The Writer’s Struggle

The messages I receive most often are from writers for whom nothing is moving is an iteration of this :

“I’ve been writing for months, even years, but feel like i’m up against a mountain impossible to lift”

The struggles of the writer can be many: loss of creativity, blank pages, burnout, fatigue, the feeling that our writing is bland, the feeling that we’re not getting any better… but one of the ailments that comes up most often is this one : nothing is moving.

A tiny chat and i can feel the months of despair in my interlocutor’s words. They are discouraged, tired, they struggle.

And i feel it because i was in the exact same spot. Writing long lines for no one to read them. Spend hours writing something I thought was good, only to see it stagnate at a few views (which are probably mine after I’ve refresh the page a few times).

We don’t know what to do. You feel lost on a road where light is scarce.

And today, I’m going to try and shed some sparkle on that path.

2023 is a new era where the codes of the past no longer work.

Professions are changing and the way the world works is evolving at exponential speed. Being a writer today is not the same as being a writer a decade ago.

The publishing world is transforming, the writing profession is undergoing profound changes with the arrival of AI, and there has never been a more uncertain time for a new writer than the present.

Writers find themselves in a complex situation, on their own, where they have to make choices about the roads they want to take.

The traditional route is still possible. Write, send your manuscripts to publishing houses and hope for a positive response, but entry tickets are given out in dribs and drabs. Many hoping, few chosen.

There’s still the road of self-publishing your writings. Platforms are also multiplying: amazon or marketplace digital. But the writer who publishes his book is faced with a second problem: lack of traffic and visibility.

He’s competing with thousands of self-published books every day, and without a solid source of traffic, his book won’t exist. He’ll still have few sales (If he has family or friends who love him.)

The third road open to him: creating an audience Choose a platform, provide value and receive readership for your content. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. You’ll need good branding. It requires respect for your niche. If you’re giving dating advice, don’t expect to sell fantasy novels. Provide enough value to get follows. Have a style with enough impact to be liked and shared.

In addition to being a writer, you’re also a content creator, two ENTIRELY different professions.

The writer writes what he likes to write. The content creator creates impactful content to build an audience.

It sounds like the same thing: both create content. But it’s fundamentally different.

The writer produces his art. He may well want to write about a very unpopular idea. Writing makes him happy.

The content creator produces what will enable him to increase his audience. His content is tailored to his niche and target audience. He creates content related to the services he’s going to sell. There’s consistency between his branding and his content.

The writer is only a name while the content creator is a brand. He may well decide to write sci-fi one day and poetry the next. His art is published according to his inspirations.

The modern writer therefore finds it extremely difficult to promote his work. Many set out to build an audience, but make the mistake of getting stuck in a niche. For a year, they’ve been publishing content on one subject, only to find that they now want to talk about something else. They lose their audience’s attention and find themselves discouraged.

The modern writer faces many challenges in monetizing his content, and it’s crucial that he gets the hang of it quickly, otherwise he’ll spend years struggling to sell his content.

In a nutshell: - there are several routes open to you: publishing, self-publishing and building an audience. - publishing is the royal road if you can find the right people - self-publishing is doomed to failure without traffic - building an audience is a tough road, but a ticket to freedom.

Building an audience will also play on many levers: - publishers will be interested in you; if you already have a large online audience, you have the proof of concept that your writing is good. - When you self-publish your book, you’ll have an audience to distribute it to. - if you want to work and freelance, you’ll have a massive portfolio catalog and, once again, social proof that your content is being read and shared.

In the end, writing is the easiest part of being a modern writer. It’s getting your readers that’s hard, because you have to transform yourself into something thay you aren’t : a content creator and a marketer.

I strongly encourage you to read every book on psychology and persuasion you can find, as this will be one of the keys to selling your content.

And if you want to build an audience, you can follow me, as I’ll be doing a series of posts on how you can do it and avoid all the mistakes I’ve made.

If you’ve been writing for a long time but nothing’s moving, I hope this article has given you some pointers to finding your writer’s path.

If you are a writer, don’t hesitate to say hi in the comments. If you are struggling with something, tell me and if i can, i’ll help. I’m also checking most of the profile in the comments to find new friends.

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