Note: This is a guest post by Blake Powell. Blake helps writers launch past their excuses and step into their creative power. Download for free Blake’s The Bulletproof Writer’s Handbook.
Time after time you hit the publish button, only to have your dreams crushed when no one responds — or hell, even looks.
You thought your writing was good, but now you’re not so sure. You wish things were different and that people would know who you are, but times are changing: the internet is becoming noisier than ever before and it’s getting harder and harder to get your words noticed.
Rejection has driven you to the brink of insanity, and you’re ready to quit.
But before you hang up your hat, you need to know something — if you’re being ignored, it’s not because your writing is poor or because you don’t know the right people. No, it’s because you’re not doing anything differently from everyone else.
And if you want people to stand back and take notice of your writing then you need to be perceived as anything but another option — no, you want to be their best option, and you can’t do that by blending into the crowd.
The Key Fact You Must Accept Before People Notice You
We tend to over-dramatize the effect we have on the world around us. So when we’re writing a blog post, say, we think it’s the best thing ever written because it came from a brilliant idea we had in the car on the way home.
We can’t lose the idea, we think, because it’s just too valuable. And when we have the chance to write, we sit down and try to paste the idea from our brain onto the screen so we can share it with others.
But here’s the stinging truth — you don’t deserve to have your stuff shared because you have a high IQ or because you’re stunningly handsome. In fact, you can never depend on the strength of your writing or your ideas as your readers will always determine the quality of them for you. They’re the ones who’ll make the call to “like” and share your content, and they won’t spare your writing because you think it’s great.
We all demand to read great life-changing content, so why should anyone approach your work in a different way?
It’s time to be different, and embrace our differences. Break away from the crowd, so your writing will have the impact you want it to have.
The Secret to Elevating Your Writing and Getting It Noticed By Others
If you want your writing to get noticed then you have to accept that how you convey your writing is just as important as the ideas you choose to write about.
As Lewis Howes says, you have to allow your “mess to become your message” before you can be great. Only then can you create something awesome, something that blows people away and leaves them in complete and total awe.
In his book Purple Cow, Seth Godin says that we have to be remarkable if we want to be heard in the loud world of consumerism. As Godin writes, being remarkable by definition means doing something that’s “worth remarking on” — and we can only be remarkable by embracing our differences to separate our writing from the rest of the writers out there.
We all have something unique to say that’s worth listening to. However, in a recent email newsletter, Ramit Sethi reminds us that “you could be the nicest, most thoughtful person, but if you can’t communicate it [to others], none of that matters.” If we want our writing to be read and heard by others then we need to be very conscientious of how we speak to our audience, and define a strategy to communicate to them based on what they’re interested in and what will help them grow as people.
By using our words to form a bond with others, we can regain clarity on our writing and cement the message we want to spread in a genuine, thoughtful, and helpful way that others will be compelled to remark on. There’s simply no faster way to get people eagerly talking about you than by being your authentic self, and then giving them a solution to tackle their biggest problems in the way only you can.
What’s Your Unique Message?
To be truly remarkable, though, you have to pick your fight: for example, what compels you to write in the first place? Is it to solve an injustice about the world, or right a wrong? Is it to spread awareness about a certain message?
Or are you on a mission to fix a mistake you see a lot of people making around you, every day of their lives?
You have to define the change you want to make in others before you can make it – and there’s no better way to do that than to create your own personal mission statement on how you’re going to make that change.
So what’s your unique viewpoint that no one else has? We all have strengths that are unique to us and we can use those differences to our advantage if we choose to.
We’re All Remarkable, In Some Way
As Derek Sivers says, “what’s obvious to you is amazing to others.” What are you sharing with others that they may not see themselves, and how are you sharing it?
People always want to become better versions of themselves in some way, so how are you going to help them grow? How are you going to give them value and enrich their lives? And how are you going to write the way to a better tomorrow?
Always focus on the value you can give your readers. Because it’s not about me, and it’s not about you. Your reader always comes first.
So before you sit down to write, always ask yourself “why should people listen to me, and what do I bring to the table that no one else does?”
Then hone in on that message, and make it yours for everyone else to see.
It Takes Dedication and Hard Work to Get Your Message Shared by Others
It’s hard not to get discouraged after publishing post after post to crickets (especially after we hone our craft and put our dues in). But just as you can’t let your circumstances dictate your worth, you can’t allow the fact that your past writing has been ignored prevent you from creating content that’s worth being recognized, shared, talked about, and loved.
After all, isn’t that what we all want — for our writing to be loved, adored, and cherished? For our words to inspire others to action? And for our writing to leave behind a legacy we can be proud of, instead of a life we were simply getting on with?
When I shared my article with a friend, he said it sounded pretentious — ouch. But he was right, as I was preaching rather than teaching — I was giving my readers lessons without relating it back to their life, because I was too focused on sharing my own experiences without providing value to them. I forgot about the readers, and focused too much on myself.
To be noticed, it’s a given that your writing has to be good. But to be shared, loved, and admired, your writing has to be exceptional, or else it will fade into all the other noise around it. If your message is more of the same it won’t create the ripples you want it to create and it won’t impact the lives you want it to hit because it won’t stand out from the crowd.
The world needs your art, and they deserve to have it in the best way possible — not delivered to them in a half-hearted way to swoon their favor. Because if it’s not worth remarking upon, many times it won’t even be read by other people because you haven’t given them a reason to read it.
You Can Always Choose To Be Great
We live in an amazing age where the internet has created a level playing field for all of us, so that anyone can share their message and be heard by many.
But what’s your message? What are you trying to say, and how are you the only one that can say it? I’d love to know, share it with us in the comments.
The time to make a change is now: so will you create an impact by allowing your mess to become your message, or will you let your writing fizzle out before others can read it?
The choice is yours.
