My New Year’s Writing Resolution Is To Quit the Race

And write less.

image by author

This post is in response to a prompt from Jocelyn’s writing group.

Over the past few months, I’ve found myself tangled in a mess of writing advice.

Gluttony guided me as I scarfed down one article after another full of tips, tricks, and secret keys to get more reads, claps, and money from my writing here on Medium.

I end up on this road sometimes because I get too much in my head about success, or a lack thereof.

Insecurity becomes me and I go seek counsel from the Medium gods.

I look at the heavy hitters who post nearly every day, have an army of followers, and are conveniently giving advice about how I can do the same.

They’ve cleverly placed bait for someone insecure like me, and it worked. I bit.

Now, I will say there is some good advice in those articles, but I realized they aren’t really about writing better. At least not the ones I’ve come across.

They are about learning how to write more so you get more traffic and feel the high of your stats rising. Once you’re hooked and see the advice played out as promised, then comes their spear.