Quality vs Quantity: Does High Quantity Mean Low Quality?

Should you only write a few articles a month? Or should you write as often as possible?

There are so many articles on the debate of whether to focus on quality or quantity. Some say to publish as much as you can, as often as you can — practice makes perfect. Others say to take your time writing to produce the best work that stands out from the crowd.

Quantity and quality are something worth considering in life. If we were talking about relationships, then it makes sense to focus on one person instead of jumping from partner to partner. In a relationship sense, quality trumps quantity.

But does the same apply to writing? Should you only write a few articles a month? Or should you write as often as possible?

For this article, I researched some top writers on Medium and I will analyze the writing habits that have brought them so much success. So let's dive in.

For the month of September, Niklas Göke published 11 articles. Michael Thompson published 7. Ryan Holiday published 3, and Michael Simmons published 0 (but when he publishes his articles go up to 39 minutes).

On the other hand, Tim Denning published 45 articles. Ayodeji Awosika published 29 and Shannon Ashley published 19 (with some of her stories going up to 13mins).

I published 37 articles for the month of September.

Quality: After Taking Weeks to Write One Article, the More likely Readers will be Impressed

Michael Simmons says he won't publish an article until it’s the best that has ever been written on the subject. But one thing you will notice is as successful as Simmons is, he doesn't have top writer statuses in his name.

This is because to keep top writer status on a topic, one has to write consistently under the topic and Simmons published nothing at all for the month of September.

The last time he published was July 1st. I assume he is working on a high-quality 59-minute article that will break the charts! (jokes). Here is what he had to say on the topic:

I would improve each article until I couldn’t anymore. This meant that I would spend more than 50 hours per article.

The higher quality something is in terms of the underlying ideas and how it is packaged, the more likely it is to be shared over and over, which then makes it more likely that other publications will syndicate it, republish it, promote it through their social media and email channels, write about it, and feature it on their front page after reading your work.

And while you won't have many chances of writing a viral article, every piece you write stands a better chance — Michael Simmons.

With each article, aim to write the best article that has ever been written on the subject.

Michael Thompson says he generally waits a week before publishing an article. Here is what he says about why he prefers to focus on quality instead of quantity:

Have you ever been on an interview and after it was over you kicked yourself for not expressing yourself as well as you could have or even forgotten to say something that was important to you?

The beauty of writing is before we publish, we get to go back and polish up our thoughts before sharing them.

Sure, there have been times when I’ve gone on a rant and I’ve been able to write exactly what I wanted to express in a timely and effective manner. But for most posts, especially the ones that have done really well, I took my time and the reason for this is two-fold:

As human beings, we miss things. Disconnecting from an article and later coming back to it with fresh eyes before publishing will increase the chances that you’ll catch your mistakes.

My ideas need time to connect. I can’t count the number of times I waited to publish an article and while doing a final round of edits I found a hole or discovered a section that needed sprucing up. More times than not, these same fixes turn out to be the parts that readers highlight or comment on the most.

Again, this is what works for me. But in the three years I’ve been publishing on this platform, not once have I said to myself after making the hard decision to slow down, “Man, these changes made my article worse — I should have run it sooner!”

Plus, if you’re honest with yourself, you may realize the only person putting pressure on yourself to publish at a fast pace is you. So give yourself a week-long break and line up posts that you 100% stand behind — Michael Thompson.

A handful of great articles are both more effective and valuable than having a ton of average ones

Niklas Göke is an incredibly brilliant man. He churns out one quality article after the other. Every single article the man writes is so good and thought-provoking. When I discovered him, I spent the entire night reading his stories.

Last month he only published 11 articles and most of his articles are short. He is the editor of a publication called “Four Minute Books” where he only publishes 4-minute articles or less.

This proves that an article doesn't have to be 12 minutes long to be a great high quality article.

Ryan Holiday says he doesn't believe in routines, he believes in practices. Practice makes perfect. While this isn't directly related to writing, it still makes sense. Here is what he has to say:

Practices are different. Practices are things you do regularly — perhaps daily, perhaps not — but in no particular order. They are things you return to, time and time again, to center yourself. To reset. To reconnect. To focus.

Practice will always make perfect

After reading work from Simmons, Thompson, Göke, and Holiday, you leave feeling extremely satisfied and very impressed. You remember them and what they can do so well. And that is the impact of a high-quality article.

Quantity: The More You Write, the More Your Chances of being Recognized

Shannon Ashley says:

One of the most common questions I get from new online writers is how often they should write. Usually, when they’re asking that question, I get the sense that what they’re really asking me is how many finished pieces they should publish.

Most people will throw out a number and ask if that’s “okay.” Once or twice a day? Three or four times a week? Twice monthly? How many pieces are too little and how many are too much?

But there’s another side to that question when you flip it over and it sounds a lot like, how can I write as little as possible and still become an overnight success?

If you’ve been asking how often you should publish a new story, you might be asking the wrong question. And if you’ve been hoping for somebody to tell you that you don’t have to write very often to become wildly successful, you are definitely asking the wrong question.

