Manifesto for ineffective writers

The Un-Pep Talk The Writer in You Deserves

The perks of believing in your insignificance.

Mansi Laus Deo
3 min readMar 4, 2020
Photo by Verne Ho on Unsplash

This little person is you. I-N-S-I-G-N-I-F-I-C-A-N-T

Yes, you read that right.
You’re insignificant. Unimportant. Trivial. Like k in knife. You’re irrelevant. Pointless. Believe that.

Better yet, jot it down on a piece of paper and pin it to your work desk or make your phone’s wallpaper out if it. Because who cares?
You don’t matter.

Sorry, but I’m not your parent or best friend. I’m not going to tell you that you are part of a grand scheme of things, you have a purpose, God made you with a purpose, and all that unicorn and glittery shit. Nope! I don’t sell that.

Trust me when I say this, your words were never meant to make a dent in the universe. They just can’t. Their sole purpose is to help you vomit your thoughts out, make some sense out of them (possibly), and if at all there’s some value left, help the world.

Now, since it’s your brain vomiting, I doubt there’s going to anything worthwhile in it. So you better just write it down, wipe your pen, and hit that publish to finally move on.

Don’t for a second think what others would think.

The world isn’t looking at their watches counting seconds as to when your wonderful stream of thoughts (read: vomit) is going to land in their inboxes or fill their Instagram feed with deep, thought-provoking observations and ideas. It is not waiting for your next move. The world…is busy with itself.

It’s got many great search engines that will serve it well. So don’t worry about the world. It won’t implode without your valuable inputs. People will survive without your tips.

You’re not the hero in ‘their’ movie.

You don’t need to save them. You’re starring only in yours and are currently, slogging the entire narrative.

Photo by Verne Ho on Unsplash

Once again, let me remind you: The world is busy. It is not obsessing over the fact whether oxford comma makes sense there or not. It is not worrying that if you write a less than perfect article, people's thoughts will be ill-formed.

The only person worrying and obsessing over such trivial things is you. You are in your way. With bucketfuls of vomit, carrying it around while your body gets tired and you start to stink.

Of course, good writing is important. It is what’s expected of every writer. Good may come before writing, but it’s the writing that needs to happen first. Right? So, be your own hero. Save yourself from your-stinky-self. Throw away all the vomit in a quick write-up and move the fuck on!

You’ve got a sequel to write!

If you’re an ineffective writer but a wise person, you’ll use this as your manifesto and a morning prayer. Trust me, this has helped me write so much more and so much better.

If you’re an effective writer or not a wise person, forget you ever read this. It’s just my vomit. I didn’t even proofread it. LOL!

Hey there! This is Mansi, a professional copywriter with 8 years of advertising experience behind her, who hopped off the corporate ladder to navigate through the free, peaceful (and financially muddy) sea of freelancing. (That’s a sentence lengthened intentionally.)

Should you have any projects for me to write, copy-edit and/or devise content strategy for, ping me on Fiverr or DM me on Instagram @mansilausdeo.

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Mansi Laus Deo
Mansi Laus Deo

Written by Mansi Laus Deo

UX & Communications strategist · Currently sharing my learnings as & on UX Writing Bud · 10+ years in Content Strategy