A designer’s perspective on writing and the battle of titles
The fear of judgment might be greater than the fear of failure
A person who is not an author, can’t be a writer. I didn't study writing in an acclaimed school, thus I can't be a writer. English is my second-language, so anything I write will read poorly. Nobody will read my writing, I'm going to fail, waste time and it makes me look bad.
These sentences or a variation of them might sound naive, harsh and wrong to many, but it is a mindset I'm sure a lot of people can relate to. I used to have these kinds of thoughts, and I still do, sometimes. I've written a few stories on Medium, and also a few industry-related articles, documentation, website content, case-studies and 200+ newsletters for work.
I’ve found that I enjoy writing, and the more I write, the more I enjoy it. However, I am doubting whether I could really call myself a writer.
A different kind of writer's block
It can take some time to overcome the whirlpool of emotions thinking whether you should or shouldn't write. These doubts can easily block you from writing, and especially make you quit without starting.
I'm not talking about lacking in confidence or procrastination, but more about the fear of being judged, and that mindset leading to the overthinking of these actions having an impact on your life or work. Or at least, in your own mind it can easily play that way.
I used the word judgement, rather than fear of failure here due to the fact that a lot of the content on social media and the Internet focuses on the external presentation of things, but can often lack the full story. I believe that the pressure and expectations portrayed on social media also subconsciously extend out to activities beyond just posting images and video. The Internet can be a brilliant and a cruel place at the same time.
Having access to so much information makes it easier to start comparing yourself with others without knowing about their background, effort or lack thereof.
The Internet is forever
This is not just an episode from Criminal Minds season 5, but it is also often used as a subtle warning when posting more degenerate shenanigans on the Internet. It can have the meaning of you will regret posting that one day.
However, even if you are just writing about a topic you are passionate about, it is likely that there is still a feeling that makes you doubt whether you should post it on the Internet. The fear of being judged. What if it is not that good? Will I lose all credibility as a designer, for example. On the flip-side, it is easy to not do anything and play it safe.
If I score a B- on a math test, did I fail? If I scored an F first, then an A+ in the next one, is it a success? What does failure or success really mean? I had this same doubt before about posting visual design online. I was thinking that what if it is not striking enough, looks bad and no one wants to hire me. In the end, I started to post and it resulted in new projects.
When I look at some of my work from 15 years ago, I'm not really sure what was really the thought process behind some of the designs, but I still put it out there. If I hadn’t, not sure how things would have gone. For a designer, having a portfolio is pretty much a must-have, which might help to push forward the first steps. Similarly, I think Medium as a platform has helped me to jump into writing more and publishing stories.
There are 8 billion people in the world and surely not everyone is going to agree with the same point of view, ideas or stories you have, which is ok. This brings variety to our lives and having different point of views is normal. Which is better: Coca Cola or Pepsi? Freeway Cola?
Recently, there has been quite a lot of debate around the new PayPal logo, and prior to that in 2019 there were different opinions around the new Zara logo as well. Were they successes or a failures? They were design and business decisions.
Do most actions need to be measured as a success or a failure? The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. The opposite of success is not failure, but inaction. If it is mediocre, you can still strive to improve.
I was lucky that many people liked my writing - this doesn't really make sense, right? Providing value is important, but sometimes reach and accessibility can play a big role in who'll see your work. Value is not delivered only through teaching, products or services, but also by sparking emotional responses. People are likely not reading Harry Potter with the goal of becoming a wizard, but due to the emotional response, joy, it creates through its characters, plot twists and more.
Negativity for the sake of engagement
There will be haters who are going to be a haters just for the sake of wanting to evoke an emotional response. In most cases, it is not as deep or personal as you may think it is.
Often the negativity is about something else than the content itself. Criticism on the other hand can be beneficial. Sometimes the story was written well, but just didn't resonate as well as desired. This is not only true for writing, but many things across multiple professions.
There are a lot of books around the topic of the art of nothing giving a *bleep*. Message being that mindless positivity might work against you, finding joy in the struggle. This may sound like a cliche, but when you fail and try things, you can learn from those experiences. If you don't know if you did well or poorly can be more of a challenge itself.
You wrote an article and no-one is reading your story. This might be due to a multitude of factors, which is good to examine before jumping into conclusions about failing or succeeding. Furthermore, what is the purpose or goal of your writing? Fame and fortune? Healing? Creativity? How do you measure success or failure in these cases? Why?
For a person with a background in design, it took me a while to come to the realization that a person can write, even if one is not a writer by trade or having published books commercially. But why is such a mindset so common? It might be due to the words writer and author being titles, and how we often perceive titles as a form of authority, credentials, knowledge and experience.
The battle of titles
I can change a lightbulb, but it doesn't make me an electrician. I can write a story - am I a writer, a storyteller or perhaps something else? Do I have to have a specific title? What is my position?
