WRITING
How to Build Grit by Writing: Use These Tips Today
Lessons from a novice’s first few weeks on a new platform — and how you can use what I’ve learned in weeks to improve your writing today
I signed up for a free trial of Medium on February 22. I decided I would use it as a single place to hold all of my articles from college. I had seen some of my friends write on Medium, and I was always intrigued by the idea, but I never gave it serious consideration. Truthfully, I was actually trying to develop my own website at first, and stumbling across Medium in the process rekindled my writing ambitions.
Before I get into what writing on Medium has taught me, I need to tell you a little more about me. That way, you’ll get more out of what I learned and be able to apply it to your own life.
I’ve been an avid reader my whole life, and in hindsight, I must have always had an inner passion for writing. My first “piece” was in an orange composition book from first grade many years ago, and I wrote about anthropomorphized animals in a fictional world, much like the popular Redwall children’s fantasy series by Brian Jacques.
Of course, it wasn’t as good as Mr. Jacques’ work. Cut me some slack, I was 6 at the time. Unsurprisingly, the Redwall series ended up becoming one of my all-time favorites as a kid.
I say all this to say, you need to find something you’re passionate about to develop grit.
What is grit?
Grit is a term best defined by Angela Duckworth as when:
“passion and sustained persistence are applied towards long-term achievement, with no particular concern for rewards and recognition along the way. It combines resilience, ambition, and self-control in the pursuit of goals that take months, years, or even decades.”
Duckworth is a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania who studies grit, and she is also a MacArthur Fellow and New York Times bestselling author for her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.
So what is grit, really? I’ve always thought about grit as the magical things you can accomplish when you put your mind towards things you’re genuinely interested in, without an ulterior motive like fame or fortune. This may sound abstract or theoretical in writing, but there are many practical success stories of individuals who’ve exhibited grit throughout their lives.
Why no ulterior motive, you may ask? Because it can corrupt your work. For example, if I joined Medium to make money instead of just to write about topics I’m genuinely interested in, combining my interests of writing and healthcare, for instance, then I might start writing articles that are clickbait-y in my attempts to go viral and make money instead of writing from the heart.
Want proof? Someone that immediately comes to mind for me is LeBron James. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that the guy has accomplished some major things in his career and his life. And he’s still going. Sure, he made some mistakes early on in his career, but overall, I’d say he fared much better than any of the rest of us would with millions when we were 18.
What’s even more impressive about LeBron, though, is how he not only stays committed to his craft even at the age of 36, considered old in many NBA circles, but also somehow continues to improve even this late in his career. That’s one of the many key things that separates LeBron from the rest, and it proves he has grit. He has it in spades. It’ll be a sad day for NBA fans everywhere when LeBron retires.
Still not convinced? Understandable, maybe you hate LeBron. He has a lot of those. I’ll give you another example of someone you may be familiar with already. His name is James Clear, and he’s the author of the New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits. In addition to his book, he’s published over 250 articles on his website, which is a pretty impressive feat in and of itself.
I would say James Clear is an example of a writer who has grit — he clearly has a knack for writing, but he also applies that passion persistently — he has perseverance, which is an essential quality for a writer. If you want to get published, make money, or just find other people like you, at the end of the day you’re going to need to write. A lot. That’s the only way to succeed in this industry, and it’s something that the majority of top Medium writers have done.
How To Build Grit Writing for Medium
If you’re wondering how all this applies to you, you can easily use the same principles of perseverance and passion to build your own brand on Medium. If you want to build your own grit, the first step is finding an appropriate community that shares the same interests as you. If you’re reading this, you’ve already found that in Medium. Now, you have a network of potential peers to collaborate with and learn from, which helps you grow your craft.
The next step is to figure out how what your passions have taught you about life, or how you can share a unique piece of knowledge you’ve acquired in learning about your passion. For example, you enjoy writing and want to learn more about it, which is why you’re reading The Writing Cooperative.
Maybe you have a piece of information you’ve learned about writing that you use to this day that you acquired after going through a unique life experience. That’s great, write a story about it and share your knowledge with the rest of us.
Your article doesn’t do as great as you thought? That’s okay. This is where perseverance comes in. Nobody becomes James Clear or Justin Cox overnight. It takes time. It takes repeated failure, learning from that failure, not making those mistakes next time, and more failure. It also takes learning from your minor successes. Sure, ten cents might not be a lot, but if it earns more than another article that only earned a nickel, learn what separated the two and try to mimic your earlier successes.
I’m still trying to build grit. As a procrastinator, Medium has been the perfect platform for me to build perseverance and learn from my failures through its Partner Program. I have articles I thought would do well that have fewer views, but others that are self-published and more personal that ended up faring better. I learned from that, and I intend to continue with my earlier plan to write more similar pieces about life experiences and lessons learned that seem to resonate more with my followers.
Do the same with your followers. Find communities in Medium publications and writers that share your interests, and engage with them by responding to their articles. Follow some people, and maybe someone who likes what you have to say will follow you back. Find out what these people who engage with your writing like, and try to imitate that. Try, try again with your writing. Read from more seasoned writers and hone your craft. Who knows, you may end up becoming the next Tim Denning.
Enjoyed reading this article? Follow me on Medium and subscribe to my free newsletter for more! I’m a medical student from Atlanta, Georgia interested in writing, health disparities, and clinical research.