Writing|Improvement|Personal Goals

Why Consistently Good Enough Will Probably Never Be Enough

It’s virtually an imperceptible difference between good and great

Let’s ask ourselves a simple question. Who are we writing for? Yes, it’s a simple question, but unfortunately, for a lot of us, the answers are varied and often complicated. I’ve been writing here since September of 2017, and I’ve read very many writers who consistently mention they’re just writing for themselves. They’re writing because the act of writing something brings about a pleasurable and somewhat satisfying moment to their day.

If that’s the case, if what they write is good enough to make them happy, then that should be all that matters, correct? Well, it is until a ton of these “write for me” writers start mentioning their stats are tumbling and nobody is reading their work.

Wait, what?

Didn’t they just tell us they were writing for themselves? Why should it matter no one else is reading their work? As I said, the answer to the original question is complicated. If your writing is good enough to make you happy, then won’t it be good enough for the rest of the reading population?

Possibly, but most likely not. And this situation really comes into play when you, as a writer, are trying to draw an audience in to read your work. Now, you’re not just writing for you, are you?

Whether you’re writing for just you or for an intended audience, writing good enough is just that. Good enough. It’s much like the old saying about government work. You know the one, right? It’s not terrible, but it ain’t all that great either.

Think average.

If you’re a writer who’s satisfied with being consistently good enough, then I hate to tell you this (actually I don’t), but being consistently good enough will probably never be good enough. Being good enough means you’ve reached a semi-satisfying plateau with your writing. A place where you aren’t struggling to write something. A place where you literally go on auto-pilot each day and crank something out.

We want/need pieces we write to zoom off the charts in a non-COVID viral kind of way. We want/need to step up our game and cross the imperceptible line from good to great.

Trust me, myself included, there are a shit ton of writers here who are good enough. The problem is these same shit tons of writers, again, myself included, have a burning internal desire to accomplish more. We want/need more people to read our work. We want more views. We want/need pieces we write to zoom off the charts in a non-COVID viral kind of way. We want/need to step up our game and cross the imperceptible line from good to great.

We so want to be great at what we do.

If you’ve reached the point, dear writer. If you’re sitting there after all these years of writing thinking your work is good enough, but it just ain’t there yet, I hear ya. If you’re a writer like me, who’s been actively producing for the better part of thirty years, telling you the best way to improve is to keep writing happens to be no brainer. The problem is if you’ve been writing for a long time and you’ve never made any solid traction, you’re probably just like me, writing good enough, but never writing great.

So how do we get there? How do we get from good enough writing to great writing?

First, we eat a bit of crow. For some of us more stubborn writers (count me in that group), we eat a lot of crow. We need to force ourselves to realize we need help.

We need to improve. Not just say it out loud and nod our heads. We need to knuckle down and get our butts on the path to improvement, on the very long road for some, maybe most, of us to great.

We need to solicit the aid of writing coaches or attend writing workshops or creative writing classes. Hell, maybe we need all three. We need to do all the things we did when we started so many years ago when we didn’t have a clue how to get where we wanted to go or where in the hell that mystical place was.

We need to improve. Not just say it out loud and nod our heads. We need to knuckle down and get our butts on the path to improvement, on the very long road for some, maybe most, of us to great.

Many of you are probably thinking it’s not always about the money P.G. I don’t want to monetize my creativity. That’s not why I started writing in the first place.

The thing is, up until now, I never said anything about money. Some of the greatest writers on this planet of ours never made gobs of money or even died paupers. If you stop to think about (or Google it), you can point out a bevy of great writers who didn’t make a ton of dough.

And yet, they were freaking great writers.

I’m firmly convinced there are oodles and oodles of great writers here. Hell, I daresay one day I’ll be one as well. The point is, we just haven’t crossed that line from good enough to great.

Remember this as you frown and screw up your nose at some of the stuff your creative writing instructor is having you do. Being a great writer is not about being finally being discovered.

It’s about doing the work and continuously improving until you eventually step over the imperceptible line from being a good enough writer to a great one.

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Thank you so much for reading. You didn’t have to, but I’m certainly glad you did.

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