When You Don’t Want to Write — Just Don’t.
That’s write, wait… right. The worst thing you can do to your writing career, your reader and to humanity itself is to write just for the sake of writing. Medium has countless posts about “How to Write [insert some insanely large number] Words/Articles a Day/Week.”
This is ludicrous. No one wants to read your brain vomit just because you were trying to fulfill some quota for some culminating Medium article.
Yet, these posts seem to be all the rage right now. The amount of motivational content and advice directed at novice writers on Medium has almost turned me off to the platform altogether. By the way, can someone please explain to me how to filter these out?
There is an overwhelming amount of sh*t on the Internet. From what I can gather, there are two solid categories of said sh*t:
- The same advice written in 589,325 different ways. There seems to be loads of advice out there, probably because the advice given to writers for click-bate is to use titles with the following formula: “[insert a number manageable to the average human brain] Ways [insert some aspiration to Do/Be/Become/Live/etc bs]”
- (And even worse) Writing optimized for SEO or as filler for ads to be littered like post-Halloween candy wrappers above, below, in and around the text. Woof
Instead of boring the Interwebs with an onslaught of your stream of consciousness, might I suggest you just go. Yes, step away from the screen and that coffee, or tea, or whatever digestible that keeps you falsely stimulated through this painful process.
Go for a walk.
Meditate.
Stare into space.
Listen to your thoughts.
Do anything, just don’t write anything.
Writing is an art. It is divine. It is what results when humans are in a “flow state.” In the flow, we are connected with Energetic Source, the same energy that exists in all of creation. That same creative energy is what is necessary for beautiful, compelling and frankly readable writing. The connection is lost on days or moments when our humanity stands in the way of the flow. Human frailty is most commonly caused when our basic, animalistic needs aren’t being met. Think of how “tuned in” you felt the day after a night of restless or no sleep. It is more likely that you felt like a fart in the wind.
When our human selves aren’t cared for, our very existence feels heavy, causing our minds to fog and our souls to diminish. We are not flowing with that energy source that is so needed to create/perform/show up/write at our best.
To escape from the trash of the Internet, I joined Medium. My hope was to find writers who were passionate about topics, and that their passion would shine through in their craft. I was promised that quality and creative LIFE does exist online. I remain hopeful. I just need to fix that filter… Anybody?
Is it obvious that I wrote this when I didn’t want to write? Please excuse my hostility.
