Want to Become a more Confident Writer?

So…you want to start writing but your fear is keeping you back?

The immediate answer that springs to mind is to keep writing a matter what. But any writer who’s been writing for any length of time, will understand that just writing is a lot more difficult than it’s made to sound. So, naturally, I decided to break down what just keep writing actually means.

An overview:

The idea of just writing comes down to the idea that you write whether you think a piece of writing is good, bad or ugly. You keep going despite the ups and downs that come with writing.

Whether a piece of writing is good or bad, you’re still learning how best you write; the right processes for you to achieve your best work.

What you write about doesn’t have to be about anything ground breaking. It could just be about your day…or it could be an epic fantasy novel. There are so many layers and routes in between for you to explore. Whatever you write — or however much you write — you are still a writer. Technically speaking, you could write 500 pages of the same word over and over and still publish an epic. Not that you’d want to do that.

Here are a few of my tips…

1. Write short pieces. These will help you become concise. Concise, whilst focusing on the value that each word, or piece of punctuation, brings to the piece. This alone will allow you to appreciate the power of your words, and compound on your motivation to write more.

2. Have fun. Whilst writing is a skill to be learnt and honed, the ultimate idea is to have fun. For a lot of people, writing is, and started out as, a hobby. You don’t want to label writing as a chore. Don’t lose that firey passion.

3. Keep a routine. A routine with your writing will subconsciously (and consciously) allow writing to become a priority. Everything takes time and practice — and a routine will allow for that time and practice.

4. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Whatever stage we are at in a writing journey, we all have things we are still to learn. Things we could improve on. Learning is all part of the process. Whether you consider a piece ‘good' or ‘bad’, a few months, days, or even hours down the line you’ll find things to critique about your work. At the very least, an idea how to better phrase or structure a sentence. That is all part of the learning. We are subconsciously picking up on different techniques and styles, and then blending them into our own writing.

5. It’s okay to experiment. You might not know what you want to write at first; you might want to write blogs, or fantasy novels — it’s totally up to you. The only way you are going to find out for sure, is to dabble in whatever takes your fancy. That being said, you don’t have have to stick with just the one type of writing or genre! For example — I blog, I write articles here on Medium, I have published a poetry anthology, and I am in the process of writing a few more books.

It’s all about developing our craft, and seeing where we can take our writing. You never know until you try.

Hopefully this has inspired you, and has given you something to think about.

Do you have anything to add to the list?