3 Harsh But Undeniable Truths Of Being An Aspiring Writer

#1 Nobody cares about your writing dreams

This article will not pamper you. It is unapologetic and to some, it might even feel like a slap in the face. However, if you want to turn your dream into reality, you need to wake up.

Here’s the harsh reality:

1. Nobody cares about your writing dreams.

One of my goals for this year is to publish a poetry collection. I’ve been writing poetry since my teenage years so I already have a huge pile of possible poems that I could include in the book.

Not saying that all of them are good. In fact, I’ll probably have to write many many more and will only include a few of my old ones.

So far, I have only told a handful of people about my plans because I once read that telling others about your goals might actually prevent you from achieving them.

In the Medium article “Why You Shouldn’t Share Your Ideas With Everyone”, Annaliese Griffin wrote:

“Talking about your writing routine can make you feel like a novelist, even if you’ve only written a few paragraphs. When you believe you’re already being perceived the way you want to be perceived, you can lose some incentive to follow through on the goals that would turn that perception into reality.”

In other words: You don’t take any steps towards achieving your goal because you’re convinced that you’ve already achieved it.

I had never heard of this before but it made a lot of sense to me. While many people said that they felt a burst of creative energy and motivation to realize their projects after telling people about their plans, I was the exact opposite.

I felt like telling others was rather discouraging me from working towards achieving my goals. After all, people have so many expectations once you tell them about your goals and that pressure can cause you to feel paralyzed.

Nonetheless, I decided to tell my friend about my current plans. We had a phone call and were talking about the future and my plans for post-uni life so I felt like there was no harm in telling him that I wanted to focus on creative projects for a few months before looking for a full-time job.

I’m not exactly sure what I expected when I told him that I wanted to write and publish a poetry collection, but his indifference took me by surprise. I would have expected at least some words of encouragement or excitement concerning my plans. Something along the lines of:

“That’s a great idea. You should definitely do it. I can’t wait to read your book. Let me know if I can help in any way.”

He didn’t say any of those things and it doesn’t necessarily mean that he thinks it’s a stupid idea. It just shows how busy he is with his own life.

2. Writing is hard work. If you want to be successful, you have to show up consistently.

Writing is hard. There’s no denying that although some writers seem to sweep this one under the rug, saying they love writing and can’t imagine doing anything else. It’s not that I don’t believe them, but writing isn’t all sunflowers.

Each writer has their bad days. Sometimes we don’t feel like writing. We lack the spark or the energy, or perhaps we’ve read our draft so often we think we should toss our laptop out of the window.

Maybe we wrote something we’re really proud of and it just didn’t receive the attention we think it deserved. Sometimes, writing is like screaming into a big void. A void that seems to stretch bigger and bigger each day.

And we ask ourselves: What’s the point?

In these times, some writers might quit because they lack the trust that they are in fact going somewhere, even if it doesn’t seem like it.

The truth is we all want some validation from our readers. It’s one of the reasons why we write and continuing to do so when there’s no feedback is hard.

Often, I’ve heard people say that the discouragement comes down to the definition you have of being a writer. They say you don’t need to earn thousands of dollars to be a writer, neither do you need to have published a certain amount of books to call yourself a writer.

You could have published no books at all, and you’d still be a writer. After all, it’s not about how many people you reach with your writing but that you are showing up each day, picking up the pen to master your craft.

I agree with the essential presupposition in this claim. A writer is no more than someone who writes. However, success is part of the equation when it comes to motivation and creating and putting out content on a consistent basis.

Besides, what people really mean when they say “I want to be a writer” is “I want to earn my money through writing”.

And is that really unacceptable if you feel like writing is the only talent you have?

3. Nobody will help you to rise on top, no matter how much you pout or beg them to.

Oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild world, and it’s you and your laptop against the rest of the world. (That is, if you haven’t tossed your laptop out of the window yet.)

You are the only person who can turn this dream into reality. If you don’t care or don’t put in the work that is necessary, nobody else will.

Why should they, given that you are the only one who’s excited about your writing goals?

You will come across a few successful writers though, especially here on Medium, who seems like a helping hand because they offer a 5-day free email course with the exact formula on how to make it big on Medium.

How generous, right?

Well, not really. You should be wary! These are not selfless people who want to help you rise on top. Because most of the advice they give is pretty generic and could be extracted from any Medium article that talks about how to gain more views and reads.

I completed a couple of 5-day free email courses, just to see whether these writers would tell me some tips I didn’t already know, and at the end of these courses, all of them tried to make me sign up for their ‘real’ Medium course, which ranged anywhere from 400$-1000$.

Do 400$-1000$ look like an act of selflessness to you?

I don’t think so. They just want to make more money and diversify their income. I suppose people pay for these courses because they think they will have the same success once they have completed the course and applied certain methods.

However, there is no guarantee that you will have the same success.

The journey to success will look different for everyone, just like writing processes differ from each other. Instead of paying huge amounts of money, it would probably be smarter to experiment with different writing techniques, article lengths, etc.

There is no one size fits all so you have to figure out what works for you.

Final thoughts

How are you feeling now that I’ve slapped you in the face? Discouraged? Pessimistic? Defeatist?

It’s okay. I’ve been through these emotions and while they are completely valid, I believe there is a huge chance of taking these harsh truths and turning them into lessons that will enhance our growth.