trying to do specialized work without specialized support.
Some fights aren't worth fighting alone.
Currently wrestling with writing that feels bigger than it should be? Let's talk about how collaboration might serve both your goals and your sanity. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is admit you need backup. Visit my writing services to see what type of collaboration might be right for you.