The title of this story includes a designer's perspective on writing, perhaps titles help us to resonate better with others. Similarly, if you enjoy the same sports or hobbies it can be easier to relate with that person.
For example, a chef's perspective on writing. If I were a chef, those working in the restaurant industry might find it interesting to see the thoughts and experience from the perspective of a chef.
For a long time, I associated the word writer or author with the mental image of a fiction writer, such as J.K Rowling or Franz Kafka. Perhaps a bit naively, missing the bigger picture of what writing is, such as journalism, researcher, scene writing, copywriting and more.
You can be an innovative programmer without going into university for computer science. You can be a award-winning pianist even you didn’t go to Juilliard. You can’t be a medical doctor by watching Youtube, though. Are you a writer if you write?
A lot of the talk around certain professions might be linked to how we categorize and perceive a profession. A standard route being, going into higher education to learn, learning from a master or through an apprenticeship. Now with technology and the Internet however, the access to improve one’s craft with various professions is accessible for almost anyone, and it has revolutionized the way we learn.
The impostor syndrome is real
I haven't studied writing in-depth, gone to university for it or published articles commercially, thus what do I know about writing?
Could I write about any topic? Surely not. I’d struggle to write about the state of fisheries in the Mediterranean, but if I were an avid fishing enthusiast, I might write about my experiences around fishing, perhaps even about a fishing trip in the Mediterranean. In this example, I wouldn't have had any experience in the fishing industry commercially, but I would have had experience in fishing. The perspective I would take would be from a recreational perspective.
When writing, you are most often bringing your own perspective into the mix, which can make it unique. I believe that writing in its essence is communication of ideas and information. If this communication can make the reader to think what they just read, spark an emotional response, be informative or educational, even all of these combined or just one of each, that would be a success, no matter if the number of readers is small or large.
It can get interesting when we go into predictions, such as design trends in the near future. What is it based on? Nothing is certain, but there must be some underlaying facts, patterns and data that support the likelihood of emerging trends, and not only predicting something that a designer dreamed about. In 2025, yellow is the new black. Really?
Around 2013, I used to have a small blog on my portfolio about tips and tricks for using Adobe’s software, but not until later discovering Medium and reading stories from other authors with various backgrounds did I actually consider that writing could be something more than just tutorials on my personal blog. This made me jump out of the bubble I was in.
A shift in mindset
I did read books and articles on design and other topics, but for some reason couldn’t think that I could also write. I had the mindset about design needing to be educational, informative, result-driven or research-focused and that's it. It can be that, but that is only is only one possible direction.
After doing job interviews from both sides of the table, following different tips on rewriting my portfolio and learning more about the structure of story did I realize the power of storytelling. It is also about the realization that who you are writing for is important, but why you are writing might triumph that.
AI can hinder your growth, unintentionally
Not hating on AI as it great and can make things very efficient. However, the way you choose to utilize it for improvement can make a difference.
When using AI, there can be easily a lack of engagement with the content you are working with. A lot of the answers provided by AI can often be rather lengthy, taking control over what you write, or your voice.
Image you have an idea for a movie, but you don't actually write it, direct it or film it, but rather just edit it based on what is given to you. This is not a discussion about editing being good or bad, but more on the likelihood of losing out on building and keeping your own narrative, your personal touch on the topic at hand.
It can work well for creating content for contents sake, but does it really help to convey the message or writing style you want to communicate? Does AI know the experience you went through that you could write about?
When I read the paragraphs I wrote over and over again, the writing tends to evolve at the same time. New ideas and directions spark from this action, similarly to ideation in design, where more ideas breed into other ideas. You go into the zone. This is also one of the reasons I tend to write rather long stories, which is something I am improving. However, once you get going, it’s hard to stop.
If the writing I published was created by AI, I would have a big imposter syndrome of not being able to really believe that was something that I wrote, as it wasn’t, that was AI. The satisfaction of writing a story is far greater than publishing an article for content’s sake.
Owning up to it
I wrote in length about the fear of judgement and comparing yourself with others. While it is a rather natural response, it is also worth spending time to think why you want to do something and what goals you have in mind.
Writing is a learning process even if you know how to write. There are different perspectives to many things and various means and methods to communicate. My background is in design and I never really thought I could write, but I just had to start to find out I can.
Just like throwing a net into the lake in the hopes of catching fish, you look where to throw to get better results. Maybe even better, you make sure you took all the tools and the correct net with you before heading to the water. Even if you threw the net on the rocks the first time, improve your aim for the next throw and things will improve. After a while, maybe the lake is small and you venture into the sea to try with new challenges ahead.
The biggest obstacle often is that you just need to start and show up.
Perhaps I am a writer, after all. Who has a lot to learn, which is great.
