Are you Wasting your Time Trying to Become a Writer ?

Many of us want to become writers.

To write fiction or articles that would get thousands of views. Build up a solid income while doing what we love to do: type words on a blank sheet of paper.

But between the realization of this dream and our current position, there are many layers of harsh reality separating us from it.

I wrote in “The writer struggle” about the difficulty of finding the right direction to make a living from your art. Sometimes you have to zig and sometimes you have to zag to hope to reach the right destination.

Whichever road you take: the doubts will be massive. The confidence of the beginning fades. Sometimes, you even wonder what you’re doing. Are you stubbornly pursuing a blind alley? To all those who feel a little lost, today I have hope to share.

1) “Have I wasted my time?”

It’s now been 6 months (or more) since you embarked on this passion. Every day, you write for 1 to 3 hours. You write on several platforms. And the results are mixed. You’ve got a few views, a follower number that’s rising, but it’s … very slow. At this rate, you’ll be a success in 60 years, when you’ve run out of stories to tell.

You feel like you’ve wasted your time, and that the majority of these lines have been swallowed up in the abyss of works that will never be read. (don’t go there Simba)

That’s tough. It hurts. It’s unrewarded effort. But even so, I don’t think you’ve wasted your time.

Writing is a massive skill that will serve ALL areas of your life. Spending 6 months improving it will serve you well at some point, even if you take a hiatus from writing. Few people can really write and you’ve spent 6 months practicing. You’re already at the top without even realizing it. Yes, it hasn’t been a massive success or printed mountains of bills, but it’s now a skill that’s part of your palette and an integral part of you.

You may be tired, but you’re far more competent than you were six months ago.

2) “Will I ever succeed?”

That’s a good question. Nobody knows, and certainly not me. How many writers have found success after years of writing? Quite a few. How many writers have found success after decades of writing? Many. How many writers have found success after their death? Many How many writers were never successful? An even greater number.

Writing is probably one of the most difficult careers you can embark on.

It’s hard work, lots of hard work, and fierce competition from the 4 corners of the earth. The good news is that you’re unique and have a unique voice to bring to the world, which gives you a chance. The bad news is that many people want to succeed just as much as you do, and will give their all in a very closed niche.

We have a very false idea of the writer’s craft because we see some influencers telling us they’ve only written 2 hours today and made a lot of money.

People who read these results focus on the 2 hours but don’t see that this same influencer is in the +3–5 year and his first few years were hellish. That he had to overcome mountains to find his way and build his audience.

You really have to zoom out. Some writers send me messages saying “it’s been 6 months and I’m discouraged.”

I’m going to be harsh, but 6 months is nothing. It’s baby step in a career and a life. If this is the path you really want to take, you need to make a 3-year plan and divide the three years into objectives.

That could be: - Year 1: building the audience - Year 2: Consolidate and build newsletter - Year 3: System improvement

And divide these years into objectives to be reached each month.

I’m not talking about monetization. Depending on the path you take, monetization will be different. Some may trigger it after a few months, others after the first year.

3 ) “I’m tired and fed up”

This is a symptom of an illness lurking around : burnout. We’ve tried to do too much. Too fast. And we forget every word requires energy. And if energy doesn’t come back to us, it’s lost.

For a writer, there are two ways of receiving energy: - getting paid for what you write - getting good feedback on what you write

And if you don’t get paid, spend hours writing and don’t get read: it’s logical to feel drained.

You need to refocus on the writing itself. If you’re no longer enjoying writing, you need to stop. I think (and I could be wrong) that if you don’t take pleasure in producing something, the reader won’t take pleasure in reading it. I believe that energy flows through the lines and that the writer’s feelings are palpable in every word. That you can feel when you’re reading when he’s having fun and has a smile on his face when he’s blacking out his pages.

If you’re feeling tired, take a step back and write when you’re feeling good.

In any case, if you put too much work on your body and mind, it will break down, and it will take a much longer break to repair the engine.

Conclusion

It’s easy to get caught up in this writing career limbo. It’s easy to want to throw it all away when things aren’t going as well as they should.

But I think you just have to …

1- Zoom out

Put reality back at the center and understand that succeeding in writing in a very short time is a fantasy.

And you can’t feed on illusions.

It’s true that some people manage to succeed in 6 months and build a whole career, but : - Are you as good as them? - Do you really know what goes on behind the scenes?

You’ll be amazed to discover how many successes were not organic.

2- Make a solid plan

- a writing routine - a self-promotion routine - a networking routine

These three elements work hand in hand if you want to succeed. Writing is not enough. You need to connect with the right people, find your crew and support each other.

It’s hard enough doing it as a team, it doesn’t make sense to do it alone.

3- Theorical part of your plan

Writing is good, but writing about what is even better. Far too many writers are lost and tackle far too many subjects. You can’t be an expert on everything. You have to define your field of expertise and be VERY good at it. If you’re not, don’t panic, you can always train until you’re competent enough.If you write fiction, it’s easier: write what you like. If it’s non-fiction, the only way to get a following is to give lots of free value.

4- Analyze

Put everything you write under the microscope. Once or twice a month: - What were my best articles? - Why or why not? - How can I develop similar content?

Your statistics tell you exactly which topics work and which don’t.

“Yes, but I want to write what I want to write.”

In life, you can’t have it all. Build a solid audience first, then you’ll be free to write about whatever you want. Right now, you want to optimize your success curve to minimize the time spent on it.

5- Improve your process

Optimize your writing time. Plan your content. Find interesting new content more easily. Anything to make your life easier and take some of the burden off your shoulders.

The aim is that after 6 months, you’ll have a beast that feeds on itself. You know: - How long it takes you to write - What will work - How many followers you gain on average

This will enable you to make a projection curve with point X as your goal.

You know more or less where you’re going. And how long it’s going to take.

6- More important part : Keep Learning

The key to your success lies here. Practice is important. But learning is even more important. You can never know enough. You’ll never be good enough. Learning is about developing your skills exponentially. Courses, books, author podcasts, novels … There’s an infinite amount of content to consume to perfect your skills. A part of the day SHOULD be dedicated to learning. I can’t stress how important this is. If there’s a secret, this is it.

**

When I took up the pen tonight, I didn’t intend to write such a long article, but here we are. If you’re still here, thank you and well done. You want to succeed and you will.

If you liked it, you can clap this article. It helps me a lot.

If you have any questions or would like to say “Hi” in the comments to connect, now’s the time.

If you want to build your writing career, I’ve opened a newsletter that specializes in that. You can add your e-mail here.

If you want to grow a medium audience. I have a free book to help you gather your first 100 followers.

Thank you for reading.