Why I Don't Worry about the Quality of My Writing

Writers write. If you want to be a writer, you must write.

To become creative, you must ship the work (thank you Seth).

Yes, quality matters. Absolutely. And I want to produce the best work I can. But I don't ever let my concerns about quality prevent me from posting my work. If I did, I might endlessly ruminate in hours of edits trying to achieve a state of quality that is at least elusive and perhaps non-existent.

I've written hundreds of thousands of words the no one has ever read. I only recently started sharing my work publicly on a regular basis, and it has changed and only improved my capacity to think.

Getting feedback on a written piece is very different than producing it and leaving it to collect virtual dust on a Google drive. Whether it's simply a view or a click-and-leave, whether it's a full-read or generates a follower, (or low-and-behold the Holy Grail of blogging, a feedback comment!), doesn't really matter in the big picture.  All tell me something about the content.

And what is quality? One man's trash is another man's treasure. Yes, I decide the words. And I constantly make judgements on the quality to make it the best I can in the time allotted. But the reader ultimately judges the quality for herself. Would assertive have kept her reading longer instead of aggressive? Would punch have kept her more engaged than jab?

Writing with the endgame of producing quality may put the finish line eternally into the future. 

Writing to produce the best quality I can in the thirty minutes or so choose each day to spend on opening up the inner world to external expression -- quality is secondary to the goal to ship it.