How to Overcome The Feeling That Your Writing Sucks

Think of your articles as warm-ups.

“Should I write this or not?”

I know that’s how you feel as soon as your butt caresses your clanky desk chair. Millions of doubts run through your mind rent-free. A chill runs up your spine as you make your final decision, but three words stand in your way to reach your writing mecca.

“My writing sucks.”

As someone who’s written an article every single day for a few years now, that feeling never goes away. But I’ve managed to overcome it and get my ass back in the writing chair.

Here’s how you can do it too.

1. Imagine where you want to be in the next 5 years — This is called the five-year rule. I got this from one of my favorite writers, Ayodeji Awosika. It means that it will take everyone, especially content creators, five years of consistent work at their craft to be successful. If your writing sucks and you’ve done this for five years — you’re in trouble. If you’re a beginner, give it time. You’ll be a completely different person in five years. Heck, I feel like Beyonce looking at the progress I’ve made in a year and a half.

2. Write down new techniques to learn — I always scribble new writing techniques I find on my calendar in front of my computer. I see the tips as I write this article now. Writing is a conscious practice — one that involves intense thinking and emotional projection. You’ll never be a writing machine unless you pick one technique, work on it for weeks until it’s ingrained in your psyche, and move on to the next. The process of improvement will make you a more confident writer.

3. Think of your content as warm-ups — Articles, newsletters, and posts are under the umbrella of “content” because they’re made for views. If you’re on any social media platform, you’re writing content to gain traction. You gotta accept that most of your posts will be duds. You won’t have a Michael Jordan-esque performance right away after being a bench warmer. Your content gets you ready for the big leagues, especially if you want to make other content (e.g. books, courses) in the future.

4. No one will read your work anyway — Do you think the Queen of England cares about your work? Scratch that. Do you think the person who serves up tea for a random upper-middle-class family in suburbia cares about your work? Hell no. You aren’t under a microscope. You will start at zero like everyone else. Embrace it. Have sex with it. It saved me so many headaches I had about my writing once I realized this. I wish there was a rule in place that if you’re a new writer, you have no right to look at your stats until you do it consistently for 90 days.

5. Readers don’t care about your writing quality — This happened to me at least seven times now. I’d write a passionate article in twenty minutes, but I take one scan and say, “This is not my best work at all.” I chuckle at the screen in embarrassment for a minute before hitting publish — the article blows up. The funny part? People in the comments section say how great the writing quality is! Passion=quality. Readers will look past grammatical errors if they can resonate with your piece. Shitty writing is subjective.

While I’ve made huge improvements since I began writing, I’m still no J.K. Rowling.

I still think my writing quality sucks sometimes. But I’ll never stop writing and publishing consistently. This is a long-winded way of saying that you can overcome the feeling of your writing being poop if you keep doing it. I’m sure Beyonce hates doing vocal warm-ups before every performance, but she still does it to become the best in her profession.

So…

Write on—even if it sucks.