Redefining “Successful” Writing
If we treat writing the way we treat breathing, eating, and sleeping, then success awaits us sans any desperation we may employ towards attaining it
Chances are that you have more writing success than I’ve had. I’ve written academically to get my university degree, I’ve written legal summaries for a modest income, I’ve written for Lifehack and other media platforms online, I’ve entered poetry and short story competitions, freelanced biographies, toyed with scripts, etc. Yet, if you asked me a year ago whether or not I’ve been successful, it would be a hard no, simply because I wasn’t making a complete living off of it. Then I realized something: putting money first is a wholly backwards approach to defining successful writing.
This idea — that we ought to write simply to write and not solely to profit — has been reiterated and rehashed so much so that we now tend to ignore it in our pursuits of exposure or financial gain. However, there’s a reason it has become such a truism in an age where we have greater potential and a multitude of mediums through which we may write for profit: more than ever, we risk befouling the practice of writing by chasing after the dollar that may come as a consequence. This precipitates the need for an occasional redefinition of what…
