Real talk. Though I call myself a writer, I’m actually really bad at writing things, especially to completion. I’ve already written about how I never finish anything, and you may think this is going to turn out to be another one of those articles, but that’s not exactly the truth.
I called myself a writer for many years not quite understanding what exactly that meant. Very often I felt crushed by failure because I couldn’t keep my attention on one piece long enough to finish it. Even now I hold myself to a ridiculous standard in terms of how much I need to produce and that each piece should be better than the last. Quality and quantity, I always say.
This got me nowhere but a frustrated spiral of unfinished works not up to my desired standard. That happened until very recently when I had a breakthrough of sorts.
In the past two weeks, I’ve finished two different stories over 4,000 words each. Last year, I wouldn’t think that was very much because I had my eyes on the prize of novel-length works — the only works that really counted, in my mind. That is until I realized something very important; who the hell writes over 8,000 words for fun?
This got me thinking quite critically about my previous views of what ‘counted’ as writing. I realized that under my old standards, even my Odyssey posts don’t count! That’s crazy!
Everything I write has a lot of thought put into it, even though I can usually churn them out in an hour or two. It’s still writing! It still takes effort! It still allows me to hone my craft and expand my skills.
Furthermore, all my unfinished drafts probably add up to more than 100,000 words of writing. And yeah, a lot of it is stuff I just spat out and didn’t spend a lot of time making super high quality, but just like Odyssey, it can’t be discounted.
All this thinking accumulated into one final idea, a message to all creators. It doesn’t matter if your work is long enough, good enough, or popular enough. You are still creating, and you are still improving. The end goal is not to be the next Shakespeare or Confucious, or whoever the hell you look up to. The end goal is to grow until you think there's nowhere left for you to go, and then keep growing.
Do you think Charlotte Brontë sat down and wrote Jane Eyre in just a couple days? No! That manuscript sat in her desk for years and years until she finally managed to publish it. And she didn’t even publish it under her own name. Michelangelo took four years to paint the Sistine Chapel.
My point is, you will never automatically think your work lives up to your standards, and we all have our weaknesses when it comes to our art. Mine is my inability to finish things through.
You will realize one day, “hey, I actually finished something” or “this bit of my story is pretty awesome” or anything along the lines of praise. That right there is growth, my friend.
Consider when was the last time you praised something you made. If it’s been so long you can’t even remember, maybe it’s time to do some reflection. You might find yourself reinspired to dedicate yourself to your art.
