[The Drift Factor]: Why Most Writers Fail
This is something you want to be aware of — stop it before it happens to you
You as a writer have certain things you want to write about. You want to make a living writing about those things but then life happens and you end up writing about things you don't like (that you find boring, to be honest) because you want to earn a living.
When you are writing about those things, you could be making a nice amount of money. This is can give you a false sense of stability and this ladies and gentlemen is the drift factor.
The drift happens when you set a goal or objective for yourself (the things you love writing about) and you veer off course without even knowing it. By the time you find out, you would have drifted (pun intended) so far from your goals, getting back on track becomes difficult.
Below are the 2 ways drift can affect your writing and what you can do to prevent it from ruining your writing career.
Drift Makes You Settle For Things You Hate Writing About
This is a big one! Back on June 8 when I created my account, I wanted to write about self-improvement because I felt passionate about it. After watching a couple of videos on YouTube, I found out that tech articles tend to perform better.
I drifted off course and started writing about tech— I had no idea or passion for it. I quickly started getting burned out because it felt like everything I wrote about was just cliche tech stuff everyone knows about. It was draining and I hated it. True to the videos, I actually got some traction, but it wasn't worth it.
I knew I had drifted and I had to do something about it. I went to my profile, and deleted all the articles I had written about tech— starting over seemed like the only way to get back on track. Tech, bye — self-improvement, hello!
When I was writing about tech, I did learn some things like getting into pubs, structuring articles, and using storytelling to enhance my message — and I applied all those things to my future stories (nothing is wasted).
If you are writing about things you don't like right now, that's a sure sign you are drifting. It happens to everyone. Just start over and apply everything you've learned while drifting to get back on track or you will inevitably get burned out and quit.
Drift Forces You To Become Distracted From Your Writing
Distraction happens to everyone. Your dream in life is to write, but you see a pro playing the piano on YouTube, and boom, you take an unnecessary break from writing to learn to play the piano. If this isn't a sign you are drifting, I don't know what is.
You are not necessarily interested in learning how to play the piano. The reason why you felt drawn to it is that you are watching somebody else who isn't drifting give their all to their goals and you are attracted to the person and not the piano. When you stop drifting, people will look at you the same way too.
It’s easy to become distracted when we see things like that, but we can’t let it drive us from our goals. To be a successful writer, you need to know your lane and stay there. People follow those with a direction.
Figure out what you are good at and what you love doing — how can you use it to provide value to other people? If writing isn't the answer, then maybe you have drifted from your original goal and went into writing. Maybe playing the piano was your dream all along.
On the other hand, if writing is your answer, then you need to do that and only that. If you love writing about relationships, write about relationships and everything close to it, and nothing else. If you always keep this in mind, the drift factor has got nothing on you.
There you have it. It is difficult to know when you are drifting — this makes you think you don't like writing, get you burned out, become clueless about why you are feeling that way, and then, it ultimately makes you quit.
I have shown you the ways the drift factor kills your writing career and what you can do to stop it. Happy writing without drifting.
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