Confronting the Challenges of Growth Week Day Two: When You're Getting Worse, Sometimes You're Really Getting Better

University is a terrible thing for a writer. Everyone who graduates has worse writing skills than they did when they signed up—or at least that’s what they think. There comes a time in every learner’s life when they know enough to know how many mistakes they’re making. The more you know, the more critical you are of your own work, and the more critical you are, the worse you think your writing is. If you’re getting worse and worse, maybe you’re actually getting better and better. You just don’t know it yet.

When I started writing, the first thing I wanted to do was study literature at university. My mentor wisely held me back until I’d found my voice. He wanted to grow my passions until they were big enough to resist the damage of academia. By the time he felt I was ready for university, I was already publishing.

Academia and literary theory mete out damage. Many writers fall by the wayside as a direct result. They miss the truth of their own growth and decide they simply aren’t writers at all. This is one of many reasons we should all write because we love it, and not because we want to be good at it. Of course, we must grow, but that shouldn’t be our motive, only a happy side effect. Passion will do more for your work than anything else, but if it’s too late, take heart.

If you’ve already reached the point where you think your work is terrible, passion will save you. The right motives will save you, so why do you write? To connect. To explore the literary endeavour. To find universal truths and express your own truth. None of these motives will give you the writer’s block you’ll develop if your primary goal is to feed your own ego, so let’s get back to the bread and butter. Let’s get back to the wholesome side of writing. Let’s remember why we came to literature in the first place.