The Cost of the Craft

May 04, 2023

Waddup Part-Time Creators, today we’re talking about the cost of the craft.

But before we get into today’s newsletter, in case you missed it 14 days ago I started a writing challenge #66writes. 200+ people have signed up, if you’re struggling with accountability it’s the challenge for you! It’s totally free.

Now let’s getting into today’s newsletter…

It’s funny.

When you start writing on the internet, your biggest fear is being seen. Then, after writing for a while, you get frustrated that nobody reads your work.

Human nature at its finest.

Most writers I know struggle with this. They worry that they are writing into the void and that nobody cares what they have to say. For months, years, nobody read my work, here’s how I dealt with it.

The differentiator

You go from fearing attention to craving it but what you’re really saying is that you want validation that you are going in the right direction. You see external validation as that.

But here’s the thing, if you want evidence that you are going in the right direction, look at every great author, athlete and actor in the world.

Nine times out of ten, they spend years honing their craft until they are good enough. They emerge and we’re blown away but really they’ve spent hundreds of hours to get to stand in front of you.

The people that believe this not to be true, that expect it to happen overnight, never win. The people that accept that getting to their dream destination is going to take a decade of dedication do.

Why that’s a great thing

Honestly, switching up the narrative here is worthwhile.

First off, you don’t want to show up in front of the world whilst you’re trying to figure your stuff out. It’s awkward. Really, you think that draft 1, article 1 is good for 100,000 people to see? My experience tells me not. I’m so glad nobody read my work in the early days.

You want to show in front of the world when you’ve refined your craft. When you know what you’re doing. When you feel like you’ve got a sense of what you’re talking about.

The fact that nobody reads your work currently is a licence for freedom:

To learn freely
To try different things
To not conform to the world

When nobody is watching, try everything you want to, create your own style, and build on your own terms. It’s the freest you’ll feel.

When people start to watch and you get attention you’ll shortly have another problem on your hands…the haters.

How to reimagine time

One idea I circle around my head is this:

What’s the rush? So tomorrow you’re an NYT bestseller, now what?

The goal is never enough anyway, you just create new goals. Two years ago, when I was racing towards trying to build on the internet and nothing was going my way I’d have days when I felt like giving up.

It’d been a long journey to get to the year mark and I felt like I should have had much more success than I had. But then I found myself thinking through the whole success thing.

After asking myself what I wanted to do each day, the simple conclusion was to write. If I made $15,000 a month or $150, all I wanted to do was write for 2–3 hours a day.

And I realised that I already got to do that, so I’d won.

Don’t race to the finish line when you love to run. Just enjoy running.

The pain of the pursuit

The thing with wanting great things in life is that they come at a cost. If you want to become a writer that gets read, the cost is to write for years, to hone your craft and then you might get there.

That’s the price. Some people don’t want to pay that price. If you’re contemplating whether it’s worth it, maybe writing isn’t for you. You see, there are a million and one other ways to make money on the internet.

Writing is a tough way to do it, if your heart isn’t in it, I’d avoid it altogether.

The price of pursuing your dreams is expensive. But like any good story, you have to give something to get something in return. Many people tell you that starting is the hard part, but it’s not, staying is the hard part.

Most people get pain all wrong. Pain is part of the process. Nothing good will ever come freely.

The choice

I don’t know what you will choose. Maybe you’ll read this and choose to give up on writing, maybe you’ll decide it’s not worth the price. That’s okay. It’s a good decision in the long run.

Or maybe you’ll read this and decide to write regardless. To write because you love it and it gives you everything you need just by existing. Maybe your choice will be to lean in, to accept it.

This achingly long period of time where there is no noise, no nothing. It’s just you, believing that you are moving in the right direction. That’s the price.

The work is always worth it. And if nobody is reading, you’re right on track. Keep going.

That is the cost of the craft.

That’s all for today! Let me know what you thought by replying back to this email. See you soon!

- Eve.

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