How Virality Could Ruin Your Long-Term Writing Aspirations

Being famous for the wrong things is worse than being unknown.

I have recently noticed a trend. There are two kinds of pieces that go viral — ones that I look at and think — “Now that is a good template I want to follow and try to crack virality” and the others that make me feel “Wow, 54 comments, I bet most of these are bashing the author than praising them.”

I bet I am not the only one that has noticed this trend.

The first kind of virality is great and most of us aspire to emulate that and hope lady luck smiles at us.

The second kind I personally don’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole.

Why, you ask? No matter what the type of virality, more reads = more money and hopefully more followers — a win-win in the long run.

Well, yes and no.

If you write to just make an extra buck on the side and you don’t have any real aspirations to be known for your writing in the longer run, then sure — go ahead write anything you please that you think will make people read your stuff.

However, if you have any hopes to make it big or half-decent as a writer, don’t chase the short-term pennies.

Here’s why.

What you write is who you are

Well, first let us deep dive a bit into those viral stories that I don’t wish to ever write. They almost always invoke controversy — and mind you controversy is a winning formula, but the trouble is how you generate controversy.

The good controversy.

This is when you take a contrarian view from the rest of the world or the majority anyway, and back your opinion up with solid research or rational arguments.

There are always two sides to almost every story and telling the less popular one can often be controversial but can still be interesting because everyone has heard the other side, over and over again.

The bad controversy (IMHO).

This one is the kind where you create controversy for the sake of it.

I will give you a few templates of what this looks like.

“Why [add universally admired person/celebrity, preferably dead] is actually an [add expletive]”

“I hate [add racial minority] and I am proud of it”

“[Add well-known billionaire] is the reason you and I live a poor life”

“5 Tricks to Master the Best [add sexual act] Your Partner Will Thank You For”

I could go in with dozens of other examples, but I am guessing you get the idea.

What could possibly be wrong with writing a catchy story that gets thousands of eyeballs even if it is a bit controversial?

Well, a lot.

Type 1 — Celebrity shaming

This to me is often the worst kind of attempt at virality. Why? Well, because for anyone who has made a name for themselves in the world in any field, it probably took years of hard work and sacrifice to get there.

No one is perfect and there are always shades of grey in all our personal and professional lives but focusing on the flaws of others, in a way that doesn’t even fully allow them to defend themselves is not what good content creators do.

If you are to tell someone else’s story, you better present a balanced, if not fair, picture and do a thorough check on your facts before you go mud-slinging.

You will surely get a few thousand reads and hundreds of comments but they will all look like a version of the below:

“Quite insensitive of you to write trash about someone who isn’t even around / alive to defend themselves. A poor attempt at stirring people’s emotions to get popular.”

While this may give you a few bucks on that particular article and a thousand people who now recognize your name — but the sad part is they will only recognize it so they can get furious for a bit and ignore it the next time they see a story from you pop up in their feed.

Type 2 — Supporting / Embracing the wrong things

Think about a news story that everyone is talking about — let us take the death of George Floyd.

While the world is furious at the White officer who choked him to death, imagine writing about “Why I empathize with the man who killed George Floyd.”

Well, I don’t know about you but that boils my blood enough for me to click and read this viewpoint, but I also know nothing in this world will justify the act for me and I will probably still be furious at the writer for writing such a piece.

I may read and leave an angry comment and also forward it on to friends for the audacity.

But do you want to be remembered as the writer who justified a racially driven killing? Eh, not me.

Type 3 — Toying with subject matter you don’t want to be “known for”

The last example I gave in my sample titles isn’t a fundamentally wrong piece to write — the issue there is different.

Sex sells.

We all do it, not all of us talk about it, and hence those that do get plenty of reads, whether you comment or “disclose” your love for it is a different thing altogether.

The issue here is, what do you want to be known for? If you are a self-help / social issues / financial help or some other type of writer or aspire to be known for a certain niche, don’t dabble in a niche that is something you just don’t want to be associated with.

If you do, be sure to be comfortable having the tag. This doesn’t just go for sex — that is only an example.

Remember that everything you write adds to your brand value and brand recall, whether you like it or not.

And you will never be able to guess which piece of yours gets loved or hated. So, write each piece assuming the whole world will read it and know you wrote it. Don’t write a story thinking “well, let me experiment with this, not like it is going to do well, so who cares!”

While getting famous and being read by thousands of people is what every writer wishes for, there are certain, quite significant downsides to popularity too.

My only suggestion would be to be careful and mindful while writing every single piece and only write stuff that you can proudly claim as your own, and live with the picture it paints of you as a writer.

Wishing you all the virality you deserve!