Writing is not the goal, it’s just a tool
You are mistaken if you think writing well is your final goal.
If you have read my writing either on Medium or on Twitter you’d know that I am a creative writer. I love writing stories. I have written and published two books. I love and enjoy writing but is that the goal? Would you say that this is my life’s purpose?
The short answer is, that writing is not the goal here. It’s a mere tool.
Social media has made us believe that anyone can be a writer. If you write and post anything, even a tweet, you are a writer. This is more or less true but not in the sense they make you believe. Writing cannot be someone’s goal just like going to the gym is not the goal.
Let’s say you want to drop some weight, your natural process would be to go to the gym and lift some weights. Going to the gym is part of the process, the goal is to reduce some weight.
Similarly in my case, I want to tell good stories. I could either record myself and make a podcast out of it, or an audible original, or go on a radio show. But I chose a different medium or process to tell my stories. I chose the written medium (pun intended). I narrate stories by writing them.
I write every day. This is not the goal, this is the process. I write every day because I love to write and I want people to follow me for my writing so I can tell them I tell stories. You too have chosen writing as a medium for a goal of your own.
What about building a career out of writing? Like Ghostwriting.
It’s the same. They use a writing medium to promote their writing skill. They then lend this skill to someone who doesn’t have the same skill set due to any number of reasons. The goal is to make money using the tools at your disposal. Like writing, in this case.
Nobody writes for others because they love writing. They write for others because it’s one of the simplest ways to make money. So making money is the goal here.
Well if you go deep enough into any profession, making money is the ultimate goal. I write stories for two reasons, I want fame for my work and some dollars along the way wouldn’t hurt. We all want to make money. We choose different paths to achieve that goal. Everything then becomes a tool in the end.
A person can have multiple goals like having their own online business even if it demands extra hours, they are fine with it because it’s their business.
That doesn’t mean writing a good essay has no incentive. Writing well becomes even more important when your goal is tied to writing as a medium.
So, next time when you write a piece and no one reads it, don’t get disheartened. Remember, it’s not about one essay, one blog, one story, or one book, it’s just a piece of writing. And writing is not the goal here, it’s just another tool you have picked to move toward the bigger goal.