All Ye Writers: A Message Of Hope, And A Plea…
An open letter to myself — from the reader to the writer
Dear writer,
Here’s a hearty wish that your dream comes true: Of making a living out of writing.
We the readers want to see you — churning reads after better reads for us — get there.
You have a way with words, and that is why you can construct these magical sentences. And why your friends told you that you wrote well, and egged you on. It shows in your posts. And we will gobble up whatever you dish out as far as it captures our imagination.
I have a few humble recommendations for you. Consider this more of a plea. Or a wishlist at best.
Please don’t obsess with follows and earnings.
Quality writing rarely goes unnoticed. The readers would remember you for your lines. And come back willingly for more. You don't have to bait readers with a screaming title. Stop worrying about followers and following. If I don't get absorbed in your piece within the first few lines, I will not bother to read more. But I will sample everything. I am sure as readers, you do the same thing:
“Stop here, or gently pass!” — William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper
Benefit from the community.
Medium is a wonderful community. It will applaud, celebrate, promote, and engage you. It sets a wonderful platform — a favorable environment for you to scratch your favorite itch.
We have many cohorts here. Writer-members of a cohort find each other. We engage and learn from each other. Great style, elegant lines, and good content have a positive rubbing-off effect. It helps you want to do better.
You take as much as you want and are sure to give back.
Write every day.
But please, use better judgment to publish. Writing as a craft (rather than art) is such a democratizing idea. It gives much hope to know that like all artisan crafts, writing can be honed and chiseled with practice. We see this development in you and with every piece, you give us a little more.
“Punch the keys, for God’s sake!” — Finding Forrester
It behooves you to show us, your readers, some love. But you are the one to benefit from all this.
Read, for the pleasure of reading.
We wish you read widely. For we will vouch for the fact that reading makes us inebriated. Puts us into a lovely trance that one cannot explain.
“…my pleasure in almost perpetual reading has to do with the love of the sentence as a tranquilizer. Something there is about an elegantly turned sentence or a well-made paragraph that calms me and makes me feel that order is possible and life is, against all strong evidence to the contrary, perhaps just possibly manageable. So pleasing is this sensation that I feel, like the alcoholic tippler, that I really must have another one — and as soon as possible.” — Joseph Epstein “Literary Tippling” (Wind Sprints: Shorter Essays © 2016)
We are all such suckers for well-built sentences and paragraphs. These are so inspiring that you will never need a writing prompt.
Some of us linger with awe at the form. Others gobble up the content in a breeze. For it was those very ‘readable’ lines that caught our attention and drove us to read it all. There is goodness all around, in the written words.
Covet these qualities, steal techniques, and copy stratagems.
Write for anyone.
But write to yourselves. Let this be the place you would be your honest and authentic best. Let the words be of empathy and passion.
“…Where words come out from the depth of truth” — Rabindranath Tagore
You treat yourselves with great respect. You never undermine, be unfair to, or underestimate yourselves. Let these show in your writing.
We get all the lines. You mature and succeed as a writer. Is there ever, a better win-win?
