No Mentors. No Connections. Just a Dream to Write.

I almost quit writing. What started as a dream slowly turned into years of self-doubt, confusion, social media pressure, and exhaustion. This is my personal story about my journey with writing — the struggles of starting without guidance, the pain of quitting something I truly loved, and finally finding the courage to begin again with a fresh perspective.

Chasing the Perfect Beginning

When I was chasing the perfect start to my writing journey, I got stuck polishing, reading, and rewriting content, which made me exhausted and turned writing into a painful process. During almost five years of struggling to become a writer, there were times when I concluded that I was not suited for writing, and feelings of inferiority took over my mind.

Writing Without Guidance

There were no mentors or connections to guide me on where to start and how to begin. Yes, the internet has countless resources, but it felt overwhelming, and I got tired of constant trial and error. Writing is not my full-time profession, and I have a job that demands most of my day.

With just a dream to write, I struggled to publish my articles and build an audience. Deciding which platform to choose and where my content would remain safe became additional challenges along the way.

Publishing My First Book

Finally, as a new year’s resolution in 2020, I decided to give it a try. I fixed 13^th November 2019 as the publication date of my first book because it was my son’s first birthday and very close to my heart. But once again, questions about what topic to choose and which genre to write in kept rising in my mind.

Rather than exhausting myself again and beginning to hate the writing process, I picked the very first fiction story I had written during my school days. Publishing a book had also been one of the checkboxes on my bucket list back then, and it coincided with my journey of becoming a better writer. That’s how “Myself – A Fiction Story” was chosen and brought to life.

The Unexpected Challenge: Selling the Book

After successfully publishing the book, I came across another humongous mountain to climb, something I never anticipated – selling my book. I was never a big fan of social media. Yet, as advised by my publishing agency, I opened new Facebook and Instagram accounts. I reached out to a few friends I knew, and with consistent posts and feeds, I barely managed to reach 500 followers and still struggled to get genuine reviews. I kept experimenting, learning, and posting consistently, but the process slowly became mentally exhausting for me.

Honestly, this felt more painful than writing the book itself. It made me mentally weak, and eventually, I quit writing for some time. I walked away from something I was truly passionate about. The entire experience slowly drained me. I started feeling guilty for not having social media accounts earlier in my life and for now failing to achieve big follower numbers on them.

Questioning the Social Media Game

That gave rise to many questions in my mind. Can I not sell a book without Facebook or Instagram? Even if I use them, how do I gain organic followers? How do I get organic reach for my content? How many years would it take to achieve that? What exactly is this algorithm, and how do I make it work for me? It all became mentally draining.

A few digital marketing agencies also reached out to me, offering to grow my pages to thousands of followers, but the charges they quoted were very high.

Restarting After Five Years

After a struggling year, I quit writing. Now, almost five years later, I have restarted my journey with a fresh approach and renewed energy. I am starting from scratch — with no Facebook or Instagram accounts, but with the confidence to build a genuine readership by providing quality content.

So, what is my new strategy?

It’s simple. Keep writing what I truly want to write, create quality content while respecting the reader’s time, learn from my mistakes, and improve every day. Use my own website, srikarthik.in, to publish my content, and use genuine platforms like Substack to reach an organic audience, as they are publishing platforms with social features rather than pure social media platforms. They cut out the noise and provide value for me. I genuinely feel this path is right for me.

This is week one of my renewed writing journey. I hope to look back at this post one year from now with pride.

So, where do I hope this journey leads me a year from now?

I become a better and more confident writer who creates meaningful, high-quality content that genuinely adds value to readers. I build a community of thousands of genuine readers who patiently wait for my posts, connect with my thoughts, and appreciate the quality of my work. More than numbers, I enjoy the process of writing consistently, improving every day, and creating ideas that leave a positive impact on people.

Srikarthik Vasudevan