4 Writing Lessons That Toughen Me on My Journey

I bought this book years ago and reread it last year when writing crept into me nudging me to take it seriously.

I heed to it. And it's one of the decisions that brings liberation to my creativity as well as a challenge to my ability as a writer.

After reading this book for the second time, I noted important lessons that I believe are significant as I navigate the writing world with new lenses and truths that align with my writing style.

I hope it can help you in one way or another.

1. Your article (story) is not your baby

The sooner we realize this, the earlier we can save ourselves from despair.

I used to think that my story was special, that it was really valuable.

And that nobody should talk bad about it and if there will be, I’ll fight tooth and nail to them.

I didn’t know any better.

Yes, my story is my baby. I birthed it, and I took care of it. But it’s not my baby once I hit that "submit" button.

It’s the passionate effort that I’ve put into it that makes it special.

Just like Truman Capote brutally said, “Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the backyard and shot it.”

Our stories will inevitably undergo criticism, feedback, and revisions.

Just like a children’s story turning into a movie series (Harry Potter), a memoir turning into a movie (Eat, Pray, Love), and a blog post turning into a book (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck).

All we can do is stand back in the corner and watch it evolve in awe.

2. Can you eat your “sh*t sandwich”?

Since we already touched Mark Manson’s book above, this term really came from him. The “sh*t sandwich.”

He asked, “What is your favorite flavor of sh*t sandwich?”

Simply saying, are we deeply passionate to writing that we’re willing to endure difficulties with it?

The feeling of writing in the void, not having enough readers, lack of engagements, not knowing when to earn from it, and the list goes on.

These are just some ingredients of the sh*t sandwich that comes with writing.

Are we willing to eat it?

Or maybe, we just love the idea of being a writer, not really to be one?

3. “Most things have already been done- but they have not yet been done by you”- E. Gilbert

If we go back in time, we can see many cliche stories.

Rags to riches, revenge of the pitiful, children’s adventure stories, and others. There are many stories with these themes written by different authors.

But when we look closely, each author uses the same theme and adds their personal touch to it.

It’s their intimate connection to their story that makes it more authentic.

Then, the story becomes theirs.

Because that’s what we do. We create using the resources that we already have.

Then when we put even a fraction of ourselves in it, it becomes ours.

4. Publish it, than to pile it in your draft folder

Did you ever start writing a story or an article with all the best intentions to put into words?

With the passion running in your veins as you scribble or type your thoughts.

Few paragraphs or pages later, then you call it a day.

On the next day, though, you sit to continue, but the passion from day one suddenly leaves you, and you get stuck.

It then becomes one of the stories piling up in your draft folder.

After reading this book, I look at my draft folder differently now. Elizabeth Gilbert said, “I refuse to go to my grave with 75 pages of an unfinished manuscript”.

And I do, too.

Just completing something is already an achievement.

What happens after that? I rest it all in the universe.

But the journey in completing it and the courage to publish it is something that will take me to places in the realm of writing.

There are many lessons from the book that I want to share, but these four stuck in my mind, hence this story.

I hope it brings value to you as it does to me.