It would seem that this title should go without saying, but there’s been a budding belief among online content marketers that more is best. That somehow content is a ‘numbers game,’ and the more you crank out, the odds of your success are better.
Maybe this will work for a mediocre writer, but for those of us who seek to express our own voices and our own vision of the world and our human experience – it’s terrible advice.
Creative writing is one of the few things left in our society where our uniqueness and unique talents flourish. The urgency of including everyone and making everyone equal has pretty much put our humanity into a giant blender. And that blender spits out a lot of mediocrity.
Mediocrity does not work with creativity – nor should it. Incidentally, it should be noted here the creative writing includes writing fiction and writing non-fiction. Writers of non-fiction can be just as innovative as fiction writers – in fact; it could be argued that creativity is needed more in non-fiction – because you have to express your perception of facts and events.
Discovering your unique writing style
Never forget that there’s a world of difference between writing for others as compared to writing for yourself. Many of us never even considered writing for ourselves because we seek a source of income for our work.
Granted, there’s nothing wrong with getting paid for our writing; there can also be much to gain from writing for yourself. If you’re willing to set aside some time, then why not give this exercise a try?
Writing for yourself is a perfect way to discover your true writing talents and writing passion. At the very least, it’s a great way to polish your writing style.
This experience doesn’t have to intrude on your current writing time slots. Why not set aside about 20-30 quiet minutes a day for writing anything you desire?
Perhaps you could write about your childhood, or write about your personal development, or what about trying to create an entirely new world on paper?
When writing for yourself pays off big
J. R. R. Tolkien is a perfect example of what can happen when you write for yourself. Did you know that he spent years writing about an imaginary country and its history?
Tolkien created all the languages, maps, timelines, and mythology behind this imaginary country – entirely for his pleasure. He had no clue that anyone would ever be interested in his writing.
When publishers asked him for a sequel to The Hobbit, Tolkien used all this self-pleasure material as a foundation for The Lord of the Rings – which as we all know, he became a legendary bestseller.
Unbeknownst to Tolkien, his creative imagination connected with vast numbers of people on a profound level.
Boost in writing quality
The hidden benefit of writing about something for fun and pleasure is to slow your writing down a little and devote more quality to your words and sentences. When it’s fun, you’ll do this automatically. You’ll ignore artificial deadlines and focus more on your message. From this point, you’ll later polish that message for yourself – who happens to be one of your readers.
And the more you continue this exercise, this new increase in quality writing will naturally germinate and grow in your other writing endeavors as well.
When the quality and passion are in place, then you can focus on generating content faster. Trust me on this; you’ll find yourself in the future writing much better content at a faster rate.
Never forget that writing is only a craft and always has been. It doesn’t matter what level of writing you start with, and you can drastically improve from that starting point. As with other craft you learn, you can keep polishing your writing skills forever and ever – and you’ll keep improving.
The most significant difference among writers that they have different starting levels in terms of quality. But believe me, you will eventually surpass an excellent writer that doesn’t practice their skills – and you’ll do it very quickly too.
Final thoughts
I hope that you’ll take a pause and consider injecting more quality and thought into your writing. Remember, this is what will lead you to your natural writing talents – whatever that may be. And it’s these natural talents that will set you apart from everyone else.
I think you’ll agree that there are too many cookie-cutter writers out there spitting out the same tired refurbished messages. We can see this happening in virtually every single niche in our society.
If you’re not writing and would like to start, this is a perfect starting place for you.
Experienced writer or not, start setting aside 20-30 minutes every day to write about anything you wish. Commit to doing this for a few months and see where it leads. You might be surprised!
