I have been writing all my life. Stories, poems, and essays. Scribbles in diaries, haiku games with friends and long, winded letters to loved ones.
Every single time emotions overwhelmed the mind, my instinctive reaction was to pick up a pen and paper and just write. Falling in love, falling out of love, failing at work, getting promoted, family feuds, a show that I loved, a book I hated–all of it tumbling onto paper.
And for a long time I wrote for myself. It was my personal escape in wordplay–a black and white dimension of characters that had meaning only to me. As computers invaded our lives, handwritten diaries and manuscripts became a thing of the past and now I was typing away on word editors. But it was still personal, for no one to see.
Until one day I discovered blogging. A place where I could send out my writing to the world and maybe someone in the digital universe would care for what I wrote. That was over ten years ago, and truth be told, I still have not figured out the way to navigate the world of writing online.
Publishing on the internet is much more than the craft of writing itself that typically focuses on expression, structure and narrative. It is not about what one wants to write, but what others want to read. Writing for an online audience feels more like providing a service or a product than a creative endeavor.
The work can be mediocre, but is your search optimization up to mark? Have you sprinkled the keywords appropriately across your content? Does your writing have a good Flesch Reading Score, so it’s not too difficult for the fleeting attention of the online audience?
There is limited appeal in constantly writing at the level of a 6th to 8th grader (an ideal Flesch reading score). Sometimes I want to write long, winded sentences to mirror the complex emotions am I am trying to relay. Does that mean that I am losing out on the less discerning audience? Should I even continue? Should I even care?
In this daily struggle of keeping up with the metrics of productivity, page views and followers, I have made peace with some truths. These help me stay true to my craft and still love it.
Not Everything Has To Be About Money
I say this with the luxury of having a steady job ever since I graduated from college. I am also of the generation where work was for making money, and hobbies were what you spent it on.
There is undeniable romance in the idea that what feeds your soul also pays the bill. Haven’t we been inundated with ‘If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.’ all our lives. I am all for walking out on a soul crushing job, but I don’t think we write enough about sticking on a job that you moderately like! There is value in that, too.
I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I wish my writing made enough money so I could quit my 9 to 5 job. But I am also blatantly aware that to reach that level of financial solvency means one needs to write a bestseller and reach celebrity status (and one can always hope!).
Alternatively, one can write content that sells, write constantly and for hours, so basically show up to a cubicle and work 9 to 5. Does one still keep the joy in writing? Is there still meaning in the work? Is it worth making this shift?
I have made peace with being a starving artist, where my work tangibly gets me pennies, but emotionally it brings me happiness.
Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash
There Is No Getting Away From Writing Daily
Many established writers talk about the daily habit of writing. It improves one’s craft, the flow of thoughts and just the ability to produce work. And honestly, there is no getting away for it. It doesn’t matter if one is writing a book or a listicle or anything in between. Writing daily makes you a better and a truer writer. The more you write, the more likely you are going to find your voice, lend authenticity to your writing and find joy in your work. Trust me, I have tried.
Again, the important thing is to write daily, NOT TO publish daily.
There is a difference. Setting goals is not a bad thing, it’s the deadlines that’s going to get to you. Write daily, write often and sometimes you may find yourself wanting to take a break. Step away and come back so that you can rediscover the process.
Photo by Jason Strull on Unsplash
It’s Okay To Question Why
The online writing space is very competitive. There are over 500 million blogs in the world and growing. Not only are they competing for eyeballs but also constantly vying for attention with social media platforms, videos etc. Let’s be real — a very, very tiny percentage of these bloggers are going to find real measurable success.
So what should the others do? Should they stop writing? What level of response rate is good enough to keep going? Is it 500 or 50,000 or 5 million engaged readers?
These are some questions every writer has to answer for themselves.
Why do they write? Who are they writing for? And is it worthwhile to continue?
And finally, does it make you happy?
And as long as the answer to that is a resounding yes, damn the stats and the money and keep going.
For more musings, go here.
