Reasons not to write: a non-exhaustive list.
6 min readApr 14, 2022
With footnotes. Very important footnotes.
- Hahaha, nobody cares. Who do you think you are, [insert favorite celebrity here]? Who handed you a mic? Nobody. Nobody handed you a mic. The point isn’t that people don’t need your stories. They do. They just don’t know they do. They’re not knocking insistently at your door, asking you to tell them about your breakup or your beliefs about god. Are they? They aren’t. They don’t care.¹
- Oh my god. Wait. Do you even want people to know this stuff? Do you really want everyone to know about how you yelled and cried and banged your fists on the table? About just how scared you are? How messy?²
- Besides, the world has enough books. Just look at the pile on your own bedside table, staring you down as it looms ever taller. Even worse than the books: the emails. Delving into your inbox is like playing whack-a-mole; delete one, and up come three more. You really think people have time or attention to spend on your newsletter about pasta and the nuances of queer identity? That they won’t just send it straight to the trash folder, or leave it unread for weeks? You could try a blog, but who’s going to check it? Do people even read blogs anymore? The point is, we’re already saturated in content. Drowning in it. Nobody’s asking for more content.³
- In fact, you could…