Rohan's blog

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.

Yet To Come

When you write, some articles reach zero views and some get thousands of views. As such, you might think the one which got thousands of views is the best piece of writing. But that might the one which got lucky. Often there is a peak – and it’s hard to go past it. But that piece of writing doesn’t have to be the best. It often happens to be lucky.

You have to believe your best piece of writing has yet to come. And when writing – I think it’s the best one. That should be the focus. There is no other way to work on your art than thinking you are doing the best you can every time you sit down.

If you look back at your writing – you might see flaws or think you could have done it better. That’s a good thing – it means you have evolved your thinking process. And that’s how you should be growing. If you look back and think the same – have you grown in your perspectives.

The Best Topic

One way to get more views is to write about trendy topics. And hope to get lucky. And you might get many eyeballs. But when you are writing for trendy topics, you are thinking about capitalizing on the viewership. Nothing wrong with that – but most viewership doesn’t mean the best content.

If something is trendy and you find it urging you to tell your story then write it down. But not to gain the eyeballs – at least at first.

First, sit down to write your perspectives, lessons and ideas – make it evergreen so as to make your article good for reading for many years. And when you are done writing – only then tweak for the clicks and so. Because getting viewership is critical – but you shouldn’t write thinking that way. Only after you have done your writing from your heart – should you let it get edited.

Else, you will write thinking about how readers will interact. That’s an after article writing process – not before.

On choosing topics in general, the topics you might get on the fly might not be a good idea. Because unless someone is searching for that – your best article will be read by exactly no one.

A part of writing is to write for yourself and that’s good. But while you are at it – you should strive to impact at least 1 person. And you can only do that if your article is read. So, write about topics which are searched for. And some outlier articles if you really want to write about them.

Affiliation Matters

Often readers don’t value talent. For example, a dancer goes on a reality show and gives an excellent audition. The judges praise her. The day it is telecasted – the village where she lives comes to congratulate her and now says – what an excellent dancer she is. She was an excellent dancer the day before too. But the affiliation with television and the comments from judges mattered a lot.

Where your writing appears can make or break things for you. For example, if your website isn’t a brand then readers aren’t much willing to give you a chance. They might land on your article, read a few lines and exist. And read some listicles from a clickbait site.

But if the same writing is published in the Harvard Business Review, suddenly the reader gives the benefit of the doubt, reads carefully and wants to stay a little longer. And often trusts more. So the goal is to make your name a brand good enough for enough people to trust. That’s why you see many websites displaying affiliation like ‘As seen on NY Times and so on. It’s a signal that you can trust.

So at the beginning of your writing career, write some for other great websites and if they reject you – you can always publish on your own website.

Rejection Is Fine

With all the drama on the best piece of writing – remember there will be rejections. From readers leaving comments that your article is basic. And that’s okay. First, your article isn’t for everyone so there will be some haters. And as long as you are growing – it’s fine, you have to grind and evolve your writing.

And if magazines or the website you love rejects your article – then remember, it means you apply after 6 months. Grow yourself, become better and adhere to their editorial standard.

Often, a great piece of writing is lost because you didn’t follow the rules – some assistant deleted your email because of that. So, read the application perfectly, and see if your writing is a fit for them.

And to end, rejection is a simple thing. You and the other person don’t match. That’s it. It’s not a comment on you as a human being, your character, your future success, your journey and it’s not personal.

Things become worse when you take rejections personally. Remember, even that is an experience and you can share it – probably that could become your best piece of writing.