Why do people write? Why am I a writer? In a world with more ways to publish a book, short story, or poem than ever before, I don’t think a lot of writers ask these questions anymore.

Over the course of what I refer to as my “writing career”, which has been just as much of a learning process as my academic career, I have been a part of various writing groups. The biggest buzz circulating these groups is about publishing. How do you get published? Who among us has been published or getting close to being published? Questions like these that filled up the time of writing classes or meetings that could have been used to develop our craft.

Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be published, and I believe it is a worthy goal to pursue, but not at the risk of your writing and sanity. If your only goal is to become a published author, and though you might not admit it, deep down you secretly hate writing, then this art form isn’t for you. There are a lot of easier ways to become rich and famous. I mean, ever hear of TikTok? I’m still not sure what that’s all about, but I hear it can make people rich and famous.

Just recently, I had a huge breakthrough in my writing and ended up writing a 130,000 word manuscript in two months. I was on a roll and felt as though I could churn out book after book, but once the idea of publishing got into my head, it became my undoing. Instead of continuing on with the story (it’s a trilogy), I became obsessed about how I would be able to get published, researching both traditional and self publishing. I even started learning graphic design to try my hand at book covers.

Since November when I finished my book, I have written a grand total of 2,500 words of fiction and have rewritten those words, wanting to get it just right. In other words, writer’s block has hit me like a barrel of bricks, and it’s my fault for focusing so heavily on getting published.

I need to put the idea of getting published aside for a little while longer as I work to get back in the groove of my writing and finish more stories. The problem is that it’s so hard when your a part of any sort of writing community or are even just looking up ideas about improving your writing to not be overwhelmed with the idea of publishing.

And I get why writers become so obsessed with the idea. Out of all the artforms, writing is one of the only ones that tells the artist that their art is not important unless a company buys it. And I’m not talking on a industry level, which I am sure is the case for many artforms, but on a person by person level. If you’re a writer, you know that crushing feeling when the person you’ve been talking to about your writer loses interest as soon as they discover that you’re not published.

Tragically, many people stop writing because of it, and I believe it is due to how much value we give to published authors… and how much crap unpublished writers get.

So, if you’re a writer, my suggestion to you is to focus on the craft of writing and not worry about publishing for a while. I know it feels like everyone and their dog is getting published (though, I do know a dog who has a book), but that’s falling into the comparison trap that nearly all of us fall into for so many different reasons on social media and IRL (oof… I felt like a old fuddy-duddy typing that). Just focus on you and your writing, focus on the way it feels to enter the minds and worlds of other people, and focus on what you want your writers to say to its future readers.

Even if you never get published, you will have the experience of getting to write and the completed stories of your own creation that you can share with those closest to you.