Discounting Numbers May Nurture Your True Writing Potential
Exploring an untethered relationship between pen and paper may reap longer-term returns.
For the first time in my adult life, I’ve written for an hour every day, for the past 30 days.
This article is number thirteen on my list of output produced. I am incredibly proud of my newfound gusto, and the corresponding drive required to stick to this almost-formed habit.
I’m moving toward a 6-month target of daily scribbling, and I’m doing it with two trump cards in my pocket. I’ve made tireless, daily efforts to imbibe the two upcoming markers of initial writing success.
I invite you to ponder these, and to incorporate aspects that strike you as potentially valuable on your own writing path.
I believe, deeply, that absorbing these guideposts will help keep novice writers like myself on track toward truly revealing our potential. And that can be a personal — and maybe even a professional — revelation.
Don’t count the first few pennies
I’ve only just begun writing consistently. I suffered from impostor syndrome on my first day, but within 30 days of showing up daily, this unnecessarily demonic syndrome has evaporated from view.
This is because I’ve made the resolute decision to ignore the first few dollars and cents my writing attracts.
I will continue to ignore it for the first 6 months. So far, so good.
How you can apply this
When a writer is letting the pen flow from the heart, readers can tell. With the involvement of money, an artist may be tempted to audit — and edit — their art for monetary enhancement.
This can adversely affect the eventual outcome of a creative piece.
If you’re new to your writing journey like I am, I recommend that you pay no attention to how much greenback your writing pulls in for the first few months.
When you focus solely on the art form, at the expense of superimposing a price tag on it, you will invariably grow better at this skill. You’ll be able to hold your own, crafting your unique voice. You may also learn to write for the sake of writing itself, engendering intrinsic motivation to fuel your creative production.
Regardless of the platform you’re writing for (or on), and/or what “freelance” projects you’ve secured as a newbie, I suggest that you keep the dollar amount at bay till you’ve built a solid structure, from which you can eventually dip your toe in the dizzying world of valuing your art for money.
If you get paid 2 dollars in 3 months of writing, consider it a blessing. You’re literally cultivating your form and prowess for free. That’s a powerful apprenticeship.
I’ve made peace with this. I invite you to, too.
Vanity metrics can take a walk
As a fresh and committed writer, I am tempted to create an omni-channel presence for my artwork.
I am a fallible human, and get drawn into funnels that promise dopamine spikes through the day, when someone on the other end of the planet responds to my art with a heart.
However, I will be ignoring all statistics and number-based metrics for the first 6 months.
A glitzy, glossy social media presence can feel abundant. Having 10,000 followers on Instagram, 1,000 followers on Medium, or 10,000 monthly views on your blog can feel like you’re moving the needle. Conceded.
But specifically as a writer bent on churning out high-quality pieces that deliver much-required value to the world, dropping measurement statistics for the first few months of ingratiation may produce long-lasting benefits.
How you can apply this
If you have just started exploring your relationship with the pen, I recommend that you push all statistics — social media analytics, views and hits, hearts and likes, comments and shares — by the wayside for 6 months.
Just write like no one is watching, because really, no one is watching.
But this only holds weight till you build a worthy portfolio of high-impact pieces, after which you may end up getting so proficient, and so engrossed in the making of the art, that views and likes linger on the fringes of your passion for writing.
When you sit down to write, I propose that any incessant visits to your analytics pages be stalled with immediate effect, for half of your first year.
A lack of positive and uplifting statistics may discourage you from pursuing the nuts and bolts of the craft from a place of unfiltered devotion. By contrast, too many immediate markers of positive — and statistical — feedback may cause you to view your art solely from the lens of a fleeting audience, especially in the online world.
Due diligence with writing has virtues that perceptibly outstrips the highly precarious — and unpredictable — figures one may encounter in the virtual space.
Hypothetical scenarios to clarify the aforementioned suggestions
Scenario one
You’ve just begun writing a week ago. Although you don’t enjoy the subject of climate change much, you crank out a 5-minute read on the latest trends and discussions circling the subject.
It is alien to your comfort zone, and you want to avoid writing about this topic again. But you’ve published a piece this one time.
After you hit publish, you visit your statistics page three days later and discover that the piece has blown up with eyeballs and comments. Bravo. You believe that your beginner’s luck might draw the big bucks in.
But this may be misleading.
Your new worldview of your writing may suddenly be colored by hopes of another success based on numbers, as opposed to honing your craft and building true grit. This may cause you to seek out “popular trends” to cover. It may turn you into a sellout. With the vast supply of writers channeling their authentic selves online now, sellouts are spotted in an instant — especially by discerning readers, of which there is an overabundance.
You may burn out with this technique, forever reaching for the most catchy subject matter, or the most controversial topic to present to your nonexistent audience, notwithstanding an absolute lack of interest in what you’re writing about.
Creative mojo may be lost on you before you’ve even birthed a handful of heartfelt articles.
To a purist, this may be an undesirable route to greatness in this creative form, because in simple terms, you’re writing articles you care little for.
I’ve been there in the past. And this time round, I’m conscious of my approach — and gratefully so.
Scenario two
You write and publish your first piece about the same subject — climate change. And then, without poking at your statistics, you move on to writing about cryptocurrencies — a topic you harbor deep predilection for, and have domain expertise on.
Your article on climate change blows up all the same, but your six subsequent articles about digital currencies draw more attention than the half-hearted one about climate change.
Because you’ve poured your heart and soul into the process of writing about your subject of passion (in this case, cryptocurrencies), regardless of how “well” it might do numerically, you begin attracting swathes of organic followers, who now recognize you as a category champion in the field of virtual currencies.
Paradoxically, your deliberate ignorance of the quantitative feedback loop causes your presence to expand online. And because high quantity can eventually lead to high quality, your grip on the skill of clear articulation, in your articles, gets a fertile boost. Your intelligence in the burgeoning space of cryptocurrencies may be enhanced, too.
You may never encounter burnout with this mode of operation, and everyone wins.
Distilled takeaway
Someone once asked me the following question. “If you had all the money in the world, what would you write about?”
The question stumped me, had me reevaluate my writing goals, and allowed me to recalibrate my strategy to fit a new — and authentic — paradigm.
Already on my way to the 6-month mark of free-flow writing, I will not be sneaking up on my statistics at all.
Nor will I be eager to fill up my piggy bank with pocket change.
These twin devils can be misguiding, and can direct us down an unwanted path — one devoid of building resiliency with the pen.
How would you like to approach your writing process?
