5 Reasons Why You Should Keep Writing (Even If You Want to Quit)
How to focus on the good when everything is falling apart.
Giving up sounds easy — sweet, even, like a piano sonata by Beethoven. How easy it would be to let go of your goals and dreams and slide into bed to sleep without a care in the world.
Your doubts would quiet, and you would be at peace. No need to worry about coming up with ideas, writing good headlines, publications, rejections — everything would be gone. It’s tempting.
The problem is that you’re focusing on what you would relieve yourself of now. You’re not just giving up hard work. You abandon all the people you wanted to help, your chance at becoming a published author, the life you’d live if you could make a full-time income from writing.
No matter which path you choose, you have to make sacrifices, but which sacrifices reap better rewards. I ask you: Do you really want to quit?
Here are five reasons why you shouldn’t.
1. The Results You See Right Now Are Short-Term
Write, edit, publish, repeat. Once, twice, five, ten times. Over and over again, you do what you’re told, but the problem is, the results don’t reflect your hard work. They reflect those of someone who’s been writing for less than three months — not a year. Not longer.
Should I just quit? Maybe I wasn’t meant to do this. The thought circles your head and with each cycle, it gets louder and louder. You love what you do, but maybe your love isn’t strong enough. Am I wasting time?
Here’s the beautiful thing about time: when you stick to something for long enough, eventually, things start to go your way.
No, people might not be reading your work now, but who’s to say they won’t be reading it two or three years down the line? And not just a few, but thousands of them.
Whatever you see or don’t see, right now is irrelevant. You can’t focus on your short-term progress when in five-years-time, your entire career could be different. It’s simple, really. You can give up now and be in the same place a few years from now, or you can put in the work now to gain the opportunities you want later.
This is just the beginning. Don’t give up before you get to the end.
2. What’s Difficult Now Will Get Easier Overtime
“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.” — Octavia E. Butler
Writers are harsh on themselves. We’re bullies and often highlight our shortcomings rather than acknowledging our strengths.
You think you’re not good or talented enough, and the reality is, you’re probably right. Your sentences are a little choppy. Your headlines are boring. You don’t know how to end your articles with a bang.
But that’s why you keep writing: for practice. Why do you think the writers on Medium say you should write every day? (Not publish, but write.) Because it works. Because you grow and somehow, someway you’re able to tell better stories along the way. Like Malcolm Gladwell said in his book, Outliers:
Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.
You’re not good yet. That’s the keyword. You might not be good right now, but it doesn’t mean you won’t be good later. The opportunities to learn are endless. You can find writing articles here, purchase writing courses, or read books like Several Short Sentences About Writing or Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.
Your doubt won’t go away. Even if you write for six months straight, you’re still going to think you’re not great. But at least by then, you’ll know it’s a lie.
3. You Get to Capture the Lives and World Around You
Art keeps moments and people alive. A photographer does it with sight, a musician with sound, and a writer with words. If you think about it, you’re lucky to be a writer. You’re fortunate to have a gift that lets you shine a light onto wherever you feel you have to aim the spotlight.
“Write what should not be forgotten.” — Isabelle Allende
You get to write about your family and share them with the world. You get to create characters that follow people around for the rest of their lives. You get to have a voice and inspire. You can make people feel everything from hope to joy. How could you ever abandon that?
Writing is a form of expression for everyone, not just the writer. You express to express emotion in someone else. It’s a beautiful thing we get to do. Giving it up would be like throwing away your camera on a family vacation. Don’t you want to preserve memories and maybe, hopefully, keep them alive for years — even after you’re dead if you’re lucky?
For some people, writing isn’t for them. But if you’ve made it this far, you’re not one of those people. You’re reading this because you want to be convinced to keep going. So keep going.
4. It’s the Perfect Opportunity to Learn About Yourself
I didn’t know what I was capable of until I started writing. I didn’t know I could sit down every day and work. I didn’t know I could feel so much or become so self-aware at the age of twenty-two.
Writing is hard. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s the challenging stuff that helps you learn about yourself and pushes you to exceed your limits. Writing isn’t just sitting down and talking about how you feel. It’s work, but it’s the best work.
As a writer, you discover what you’re capable of. You get to dig deep inside and find out what makes you tick. What motivates you. You get to relive some of your favorite memories and learn from the ones that hurt you. Every day, you get a little stronger. That’s the power of writing.
Although, if you think about it, the entire journey of being a writer is magnificent. Hell, you get to read to learn. You get to become friends with some of the kindest people you’ll ever meet. We’re all making a fool of ourselves online — it’s impossible not to bond. It’s fun. A good time. That’s it.
5. You Like to Write and That’s The Best Reason of All
It doesn’t matter that you’re not good yet, that you have a lot of questions, or that you feel like you should quit. The main reason why you should keep writing is that you like it. It makes you happy.
I can’t assure you that you’re going to reach all of your writing dreams. I can’t make those promises because I don’t know if it’s true. But why do you write? Did you start writing because you wanted to write a bestseller? Because you wanted to see your book get turned into a movie? Because you wanted to make $10,000 a month?
I’m not saying you can’t want these things. Hell, I want all of them. But they’re not the reason I write, and they can’t be yours. The only thing that should push you to write is that you wouldn’t know what else to do with your life. You can’t not write. If you quit, what will you do?
Great results or bad — doesn’t matter. Because writing makes you happy.
Just like in life, there are days when you can’t get up from bed, but there are days filled with love and laughter and you realize you’re lucky to be alive. Some days, you’ll realize how lucky you are to be a writer.
Keep writing because you love it, and that’ll be enough to keep you going no matter what obstacles you encounter.
