It's Really Great That You're Writing, Here's Why

If you’re asking yourself if you should stop writing - don’t.

Photo by Sujin c on Unsplash

If you’re on Substack you’ve probably noticed there are a lot of writers posting—of every level of skill. From the total newbies to the super-charged, epically successful queens/kings of paid subscribers, we are a storm-surge of verbiage. And of course there are other avenues to get your 1/2 baked, fully baked, and over-baked word pies out there (Medium etc).

It’s easy to get disappointed when your monthly views aren’t in the tens of thousands. This great wonder of a world wide web has made it easy to see writing as a numbers game. Which is great, you want that success—cha-ching! But the ubiquity of writers and writing outlets has much greater value to us and to the world than dollars or devoted followers.

We have lost sight of writing as a means of cultivating our humanity.

Think back, way back before the culture wars ate school arts programs alive, prioritizing reading, writing (not the fun kind), and ’rithmetic above all else. Isn’t that what it was like in public school for you? I’m an early Gen X-er, born in ’65 into a very comfortable suburban area with well-funded (extremely white) public schools with strong arts programs. Of course, you should be able to take theater, dance, band, and creative writing. What could be more American?

It turns out that when you put creative tools in the hands of teenagers, anything can happen…which is awesome…right?

My guess is that conservative parents got upset when Billy brought home a fictional short story about a young boy who could change his gender by going into his closet and putting on a magic dress, or when Jenny wrote a seven-page, aspirational poem detailing the dismantling of the patriarchy—complete with executions and mandatory vasectomies.

The arts are inherently threatening to the status quo, and thats a good thing. Tragically that also makes the arts a handy strawman for conservative pundits. “Those liberals are teaching kids to hate God and their parents!” Forget that writing every day and sharing with peers was helping your kid get through an identity crisis, we can deal with that at home (usually not). “Away with all that hippie creative stuff! More God in schools!” You get the idea.

Even though that loss of creative vitality for our young people is real and tragic, I can live with it. I don’t like it, I think it’s wrong, but OK. Besides, I think we’ll outgrow our thin-skinnedness. The internet is much more of a threat to your kids cultural conditioning than a creative non-fiction assignment on going through puberty could ever be. Eventually classes like Creative Writing will be seen as a way to escape the evil influence of the internet and cultivate their own inner voice.

Finally. Thank you internet!

But wait, there’s more! Didn’t you notice, every Tom, Dick, Harry, Henrietta etc, locked up during Covid decided it was time to get that novel down on the page! Suddenly everyone has a blog, channel, substack page! Isn’t it horrible? No, it’s wonderful.

Even if the market is saturated, even if only a dozen people read what you’ve written, it matters.

You, my writing friend, have taken something that was hidden inside of you and gone through the struggle of getting it out into the world. Yes, I said STRUGGLE! Writers who write about things important to them wrestle, battle, rise, fall, fail, rise again only to be bludgeoned by their own inner critic. It’s hard to describe to the uninitiated, but trying to understand whats going on inside of you and then translating that into something on paper that other people will understand (and be affected by) can be painful and even horrifying.

And I know struggle both inner and outer. Here’s where I list the litany of physical labor jobs I’ve endured, the various forms of work humiliation, days without food, semi-homelessness, the death of my wife, nutty childhood, I’ve enjoyed so far. I’ll spare you but believe me, its there.

In engaging yourself deeply you are, intentionally or otherwise, cultivating an inner sense of self, developing your humanity and making it more available to the world.

The creative struggle and its fruits are what makes our culture so unique, glorious and worth it. Yes you can meditate to know yourself (I highly recommend it), but meditation is not creative self-transformation. That is a gift we have in the West. We need to own it, revel in it, cherish it.

We need to cherish it even if it doesn’t make us money or friends.

This is the way, Padawan: to harvest from the deepest crevasses of you something worth writing about, and, by doing so, save the world…even if its just your own tiny corner of the world.

I hope you new writers, those with almost no followings besides friends and family will take the time to congratulate yourselves, pat yourselves on the back, pick yourselves up and wipe the worst of the mud away.

You are cultivating your humanity in a culture that ignores humanity more each day. We need you.

And, since this is a substack post and I want you to read it all the way to the end, I’ve written a handy list to help you on your way.

If you’re asking yourself if you should stop writing—don’t.
If you’re asking yourself if your material is too personal—there is no such thing.
If you’re asking yourself if your critics are right and you suck, remember the only proper answer is, “I don’t care, fuck off.”

And if you can, have a lovely day. You deserve it.