When No-One Reads Your Writing
Being creative is one of the scariest things you can do…
Everything you do is a risk.
Every piece of music you produce, every piece of art that you draw or every article you write is being judged on.
There are many jobs where your work is business as usual as you perform tasks.
However, being a creative you are constantly forced to think outside of the box…
It is your task to continue to produce new things.
Your very life depends on it.
It can be difficult presenting something to the world that you’ve spent so much time on –
Sometimes, you can get too close to your own work.
Let me take you through something I’m sure we’ve all experienced…
After many hours you’ve spent writing an article, and all the research that you’ve done to integrate your personal stories with the extensive research on this topic. Eventually you’re happy with your information and it’s time to go over it and edit your work with a delicate comb to slowly caress it into a format you’re happy. Then finally you dress up your baby and with a quick goodbye you send it off to the world…
How dis-heartening can it be after all that time & effort, when you finally click ‘publish’ on medium and you hear… crickets.
Nothing, absolutely nothing. All that time and effort and no-one’s come through, or even worse when you’ve spent so long on something and someone critiques it harshly.
These setbacks & disappointments can make you reconsider the very thing that you love doing -
‘Am I good enough?’
‘Am I wasting my time?’
Let me just remind you that yes, yes you are good enough.
I was listening to a podcast by Joe Gebbia, the founder of Air BNB and he presented a very simple formula that we can implement in many scenarios.
SW2 + WC = MO
(Some Will Love It & Some Won’t Love It) + Who Cares = Move On
It’s such a simple formula but when you break it down the truth rings through.
Not everyone will like your work. Period.
We cannot go through life trying to please everyone and in fact, if we do we will miss out on the opportunity to really develop into who we are meant to become.
There has been an advent of the theory of the ‘long tail’ recently that discusses our society and economy transitioning away from large focuses to many small niches that serve individual purposes.
Just know that there will always be an audience out there for you.
Yes, it may take time.
No, it may not always be easier.
It will definitely be worth it
If you work with the understanding that there are people out there who will like your work it makes everything easier.
You’re able to work through the disappointments with the resilience & understanding that your work will resonate with people.
Ultimately, it’s not whether people love your work or not. Remember why you started this all.
For the love of the writing.
The chance to get onto paper what you couldn’t clarify in your mind.
It’s true freedom, it’s a blessing.
What a privilege we have to express ourselves in such a beautiful way.
Thanks for reading Writers Guild — A Smedian publication
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