Why I Write is Not Why You Do

Aaron Batalion has started writing over at the Lightspeed Venture Partners publication, after about three years of talking about why he should write more.

Read his posts, as usual, I’m right. He should write more.

In talking about writing, I often ask “why.” Why spend time and social capital writing posts that are similar to other articles that already exist?

The answer is surprisingly simple:

I want recognition.

Recognition falls into two boats: Ego Growth and Personal Concern.

For some, what is most important is that their stats are high, because they believe that high stats means high value, and sometimes it does. If you want to be seen as a thought leader or turn a post into a book, you need to have a significant marketing platform.

How can you tell that someone’s primary focus is Ego Growth?

Because they tell you.

Is it bad? No. It serves a specific function, and its not hidden. Plus, if you do like what they wrote on one platform, it is possible you will enjoy the author’s writing elsewhere.

Personal Concern, the importance of the reaction to a written post is something I certainly focus. When looking at my stats on Medium, I care only about the read percentage (the percentage of people that read at least 50% of the post) and the recommends.

I wish Medium included stats on highlights and reactions separately.

Writing for most people is not an easy thing. They worry about each word they use and how each word will be read. They try and game the system (tweetable sentences, short paragraphs, quotes and photos).

For me, writing is an extension of thinking. I spend weeks often thinking about a topic before I write a post. I talk about it with others, I let it roll around in my brain. I challenge it. I love it. I hate it. I embrace it. And finally, I write about it.

If you want to write more, there is only one correct course of action: write more. Right size your bar for success correctly. Define success explicitly.

Don’t allow yourself to sit in judgement of yourself.

Just write. People will hate it. People will love it. People won’t care.

But you will get better with each keystroke. You will find your groove and experience the enjoyment of conjoining words and thoughts and sparking conversation and, hopefully, debate.