The Seven Deadly Sins Of Writing
The seven major problems writers face and how to overcome them. The seventh sin is the deadliest of them all
Writing is fun. But it can also be hard. There are times as a writer, you feel defeated by a million things before you even start.
Every writer goes through this sometimes. What separates the professional from the amateur is that the former keeps writing.
Many things hold you back from reaching your full potential as a writer. However, seven of them, which I’ll explain shortly, are some of the most dreadful. These I call the Seven Deadly Sins of Writing.
You probably know about the Seven Deadly Sins in Christian doctrine. Well, four of these sins show up in this article. However, I came up with three others unique to the writing experience.
Sin #1: Fear
Fear is the mother of all seven sins.
Everything else is directly or indirectly connected to Fear.
We all have it. It’s part of the human experience, and when properly harnessed, it pushes us out of our comfort zone.
Not so bad then, right?
Well...
Having fears is not the problem. No matter how evolved your mental or emotional state is, you'll never be immune to it.
That nausea you feel at the mere thought of someone reading your work might never go away. You’re probably afraid no one will even read your work at all. You’re afraid of rejection, criticism, and [insert your Fear].
Nothing is wrong with feeling this way. Even the most successful writers do so from time to time.
What’s dangerous is how you react when Fear creeps in. You stop trying because you’re afraid of failure.
Perhaps, you want to experiment with a new style or genre. However, you’re scared you’ll suck at it and people will make fun of you.
This is why Fear is so harmful. It holds you back from discovering what you’re truly capable of.
How do you overcome it?
First of all, don’t try to fight your Fear. Accept that you'll always be afraid of something. That’s never going away.
If you don’t feel a deep sense of doubt and anxiety suffocating you when you take up a new project, then it’s probably not even worth doing. Fear is your inner self telling you that you’re about to do something truly remarkable.
Due to the gravity of the situation, you'll play every possible scenario in your head about how badly things could go. But you know what? Go ahead and do it anyway.
Write that novel. Publish your articles online. Start your freelance business. Reach out to clients. Put yourself out there. Feel the Fear, and do it anyway. It's the only way to get through it.
I wrote a guide on how to overcome your doubts and fears as a writer. Download it for free.
Sin #2: Pride
As a writer, believe two things about yourself:
- Your writing is the best fucking thing since the Big Bang. You’re so freaking great, everything you write is absolute gold. You’re God’s gift to humanity—the fucking Literary Messiah sent forth to bless us with your sacred words.
- You are the shittiest writer to ever walk the face of this Earth. Everything you write is utter thrash, and you must be executed immediately for contributing such drivel to humanity.
I’m sure many writers constantly battle between these two feelings. I know I do too. Sometimes, I feel like the first, while other times, at my lowest, I believe the second about myself.
Is it a good or a bad thing? It depends. Holding these two beliefs simultaneously gives you confidence in your craft, while also making room for improvement.
What’s fatal is when you’re stuck in an endless loop of only one of these thoughts. Pride arises from having only the first, while Fear stems from the second.
Pride, I believe, is even deadlier than Fear. The only sin more lethal than Pride is the seventh sin.
When Fear sneaks in, you can calm down, recognize it, and create a plan to act anyway.
Pride, on the other hand, clouds your awareness, making you blind to your weaknesses. It stops you from growing and improving because you believe you already know everything.
People who suffer from this sin often get angry when they receive constructive criticism.
How do you master your craft if you think you have nothing to learn?
Yeah, maybe you’re a good writer. But good is the enemy of great. And with Pride, you’ll never be great.
The greatest writers approach their craft with humility. They are merely instruments called forth to serve a purpose bigger than themselves. As instruments, they know their place and act accordingly. Their craft always comes first—craft over ego. Humility over Pride.
But humility doesn’t mean letting people walk all over you. It’s about constantly reminding yourself that you are forever a student of your craft. When people criticize your work, don’t let your ego get in the way.
Develop a thick skin and learn to discern between constructive and destructive criticism. If it’s the former, don’t be argumentative. Rather, try to see things from the other’s perspective. It will go a long way to make you a better writer.
If the critique is destructive, you have every right to discard it. You don’t owe them an explanation either. Do not feed the troll.
Whatever the case may be, remember that a criticism of your work is not a criticism of your character as a person. And above all, be ready to learn and improve yourself at all times.
