The importance of not thinking

Don’t put anything more in your head

I did it again. Spent too much time exploring what is already out there rather than creating my own.

The thing is, I know exactly what I have to do. I need to produce. Every day, day in, day out. I don’t need to put anything more into my head; I need to get more stuff out of it.

But all is not lost. What I have learned through looking through the pages of those with writing skills far better than my own is that, sometimes, you only need one hit to get noticed and gain the semblance of an audience. Once you have a readership for one thing, you can have a readership for many. Once you have a subscriber, you then need to keep them entertained to keep the momentum going and to keep yourself in their minds.

Both the initial attention and the sustained attention rely on one thing — writing more. Make your work unavoidable. Don’t shove it in anyone’s face, but where people go looking, your work needs to be there. Quantity is its own sort of advertising. It shows you are committed, creative and that you will continue to be there in the future.

Regularity is key to it all, and there is no better regular system than the turning of the planet itself. Every day there has to be something out there for people to read. Yes, give it a good click-bate title. Yes, make it pretty. Yes, make it topical and witty and honest and everything else that makes writing good — but do it every day. Don’t worry about quality — that will come with practice. Just give them something every day that makes them realise you are still there.

In short: don’t think; do.

Originally published on Tumblr

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