I failed at becoming a writer and you should too

The best thing that has come from writing for medium

The Yacht Henrietta, modeled by Mr. Wm. Booker, N.Y. Built by Mr. Henry Steers, Greenpoint, L.I. by Charles Parsons. Original from Library of Congress. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. In the Public Domain

I spent a few months last year trying to make this writing thing work — spoilers it hasn’t, and I don’t think it will. Money isn’t the only thing that stands to be gained by writing here though.

For every dollar that I haven’t earned, there is a habit I picked up that makes me grateful for having given this a go.

Becoming a better reader

I was a shit reader before I started writing. I’d read a few things here and there, and I enjoyed books in general, but I was never the type to pick up a book.

Reading was something that I tried to make a part of my life every once in a while, I aspired to be a reader, but I never really got to it. When I started to write, I wanted to follow as much advice to become a better writer as possible, and number one on every list was to read more. I took it to heart, and I started mainly with articles here on medium.

The style of my reading changed. I started to notice that there were some things that I actually liked to read. There were writers who I came back to every once in a while just because I liked their voice and others who were pretty bad. I noticed the times when the writing was getting in the…