My biggest issue with writing is the fear of shouting into the void. What if no one wants to read what I've written? What if no one finds it?
I'm trying to get in to the mindset of just writing for myself, but it's hard.
I'm trying to get in to the mindset of just writing for myself, but it's hard.
Similarly, I want to know the criticism so I can incorporate it into my thinking -- but I don't want to be criticized. :)
It's entirely OK to sit and write without fanfare, we're not wizards or witches any longer, just plain people with the same plain obligation towards the mind as towards the body: tend, feed, and regularly empty out.
If today you really gotta go write, go ahead, knock yourself out.
If tomorrow you just scribble in the margins of empty pages but nothing comes, have a bath or a nap or both, and sit again the day after.
I also find it very helpful to remember that I'm not addressing others when writing, I'm not in a possibly empty auditorium talking into the void, instead I'm reaching across time and continue a discussion I started with myself earlier, and may pick up again later.
The trend since stationary became affordable has been to get a daily journal going, and start some weekly correspondence, that'll give you opportunity both to write and to communicate, and you'll also creating a self-referential echo chamber, and you bootstrap yourself up from there.
It helps a lot if you have questions that bug or interest you. Writing is thinking, you have to want to think about something, don't confuse it with presenting the writing.
Writing helps you sail on the void and dive in its depths. An audience isn't necessary for that, so if you get your writing done on the computer rather than on paper, remember that you don't need to publish it. That may take a load off you, and free you to think about what you want to write, not how it'll be typeset or who will read it or whether it'll get points, stars, or otherwise pointless superficial kudos.
In fact, write daily, but don't publish until after the first couple of times you burn your past notebooks (or "rm -rf ~/txt", though its really not the same).
PS, I just got this stuck in my mind, if you need a silly essay prompt: If you don't write when you think, how do you know that you're thinking when you think you're thinking, rather than hallucinating thinking that you're thinking?
This goes for non-fiction but also for fiction. As a fiction author I do relish being read and appreciated by the right people. However, the gratification I get from that is mainly an ego thing, whereas the gratification of producing something that I find complete and beautiful (that sense of rightness washing over you when you put in that final period) gives a deeper fulfillment.
The terrifying thing isn't shouting into the void, and it isn't being visible to everyone. It's the adverse combination of the two. When you need to be heard is when your status has taken a dive or something bad has happened... at which point, people just want you to go away because you're depressing them. On the other hand, every little thing you write that could one day be attributed to you is available to any authoritarian government or employer (the euphemism we use for authoritarian private governments) on a three-second Google search... and, since these people have bad intentions, can only be used against you. HR people don't Google you because they think you're a fascinating person; they do it because protecting the company from someone with internet dirt is one more scalp to display at annual review time.
Also, when I had a successful blog, I found that a lot of my best posts were ignored, whereas the good stuff that really deserved to get exposure barely got noticed. It feels like influence but it really isn't because people stop listening as soon as you say something that makes them uncomfortable.
I enjoy writing but the percentage of people who will gain anything by doing it in public under their real name, in this time of belligerent capitalist authoritarianism, is very very low.
you probably intended to say this a bit different than it came out. :-)
I enjoy writing, but, like everything I do, I don't do "half measures." It's an "all-in" thing. I haven't written anything in a while, because I have been working on a fairly intense coding project for the last year or two.
My first draft is usually pretty good, but I always have typos. I'l generally police my writing several times, correcting typos, first, then missing words (I forget "the," or "a," or "an," all the time, and often miss the omission, even after rereading. Our brain inserts the conjunctive), then, repeats and inappropriate words. Finally, I often see that I can add to what I initially wrote. I do that on HN posts, all the time.
I also tend to write a lot. To paraphrase Emperor Joseph, "Too many words." (i.e. "prolix").
People don't like reading more than about five paragraphs, these days.
If you’re writing, it’s because you have the inkling of an idea. Through the writing process, you clarify that idea and then release it to the world. That process — the act of creation — is enough for me.
It forces structure to my thoughts, and the consideration of minute details that otherwise would be handwaved over.
This is perhaps the "generation effect" in play.
A good way to get around the second problem is: think that your audience is really bad people. Literally Hitler. Or at least that it's possible that they are. If that's the case, all the time you can keep them reading what you wrote, they will not spend it doing evil deeds. So waste their time. Save the world.
I hope it helps, Main Fürer.
You do you.