Archive for the ‘writer’ tag
Web writing: fail your way to success
No one likes to talk about failure. Writers are especially failure-shy. I understand. I’ve been there. In the 1980s, when I started to write for magazines, I’d burst into tears whenever I completed an article query and stuck it in an envelope.
I wish I’d learned sooner that your failures don’t count. What counts is your successes. Any successful writing career is built on your failures: you fail your way to success.
I love this comment in Court’s article "5 Places You Can Look For New Keywords":
Before we get started I should probably make something very clear – I have had tons of sites that didn’t work out very well. I have always been willing to fall on my face. The honest truth guys is that you have to be willing to fail a few dozen times. You’ll find some winners, gain some experience, and you’ll also find some losers. The losers still have value because they can make some money and they can still be used to build some links. In that light, there is no such thing as a ‘loser’.
The article resonates with me because it’s happened to me too — I’ve started way too many writing blogs, for example. BUT… all my writing blogs are still online, and they get traffic and make money. Failures? Not really, not unless I’m suffering from a bad case of the "shoulds" and am being really hard on myself.
If you’re scared of failing, relax. It’s a writer’s disease. Sooner or later, you’ll be eager to fail, because you realize the more times you "fail" the more times you succeed.
The only real way to fail is to let the idea of failure paralyze you.
Here’s how I got over being scared of rejections and failing in any project: I made up my mind that I would only write what was FUN for me. If I was having fun, and the writing was its own reward, I could become cavalier about failures. So what? It’s the end result that counts, not how you get there.
Fail on!
SYWON
