Today I learned about the Inkhaven Residency1 which is currently accepting applications. During the residency, you are tasked with writing a new blog post every day. I thought that it might be interesting to apply for it, even if it does not make sense given my time and financial constraints. So I clicked on the application form. Of course, the application asks for you to submit 1-5 pieces of writing that you’re proud of.
This made me realize that I’m not actually proud of anything that I’ve written. Why is that? I’ve written some essays and shared them with people in the past, and they’ve often been well-received. If they’ve not been well-received, they’ve sparked good debate and conversation with those that I share it with. This signals to me that there’s some value in my writing.
No, I think that I don’t have writing that I’m proud of because I haven’t put in much effort into the things that I’ve written. For most of the things that I write, I just sit down for an hour and flesh out a thought from earlier that I wrote down, tagging it as a #writingIdea in my Obsidian vault. Once I’m done, I do a once-over of the article, publish it, and share it on unpopular social media feeds, as well as with circles of friends that I think care to read my writing.
If I want to feel pride in my writing, I have to actually put some effort into it. I feel pride in my abilities – whether they be physical, artistic, technical, or whatever –2 because I can observe that the effort that I put into those activities pays off in enabling me to perform better.
If I want to feel proud about my writing, I need to actually put effort into my writing. There are two actions that I think I should take if I want to make work that I’m proud of:
- Publish some short-ish piece every day.
- Along with the published work, work on a longer piece that you’ve put more thought into.
This is in contrast to a goal I had previously set for myself about journaling 750 words every day. Journaling some number of words a day is a good way to get yourself into the habit of writing, but it quickly degrades your writing quality into a sloppy commodity. I gave myself the goal to journal 750 words every day for the first six months of 2023, and I found that my writing quality quickly fell into a stream-of-consciousness text about mundane things that happened throughout my day. Understandably, not everything you write is going to be deep philosophical prose, but neither you nor the world benefits from small talk with yourself saved on a local text file.
This is why I emphasized the word publish. Creating a habit of putting work out there for the world to see create incentives to fix some of the problems that I listed above. Out of a fear of an audience, you’re more likely to write for others as opposed to yourself. You’re also more likely to figure out a topic to write about that will intrigue others. Both of these things translate into honing your skills for creating the longer pieces that you want to be proud of.
Publishing every day also makes it more likely to gain a following in algorithmic feeds. However, blogging popularity is only a secondary goal of mine, if I can even call it a goal. I would rather have unpopular work that takes time and I’m proud of instead of creating popular slop.
Is this a goal that I can realistically achieve? I think it’s a stretch. I haven’t written as much as I did a few months ago because I feel as though I’m running out of interesting ideas. There are also other things in my life that are vying for my attention, including work, relationships, and other hobbies and projects.
But I’m not going to be proud of my writing unless I put some effort into it. Maybe, if I’m able to make it a habit, I could successfully apply to something like Inkhaven in the future.