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Volume Does Not Equal Quality · 6 February 2013

I wish my son’s assessment of my writing ability was true. That volume equals quality.


As I was writing the other morning, one of my sons said, “You are a good writer, Dad.”


I was curious about his assessment so I asked, “Why do you say that?”


“Because you have so written so many pages,” he stated matter of factly.


I looked at how many pages my word processor said my collection of Musings had. There were a few hundred, which would translate to a few hundred blog posts except that many of the pages are just ideas or titles. I have indeed written several hundred blog posts on my couple websites. However, I was shocked to think that my son thought volume was an indicator of quality.


It makes sense though. Especially, from a child’s point of view. More of anything seems to be what we strive for. More money and more things appear to be our goals. And yet if volume were everything, we would all want to be as heavy as we could. We would want to drive the largest cars we could. While it is true that this notion of volume equaling success is prevalent in life, it cannot be true.


Just because I have written a bunch of blog posts does not mean that I am a good writer. I wish it did. After all, if I was good just because I posted something every week for the past six years and six days a week for the past six months, then I would be ecstatic. I would have editors knocking on my door asking to put my writing in their newspapers or magazines. My books would be flying off the shelves. I would have literary agents begging me to sign with them. To date, none of that has happened. And I do not expect it to happen just because I have written what my son considers a lot.


Young minds are so simple and yet so profound. I was hoping my young son had been reading more than just the snippets he reads over my shoulder on Saturday mornings as I prepare my Musings. But alas. He was merely stating what he thought was obvious. My son thinks I am a good writer because I have written a lot. Sometimes I wish I could agree with him that volume equaled quality.

© 2013 Michael T. Miyoshi

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