Sin #3: Inauthenticity
Inauthenticity is usually fueled by Fear but it can also come from Pride. Whatever its origin, Inauthenticity is a surefire way to kill your creativity.
Art is an expression of the artist’s soul. The artist’s creation is shaped by their experiences, worldview, values, and all that they truly are. One cannot help but feel the sincerity of the work, especially if the artist has absolute mastery of their craft.
As a writer, you have this same power to stir the deepest emotions within people. But you can only do that by being true to yourself.
When your writing lacks authenticity, it feels stale and generic. People may not be able to pinpoint what’s wrong, but they can feel that something is off.
Authenticity is not about writing only the things you've lived and experienced. That would make all fiction inauthentic, and that’s just not true.
It’s more about whether your writing style and voice feel true to you. Are you using words you’ll normally use or are you doing it just to impress people?
Of course, it takes a while to find your voice. To get there, you must first imitate those you admire. There’s nothing wrong with that. But view that as part of your learning process in finding your truth.
Inauthenticity isn’t only limited to style and voice.
It’s also about the content of your work. Out of fear, you may abstain from telling the stories you truly want to tell. I felt that way once. I’ve always wanted to write stories that featured all kinds of characters including gay characters. I wanted them to be unapologetic about who they were. But I censored myself for a long time because I was afraid of what people would think of me.
I also refrained from using certain words because of people's opinions. Something felt off about the whole thing and I hated every second of it.
Thankfully, I don’t hold myself back anymore. I write what I want, and I’m a lot freer in my creative expression. This also makes me a happier person.
That's the thing, Inauthenticity imprisons you. Not only does it make your writing feel soulless but it also makes your life in general less meaningful.
You may pander to the masses to gain a certain result, perhaps to gain more readers or make more money. Sure, you may achieve your desired results, but how does your spirit feel afterward?
Do you even care about the things you write about? Is it worth sharing ideas you don’t believe in at the expense of your mental health?
Sin #4: Envy
There’s not a single one of us on this planet who doesn’t feel Envy. Okay, maybe I should speak for myself; I don’t know what goes on in other people’s heads. I admit, I feel envious of others sometimes.
It’s hard not to look at other people’s success and wish you had that.
Everyone else seems to have it all figured out. You’ve been trying your best, and yet, it seems everyone else but you is succeeding. Why can’t you have what they have? What’s the problem?
This is Envy at its finest. It’s a pretty natural feeling, however, if let it spiral out of control, it will destroy you.
Why do we feel Envy?
Well, for starters, we compare ourselves to other people. It's an 'us versus them' mentality so the moment they accomplish things we haven't yet, we assume we're either doing something wrong or they're just better than us.
Have you stopped to consider for a moment that maybe, just maybe, you’re making unfair comparisons?
Perhaps, this successful writer you’re envious of has been building their writing empire for over a decade. You, on the other hand, have been doing it for only two years or so.
Comparing yourself to them is silly.
But what if you started before they did and yet they seem to be doing even better than you?
And my question is: Better than you in what sense?
What are you using to measure their success?
Is it follower count? Monthly income? Number of articles or books published? Getting published in big magazines? Getting a six-figure book deal? What is your metric?
Success means different things to different people. When you start writing on Medium, it’s easy to get lost in the race of follower count or making money (if you’re in the Medium Partner Program). With everyone else seemingly doing better than you, Envy seeps in.
Without the self-awareness to recognize and prune it, you’ll be miserable.
To combat this, constantly remind yourself of your mission. I lost focus because I was so caught up in what others were doing. But once I recommitted to my mission, I stopped comparing myself to others.
Understand what success means to you and double down on the actions you need to take to achieve them. If someone’s doing much better than you, chances are that they’re doing things you’re not doing.
Instead of envying them—or worse, hating them—ask yourself what you can do to improve.
Envy has nothing to do with the person you’re envious of and everything to do with your deep-seated insecurity. So unearth your insecurities and work on them.
I once watched a YouTube video of two sisters who also happened to be authors. Something one of the sisters said struck a deep chord within me.
She said, and I’m paraphrasing, that people advise you to not compare your Chapter 1 with someone else’s Chapter 20. While this is pretty valid, she’ll go a step further to say that you shouldn’t even compare yourself to anyone at all because you’re both in totally different books.
Hearing that reshaped my perspective.
