“This article is terrible.”
“You call this writing?”
“Everything you have to say is boring.”
“You’re just not good enough.”
These are the kinds of things you’d expect to hear from a horrible boss, a troll in the comments, or a cruel bully.
Yet too often, these are the kinds of things that we say to ourselves.
We may claim that this way of speaking to ourselves and attacking our writing is useful: It’s just us being realistic and giving ourselves an honest self-critique. After all, Simon Cowell was the best judge, right? So why should we be Paula Abdul, overenthusiastically praising ourselves?
But this sort of thinking isn’t constructive criticism. It’s just, well, mean.
I think every writer goes through an existential crisis (or 50) in their lifetime, and at least one of those crises is brought on by another article with the title, “Publishing is Dead.”
All through high school and college, I was inundated with advice to choose a career in a science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM)-related field. And though my passion for writing was evident, the attitudes of my teachers suggested my passion would soon enough turn into failure.
But, because I’m a stubborn and spiteful person, I pursued writing anyway.
That’s not to say that my confidence didn’t falter in college. When I would hear someone call publishing “a dying industry,” I’d panic and think, “Oh my god, what am I going to do with my life.” So of course, within my first year, I sat down with an advisor to talk about pursuing a double major. One in english, like I wanted, and one that was more career-viable.
I settled on a minor in marketing and felt safe in my future as a young professional.
I’ve since figured out that my minor in marketing isn’t worth as much as I thought on paper. However, the knowledge and experience it provided did help me get most of the jobs I’ve had since graduating.
It’s also given me a profound sense of confidence in my career choice as a writer.
Because everything I did (and still do) involved writing.
“Nature is a writer
Springtime is a poet
Winter – dull but brilliant prose master
Summer, butterflies for apostrophes
Autumn an artist, colors with words implied …”
— Terri Guillemets, “Nature’s Inkpen”
You’ve got a blog, you publish frequently, and you’re meeting your content goals every month.
You’re living the good life as a fancy, badass entrepreneur.
But are you living your blogging life to the fullest?
While you’ve been growing the content on your own blog, reaching the loyal audience who’s come to know and love your content, you come across a guest post on Fancy Small Business Blog written by one of your competitors. (You know which one I’m talking about.)
It’s an article about successful marketing strategies in a niche market, and it’s something you feel like you could’ve written yourself.
Sure, you might grumble a little bit (“How did they even land an article there?”), but that’s not going to help you get published on successful blogs.