3 Lessons Writing Has Taught Me
Disability and Determination is a weekly newsletter about my experience navigating life with a rare disability. If you like this post, feel free to give a click on the ❤️ symbol below. This will help me get discovered by others on Substack. To be notified of future posts, drop your email in the field at the bottom and click the Subscribe button. If you’d like to further contribute, I also offer a paid subscription option (that includes extra monthly content), or you can Buy Me a Coffee ☕ I’m glad you’re here ☺️
Writing has been an unexpected teacher for me. As a recovering perfectionist, it’s given me a lot of gifts…as have so many of the other writers on this platform. I thought I would use this week’s post to share a few of those:
It’s ok if you don’t write the “perfect” piece right away - I expect a lot of other people, but I expect even more of myself. Whether it was writing an essay in English class or a story in Creative Writing, I always held myself to the standard that I had to have the perfectly thought out, error-free paper done right away. I was supposed to just sit down and write it, right? It wasn’t until I started writing on Substack that I realized that doesn’t have to be the case at all. I can start a draft and come back to it as many times as I want. I can have an idea and write a few sentences. Not having it all perfectly thought out right away doesn’t mean I’m doing something wrong or am bad at this. The saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day” comes to mind, but I’m pretty sure any author would tell you they never have their entire book (or screenplay, or short story) planned out beforehand and then write it all out in one go.
Break whatever you’re writing up into pieces. Start with a sentence or even just a word/idea. I often get inspiration for a post and then start drafting it in Google Docs on my phone since I’m not always near my laptop (thanks for the tip
!). Once you start something, you can always add to it or change it however you want. That’s the beauty of scheduling on Substack too. You can always switch around what you post when if you need to (I did that for pretty much the entire month of March).Researching for newsletters doesn’t suck as much as I thought - I’m gonna be real transparent, the part I hated the most about writing essays in school was having to cite sources. Obviously, I understood why we were supposed to do it, but it felt tedious and got in the way of me completing the assignment as quickly as I wanted to. Even when I started writing here, I was hesitant to tackle too many topics that would involve me having to find applicable articles or sources. I have a full-time job too which is often very busy so I don’t always have the time to devote to drafting/sourcing articles. I mostly use this as a platform to share about my own experience, but lately I’ve gotten much more comfortable doing pieces that tackle more general topics or involve doing some research. My post on the Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar is actually one that I’m the most proud of. This part definitely got easier for me once I accepted the 1st lesson in this newsletter. I don’t have to have it all figured out from the get-go. I usually start my monthly paid newsletter (The Determination Debrief) early on in the month and as I read or watch things, I add those to it.
My story is worth sharing - Sometimes I worry if this Substack is too self-serving. If it’s self-indulgent to talk this much about myself. But then I get a comment from someone saying how much what I wrote resonated with them, or how something I said was something they hadn’t thought of before when it comes to living with a disability. That makes it all worth it and reminds me that my story is worth sharing. So is yours.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned though is that writing is so worth doing—whatever form it takes, whether you’re getting paid for it or not…writing matters. Sharing our stories (especially as members of marginalized communities) matters now more than ever. Coming together to support each other and our writing matters.
I’ve learned so many of these lessons not just from my own experience on Substack, but from other writers sharing what they’ve learned and what their process is. To all of you, I thank you for being my teachers too.
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You are a wonderful writer, Jackie. I hope you see that and, more importantly, enjoy it! (And I'm glad the Google Doc thing is working for you!). xo