We are in totally different books. While on the outside, it may seem we’re headed toward the same destination—writing something meaningful—we have different paths to get there.
So don’t be blindsided by what others are doing. Your goals are very different from theirs. My metric of success is probably different from yours. For me, it’s about mastering my craft and impacting readers with my stories. For you, it might be something else completely. There’s no right or wrong way. There’s only your way.
Understand what you want and stick to the path. Your path is unique to you. Keep your eyes on it and stop trying to cross over into someone else’s path. That’s not to say you shouldn’t learn from others who know more than you. Go ahead and learn from them. But as you do, stay true to your mission.
Sin #5: Complexity
In storytelling, complexity is about writing three-dimensional, nuanced characters that add depth to your story. That’s a great thing, and you should aim for that.
But as a deadly sin, Complexity means something else. In this case, I’m using it as a direct opposite of Simplicity
What do I mean by that?
We tend to make our writing business far more complex than it is. About three years ago, when I was beginning my online writing journey, I made things way too complicated than they were. Because I was doing so much, I convinced myself I was being productive, when in reality, I was just being stupidly inefficient.
First, I wasted money on a fucking website instead of finding a free platform with an in-built audience. I naively thought that spending money would push me to write consistently. Excuse me while I laugh.
Rather than focusing on what was simple—writing—I expended most of my time and energy on tweaking every little thing on my website. I was interested in the logo, branding, font styles, accent color, and a million useless things.
The simplest thing to have done at the time was to write on a free platform. That was it. But I ignored that and focused on things that didn’t matter.
A lot of writers fall into this trap too. You think you’re doing nothing if you follow a simple proven system. You want something more complex to feel good about how much time and energy you're 'working'.
Most things are simple. Sure, it gets repetitive and boring, which is what makes it hard. But it’s simple as long as you can get through the boredom.
For example, if you want to create a newsletter, simply choose one email platform and start writing.
But no, surely there must be more to this, right? So you overthink everything, from what platform to use to what to write about. In the end, analysis paralysis holds you hostage.
Listen, just fucking start with what you have. You don't need to figure out everything beforehand. You'll learn along the way. But that will only happen if you start.
Before you start any project, ask yourself what are the most straightforward tasks you can do to get the result you want. Don’t be fooled by that egotistical feeling of productivity simply because you’re adding fifteen extra steps to the process. Always choose the simplest option.
However, remember that simple doesn’t mean easy. It just means you’ll be focusing on only the tasks that move the needle and nothing else.
Instead of publishing everywhere at once on the Internet, stick to one platform in the beginning. Medium seems like the best option for long-form writers. But I am biased, so choose the one that works for you and stick to it.
This is the Rule of One—arguably the most important lesson I’ve learned in the last eighteen months of writing online.
Start with one platform. Write around one topic, theme, or concept. Don’t overthink anything. Everything will evolve with time. Later, you may branch off to other paths once you have success with the one.
But don’t be too hard on yourself if it seems you’re doing too many things at once. Think of it as an experiment to find what resonates with you and your readers. Then once you find those things, ignore everything else and double down on them.
Sin #6: Validation
When you aim for a goal, like publishing your work in a prestigious publication or making six figures a year from your writing business, do you do it simply because that’s what you want or because of the validation you’ll get from others?
These are two very different things. Oftentimes, we think we want something for ourselves, when in reality, we just want people to see that we have it.
We crave their Validation.
Writers are a funny bunch. We’re probably the only people whose professional identity is tied to arbitrary definitions of success.
If we haven’t yet traditionally published a book, we aren’t writers.
If we haven’t won a writing contest or award, we aren’t writers.
If our work hasn’t been reviewed in a certain magazine, we aren’t writers.
If we haven’t sold X number of books or made X amount of money, we aren’t writers.
If our books don’t hit the New York Times Bestseller list, we aren’t writers.
Look, I could go on and on, but my point is, none of this is true. None of the above makes you a writer. Of course, it’s great to have that. But if you don’t have them yet, it doesn’t make you any less of a writer.
A writer is someone who writes. Period. The only thing that makes you NOT a writer is that you DO NOT write. Period.
As to whether you’re published, making money, a bestseller, or famous is irrelevant. You don’t need those things to feel validated in who you are. If you want them—which there’s nothing wrong with it, by they—then want them for yourself. If you’re simply chasing these things because you want to meet society’s expectation of what a writer should be, you’re going to loathe every second of the process.
