The Thing About "Bad Writing" These Days

The internet is abuzz these days with woes and worries about how oh how said space is filled with trash writing. 

Let's see, some of the misgivings go like this:

People think writing is glamorous. 

I mean, sure. We all envy talent, and writing may even seem glamorous at times to the laypeople. But anybody who's tried finishing a body of work, be that a blog post, a research paper, an essay, or a book, knows there's nothing glamorous about sitting down and writing one coherent sentence after another. It's hard AF. 

Anybody can publish anything.

Sure, that is true. But isn't it better to have a lot to choose from - even if most of them are trash - than having to choose from amongst a few known authors who offer the same damn POV over and over? I have found tremendous value from mediocre writers who write about topics they specialize in. Sure, having to trudge through some of their pieces can be yawn-inducing at times, but this measly tradeoff is nothing compared to the benefits. 

People are crowding the field and making this space unsustainable for good writers.

Ugh. This pisses me off the most. Good writers will always have room in this overcrowded and noisy field if they're willing to go hard on the thing they love and care about - which in this case is writing. If you catch a writer climbing the hill at a disproportionate speed thanks to, I don't know, bribery or nepotism, then yes, that should make you angry. But other than that, if 10 writers are in the same field running the same marathon and getting ahead of you even if you think their running style is far inferior to yours, then well, have you considered that perhaps you're in the wrong field? Or maybe you need to find a different race to run? Blaming everyone else for putting in the work is never helpful nor graceful. Because trust me, nobody gets ahead in this space without putting in the work. Regardless of how good or bad you think their work is. 

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As a mediocre writer myself, who writes for a living, I can honestly say that there is nothing glamorous about it. Sure, starting a writing business itself was as easy as sitting down in front of the laptop, but that was the only thing that was easy - the sitting down part. Everything else that came after made me want to pull my hair out at times or wail uncontrollably. I went to college for electrical engineering dammit and even that never made me cry!

OK, I exaggerate. I don't cry. But that's not the point here. The point is that writing is hard, but I do it for two reasons:

1. I was desperate and needed to make money; not just a quick buck here and there, but an amount that'll pay rent and bills. Sure, it took two years, but it happened! My blog is now my source of sustenance. Had it not been for the ease of starting a writing business, I'd be in deep water right now, gasping for my very existence. 
2. I wanted to write. It's as simple as that. There were other things I could have done. I'm a skilled and resourceful individual if I may say so myself. But I chose writing, Even when it is hard AF on most days.

The ease of starting a writing business has created opportunities for people that were nonexistent when publishing your work required going through a dumb, bureaucratic system. If it means survival for desperate people, why not be a cheerleader for the age of writing glory, rather than the age of glorified writers?