Why You Should Keep Writing (Even If No One Is Reading)

Finally, you hit “publish.”

The blog post you’ve spent hours polishing, making sure everything is perfect, is complete.

Now you wait. One day. Then two. A week goes by, but only one or two people have seen your post. You poured your heart and soul into that post, but the result is disappointing.

It can be disheartening when no one pays attention to your work. A few views can make you doubt your ability to write.

But you know what? Every great blogger started out like that. 

Their first few posts might have been read by no one but friends and loved ones. But they kept going. They wrote and published daily—until millions of readers began to tune in and devour all that they had to say. 

The lesson here is to give yourself time to hone your writing skills. Make writing your daily habit and write a lot. Because the more you write, the better you get. The more you publish, the more people will take notice. 

But there is more to why you should make writing your daily habit even if no one pays attention. These reasons alone help shape you into the writer, no, the person, you are and where you’re likely to end up in your writing career. 

I’d like to share with you eight compelling reasons to keep writing when you feel like giving up. 

1. Writing Brings You Joy

“Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.”
— Terry Pratchett

The mere thought of typing on the keyboard or scribbling on paper puts a smile on your face. All the hustle and bustle fades away to make room for free thoughts. As you write, you can sense a stream of happiness rush through your entire body, pumping you up and keeping you alive. 

True, writing can be a pain (e.g., hitting writer’s block), but that only happens when you set your expectations too high. 

Most of the time, writing is fun and inspiring—especially when you can shut out all distractions and focus on putting words on paper. No stress or hurry. You simply take joy in transferring your thoughts into the written form.

2. Writing Is a Way of Expressing Yourself

“Writing is my primary way of expressing myself.”
— Annie Baker

During the day, you bump into things, events, or people that stir up a wide range of emotions—fear, anxiety, joy, etc. But you rarely pay attention to them. Writing forces you to take a closer look at those emotions and understand them for what they are, which in turns enriches your emotional life. 

It also gives you the freedom of speech to say what you like however strange or unorthodox. And the best part is no one can interrupt, judge, or pity you as you do so. 

The only thing that might get in your way is the inner critic—the nagging voice that keeps telling you how bad your writing is. But you always have the choice to tune it out!

3. Writing Helps You Discover Who You Are

“Some is, I think, the personal in any act of writing. You find yourself caught up: you start a sentence, and it becomes revelatory, not just of the character, but of you as well.”
— David Bezmozgis

Through writing, you learn about aspects of yourself that you hadn’t been aware of. This helps you find your true self. 

Not everyone is blessed with the knowledge of who they are and what they want out of life. The journey to discover your true calling can be long and arduous. Thankfully, there’s a much easier way: Write. 

Writing gives you the chance to give opinions on matters around you and get in touch with your deepest emotions. That’s how you can discover the hidden values that make you you. 

Once you understand who you are, you can go and live your life the way you want to. You can actually find joy, fulfillment, and peace in your daily routine. 

4. Writing Is a Learning Process

“Writing, learning, and thinking are the same process.”
— William Zinsser

There’s more to writing than just putting your thoughts down on paper. Through writing, you learn to be gentle with yourself and accept your imperfections. You also learn to overcome distractions and eventually grow to love how easy it becomes to get the work done. But most importantly, you learn to think.

Good writing doesn’t always come easy. You need to create an idea in your mind, sleep on it for a while, and examine it from multiple angles before you can flesh it out on paper. That means long hours of contemplating, speculating, and reflecting to arrive at a final conclusion. A lot of pain, I know, but it fosters your critical thinking—a skill so underrated in the Information Age.

There are other times when you sit down and start firing away on your keyboard without a plan in mind. That’s a form of thinking, too, but at a higher level. You tap into the power of your subconscious mind. You produce jigsaw pieces from which a picture emerges. Sometimes, the picture doesn’t make sense. Other times, it’s a beautiful one with all the answers you need. 

