WordPress users publish an average of 70 million new posts each month. That’s just WordPress content. When you factor in other content management systems and social media platforms, not to mention the content produced in preceding months, you realize the exponential rate at which content is produced.
This brings me to a question I reason I always cited for not starting a blog or any writing project for that matter. I touched on it yesterday when I wrote a post as both an update and almost like a checklist item—which is not the kind of writing I want to produce.
The purpose of what I produce here is primarily to add value, but I am just starting out. The past few weeks, my life has been crazy. There will be days where I am traveling all day. In the future, I hope to have more thought out, prewritten content I can publish on days where posting something I wrote that day is not realistic.
And I think for anyone else who is letting this concern hold them back, it is valuable to acknowledge that you do not need to be perfect to start. I am far from it. I have no idea what I am doing here.
This goes back to the heart of this project and writing in general.
I started this project to:
- start writing,
- get over my fears, anxieties, and perfectionism about what I write,
- to get better about writing,
- to not take myself so seriously.
Writing is Hard
Anyone who has ever written anything will tell you this. There are days where life gets in the way or you are uninspired, that is normal. That comes with the territory. Every successful writer I have ever encountered, read a book from, or watched an interview of has said some form of the following:
the biggest difference between the professional writer and the amateur is the professional shows up every day to write and the amateur waits for inspiration.
I am definitely not a professional writer. I am not sure I ever will be, but I know I want to be better.
You Don’t Get Better Overnight
Improving comes with practice:
- writing more,
- writing longer,
- writing when it’s hard,
- writing when your brain mixes up the word “written” with “read”,
- writing on long days when it is difficult.
But getting better also means accepting that
- there will always be limitations,
- and you will not always produce something you find valuable.
The Quality over Quantity Debate
I used to ask myself what right, goal, point I had in writing a blog if I could not deliver value with every post. This is probably part of why I am not sharing this with many people at the moment. I am not sure how to explain what I am doing here.
Why would anyone want to read what I am writing?
I wonder how other people started a blog and out of the gate were able to do that. I suppose they started with publishing less frequently—focusing on quality over quantity. I could do that, but it would turn into another excuse for me to give it up.
What to Expect
My goal for this space, whatever it becomes over the upcoming year, is to write and publish valuable, well-written pieces every day. There may be days where that is not possible. That is not where I am yet. My life does not allow for it at this moment, but I am improving.
My writing has improved. My first draft of that 5,000-word paper was pretty solid. I did the majority of my readings the three days before I wrote it and wrote it in one day. It may have been the best paper I have ever written—of course with a few rounds of editing. I have developed more confidence in what I am saying, how I am saying it, and weirdly structuring my arguments and writing a thesis statement—which I tend to avoid. Even though you may not believe it based on my chaotic, stream-of-consciousness writing on here.
This improvement comes from forcing myself to practice daily with an external goal that I cannot skip out on. It is measurable—which is one of my favorite criteria for setting goals.