What Is There Left To Write?
“If you follow a man in the forest, do you refuse to walk the path he has cleared? If he is not there to walk it, will you remain to fill his place? Paths can be created sure, but they are much more suited to be enjoyed. You followed his lead and did your best. That’s what counts.”
Every year, I like to write about writing.
It’s partially because every few months, someone asks me questions about my writing. The other part of it is that I often get too much in my head about what I write. I like thinking about my writing more than I actually write. Thoughts about what to write next, thoughts about what daily experience I can write about, thoughts about my past writing.
Most of the time, it’s thoughts about whether my writing is actually good or not.
This is likely what a ton of casual writers like me also think about. Some weeks, the thoughts about whether my writing is worth anything are so overwhelming that they overcloud any thoughts about what I should write next.
That sucks. And I’m sure it sucks for you too.
So I’d like to share some thoughts as a counter-proposal to that.
In a world where the internet is ubiquitous and everyone has thoughts they’d like to share, it seems like every good idea is already taken. It sometimes feels like you’ll never write anything original, something that isn’t already taken and written better by somebody else.
Would you like to write an original story? Hmm, that original story that you’ve been ruminating on for months kinda sounds like a rip off of Star Wars/Harry Potter/Marvel…
Okay, so you’d like to write about love? Whoops, tons of people have already written spectacular books all about love.
Or maybe you’d like to write about writing? Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, have written about writing before.
When everyone has something to say, what is left to say?
Apparently, a lot.
In my past articles on writing, I tried to highlight that having original ideas is key to writing good pieces. But I’ve changed my mind. Being original is nice, but it’s quite overrated.
There are 8 billion people on this earth currently, and there have been 117 billion people that have lived on earth since the beginning of mankind — the likelihood of you thinking about something for the first time in the history of the world is close to zero.
But just because there is a path that many have traveled, it doesn’t mean that you can’t walk down that same path. If a path has been cleared for you, why wouldn’t you walk down it?
Some people have reached out and asked what they should write about, because they feel like someone else has already written about all of the things they want to write.
I say go write whatever you want. Write your story. Write about love. Write about grief. Write about your favorite fictional ship. Write about writing. Write about the movies you hate and the movies you love. Write about the philosophical meaning behind Garfield’s love for lasagna.
Everything has been written before. Maybe you won’t write about something completely new. But maybe you’ll bring some new perspective to the things you’d like to write about. Perspective that only you can bring, because it’s perspective that comes from your unique experience.
I’ve written about the same things for seven years. But every time I write about something I’ve written about before, there will always be changes, because I’ve changed as a person, and my writing is a reflection of that.
Every story has been written before. Every topic has been written about before. So that means if no one has any original ideas, then everyone has original ideas.
Go write about them again. See what you can bring to the table. Maybe it won’t be new — or maybe it will be.
Stephen King once wrote:
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: Read a lot and write a lot.”
I enjoy reading, although I don’t do it as much as I should. Fiction, non-fiction, online articles, Twitter threads — I try to devour a bit of information about a lot of things.
But what Mr. King didn’t tell you is that a lot of reading may have one of two effects on you.
- Inspire you to think that maybe, with enough practice and grit, you’ll be able to write something half as beautiful as the words that other people have written and published.
- Completely ruin any perception you have of your writing and lose all hope that you’ll ever write anything worth reading.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll fall under the latter more often than the former. It’s very easy to read a good book, to be mesmerized by the words of someone else, and end up thinking ‘I’m never going to write anything as good as that.’
Even when I come across an idea/story I’d like to write about, the next thought I’ll naturally have is ‘Am I even good enough to write about this?’
The answer I’ve come to is:
I’ll never really know if I’m good enough. And it doesn’t really matter.
What matters is that I keep writing, and I keep being honest. It might not be a bestseller, or an instant classic, or even a particularly good piece of writing.
But if my focus is on being honest, and doing my best to show up and translate the thoughts in my head to words on my screen, then it really doesn’t matter if I’m ‘good’ enough.
And the same can apply for you too.
No, you won’t be writing sold-out bestsellers. But you’ll be writing something honest, something that may just resonate with someone else out there who is lucky enough to find your writing amongst the billions of articles out there on the internet.
So don’t write good. Don’t just write. Try to write honestly. In my opinion, the best writing is writing that comes from the heart.
It may not touch the hearts of millions. But it may make one other person in this world feel less lonely.
Aim for the latter.
To close, I will steal a quote from one of my past articles about writing:
“If you have a good message, people won’t care about how you write it. People will care that you wrote it.”
If you have a ton of drafts on Medium, or a ton of ideas in your head, and you’re not sure about whether or not they’re worth writing, I’d like to be the one to tell you to go write.
Don’t think too much about getting it right. Don’t think too much about whether it will be popular. Don’t think too much about if it’s original.
Just go write it. Write with your heart on your sleeves. Write with all of the emotions bunched up at your fingertips. Write as if no one will ever read it.
Go share it. Then don’t think about it.
Then go write again.
Nothing is new, nothing is off limits, there is no right or wrong. Your writing is fine. You’re fine.
People won’t care about how you write it. People will care that you wrote it.
So go write something.
I’ll look forward to reading it.
