Do Not Worry About Curation

Just keep writing

Long before the subject of curation came up in my writing life, I was familiar with the word curator as someone who collected items for museums. One thing I always wondered was how they decided which things to include. This belongs, that does not.

If a museum curator were to choose the right items, would it mean more visitors? More prestige? And what of the curator? Would it mean more income? Better employment opportunities? The answers to these questions could provide clues to curation decisions.

However, these questions might not always apply to a curator of articles and stories. Some of this curation work is likely being completed by company and platform algorithms, programmed by humans — at least I hope. While the rest of the curation duties continue to fall to human endeavor, there will still be guidelines, habits, and preferences in play, all to satisfy underlying goals and personal ambition.

The bottom line here is the business of curation has its own agenda, its own vision and purpose, its own rules, and its own politics. Detailing the do’s and don’ts of curation can become its own business. If that is what you wish to do, then pursue it to your hearts content.

For a moment, let us get back to the business of writing. Your personal story or passion-infused article might not meet someone’s or some algorithm’s criteria for curation. Does that mean you should give up on writing?

Absolutely not!

Your unique story is relevant to the whole of humanity. It is your chance to put down in words the thoughts of your mind, the emotions of your spirit, and the dreams of your soul. As long as you approach your writing with the balance of humanity in mind, there should be no preference, no person, no platform, no rule, and certainly no robot that should keep you from expressing yourself. The promise of further distribution by a platform will never equal the power of self-distribution that comes from writing, nor will it ever be as fulfilling.

It is not about curation. But as you work to refine your ability, to improve your skill in connecting your words to observations, feelings, and people, curation will come. Not necessarily by the path, the platform, or even the time frame you intended, but it will come all the same.

So, do you have a story that is begging to be written? A story that goes to bed with you at night, wakes up with you in the morning, and occupies a fair portion of your thoughts throughout the day? A story that does not care about curation, or about the rules it should follow? Just a story ready to break out of its chains and fly free into the world.

That is the story you should be writing. That is the story we should be reading. And it is all up to you. Do not get distracted or discouraged by the noise of curation, because as much good as curation wishes to do, it is also good at creating barriers to expression. Your expression. Our expression.

Write me a story and tag me in it. Not just any story. The story. The one that reveals you have been holding out on us. Holding out on the world, and holding out on humanity. The story you have always wanted to write. Maybe you have been waiting for someone to ask for it. I am asking for it now.

Do it. And do it like you mean it!

Thank you for reading. You can subscribe to my future content here. I share my articles on Leadership and Management and their application to your world on my publication, The Endeavor Perspective. You can also check out my fantasy and fiction publication, A Bit of Madness, as well as its non-fiction counterpart, A Bit of Genius.