How can you write anything new after you go viral?
The secret to reliably create more when success is intimidating
After you write something popular, it's hard to write the next thing.
Everyone expects you to write something just as good, right? And you can’t.
Maybe you feel like you peaked in your writing ability for this audience, and you can't possibly live up to their expectations now. Maybe you don’t know why your audience liked this particular piece so much. You got lucky. And it feels hard to replicate luck.
I've gotten more used to the idea that it’s okay that I used to be better at some things.
A few years ago, August 2021, I hiked to the peak of Mt Washington in New Hampshire, 6,288 feet above sea level. This is a pretty big mountain by East Coast standards.
I don't know if I could do that hike today. I have a chronic hip injury that's getting better, but I'm not going to take the risk of aggravating it right now.
The hike up to the peak is challenging, but you have a goal in mind. You have your sandwich for lunch. You feel like if you just make it to the top you will have succeeded.
When you finally drag yourself up the final rocks to the peak, you find yourself in a crowd. Mt Washington has an auto road where people pay $45 to drive up the same landscape you just spent hours walking. So the peak of the mountain has buildings and a parking lot where people are strolling around with little dogs and small children and asking where the restroom is.
You take a tourist photo with the sign on top of the mountain. You did it! After using the bathroom and refilling your water bottle, you start heading down again. At first it's not so bad. You've left the crowd behind and it feels good to be walking on the mountainside.
Then the adrenaline of making it to your goal starts to wear off. You wish you brought a second or third sandwich. You take some ibuprofen. Walking down on rocks starts to feel really bad. Your legs are sore.
This continues for hours, the whole way down.
Hiking after the peak is the most challenging part.
Sometimes when I've published a piece that gets popular, it's incredibly challenging to write that next one. It's like, okay, I got to the peak, and I can't top that right now.
My best advice for this situation is that you are not going to top that popular piece, right now. It's a peak. You know it. And now you have to walk down the mountain. You are going to write something mediocre and share it with your audience and that is okay. Everyone does sometimes, I think, except for those really good writers who write something great every week. Who? I don't know. Those other people. But it's okay to be happy for them and okay with writing the mediocre stuff for a while ourselves.
This is practicing humility, or not letting your ego get in the way of being able to continue your writing practice.
Success is more random than we think, as
explains in an article on planned serendipity in business, “the popularity of a book has nothing to do with the quality of it.” If you can't predict why one piece is popular, it feels like you don't have a method for writing another similarly popular piece. That can feel scary.The best way to win at making popular pieces is to create often. Waiting until you have your next really good idea is just preventing you from continuing your work. And anyway, you won't be able to tell which one is your next really good idea unless you put it out there for your audience to judge, along with your more average ideas.
If you were okay with a smaller audience and less pressure on your work, try to recapture that feeling. A peak in your writing is nice - take a photo or screenshot to remember that moment - but try not to be too scared to return to those everyday walks around your neighborhood.
Thanks so much for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments.
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Take care,
Rey
This can be such a challenging feeling to confront, but I try to remind myself that writing, performing, and achieving can be like dinner.
Some dinners are fancy. They're a blowout of juicy steak, the freshest asparagus, melt-in-your-mouth skins-on mashed potatoes with butter and garlic (this is taking a turn and I'm getting hungry now).
And then other dinners are pretty basic fare that you'd have any night of the week. They're nothing epic to document or rave about, no photos to share, nothing memorable. Those boring dinners make up most evenings, most weeks, most months, and we need them to keep ourselves going.
It's great to have those fancy meals once in a while, but sometimes they are special because they don't happen often. So we savor them when they do come up, we remember them with fondness, and we carry on with the boring soup the next day.
It has taken me a long time to reach a point where the writing I've done over the past 7 years can be considered unengaged, even after a few successful pieces.
However, I persevered, even when I began composing random pieces years ago, despite facing rejection in the realm of social media and writing platforms. I am still here.
When you do something you love, it will still feel like work, but you won't have to work as hard to overcome rejection because you love the work and value yourself for who you are.
I love the way you compared this ongoing situation to the idea of hiking. I can truly relate to your analogy, visualising the physical and mental challenges I've faced during my many years in business. As I said, the key is to truly know what you are doing and why, which makes it easier to bounce back.