I came across an article on Medium the other day by a writer named Lindy about writing for yourself again after you may have forgotten how. This passage stuck out to me:
The minute you stop writing for yourself completely is the minute you start to lose your passion.
Another article of hers says this:
You didn’t write for a client, you didn’t write to impress anybody — it was just for your own enjoyment.
Although some authors might argue that writing is meant to be shared with the world, I’m a firm believer that writing, at its core, is for you. It’s a creative outlet, a way to cope with our emotions, a fun past time — we can share our words with the world, but the goal isn’t to write for them.
Obviously, as we get older, we do have to write for others — and that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with writing for your followers, or for a client, but a problem arises when you only write for the world and stop writing for yourself.
She talks about writing to get things out, to organize your thoughts. Prior to really ramping up my freelance work, I mainly wrote for myself. I wrote on my blog and had the ability to just write about what was going on in my life, from family to fertility. Not to keep up with the tone of a publication, or to impress an editor, or to have the article show on that publication’s social media page. I wrote for myself. But blogging didn’t and still doesn’t pay my bills. Writing articles does. Therefore, the articles took priority and the blog was there in the background, great for updates, but I didn’t have time for much else.
Toward October, right before I started maternity leave, I started feeling burned out from writing professionally. The interviews, the outlines, the pitches, the editing work—I was getting burned out from it. I missed just writing. And I know sometimes even on this blog I write for the audience. But as Lindy explains, there’s nothing wrong with that if what I’m writing is important to me and can resonate with others. Why should people read something they don’t care about?
Everything on here has been for my own benefit. I write to get down my thoughts, to spill what I’ve kept inside, but also to keep the best baby book ever written. I love this space. This year, I’ve resolved to do more writing here. What that looks like, I don’t know yet. I don’t know what my schedule or new routine is going to look like with a preschooler and infant. I don’t know what my freelance workload is going to be. But it’s become more and more important to take back this space. And I’m looking forward to it.
So are we! I’ve always loved the authenticity of your writing. And there’s no pressure – whatever you want to write here and whenever you want to write it, we’ll be here : )
Author
Ha! Thanks, Jen. Sometimes I feel guilty putting so much work into a site that makes me no money, but I love it. I just need to find some sort of happy medium!
Thank you. Am glad you will keep on writing here… about whatever.
Sometimes for ‘reasons’ the world looks fairly bleak and not joyous. When I find you have written I always perk up and am encouraged again. Not because all is always rose-colored in your world; but because your writing is grounding in reality and the present. Then I remember to re-focus away from what the future might be and back to right this minute, right here the immediate present. You hold off the dragons. It is a lovely gift especially because it is not intended/created/manufactured/faked/lectured it is simply grounded and grounding.
Author
Thank you so much, rose! I appreciate your words and for following along!
“The best baby book ever written” — I didn’t think about that! It is a lovely record of your life and your family as it expands. I’m glad you are taking time to write for yourself and connect to what you want to write about, freely and without editorial guidelines. Looking forward to it!
Author
I know. I go back to it all the time when I need to remember when Olivia did something at a certain age. It’s a great record. 😉
Good for you! Writing is a nice creative outlet for me too, it feels good when I manage to find time to update my blog even if hardly anyone reads it!
Author
It does feel good, doesn’t it? 🙂
I hear you. I sometimes struggle, too, with the balance of writing for myself and writing for clients/readers. As you’ve found, it’s important to return to your core on occasion.
Author
Yes! It would seem so obvious. Maybe I just needed to hear it from, surprise! another article.