Writers block

Not that anybody reads these posts anyway (not sure how to drive organic readership on Medium), but I’m not doing this for the views.

Interestingly, once humans engage with a product, we start putting effort into it. If there is a system to optimize, we naturally want to be good at it (or repel the system if we’re forced into it). There’s school – let’s get good grades. There are game: let’s win. Now Instagram and Facebook and whatever have driven our search for points. Social validation.

Even in my family iMessage, I can’t help but want a 👍 from at least 3–4 of my family members. I’ve resigned to the fact that a good iMessage will only get 4 likes max.

But the same thing that drives me to get likes in iMessage drives me to post to LinkedIn and Facebook and whatever. I post. Then I check: did I get likes?

So what’s happened now that I’ve experimented writing a few times a week for three weeks? I post. Then I check viewership.

The one time I put my post on LinkedIn, I drove engagement to 48 readers. Otherwise, I only get two per article.

So why do I write? I want to get better at formulating my thoughts. I learn when I write.

Interestingly, I get writers block when I want to perform. When I want to make a good article. Maybe it’s 2pm and I haven’t written anything. Then I get a little anxiety. Oh no! Am I losing my steam? Did I run out of original content already? It’s only been 10 articles.

I’ve already learned that the best way to get over writers block is to just write what I’m learning. This is only for me, after all.

There’s an interesting teaching. A young preacher was once taught by his Mentor, “Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed”. Perhaps this is the wisdom I’ve learned. Don’t seek to write. Seek to learn. Then, if you want, you’ll know what to write.