What I hate most about this whole writing industry is the idea of gatekeepers. It’s so sad watching some writers feel like they need the permission of these gatekeepers to write at all. After dozens and dozens of rejections from agents, many give up on their dreams. On Twitter, I’ve come across so many writers complaining about the publishing industry. It’s quite heartbreaking.
Yet, it makes no sense to me.
Why the hell are you waiting for a human being or corporation to tell you if you should keep writing or not? You need no one’s approval. I mean, sure, you probably have to improve your writing if you keep getting rejected. But you need no one's permission to get your writing in front of your readers.
I almost succumbed to the sin of Validation in my early writing days. I used to think I needed to accomplish all the above and more to become a writer. And since they felt quite out of reach, I believed I could never become one.
Then there were the rejections from literary magazines that demoralized me. At first, I planned to submit even more stories until I got accepted. But one day, it suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t need anyone’s permission to publish my work.
I could just publish directly to my readers via the Internet.
The feedback will be immediate, instead of relying on gatekeepers and waiting for months only to get rejected.
I only cultivated this mindset once I pruned the need for Validation out of my system. I reminded myself that self-publishing was just as valid as traditional publishing. Doing it doesn’t make me less of a writer.
You are a writer because you write.
Sin #7: Sloth
The sin of sloth, the deadliest of them all. It’s inaction, inertia, or what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance in his book, The War of Art.
When the six sins above are left untreated, they fester into Sloth. I prefer the term Resistance. But I thought I’d use the original sin, Sloth, to represent it.
On the surface, Sloth appears as mere laziness. Beyond the surface though, something much deeper is taking place, thereby causing resistance in the writer.
What’s resistance (or sloth)?
You wake up early one morning. You make a cup of coffee as you prepare yourself to work on your novel for the day. Once you’re done drinking your coffee, you get back to your computer, but alas, the phone beeps. A notification. Oh, you must get that. Surely, it’s important.
An hour later, you’re scrolling through Instagram. Oh, snap. You must get back to work. This novel won’t write itself. Then just as you sit down, the doorbell rings. It’s your third cousin from Long Island. Okay, family comes first. Tomorrow you will surely write.
Tomorrow comes, and you don’t even feel like getting out of bed. You’re like a completely different person. You must write, you know it. But your body seems to be held hostage by your brain.
Two weeks pass. Then a month. Your still haven’t written a word. You imagine your finished book. You want to write stories that inspire and entertain people. But for that to happen, you must write. And yet, there’s a war within you that keeps you away from your work.
The moment it’s time to write, you suddenly feel the urge to check your mail, scroll Instagram, cook lunch, feed your pet dragon, water your plant, and try on all your striped socks two at a time.
This is resistance.
As harmless as Sloth sounds, it will literally destroy your life.
It starts as procrastination. Eventually, it becomes a core part of your identity and it’s hard to break from it.
But you know what’s worse? The emptiness you feel inside your soul when you don’t do what you know you need to do.
No amount of immediate gratification will fill that hole. It will only further plunge you into depression.
Fear not, if it seems you have been conquered by Sloth.
You can always regain control. But you must start now or decades of your life will pass you by.
Don’t waste your productive years. Even if all you have is thirty minutes a day, use it. You don’t need to write thousands upon thousands of words in a day. You can, if you want. But you don’t have to. Start small. A few hundred words. Maybe even a few sentences.
The more you do, the better you get.
Conquer the sin of Sloth and you will become unstoppable.
Final thoughts
The ills that plague us writers are uncountable. So many things seem to conspire against us, retarding our progress.
These seven sins are some of the most common ones that afflict us. But we don’t have to get stuck in that loop. We can always break free and get them under our control.
The first step is self-awareness. With self-awareness, you’ll catch yourself in real time doing these things. And as you become aware of your problems, make a dedicated effort to change things.
It’s not enough to know your problems, although that’s the first step. Come up with a solution and apply it. Identify these issues in your life and actively work towards rising above them to become a better version of yourself.
You can do it.
This article is from The Write Network newsletter. If you’d like to supercharge your writing life, craft, and business, then subscribe to the newsletter to get more stories like this straight to your inbox. Want to support my work? Buy me a coffee.
