Writers, you’ve got the goods. Remember it.

The other day I caught up with a friend who's a freelance writer. She had recently landed an awesome gig with her dream publication. She was feeling somewhat shocked that they wanted her. She didn't think her pitches were anything special.

"But I guess my whatever work is actually good? I guess not many people are good at this."

"YES." I cried out, wishing I could shake her (lovingly!) over Zoom.

Writers. We've got to talk.

You are amazing, your work is important, and you deserve to be valued and paid just as highly as any software engineer or management consultant. Maybe even more so, because without you and your skills, those engineers and consultants would not be able to get their points across. We'd all be talking past each other, nobody would know what to do, and everybody would be confused all the time. What a disaster!

Your skills make the world go around. A lot of people can type. But you can write.

Writers. You're exceptional.

This sh*t is at the heart of career confidence for writers. Our people suffer massively from the curse of knowledge — the cognitive bias where we assume that everybody else knows what we know, so we don't really have anything special to offer the world.

I'm here to tell you:

• Just because it's easy and obvious for you, doesn't mean it is for other people.

• When you make something look easy and simple, you can do that because of thousands of hours of training and focus. Reading. Writing. Noticing. Editing.

• Writing is a highly specialized, in-demand skill. If you don't think so, you're probably writing for the wrong people, who don't deserve or value you.

Writers. You're beautiful.

Has anyone told you how attractive your brain is today? Well I am. Right now. I mean, wow, I can hardly get ahold of myself. You're fabulous.

This has been your pep talk — go out and get 'em, tiger.

P.S. — Double your rates. You're worth it. If you need extra encouragement, check out Roxane Gay's activism.