All Writing Is Good Writing

Did you know that all writing is good writing?

“Hang on,” you’re saying. “Have you read some of the books going straight to Kindle these days?”

Yes. Yes, I have. And you’re right, some of the writing is absolutely terrible. (I still adore some of it because of its terribleness, but that is another topic.) However, my point is that all writing is good writing – IF there’s a purpose to it.

Here’s how I stumbled upon this little nugget of wisdom: I had writer’s block. Whenever I go a while without writing a blog post (no matter the reason – in this case, managing new medications and another big project took all my energy) I find it incredibly difficult to start up again. You’ve probably experienced this yourself. Going back to the gym after vacation, or coming up with a creative solution to a problem at work when you’ve just been staring at numbers for months. It’s easy to get out of a habit, and hard to get back in. And perhaps you know that the best way to restart a habit is to simply…begin somewhere. A short walk, an idea that probably won’t work, just a start will get you going.

Well, one of the best cures for writer’s block is just to write something. Anything, honestly. Stream of consciousness, grocery list, random childhood memories, etc. It’s all better than a blank page.

So, this morning, staring at the blank page, I started to type. What came out were some disjointed lines about a recent hobby of mine that I started this week – lying on a quilt in the grass like I’m in a Jane Austen film. I sent the lines to my editor, knowing full well they were terrible. Here they are:

Lying on a blanket in the sun

Staring up at the sky

Warmth and comfort all over

The earth is nice

Sometimes the old folks are right

There, I said it

Look, there’s a bee in the clover

She said, “Are you now a poetry blog?”

Evidently so, yes. A bad poetry blog. Suitable for putting one to sleep at the end of a long week.

And then she said, “You could turn this into a blog post about how all writing is good writing if you see purpose in it.”

Oh.

“Is it?” I thought, “Is all writing good writing?”

And, by George, I think she’s right.

Like the cure for writer’s block, the cure for bad writing is pretty simple: write more. Figure out what’s bad about what you wrote, and change it, or try to. The first thing you write is almost never going to be the best, so you might as well keep writing and working and growing and creating version number 758 of that one article, or edition 47 of your book. Keep your bad writing, polish it, learn from it, and it will grow into good writing.

It’s basically the same concept as the phrase, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Bad writing, whether yours or someone else’s, shows us things. It shows us what good writing should be, and it exercises our habits to get us flowing again.

What do you think? Is all writing good writing?

And bonus points if you share some of your bad writing with me – I’d love to read it.