What makes a piece of work “good” is totally subjective.
Everything an artist creates feels “good.” Unless they’re a pessimistic alcoholic that thinks nothing they do is good but continue to release art anyway (there are more like that than you may know).
I don’t release an article that I don’t think is good. If you’re reading something I wrote, it’s only because I thought it was worthy of sharing.
The other day, I wrote a dumb article about liking La Croix.
It was really dumb. Even pointless. But I have a rule that I write about things that I’m thinking about at that moment and that happened to be what I was thinking about (I was drinking La Croix).
It’s a big deal because I used to hate La Croix and anyone that drank it. I had to share how disappointed I was in myself.
The next day, it had just a few views on Medium. This was nothing out of the ordinary.
Medium is a self-publishing platform where articles are completely reliant on the site’s algorithm. Unless you are following a writer, you will not see their stories unless they really stand out.
This one somehow caught the attention of the Medium algorithm.
The next day, the story started racking up views, 100 at a time. A bunch of comments rolled in agreeing with me about La Croix while also commenting on how funny the article was.
I’ve never tried to make my articles funny. They are usually to the point, which can often translate to, “boring.” I have developed my voice to a point where I can make them entertaining, but nothing that a reader would write home about.
This article was funnier because I was going totally stream of consciousness and just writing what I was thinking. The self-deprecation at the end is probably what grabbed people.
It wasn’t written to be funny, though. I just truly hate myself for liking La Croix now.
It was a cool feeling to see such interest in the article, though, even though it was just a dumb little thing I wrote in 20 minutes.
It is not often that our work gets noticed — especially by a lot of people at once.
A writer can write 100 articles and get a positive response on three of them, just like a musician can produce 100 songs and get a positive response on three of them. And those three positive responses are what keep you going.
You’re never really sitting around waiting for recognition. But when you get it, it feels so good.