The Triad That Will Make You a Better Writer

The right reasons to write and the cause that’s what’s stopping you.

Everyone who has “writing” as some sort of occupation, either as a profession, a hobby, or a need, gets eventually to a point of stagnation.

Some would call this writer’s block, although I don’t agree with that concept. We all face moments in our lives where we just don’t know what to write about anymore besides recycling one of those already re-chewed stories we wrote last summer.

Another option is to write about not knowing what to write, but what kind of person does that, right!?

I struggle with this issue frequently. There are weeks where I write 5 stories then I dive in a 5-week-long hiatus…

I can blame my lack of method, my inconstant routines, my very doubtful writing talent, or just claiming that life happens and I can only wear a few hats at once, and sometimes being a parent, a partner, or a full-time employee is momentarily more mandatory than being a writer.

Or I can simply admit that I’m lazy AF, but let's leave that in the open…

However, if I put on my smartass hat and straighten my imaginary hipster glasses, I can come to a different conclusion:

One cannot write well when having nothing to tell.

It rimes and it’s true.

Why would you want to write something and show it publicly if you have nothing meaningful to say? That’s just adding noise to an already noisy world.

So to write something — something reasonably good at least — we first need to own the knowledge so we may pass it forward to whoever may find it useful.

In the words of Silas, the wise character from Neil Gaiman’s beautiful The Graveyard Book:

Some skills can be attained by education, and some by practice, and some by time.

Replace “skills” with “knowledge” and you have the recipe for wisdom.

It is very important to maintain a balance between these 3 pillars, the Triad of Wisdom:

• Education — Any form of knowledge acquisition, either through traditional school or self-learning, mainly through books, allowing you to absorb other people’s wisdom.
• Practice — Learning by doing is essential, because it lets you experience first hand the activities, with all the particularities attached to it.
• Time — Basically, LIFE. There’s no specific age at when someone becomes wise(r), and it will be different to each one of us, but time is necessary for making our thoughts and values aligned with our true self, as long as we use that time to think about important matters to us. And don’t confuse Time/Life with “aging”. Simply existing doesn’t confer you any special knowledge.

So what does all this have to do with writing?

Well, if you don’t dedicate yourself to any of these concepts, you can’t possibly have anything useful to say.

If you focus only on one pillar, you might drop some golden nuggets every once in a while, but you won’t have the structure needed to be a reliable source of knowledge.

If you do 2 out of 3, you can call yourself a writer and you’ll be a valuable contributor to other peoples' life.

Do the 3 and you’ll be a true influencer. Your stories will be original and will resonate with a lot of people, giving you a crowd of followers.

Live a lot, read a lot, write a lot, on that order, and you’ll become someone worth listening to.

Is that all it takes?

I’m convinced that if you dedicate a big part of your life to these 3 pillars you’ll be in the top 5% of content creators in terms of impact in people’s lives, either that be a global audience or your niche of choice.

With that said, I can’t obviously ignore the talent factor.

Talent is real and there are people blessed with more than others and I won’t pretend that that doesn’t make a difference, but I’m also sure that if you work on the 3 pillars consistently, you’ll make that difference residual.

Read great books, live experiences that will give you fresh topics to write about, and think about the issues that you consider important, let those ideas mature and then share them with the world.

It’s easy to fall in the temptation of dumping articles just to get views, followers, and money, but writing for such selfish reasons is looking for the low-hanging fruit.

Don’t be part of the noise, become a part of the melody and inspire your readers.

Happy writing!