How Does a Creator (Writer) Create When They Don’t Care For The Topic?

Writing for others about topics that don’t interest us increases the difficulty of sustaining these activities over time. 

How do we continually produce quality content if I’m a writer but don’t care about my topic?

If I’m a designer who doesn’t care about the business I’m working with, how do I value the process of designing their logo?

The answer is simple, but it doesn’t make it easy. Love your creative craft.  

For writers; love writing.

For designers; love designing.

For developers; love developing. 

Love creating, intrinsically, regardless of what it’s about. 

If you’re not able to love your craft, it may be a symptom that what you care about is different than you think. 

For those who do love it, let's explore the second component of sustainable high-performance work.

Loving What We Do

When we love the work we do, we’ll value creating even when the topic is not one we care about. We’ll find extra significance when the two factors meet, but when they don’t we still perform at a high level. 

As writers, there will be many times when we don’t feel like writing because we don’t care for the topic we’re writing about. Ideally, this doesn’t happen on our personal blog, but when we write for hire, there will be times when we’re tasked to create. 

The sweet spot and the way to endure a long sustained writing career is to love both the craft of writing and the topic at hand. How do we do this when we're not excited about the topic?

Tethering Extrinsic Goals To Intrinsic Desires

One way to offset the imbalance when you love writing but don't care about the topic is extrinsic motivation. Getting paid is the obvious antidote here, but that itself may not be enough. What will REALLY move the needle is if you tie your income to something you specifically desire.

It could be a trip to another state, country, or some specific destination you've always wanted to go to or love revisiting. Or it could be something you'd love to buy which would make your life better.

Now, the money you earn for writing the thing you're not passionate about? It's a bridge plank to your goal. It's part (or all) of the money you need to pay for that thing you want.

Tethering the writing work to the money that helps you reach your goal fosters a motivation that makes the project exciting again. 

Wherever you have hit a performance ceiling, think through this idea and figure out how to tether your goals to your day-to-day work and you'll find a way to achieve at the highest level.