Writing

Uncertainty As A Treasure Trove for Writers

Writing practice requires strong tolerance to uncertainty as a key success factor for content creation

The treasure can be hidden in uncertain environments and situations.

Therefore, as leading content creators, writers need to take advantage of this treasure. From my experience, one of the best contributing success factor to creativity, innovation, and inventions is being able to tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity.

Tolerance to uncertainty is a non-negotiable leadership skill.

Well known and certain environments and situations can yield in little to no contribution to growth.

Studies show that high tolerance to uncertainty is a primary leadership attribute.

Leadership starts with risk-taking and continues with smart risk management. This is a well understood and accepted fact in our society.

Leaders, especially entrepreneurs, deal with future outcomes.

Leading entrepreneurs create the future by making intangible ideas, tangible product and services.

Contemporary writers must be entrepreneurs to survive and thrive in this economic climate. The competition is overwhelming. As writers, we need to find distinguishing factors.

One of the best methods to distinguish ourselves from the crowd is our leadership and entrepreneurial traits for creating the future.

The future is unknown to humans. Outcomes can be affected by a myriad of causes beyond our control. Therefore, uncertainty is a reality to deal with future events.

This challenging situation and phenomenon make it compelling, meaningful, and invaluable for leadership growth. Needless to say, if it was easy, everyone could be a leader, an entrepreneur, and a writer.

To be able to tolerate uncertainty, the prerequisite is to find ways to understand our primitive brain and tame our alarming amygdala. I plan to provide some practical guidance on this critical topic in a separate article as it is an extensive topic by itself in the cognitive and neuroscience.

From leadership studies, we know that uncertainty is a closely related term to risk management in any professional field. Taking risk is one of the necessities and most fundamental characteristics of leaders for success.

Writers are the leaders in the content development field.

Risk and opportunity are like inseparable yin and yang for content developers.

Leading writers know that no risk will yield in no opportunity.

Leading writers know that opportunities are created by taking risks; therefore they tolerate to uncertainties by conquering their primitive brain (Reptilian). They take calculated risks using a unique combination of logic (Neo-cortex) and intuition (Limbic system). Then, with this integrated full brain approach, they mitigate the risks to be able to deal with uncertain situations and environments systematically and creatively.

One effective way to deal with uncertain situations is leveraging past knowledge and established patterns.

Prolific writers tend to learn from past failures and use these valuable learning constructs to mitigate risks for their future content creation. They iteratively progress for productivity.

Dealing with uncertainties and ambiguities creates new options and choices, leading to innovation and inventions. Prolific and effective writers need more options and chances to thrive.

We know that most of the eminent writers are innovators and inventors in their fields. Even though this is more evident and accepted in the non-fiction genre, this may also apply to fiction.

For example, creating new and unique characters, never seen in previous novels or poems can be a prime example of fiction goals. As a consumer of fiction, I found the characters in some literary Nobel laureates fascinating. Those characters are so unique and mind-stretching. For example, Lagerlöf, Tagore, Yeats, Hesse, Camus, Solzhenitsyn, Pamuk, Neruda, Tokarczuk, and Tranströmer are a few coming to my mind now.

From my reading experience, it was noticeable that these eminent writers tolerate uncertainty and cleverly find ways to experience their readers to have a pleasant journey within uncertain situations and environments.

Leveraging uncertain situations may create more options to choose for writers. By linking those new options in a creative, innovative, intelligent, and the integrated way can create new insightful content solutions.

As writers, we are creators, leaders, and educators for our readers.

As leading content creators, writers require tolerance to uncertainty and ambiguity in life. Embracing uncertainty, taking calculated risks, and managing risks bravely, we not only can create opportunities for ourselves but also provide new meanings, new insights, and sustainable solutions to our readers.

Thank you for reading my perspectives.

I wish you the best.

About the Author

I am a technologist, postdoctoral researcher, published author, editor, and digital marketing strategist with four decades of industry experience.

I write articles for Medium, NewsBreak, and Vocal Media. On Medium, I established ILLUMINATION, ILLUMINATION-Curated, ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR, ILLUMINATION Book Chapters, Technology Hits, SYNERGY, and Readers Hope publications supporting 11,600+ writers on Medium.

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