zlacker

>>rbanff+(OP)
I reckon if you wanted to choose just a single rule it should be, "Write something that you yourself would actually read." The problem is that our brains are designed to sort of lie to us and tell us that what we've created is amazing when in fact we'd never actually read it if someone else had written it. If you can find a way to be objective and see your own writing as the far-from-perfect mess it actually is.

(In principle, you could use "write something that someone else would actually read", but I think this is much harder, because it's much harder to know how other people would react! If you yourself would read it, well, we aren't that unique, lots of other people would read it too.)

Also, props for this stark picture of reality: https://refactoringenglish.com/chapters/write-blog-posts-dev...

>>dynm+SM
> The problem is that our brains are designed to sort of lie to us and tell us that what we've created is amazing when in fact we'd never actually read it if someone else had written it.

You've just described 98% of my poetry output. Luckily I consider this to be a feature, not a bug, and shall continue to churn out more poetry regardless of what the rest of the world thinks.