Your brain is no different from that of your favorite writer. Sure, we are all unique and some things may come more easily for some, but it doesn’t matter.
Let’s see what you learned last week.
What if I told you that you were an incompetent nitwit who will never amount to anything resembling a writer (Hold your tongue; work with me here), would you believe me?
Hello, you shouldn’t. Negative words only come to life when you believe them.
Ignore the naysayers, (including yourself.) Let’s face it. You are a writer. Say it now…
“I am a writer!“
That’s all that matters. Go for it.
I Want to Be a Writer, Where Do I Start?
1. The primary reason for becoming a writer should be to inspire, not to make money or to fulfill a dream. When money becomes the focus of any effort, people can tell. However, doing anything out of passion (and not duty) will result in a rewarding outcome. You will be delivering value and providing inspiration to your readers everywhere. So a great place to start would be to write down the following:
What am I passionate about?
- How much time will I dedicate or invest in my passion or interest?
- What books and research will I leverage to become more knowledgeable about my passion?
- Whether I have been positively impacted, changed and inspired to motivate others as a result of my experiences, passion or interests
Those are the primary qualifying factors I use and that’s a good way to begin your journey to success. Notice I didn’t mention that you need a degree. You will need some basic training, yes, but not that extensive. To reach people nowadays, you must talk like they do but please don’t go overboard. You will have to draw the line somewhere depending on the target group. Check out the quote below and keep it close.
2. You will need to have a few tools to get started. They are internet access, a device or computer for typing. You will also need grammar resources to help with understanding the basics of structuring sentences, literary devices (I will be explaining some of these terms in more depth subsequently), a thesaurus for synonyms and a dictionary for definitions. Of course, most of these tools can be accessed online.
You will most definitely need these two friends for the long haul, i.e. passion and discipline, and the desire to read a lot and follow advice. As you develop your skills, you will need to find a means to post your work (depending on the area of writing you decide to pursue) and finally, every writer needs to have an audience. You find your audience via promotion/marketing/SEO (Search Engine Optimization) unless you are already famous and have an audience:-).
Changing My Approach to Writing
Most of us can write once we approach it with the right attitude and can follow basic instruction.
Warning: Your brain is no different from that of your favorite writer.
Sure, we are all unique and some things may come more easily for some, but it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you can do it if you understand the process. I know people who are “naturally” inclined to do well in a particular subject and others who struggle. However, I have hardly ever seen a difference in a finished product from one who does well naturally, and one who has to work extra hard to keep up. Sometimes that extra hard work results in a greater, passion and a ton of experience. We can learn much from the cocoon to the butterfly process of making mistakes.
Every Successful Writer Started at the Beginning
That’s right! One word at a time… Guess what! You can do it too. Don’t take your ideas into eternity when you can leave a legacy of wealth and inspiration behind. Imagine if those very popular writers of great works we like had given up on their dreams… Imagine if all of those wonderful books you read were never penned. When you say “I can’t,” you create a whole new world of impossibilities (I mean that in a bad way). Imagine if you continue to say, I can’t…
No, I didn’t sing along, and I never will. Please don’t memorize this
Failure Leads to Success If You Are Hungry Enough
Let me leave you a list of some who could have given up because they didn’t succeed at first. Some of the more famous ones: Please click on the links if you need more info.
— Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because it was said that he lacked imagination and didn’t have good ideas. He also became bankrupt in another venture before becoming successful.
The Walt Disney Company is worth around $178 Billion, today.
— John Grisham’s first book “A Time to Kill” was rejected by quite a few publishers (27 to be exact) before eventually becoming a best-seller and a film. A lawyer by profession, he went on to become one of the greatest selling authors of modern times.
— Kathryn Stockett’s novel “The Help” was rejected sixty times before becoming a best-seller and going on to be published in 35 countries and several languages. Hmm
— Jon Morrow is the one who stands out for me personally. Jon is a very successful blogger who can only move his eyelids and mouth, yet he has managed to mentor many successful bloggers and run several 6-figure websites. He has an amazingly inspiring story that can be found here.
I know you get the idea and I won’t identify anymore.
To convince you even further that you can succeed as a writer, here is a shocker. A lot of well-known, successful writers, poets and actors never finished or even went to college. Some did poorly at school. I know you are familiar with Maya Angelou, Mark Twain, Jack London, H.G. Wells and Charles Dickens to name a few.
Anyway, enough about them, it’s about what’s in you at this point. I hope you got the inspiration you may have needed from these references
Here is a free tool to get you started grammar-wise.
Part 3. Learn to Write 101: DISCOVER THE WRITER WITHIN coming soon.
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