I’ve seen some writing from aspiring writers which makes me roll my eyes (and some from professional writers too for that matter). Part of me wishes they wouldn’t bother writing about these topics again (e.g. the iPad sucks/ the iPad is the best thing ever as long as you have these 20 apps), but I’m keenly aware of the dangers of wishing a writer wouldn’t bother.

The creative process isn’t clean or easy. Creating is messy and involves mistakes.

In the words of Jake from Adventure time, sucking at something is the first step to being sort of good at something.

To get better at writing, we need first to write badly. Then slightly less badly (with a few missteps along the way) and eventually be sort of kinda good at something.

Even once we’ve “made it” we may create the occasional average product. As a follower of a creative, we can expect everything to be their best work, but with online publishing that won’t always be true. Admittedly, the skill of knowing what leads to pursue and when to kill a draft are important to develop. But as the ceramics class in Art & Fear showed that focusing on quantity leads to higher quality, so we too should be forgiving of the occasional misstep.

After all, if there is writing (or podcasts or video) that we do not like, we can always choose to ignore it.

It’s not like anyone is forcing you to follow it.