The Best Piece of Writing
Writing is a difficult job. At first, it seems like - all you have to do is sit down and spit out your thoughts. But it’s a complex process. You live an interesting life, see things differently, connect things, draw inspiration, tell a story and then put life into words. And not all of them come in one go. You sit and draw some tangents. And then there is a break, you talk, collaborate and make things happen.
After all this drama, your draft is at best okay. It’s not the best piece of writing. It needs to be reread to remove all the fluff, drama and unnecessary words. The best piece of writing comes when you allow someone you trust to edit your writing.
Often, when you think you have done your best - an editor can do her magic. If that’s not something you can do - then look at your own writing after some time.
Some people say the best piece of writing takes time. But there is a nuance. It doesn’t take as much time to write it down but to collect all relevant things to make it awesome by putting it into words.
So, the trick is to write about things you are actively curious about, educated in or love to experiment. That way, you will have amazing things to say often. Then there are writers who create magic by researching a topic they aren’t familiar with - and crank out writing which is inspiring, in-depth and jaw-dropping.
Chicken And Egg Problem
It’s a classic problem - what came first, the chicken or the egg. And often as a business person and every person is a business person - you will run into this. Sometimes you have to fake things to get through. For example, if you create a website where user interaction is needed, you need to fake the initial interaction so others feel okay to chime in. Many popular websites have done this.
In writing, the problem is what comes first - your knowledge, research or your ability to tell stories that impact.
Should you learn writing first or acquire knowledge? The trick is to do something in between. You will be strong in one of the things - fake the other while you pursue it. And if you can’t learn the other or don’t want to then collaborate with someone who compliments your skill.
Another problem is - do you write the best piece of writing. Or is it the audience who decides what’s the best piece of writing? If you think you are writing amazing things then you might run into ego problems where you don’t see where you are faltering - thinking you are doing an amazing job but the audience doesn’t get it. And if you let the audience be the judge then you run into problems if your writing doesn’t reach the audience or the right audience.
The best thing is to do your best at the moment. Is this enough, good or thought-provoking? You are the best judge of your writing. At this moment and hopefully, you grow the next time you sit down to write. Often you can’t control the distribution of your writing - and that’s where you have to let it be. When writing, I think you have to do your best. And form a system and values - something which matters to you. For example, I will write an article within 7 days and publish it no matter what. It has to have values like impact, story and emotion. What matters to you is what matters to you. Stick to your standards and keep improving it over time at specific periods.
