Lots of people tell me every day on my vlog and on the streets (after they find out about my blog), that they want to be writers. I tell every one of those individuals – everyone is a writer at heart, but when it comes down to it, very few of us actually take pen to paper and get to writing well.
Everyone has stories, hundreds of stories that they could write about. Don’t you believe that?
Everyone has anecdotes that they could relate to their readers a hundred times over. I definitely do…
Everyone has painful family incidents that would result in some great writing material. I’m sure you do as well.
Getting Down To The Serious Business Of Writing Well
Not everyone gets down to the nitty-gritty. Not everyone sits down at their computer every day and writes.
You see, writing isn’t about the ideas, or the anecdotes, or the incidents that you have to share. Most of the writing is created in your imagination. Most of it is about false characters in a false made-up world.
Writing is actually about writing. The sitting-down-when-you-don’t- feel-like-it writing. All successful writers have good days and bad days. The difference between them and the amateurs is that they write on the good and bad days.
They write on days when it’s raining or when their babies are crying or when their period is killing them or when their spouse left them or when the world is ending.
They Sit Down And Write EVERY SINGLE DAY
Being inspired or being in the mood isn’t the point. Every day is an opportunity to write.
The truth of the matter is that good penning comes from a LOT of bad penning – and I mean, a lot. A writer might write hundreds of thousands of bad writing, to get to one paragraph of superior writing.
But that paragraph of superior penmanship will bring tears to your eyes. That one paragraph will be worth all the hundreds of thousands of hours spent on horrible writing.
I would say self-censorship and perfectionism is the killer of writers – we censor ourselves because we think we have to be perfect out of the gate.
My advice to you: Forget about perfectionism. Write badly and write a lot.
I tell this to everyone who asks me about writing.
Write badly, and write a lot.
Boom Shikha
Once you get into a habit of writing, that’s when the writing will just flow from you as if it were coming from a superior source beyond you.
Sit down every day and plan to write ten words or a page or ten pages. Decide on an amount and write that amount every day. No matter what the weather is doing or your spouse is doing or your children are doing or your bank account is doing or your body is doing.
EVERYDAY. Sit down and write a certain amount.
P.S. This blog was first published on my previous blog on the 11th of May, 2016.
