Write Your Own Damn Way

Ernio Hernandez

Published in

The Unlisted

4 min readMar 18, 2016

Lately, I’ve been writing a lot. Perhaps more than I ever have in my life.

(h/t to

Medium

and the wonderful publications who put my meager words on their pages. I’ll link them down below.)

If there’s anything I have noticed about my “productivity” is that — despite my best efforts at creating some kind of writing routine or ritual — I really don’t have (or haven’t stuck to) a routine or ritual. And that’s okay; I’m still writing.

Sorry, EVERY writer in the Top Stories on Medium. #notsorry

Hit up any of the stories under the Productivity or Writing tags and you’ll inevitably happen upon someone telling you “How To” be a better or more productive or daily writer who wins or goes viral or gets in Top Stories. Good on them for trying to help their fellow writer, if that’s their real reason for writing, but they are not their fellow writer.

You want to be a better writer? Be what YOU consider a better writer.

Ashley Daigneault

, in speaking about our likes and choices in life, so eloquently puts forth a wonderful idea in her Be as you are:

Why do we care if the things we like or don’t like are also the things other people like or don’t like? — @
Ashley
.dano

I’ve been in the Top Stories, and while I am proud of that piece, it is not nearly the top 5 of posts I’m most proud of. Yes, it’s great when you write something and others connect to it, it finds an audience and people share in your genius. But, I’ve said this before to my fellow Medium writers in the POMQA Slack:

“Look at the stats don’t LIVE by the stats.” — @
Ernio

I can sit here and type away how I’ve got lots of hits (shorter pieces, popular publications, sharing to niche communities), how I’ve written things I’m proud of (I kept sitting down and kept pouring out), how I’ve written the silliest things (Fitbit Sued by Overly Healthy Christians) that got more attention than smarter things I’ve written (I wrote this down.). But the fact of the matter is:

YOU have to find your way, define your own success and adjust accordingly.

Standard writing “tips” that have worked for me: Keep writing. Take breaks. Write every day. Take a day off. Read more. Unplug. Get good rest. Get out and take a walk. Write what you know. Let your imagination wander. Type away until you get through it. Write a little now, then come back to it fresh.

As you see, most of the above is contradictory of each other. On different days in different ways, though, that’s what spoke to me. All of that (or none of that) may mean anything to you.

There just comes a point when you have to stop reading about writing and just start writing. Falter, fail, suck even. Allow yourself that. You know you have better in you. It’ll come. It’s going to be work. Good stuff usually is.

Write the crappy stuff too. Let yourself be crappy. Get it out of your system. Go ahead and write about writing. (ahem) But write other stuff too.

Above all else: Write for yourself. Hit publish and let it go. Repeat.

Here are those publications I mentioned above. (Find yourself a pub out there that fits your piece, find out how to submit and just submit! The worst thing that will happen is they reject you—when they do, read: An Open Rejection Letter, laugh and submit elsewhere or move on to the next piece.)

Write Your Own Damn Way

Read more by Ernio:

Here is a quick guide to all his writing on Medium.

Written by Ernio Hernandez