Write Something Important. I Dare You!

Writing is not all about followers and claps

Recently the British government announced that it intends to award medals to nurses and front line health workers who have done so much of the heavy lifting during the COVID crisis. I applaud the idea of paying recognition to these people but why not remunerate them properly instead. For years nurses and carers have been at the back of the queue when it comes to earning a fair salary. Medals and a weekly hand-clapping session are all very well, but surely now is the time to recognize just what a vital service these people provide, crisis or no crisis.

My point here is not really just about care workers. This article is aimed at you the writer. We all hunger after claps and followers but constantly recycling the same tired old pieces about how to be a better writer and how to get curated tends to become a little sad after a while.

As a writer, you have a voice, even if only a small one. This platform gives you the potential to exercise that voice to say something important from time to time.

Nurses and care workers may not be the issue that tweaks your button, but there must be something more important to you than rehashing ‘how-to’ articles.

I don’t expect this piece to gain much traction. As Robert Turner so eloquently put it in the article below, fluff articles are what garner attention in this self-orientated world we live in. That doesn’t mean you have to follow the already well-beaten path.

I don’t care if I don’t get many claps. What is important is that I am using this opportunity to express something I believe to be of significance, not just to myself but to society. It is a responsibility and it is one that every writer should share.

My voice may not be loud, but politicians have very acute hearing and if enough people speak out then change will happen. With elections in the offing, politicians are like deer grazing in a wheat field. They constantly need to lift their heads and scan the horizon, even if it is for votes rather than some concealed hunter. The fact that our health workers are so badly paid is a social issue and one which we cannot simply lay at the door of our political tight fists. If you, the writer, feel strongly about this issue, or any other for that matter, then shout about it, for heaven’s sake.

We live in a weird world at the moment. Care workers go unacknowledged and underpaid, the climate is in crisis and we face an unprecedented epidemic while Jeff Bezos earns more money in one second than an average worker does in a week.

I don’t believe in communism, but at the same time, I do believe we need a fairer and more equal system.

I can’t make grand gestures toward creating that better system, but I can make small ones through my writing, and so can you.

Go ahead, write the millionth ‘how to’ article, chum the waters with clickbait about Medium and how to be a success there, or shock us with your sexual resourcefulness. You might get the claps and maybe even earn a few dollars, but you will have failed to live up to your duty as a writer. I am not suggesting that your every article needs to be an attempt to change the world, but every now and then you might want to pay a little bit down the line for the privilege of having that small voice of yours.

Remember this, one day you are going to need that health worker to wipe away the dribble running down your chin, or that nurse to change your bedpan. I am older than most of the writers on this platform, and so perhaps I am just more sensitive to this issue because that day is nearer for me than it is for you. On the other hand, it could be because I have been around the block a few more times than you have and I see how short life is and how rare the opportunities are to do anything small but meaningful. Grasp them while you can. Your voice is your only weapon.