5. Writing Saves Lives, Including Your Own

“Sometimes, as much as writing saves one’s own life, you cannot imagine how it will save another’s. This is another reason why it is important to do the work, over and over again. It is food, the kind a soul needs.”
— Lilith Saintcrow

The modern world expects too much of you. You need to do more, and work harder to keep up with the fast pace of life. Sometimes, juggling too many tasks can make you feel cornered and trapped. You need a way out. And writing is that way out. 

The moment your thoughts flow onto paper is when all your worries and troubles disappear. Your mind is free of the toxic accumulated during the day. You get saved from the mess of life to be in tune with your body again. 

Your words can heal you, but they also help to heal others. Many people around the world are losing faith, hope, and the desire to live. They need someone to show them the way out, someone who understands how it feels to be alone against the world. 

You can be that person. Your words can be the signposts that lead them out of the pitch black hole of despair to find joy again. 

So keep writing even if you have only a few readers. Because the stories you tell might just resonate with someone and make their life a little better. 

6. Writing Teaches You to Be Humble

“A great man is always willing to be little.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing forces you to open your eyes to the world around you. For you need to read, see, hear, and feel a lot before you can sit down to write. But the more you learn about this world, the more you realize how much you don’t know. So, in a sense, writing keeps you humble and open to more knowledge.

But here’s another valid point: No matter how talented you think you are, there are writers out there who are much better. If you keep comparing your work to theirs, chances are you won’t get far in your writing career. You’ll see your writing as too lousy to publish. 

The key is to stay humble and keep learning. Learn from those who know something that you don’t (your readers, friends, family, editors, writing buddies, influencers) and improve your craft every day. 

7. Writing Keeps You Patient

“Time, patience, and perseverance will accomplish all things”
— Unknown

Writing is a process. You can’t expect to knock out a 1,000-word blog post in one day. On rare occasions, you may flesh out a perfect draft without much editing later on. But most of the time, a polished piece only emerges after three stages: ideation, creation, and editing. 

All these stages may happen in one day, a week, or even a month depending on the length and depth of your writing. So you have to be patient. Give yourself time to produce your best work. 

And that applies not only to writing one article but to your career, as well. It’s impossible to build a massive portfolio in one day. You will need to write diligently for months or years to accumulate a tangible amount of work. 

Because success in writing, as in any profession, doesn’t happen overnight. You can only achieve it by taking one step at a time and having faith. 

8. Writing Teaches You to Be Honest

“Writing is about honesty. It is almost impossible to be honest and boring at the same time.”
— Julia Cameron

You can lie to the world, but you can’t lie to your writer’s self. For your writing to carry weight, you must be truthful. Your readers won’t be impressed by things you don’t believe yourself.

I remember one time writing a travel post about Helsinki’s hotspots. Although I’ve been to the city a few times, I’m no expert on its best hangout places and major sites. It took me ages to read countless blog posts and travel guides about the Helsinki region before sitting down to write the piece (which I never quite finished). 

The experience taught me a hard lesson: Only write what you know. It’ll save you hours of searching around for ideas. You may need to do some research to add substance to your writing, but the process is much less painful, since you’re writing about what you know and love. 

As you make writing your daily routine, you are forced to write the truth. There’s no time to search around for ideas. Your best bet is to write about your emotions, thoughts, and observations throughout the day. That’s how you can be honest with yourself and your readers. 

You Have Two Choices

I’d like to quote from Tall Girl, an inspiring movie I watched recently: “We’ve all got something about ourselves that we wish we could change. But it’s completely out of our control. The only thing that we can control is how we deal with it. And the way I see it, we have two choices: We can lay low or we can stand tall.” 

You can’t change the fact that you’re a new writer and that no one pays attention to your work. But you can change your reaction toward it. Take this as an opportunity to improve your skills and grow into a better person.

So now you have two choices: You can lay low, stay demotivated, and keep saying to yourself “Nobody cares.” Or you can stand tall and keep writing for all the good it brings you. 

The choice is yours!

Featured Photo by Brad Neathery on Unsplash