You Master the Art of Writing When You Stop Thinking of Writing as Art
The world doesn't need more art. It needs more personality.
Hi, I’m Ben Watkins 👋 Thanks for joining another edition of La Vie Ben Rose. Every week, I unravel copywriting examples from the most recognized brands. I also look at how to transform your writing with style, clarity, and stories so you can build an audience, transform your writing, and create endless opportunities.
The world craves artists.
Everyone is searching for viral social media posts. Folks love that dopamine hit more than ever.
It’s a world built on doing something to perfection or doing nothing at all.
We create five YouTube videos and give up because our channel wasn’t growing fast enough. We write LinkedIn posts hoping for likes and comments. We create newsletters on subjects we think will build us an audience.
That mindset is completely wrong.
Your work is defined by an outcome. Your work isn’t art as soon as you publish 37 articles.
Your work is the work. You put it out into the world and let the world decide how to interpret it.
Find Your Creative Lemonade
I’ve written hundreds of articles on Medium. I’ve published a weekly newsletter for a year on Substack. I’ve posted nearly a thousand times on LinkedIn.
Do I have 100k followers? Do I make millions? Is my work defined by others?
The answer is always no. Your work - your creative lemonade - is defined by doing the work over and over again. You’ll burn out when you constantly want your work to be validated by others.
Imagine having a lemonade stand right next to a superstore. Your lemonade is not defined by what the store sells.
Your writing is not defined by other writers or your audience. It’s defined by what you put into it. Story after story after story.
Do the Work Over and Over Again
I’m not here to preach consistency.
I’m here to tell you to stop being paralyzed by what others are writing about. Your writing and your stories are not defined by others.
You have to detach from the outcome. Believe every story is worth telling because you are telling it. Because you love that story.
It took me years to realize that I needed to write for myself and do it every single day. That’s how I embraced that mindset. I took action every day.
The first person who needs to believe in your writing is yourself. And you need to tell that story every day.
Your Work Is Validated The Moment You Believe In Your Work
I’ve always believed that there’s more fire in your words when you believe in what you’re writing.
The stories you tell are worth telling. The moments in your life are worth sharing.
Validation doesn’t come from 100, 1,0000, 10,000, or 100,000 followers. It comes from one person - and that person is you.
When you accept that truth, you’ll realize that you’ll build an audience. And you’ll find that people love what you have to say and what they are learning from you. Those people will love the empathy and energy of your writing.
You don’t need to write art. It’s a hogwash excuse that holds millions of writers from actually writing.
You only need to start writing.
And believe in it.
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