Write to share, not to publish

The only “trick” that keeps me prolific.

Hoosick Valley (From the Window) by Grandma Moses (1946)

Setting goals in terms of numbers has only ever made me miserable

My first challenge here was getting accepted as a writer for a publication. I achieved that. I was ecstatic that someone wanted to publish my first draft.

My next goal was to gain an X number of followers. I got them. I shared the screenshot on LinkedIn. I was happy for 5 minutes.

Then, I decided to submit my articles to a larger publication. And a larger one. And one more. I did it. Now I know I can be published in publications with 400K+ people in them. Whenever one of those ‘whales’ accepted and published my draft, my heart soared.

For a long time, I couldn’t earn anything from my writing because I couldn’t be accepted into the Partner Program. Ironically, this might have saved me from pursuing an even more destructive goal: money.

I chased the audience instead.

Sometimes, my stories wouldn’t be accepted where I wanted. I would get really upset. Other stories that I’d spent a week writing (like this one) would barely get any ‘claps’ or views. I was devastated.