5 Tough Questions Every Writer Must Confront
#3. How much will you distort the truth?
As a writer, you face a barrage of questions every day.
Some have to do with the content of writing: “What should I blog about next?” “Is this topic popular enough for me to address?”
Others pertain to writing style and voice: “What’s the most engaging way for me to present this information?” “How do I find my own writing voice rather than mimic what’s in vogue?”
Still others relate to the practice of writing itself: “How can I find the motivation to publish more stories?” “At what points in the day am I most productive?”
There are other questions that you must face—questions of a more philosophical and ethical nature.
They’re not easy to answer, and they can significantly affect the trajectory of your writing career and, indeed, the quality of your life more generally.
Below are five such questions that I believe any writer ought to consider in earnest.
1. How Much of Your Personal Life Will You Share With Your Readers?
Unless you literally never write about your own experiences, ideas, or perspectives, one of the key decisions you have to make as a writer is how much of your personal life to share with your readers.
Often, this isn’t a once-and-done decision but one that you continuously revisit and tweak over time, particularly as you become more or less comfortable with being vulnerable in your writing.
Usually, the question is less, “Should I discuss my personal life online?” and more, “How much am I willing to reveal about myself and the people whom I know intimately?”
Ultimately, nobody but you bears the full responsibility for deciding how much of your personal life to divulge to others through your writing.
Because your words can positively or negatively affect other people, part of this responsibility involves being ethically (and potentially legally) liable for the impact of your keystrokes (or pen strokes).
Although platform-specific guidelines detailing the kinds of content you’re prohibited from posting often exist, it can be challenging to strike an effective balance between honestly writing about your beliefs and experiences on the one hand and ensuring the reputational integrity and physical safety of people about whom you write on the other.
I’m not qualified to instruct you on how to navigate this issue, but the following is some generic advice that may be worth considering.
When writing about yourself
- Consider the potential impact of your words on your current and/or future career, employability, mental health, reputation, safety, and attractiveness as a partner, friend, or business associate.
- Actively try to weigh short-term potential gains against long-term potential consequences.
- Think about how you would respond if readers were to ask for additional information about the topics you explore in your writing or, indeed, for advice about their own situations.
When writing about others
- Where appropriate, anonymize or otherwise change ages, dates, locations, and names whenever writing about real-life occurrences.
- Where appropriate, ask people for their consent to write about them before you publish a piece of content (making sure to clarify what’s ‘fair game’ versus off limits).
- Reverse the roles by asking yourself how comfortable you’d be if someone were to write about you what you’re planning to write about others.
2. How Controversial Will You Be With Your Words?
Many of the same concerns and issues discussed immediately above apply here as well.
I have many more opinions—at least some of them well reasoned, I hope—than those that I share online.
That’s not an accident.
I intentionally do not publish stories on the following or related topics: activism, climate change, discrimination, environmentalism, gender, gun control, international relations, politics, race relations, religion, terrorism, and war.
Given that I’m simply trying to help people improve their writing skills and, as a secondary objective, share experiences about business, marketing, mental health, and relationships that others may find insightful or useful, the just-listed topics are too controversial, too toxic, for me to write about.
I self-censor because I believe weighing in on these matters isn’t worth the potential blowback I could face merely from addressing them, regardless of the specifics of my thinking or experiences.
Moreover, I recognize that there are endless people out there who are far more qualified than I am to write about these issues.
As a writer, you, too, should decide how controversial, if at all, you’re willing to be with your words.
On the one hand, controversial writing can bring you popularity, recognition, fame, and even riches; on the other hand, it can lead to boycotting, criticism, lost work, stigmatization, and even threats to your safety and wellbeing (and those of your friends and loved ones).
My opinion here holds no special place against anybody else’s view, but I suggest dealing with this question head on rather than being lackadaisical about it.
Actively identify which issues you’re comfortable exploring in your writing and which ones you believe it would be best to avoid.
You can always adjust how controversial you’re willing to be with your words and the topics you cover; just try to keep in mind that, metaphorically speaking, people have longer memories today than ever before, so tread carefully.
3. How Much Will You Distort the Truth, if at All?
With which of the following three statements do you most agree?
- It’s never acceptable to write falsehoods; every word should reflect the truth to the greatest degree possible (with the exception of the need to protect sensitive information).
- It’s sometimes acceptable to write falsehoods, either by exaggerating details or by fabricating minor elements of a story or experience, in order to create a superior reading experience.
- It’s always acceptable to write falsehoods; writers are under no obligation to ensure their words reflect the truth or anything approximating it.
Depending on your reactions to these statements (and on the principles on which such reactions are based), you’ll feel more or less compelled to take the issue of truth-in-writing seriously.
I fall somewhere between the first and the second statements.
When discussing matters of business, history, philosophy, science, and the like, I consider it very important to write as accurately, honestly, and truthfully as possible.
I don’t see any legitimate reason to use falsehoods when writing about fact-based issues or in fields where the search for the truth is (or should be) foundational to everything that occurs therein.
When discussing matters of creativity, personal development, self-growth, and the like, I don’t have any objection to writers who exaggerate certain details or slightly dramatize elements of a story in order to create a more compelling narrative, and thereby help, inspire, or teach the reader in a more effective way.
