Writing is a single-player game
otherlife.co
Writing is a single-player game
1–10 of 43 posts
Re: Writing is a single-player game
#2As someone who is written over 300 articles on my blog I can relate to the feeling of wondering if my words even matter or make difference. Feeling like they don't matter is the easiest way to quit.
Some articles have made a splash, but only for the momentary period it was first published. I always wonder if the next generation of people will ever see it, or will it just get lost in the void.
I've come to terms that it doesn't matter if it helps people or not. What keeps me writing is all the interesting thoughts and ideas I want to share. It's a way to express what's inside of me to the few people that want to listen.
If you can make writing so engaging to you to where you want to play it like a video game, you've cracked the code to being a writer.
Re: Writing is a single-player game
#3Writing might be a single player game. But as soon as you hit "publish" onto a website you are a twitch streamer playing a single player game....
Re: Writing is a single-player game
#4As someone who is written over 300 articles on my blog I can relate to the feeling of wondering if my words even matter or make difference. Feeling like they don't matter is the easiest way to quit. Some articles have made a splash, but only for the momentary period it was first published. I always wonder if the next generation of people will ever see it, or will it just get lost in the void. I've come to terms that…
I just checked my blog. 367 posts. But it’s private with a protected login. It’s written for an audience of one: my son when he’s an adult. Maybe it’s also written for me.
I contend that the best writing and the easiest commitment to regular writing is to write for yourself. Always.
Re: Writing is a single-player game
#5Anyone who has seriously works, exercises, or creates, fights quitting. I'm curious how others deal with it.
I don't find thoughts like the ones in the post very helpful. Once I start thinking about instead of just doing, I've already lost. The only thing that helps me is remembering not giving up in the past, which feels like yoko ono's ladder to yes.
Re: Writing is a single-player game
#6As someone who is written over 300 articles on my blog I can relate to the feeling of wondering if my words even matter or make difference. Feeling like they don't matter is the easiest way to quit. Some articles have made a splash, but only for the momentary period it was first published. I always wonder if the next generation of people will ever see it, or will it just get lost in the void. I've come to terms that…
Herman Melville was nearly lost to the void; it's pretty much random happenstance that Moby Dick was discovered thirty years or so after publication. Like the tiktok craze over No Children, I suppose...
https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7018310124947147...
Re: Writing is a single-player game
#7I've kicked around the idea of starting a blog. It would be for me and me alone. Just a way to help myself work through some thoughts. There is always some sort of anxiety that stops me from doing it though. The idea of putting thoughts out into the world is scary. The author says my ideas can help people and I'm selfish to not share them but what if I don't want to my ideas to have a wide reach? What if I accidentally make the front page of Hacker News? God knows people here aren't any sort of kind or gracious. There is a comment in thread that sums it up, it's a single player game until you publish and are on display for everyone.
Re: Writing is a single-player game
#8Writing is a single-player game... until you get an editor involved.
Re: Writing is a single-player game
#9Anyone who has seriously works, exercises, or creates, fights quitting. I'm curious how others deal with it. I don't find thoughts like the ones in the post very helpful. Once I start thinking about instead of just doing, I've already lost. The only thing that helps me is remembering not giving up in the past, which feels like yoko ono's ladder to yes.
I'm fifty years old. I've been good enough at drawing to have people pay me to do it since about 2000.
There's a point where it's just... what you do. Where it's become a major part of your life and you get to regularly remind yourself that even when it gets kind of tedious, you're still paying your bills by doing this thing you essentially love doing. And then you get to figure out how to make it more exciting: bigger challenges? new approaches? working with other people to make something bigger than you can make yourself? or just shrugging and accepting that this has become Work instead of Play, and enjoying being able to do solid work in a tenth of the time it once took, and enjoy more leisure time to do other things you enjoy?
I mean, what the fuck else am I gonna do? Get a day job at the bottom of some other career ladder?
Re: Writing is a single-player game
#10I've kicked around the idea of starting a blog. It would be for me and me alone. Just a way to help myself work through some thoughts. There is always some sort of anxiety that stops me from doing it though. The idea of putting thoughts out into the world is scary. The author says my ideas can help people and I'm selfish to not share them but what if I don't want to my ideas to have a wide reach? What if I accidental…
if you aren't looking for interaction or a following - then why publish? Write your thoughts out for yourself and see where it takes you.