How To Keep Writing (When No One is Reading Your Work)

Writing is a lonely job. Rarely (if ever) do you sit with another person and craft sentences together. Even collaborations are a series of distant back and forth.

The rewards are worth it because you’ll soon be connecting with your audience, right? But what happens when your audience doesn’t exist yet? How do you keep going?

Find Your Why

Make a list — either in a notebook or a word document. Write down your top 5,10, or 100 reasons for wanting to write. Are you trying to make some extra money or do you have a story inside you that needs to be told? There are no wrong answers here.

Put the list somewhere accessible so that you can refer to it on the bad days when you can’t remember why you are pursuing this craft and need to be reminded.

Add additional reasons as they come to you. This does not need to be a static list.

Allow Yourself to Feel Frustrated

Writing can be frustrating. It’s hard to pour your soul out into the world and feel like no one is there to receive it. It’s disheartening to be rejected from a publication. Frustration, anger, and sadness are all valid feelings.