However, I disagree with the third statement.
Some writers (e.g., certain postmodernists) reject the notion of truth altogether, insisting it simply makes no sense to try to write truthfully.
I don’t have these writers in mind here; instead, I’m thinking of people who consider it perfectly legitimate to craft stories that have no basis in reality but are presented as being factual.
If everything is fake news these days, the thinking goes, then writers ought to have free rein to publish whatever they like, regardless of its (lack of) accuracy.
In other words, in the war of ideas, all that matters is winning.
I disagree; I believe words still do and must always have meaning if we’re to continue living in a rational world.
Either way, unless you write nothing but fiction, you must decide for yourself whether, and if so, then how much, you value truth in your writing.
Doing so is necessary not only for practical reasons (e.g., as part of your efforts to establish yourself as a certain kind of writer) but also for artistic or creative reasons (e.g., in order to feel comfortable with and proud of your own work).
Making this decision involves weighing various considerations against each other, including the ones contained in the following question.
What matters more to you: the effects of your words or the accuracy and sincerity of what you write?
4. How Will You Handle Criticism?
Here’s something I can guarantee you: if you publish your writing for others to read, sooner or later, your words will be criticized.
No matter how hard you work to present reasoned ideas and remain respectful of other people’s views, you will be attacked.
You could literally write, “I was wrong to do what I did. It was a mistake. I wish I could take it back. I’m so sorry,” and a reader could then comment, “You were wrong to do what you did. It was a mistake. I bet you wish you could take it back. You better be sorry.”
I’ve had this happen to me here on Medium.
Admitting your own faults or poking holes in your own positions, which is the honest thing to do, won’t prevent others from jumping at the chance to attack you in the same (or a similar) way.
More generally, just as you can’t fully control your own reputation, you can’t fully control how people react to your writing.
Indeed, some people will chastise you not (only) for what you write but (also) for who you are—or, rather, for what others take you to represent.
So, knowing this, you have to ask yourself, “How will I respond when my words or character are criticized?”
I suggest actively trying to imagine what it would be like were people to object to your writing so that you’re better prepared to deal with the attacks when they inevitably come.
In no particular order of importance or efficacy, ways for handling negative feedback on your writing include:
- Ignoring the criticism
- Acknowledging the criticism by graciously responding with something like, “Thanks very much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I appreciate your feedback.”
- Replying to the criticism by meticulously engaging with one or more of your interlocutor’s objections, agreeing or disagreeing on a point-by-point basis
- In cases where you have reason to believe your personal safety and/or the safety of others is in danger, formally reporting the criticism
One reason I try to write as clearly and straightforwardly as I can is that I want to preemptively prevent people from criticizing me for holding positions that I don’t actually hold.
However, as I noted above, there’s simply no way to shield yourself from others’ attacks.
In some ways, this is a good thing because it’s unproductive—for both individual writers and society as a whole—for opinions to go unchallenged.
Unfortunately, online criticism often goes far beyond reasoned debate and good-faith argumentation.
5. How Will You Know When You’re Succeeding?
Another way of asking this question is, “What are your major writing-related objectives?”
It’s crucial that you think hard about what you’re hoping to achieve by writing online—otherwise, you’re likely to wander aimlessly, never quite knowing whether you’re progressing towards your goals.
If you’re truly uninterested in achieving tangible outcomes, then there’s no need for you to worry about this last difficult question.
If, for example, your only desire is to use your writing to sort through your thoughts and feelings and share your ideas with anybody who cares to read them, then what happens after you hit Publish matters very little, if at all.
If, however, you’re looking to use your writing to market your services, create brand recognition, establish yourself as a subject matter expert, connect with other writers or marketers, build an audience, or find a new job, then clearly you should spend some time reflecting on how and whether you can achieve one or more specific results.
The point is not to establish rigid outcomes that must be met in order for you to convince yourself that you’re not a total failure.
Instead, you should try to concretize your goals so that you get a better sense not only of what you’re aiming at but also whether you’re advancing towards your target.
Setting and tracking clear-cut, writing-related objectives can function as an ongoing source of motivation, which can be especially helpful on those days when you just don’t feel like writing.
So, force yourself to answer the question of why you want to write online, or if you’ve been writing online for some time now, why you want to continue publishing content, and then nail down several key markers of success based on your objectives.
From there, you can define or reshape your writing practices as needed, tailoring what you write about, how often you write, and how you market your writing.
The Takeaway
In this article, I’ve discussed five challenging questions that every writer must face.
These questions are:
- How much of your personal life will you share with your readers?
- How controversial will you be with your words?
- How much will you distort the truth, if at all?
- How will you handle criticism?
- How will you know when you’re succeeding?
By no means are these the only questions that you must confront as a writer, but they are among the most important.
How you answer these five questions can significantly affect the trajectory of your writing career, how much you enjoy writing, and, indeed, your ability to keep pushing whenever things become stressful (such as when readers criticize you).
Rather than setting these questions aside and assuming they’ll take care of themselves, take some time soon (if you haven’t already) to confront them head on.
When it comes to your writing, it’s always better to strategize and plan than to make rash decisions or no decisions at all.
One last thing: Get more stories like this one here.
