Selfish Writing Is A Road That Leads To Nowhere

Why writing for yourself is obstructing your potential

There is a word for selfish writing. That word is ‘journalling’. When we write about our thoughts and feelings without lending consideration to our audience, we’re just publicising a journal.

There is nothing inherently wrong with selfish writing. Your public journal is harming no one and it certainly won’t make you a worse writer. When writing selfishly does start to become problematic, is in pursuit of an audience.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for me when I realised that no one gave a shit about the thoughts and feelings that I took great care in publishing to the internet. Ideas bounced around in my mind until I eventually came to the startling realisation that I wasn’t giving anybody a reason to care.

I was writing selfishly and expecting readers to be selfless in return by investing their valuable time. I was failing to impart any kind of value to a non-existent audience.

What does value mean?

The number one piece of advice that I see experienced Medium contributors pass on to beginners like myself is to ‘add value’ to an audience.

Deliberating over this advice left me feeling hopeless.

I’m not an expert in tech, I haven’t publish eBooks or sold courses, I have no idea how to create hundreds of different passive income streams and personal finance is so boring to me that it makes me want to gauge my eyes out.

How could I possibly dream of adding value with my writing without being an expert in something?

As I toiled over a question that threatened to cut short my determination to publish my writing, I came to a realisation on the meaning of value.

I considered some of the books that I’d read lately. I reminded myself that I hadn’t been slogging my way through the Lord of the Rings books so that I could become an expert on Hobbits and the Elvish language.

I’d been reading them because they brought me immense joy.

I realised that joy is value. Satisfaction is value. A new lense through which I can see the world is value. Those long-time Medium writers weren’t suggesting that I needed to educate the internet after all — there just had to be something in it for the readers.

Value doesn’t only mean education. It’s just one facet of the word. Value is simply providing a net positive to an audience in any form.

This morning I read a stunning piece of writing from John P. Weiss. Thanks to John, I’m starting the day feeling optimistic about the world. His writing struck an emotional chord with me — when writing makes you feel something, it’s adding value.

Turning selfish writing into selfless writing

The truth is, no one is going to care about your trip to Paris. No one is going to care about your childhood dog. No one is going to care about your favourite book.

They will care about the story of an inspiring small business owner that you met in Paris. They’ll care about the life lessons that owning a dog taught you about mortality and they’ll care about the new perspective on life that you gained from your favourite book.

They’ll care because you gave them a reason to.

When I write, I have to stop myself from being selfish. I reflect on the thing that I’ve chosen to write about and I take a moment to enquire as to why someone might care. I often find that the answer is that they won’t.

The next question is, how do I encourage them to?

As much as I’d love to be an educator, I’m not. So I often find that the way to engage with my audience is by offering up some vulnerability. I place my effort into striking an emotional chord. I’m comfortable saying that I’ll often fail in doing so, but I get to learn something new myself and the value doesn’t disappear down the toilet.

When writing, put your audience first. If you’re not doing that then be frank with yourself and accept that you’re being selfish. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, remember, it just won’t bring you success if it’s an audience you’re chasing.

If you want to build an audience then you need to be selfless with your words. It’s hard to do. I’m trying my best to hammer this point home to myself as much as possible so that I can produce my best work and bring value to my very small audience.

If you do the same then you’ll be on a road to somewhere. It might just take a while.

A big thank you to Sharon Meyers, Ed.D. for dropping an idea for today’s article onto my lap. The epitome of selfless writing!