Write About What You Want To Write About
“How Do I Get More Medium Followers? How Do I Get More People To Read My Stuff? How Do I Write Things That Are Interesting For Other People? Why Am I Capitalizing The First Letter Of Each Word? Who Let Me Pass The First Grade??”
People are always looking for ways to grow their platforms.
The people who know this crucial fact create content that is specifically designed to pull them in.
They create listicles promising multiple ways to increase page views, follower count, and conversion rates. They tell you to “think like the consumer”.
What would they want to read? What would they pay you for? What kind of title can you come up with that will catch their eye?
There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, if you don’t follow this tactic, chances are you won’t be found and will be shouting into the void of the ever so vast Internet.
I mean, look at what I’m doing right now. I have enough self-awareness to admit that my first thought when opening this page was to think of an eye-catching title.
The tactics these marketers list out are based on human psychology and behavior. Our perpetually connected, fast-paced digital world has deteriorated our attention span to the point where it is comparable to that of a goldfish.
We have an unprecedented amount of information available to us, and while we constantly try to absorb as much as we can every day, most of us lay in bed at night, unable to recall much of what they learned or read. We no longer give ourselves the time necessary to retain information. If we forget, we can always search for the lost information from our phones or computers. Why bother remembering anything at this point?
But I digress — let’s talk about art.
Do people create art because they want to attract other people? What is the form of “clickbait” for paintings? What is the form of “clickbait” for sculptures?
Do they think about how many people they want following them on a platform? Did the people in the past ever have to think about how many people would show up and clap for their art?
What is the purpose of art? I think humans create because they want to express themselves and their ideas. They want to breathe life into the image that is in their minds.
Creating art is hard. Thinking is actually quite easy. Sure, you can create a unique story in your mind that you think would be an amazing movie or a book.
You’ll secretly revel in your own genius, showering yourself in compliments and just hoping that someone would be able to recognize the talent you have.
But you’ll realize that as soon as you sit yourself down on that chair, bringing forth the story that you have in your mind, you will feel a flurry of emotions that you could never have imagined when you were simply daydreaming.
You never knew the constant struggle that artists go through. The debilitating self-doubt, the relentless self-criticism. The momentary euphoria you feel when things seem to finally be working, and the subsequent dread you feel when you find out how flawed and ridiculous it actually is. The endless distractions, the constant comparisons, the defeating silence of your once creative mind.
“”I say unto you: one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I say unto you: you still have chaos in yourselves.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
But it’s not all that bad. When you recognize that the agonizing emotions and thoughts are all part of the creative process, you begin to harness the powers of chaos. Negative emotions are strong and passionate. You can’t pick and choose which emotions you’d like to feel. You must embrace all of them, as that is the only way you can balance your humanity.
Writing is a form of art. It allows you to create, to articulate your inner emotions and thoughts, to bring forth a story from the depths of your mind, to explain yourself to yourself, first and foremost, and then to the world beyond.
Medium is basically another social media website. Or maybe it’s just me who chooses to see it that way. But I find myself checking for notifications constantly, seeking attention and acknowledgment from random people on the platform.
I’m constantly engaging in behaviors that are counterproductive to my creativity. I am constantly scared of what I should write about because I want to gain more followers, accumulate more claps and have more people read my work.
I don’t create what I want to create sometimes, what I feel like I should create, what I know I want to write about.
And again, the only person to blame here is me.
But it’s not like I’m sad about that.
I think it is a necessary step that I have to take, an important realization that I must recognize, in order to start creating greater art, greater stories, greater worlds.
So I’m going to tell myself and whoever is reading the secret that I think I have found.
Just write whatever comes to your mind, and publish it. There is no secret template that you have to follow. There is no headline hack that you can implement to attract more people to your work.
There’s simply no reason for you to pay attention to any of this. This is a platform that you can use to create unlimited artwork. You have the freedom to write a story, a poem, an essay, a book, a philosophical work, a political commentary, a memoir. You have a platform that you can use to practice your art, to get better at your craft, to become so good that no one will be able to ignore you.
You don’t have to write about the five things you’re doing wrong that’s hurting your readership. You only write these pieces to attract aspiring writers looking for ways to attract their own crowd.
Why do we need a huge crowd as writers? Does a huge amount of followers really matter when only a handful of people actually care about your writing? Give your attention to them! They’re the ones who deserve it, and they’re the ones who will remain friends with you and resonate with you the most.
Write about the things you care about and don’t care about whether or not other people will care about it. Write about things that made you laugh and things that made you cry. Write about epiphanies or life lessons you’ve learned along the way.
I don’t know if this piece will be utterly useless to you. I don’t know if this piece will be harmful to aspiring writers. I don’t know how to feel about this post.
But I think I am living proof that my advice works to some extent.
I wrote what I wanted to write about, and people naturally found me.
I’m not as talented as other writers. I’m not as witty, as funny, or as smart as them.
I just put myself out there and wrote about anything that came to mind, anything I cared about, anything I felt throughout the day, and people listened.
Don’t care about growing your platform so much. Don’t care about the likes that come your way. Don’t care about how many people are sharing your content or talking about it.
Just create your art and show everyone who you are. I’m sure it’ll work out in the end.
And if not, I guess it’s just one regret you won’t have to face when you’re on your deathbed.
… aaaaand if you’re still not convinced, we’re all gonna die in the end.
Didn’t you hear the news? Lighten up a little.
:)