Writing isn’t passive work. It’s highly unusual to write one piece and live well off the royalties. And when online writers are frequently (and sadly) considered a dime a dozen, then you’ve seriously got to separate yourself from the pack.

Can you write with consistency? When we talk about consistency, we’re talking about steadiness. Evenness. The idea is that you teach your readers what they can expect from you.

How often you write is wholly up to you and your schedule. We all have different obligations and responsibilities. You might have a full-time job already. You might have a family.

Only you know how important your success is to you. And you are the only person who can decide how many hours to invest in your writing.

Personally? Writing is my full-time job. That means I am writing every single day, and frankly, I don’t even rest on the weekends. Often, I write at all hours whether it’s AM or PM. I am consumed by my own writing efforts. Not because I am better than you, but because I recognize that this is my personal endeavor and I need to give it my all — Shannon Ashley.

Quality versus quantity really is an overrated battle. Why can’t you write a lot of quality articles because you practiced and improved?

Tim Denning says:

I took some time to peruse the profiles of Medium Writers such as Tom Kuegler, Shannon Ashley, Shaun Kernan, Shaunta Grimes, Michael Thompson, and Jessica Wildfire. Do you know why these writers are killing it on Medium?

They keep publishing new stories even when the world sleeps or everybody is on holidays around the world for the same reason. If you don’t believe me, click each of their profiles. Many of them even publish on public holidays or on sacred days that no man/woman is supposed to publish.

Writing consistently created more successful writers than not.

Tim says even though he can write every day, he chooses not to (he might not write every day, but the man publishes every day!) Here’s his advice on writing too much:

Try not to overdo it. Right now I could write every single day, but I purposely do not. Starting out can also make you really excited to the point where you overdo it. Overdoing it leads to you feeling as though you have run out of ideas.

I agree with the above point. After a while, when you've written so much and grown as a writer, most people slow it down and lean more into producing quality content.

Quantity is the road to quality

Ayodeji Awosika believes quantity leads to quality. Here is what he had to say from one of his YouTube videos:

Quantity leads to quantity. There is no dichotomy between the two. Repetition is the best way to become good at any creative endeavor. I often get asked, “How do I become a writer? How did you become so successful? How did you learn to write so well”

And I tell them, “I wrote 600 blog posts, two books, and now a third.” I wrote millions of words. I sat down, opened up my laptop (demonstrates opening a laptop), took my fingers (points to fingers) placed them on a keyword, and moved them a bunch of times (demonstrating how the hands move on a keyboard). That is how I got good at writing.

Just write a bunch of words and that's how you produce quality content

Everybody knows who Tim Denning, Shannon Ashley, and Ayodeji Awosika are. That’s because you see their names all over the place. They show up every day and deliver.

Quality vs Quantity is not a Debate. One Leads to the Other

From this analysis on these outstanding writers from both groups, quantity led to their ability to write quality articles which brought them so much success.

And because every time they write they are constantly practicing their craft, they can now write plenty of high-quality articles in a very short amount of time.

The more you write, the more your chances of someone stumbling across your work on Medium or even on Google.

The more you write, the more chances you have of producing viral content. And the more you write, the quicker you will grow as a writer who writes quality articles.

Practice makes perfect. The more you write, the more experience you gain and the more quality work you produce.

Key Takeaways

To write quality articles, you need to write a lot of words. You need to write more to master your craft. You need to write often to improve your skills. The more you write, the quicker you learn how to navigate around challenges. Everything you write now helps you write better the next time around.

Focusing on quality alone is focusing on perfection, and focusing on perfection can sometimes hold you back. If you write with the desire of being perfect, you will keep going back to rewrite, re-edit and proofread.

You should strive to produce quality work, but focusing too much on quality prevents you from getting the work done.

To stand out in high competition and keep the target audience consistently engaged, the quantity of the content is important. There is no disadvantage in writing often. I can’t think of one.

And also just because you spend 50 hours on one article alone does not guarantee that it will do significantly better. The only guarantee is that it will take more time to create. The more time we spend on something, the more invested we become in it. The more we want it to be perfect. The more we hold on tight.

You might spend hours researching statistics and creating graphs just to find that all your readers want to know is your opinion. You might record your podcast dozens of times to get it “perfect” just to find that your audience doesn’t care about your little mistakes and understands it only makes you human.

Meanwhile, the ones that chose quantity have already created 6 pieces of content by now. While you are thinking, they are producing and publishing.

But at the end of the day, you are the only one who knows where you are in your writing journey. You know if you need to focus on quantity to master your craft. And you know, after you’ve written so much and found your place, that’s it is time to step up and produce high-quality content.

So, when the question arises and you’re asked which is best to focus on, just say this battled is overrated! Do what feels right for you.

Quantity is the most predictable path to quality. There is not one without the other. They go hand in hand.

What are you currently focusing on right now? Quality or quantity? I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

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