The Difficulty of Writing for Public

Published on November 6, 2015

Originally posted on Medium:

I had started writting a couple of blog posts (Medium calls them stories), but they remain as unpublished drafts.

I have such drafts: Designing a new Developer Work-Lifestyle, Newborn is Boring; But Boring is GREAT, Analyzing Jade App, etc..

While I started them, I couldn’t finish them.

  • The story is too short
  • The story is too long
  • The story is not coherent
  • The story is not polished
  • The story is not perfect

These are some reasons off my head.

But I realized the ultimate reason is because:

I am writing a public story.

I have fears over how others could react. I fear that they will criticize the content, or the grammar, or the style, or the lack of substance, or the image, etc…

I also fear if they didn’t read, at all.

Private Writing

On the other hand, when I write my private diary (with my Jade app of course), I feel so much at ease.

I can easily complete a long story in 5 minutes.

I don’t edit.

I don’t fix grammar nor typo.

I don’t re-read.

I don’t think about what others could think.

Writing for only myself is sooooooo much easier.