Are you writing to write or writing to publish?
Real writers publish (that is the whole point)
For me, the north star is a published post. Ideas, research, writing, and editing are all nothing if it doesn’t turn into a published post. Writing is, and has always been, a method for communicating with others. Publishing was always the point.
There is a massive gap between what it takes to write and what it takes to publish. It requires a different way of thinking, one they don’t teach you at school. After all, you learn “how to write” not “how to publish.”
Before you get mad at me:
I define publishing as sharing with others. Publishing an internal memo or on a blog no one reads is still publishing to me.
Writing without publishing is fine, just call it what it is: journaling, researching, procrastinating 😉.
Fostering a mindset where publishing happens
The difference between writing and publishing can be summed up by urgency. People who publish are in a rush to do so. There is a reason why people are so productive under a deadline. A deadline generates urgency and motivation.
Your motivation to publish any piece wanes over time, especially when you don’t have a deadline. Motivation will eventually disappear completely. When this happens, your draft ends up sunk with the collection of unpublished pieces all writers have.
To avoid this, monitor your motivation, keep your urgency up, and go as far as you can right now. Can you finish an outline, draft, or edit today? Better, can you publish today? You don’t know what tomorrow will look like. It is full of new obstacles and ideas ready to drain away your motivation for your current draft.
Prioritizing publishing means cutting scope
Scope weighs writers down. The gap between what you planned for the post and what is written demotivates you. It is a mountain you need to climb. What no one tells you is that you can choose to climb a smaller mountain.
Reject your expectations of what a “published post” is supposed to look like. It is completely made up. Be less fancy. Be less clever. Use fewer, simpler words. Word count doesn’t exist in the real world. No one is marking your work.
Smaller, published posts are better than larger, unpublished ones. Not every piece needs to be the best, most important thing you've ever written. There is tons of wisdom in the small and specific. You can always update, rewrite, or expand on it later (but you’ll be shocked by how infrequently this happens).
Focus on the most important point and cut anything that doesn’t support it. Keep the main thing the main thing.
Feedback should work towards publishing
Feedback is a core part of every “professional” writer’s workflow. The problem with feedback is that it rarely works towards the goal of publishing. Feedback is often someone applying their ideas of “good” to your piece. If you don’t completely trust this opinion, it hinders your ability to publish.
Bad feedback muddles your writing with irrelevant ideas, focuses on nitpicks and opinions, feels like weights being added to your post
Good feedback clarifies your writing towards publishing, focuses on the core ideas and structure, and feels like a weight being lifted off your post
Feedback is not a miracle worker. No one can publish a piece for you. If you are unmotivated to continue working on a piece, feedback is probably not going to help.
The paradox of publishing
A lot of resistance to publishing happens at the final step: deciding you’re done and pressing “publish.” There are two paradoxical points you can use to solve this:
No one will remember what you wrote. People can barely remember something they read five minutes ago. We’re all dust in the end. A dud post will be forgotten but frees you to work on your next one.
Your writing can have a massive impact. Complete strangers tell me my writing impacts them. I have no idea how they found my writing, but they wouldn’t have found it if I didn’t publish. Writing has changed people’s lives and created billions in enterprise value, but that doesn’t happen without them publishing it.
Publishing does require courage, but remember that others published who were less courageous and at higher risk of ruin. What they published shaped the world we have today. Real writers publish.