I Am Done Writing Good Articles Forever. You Should Be Done Too.
Is this an argument for mediocrity?
Nope.
But, I am done!
Do you know how many good articles I have written over the course of my life? Written for Medium? For people? And yet?
There is an Igbo proverb that loosely translated goes, “what you do not know is your senior”. I think that everyone should have that plastered at eye level everywhere because, in 3 ways, I will tell you why you should not bother with “good” writing anymore.
- Rather than waiting, tweaking, and hoping on my good days for good (great) writing, know this- writing is almost always about quantity and not quality. Say what, now? Put down the pitchforks and let me explain. Are you a perfectionist? Do you struggle to write most days? Do you know the cure for writer’s block? If you ever wondered about any of those questions then, drum roll pleaseeeee… the answer is WRITE. And keep writing. It really does not matter if you are writing a grocery list or a three-line joke, the most important thing is, to write. The more you write, the better at it you get. The more you write, the more you have to show for it. The more you write, the less guilt you feel about not writing.
Can I go further with this? You cannot have quality/good writing if you don’t go through quantity. Wait, what? Writing, like every other skill, is a progressive journey. You want to get better and better and better. How do you get good writing, if you don’t consistently write? I do make a good case, don’t I?
Jodi Picoult: You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.
2. You cannot have consistency if you don’t have quantity.
Read that again. If Medium and many other platforms reward you for consistently showing up, you and I know that we cannot always show up at our best. If you cannot always show up with your best work, does that mean you hate your readers?
Does that mean you aren’t a good writer? Does that mean you stop writing? No. It means that you put out something there to the world, readily available to that one person that keeps showing up for you. Again, you have to show them something.
The pressure to keep churning out good articles can lead to frustrations, procrastination and inconsistency. Make this decision with me- we show up, with what we have. Not what we have adjudged our best or good article.
3. You should not judge your works for ‘good’ writing. What do you do if you show up with a good article and- no one cares? No one else thinks it is good? Has it happened to you before? Many times? If you say no, you have made my case and need to write more.
I think as a writer, the one thing I can always count on is- that I cannot predict how people will relate to my writing. You are worrying rather than publishing and people who have realized that good writing is about the reader, are busy pressing “Publish”.
So, I am done with ‘good’ writing because really, my job is to write not debate the finer details of my inner demons on how I should write. I leave that to you the reader.
So, I am done. I am done writing good articles forever. If you like my work, I thank you. If you don’t, please critique me. I will take the good like I take the bad but no more will I not write because I am afraid that it will not be good enough.
Thank you for reading.
My name is Adaobi Okwy. Please turn on Email Notification for my next post. Also, Buy me coffee?
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