So You Think You Can Write?

You’re sitting in your room right now, with a bagel and a cup of coffee in hand. You probably have the idea in your head, that little germ of awesomeness that is just waiting to be unleashed. The problem is, you’re probably daunted by the white sheet of paper, just mocking you with all its blankness.

“Yeah, I’m blank. You got a problem with that?”

It’s practically whispering the words, asking you to abandon your dream of writing the next great American novel. Well, join me in saying two words to that blank piece of paper. Screw it. Yeah, we just said it. I do think the first step to making your dream a reality is to say screw it to the things getting you down. 

First off, write. Don’t edit, just write. Let the words take their own journey unhindered. Let them flow from the mind to the pen, all the way to the paper. It seems to go against our nature to make everything perfect, but as the adage says, there is no great writing, only great rewriting. By the way, I have no freaking idea who said that.

Now that you’ve taken the scary plunge, keep you interest in what you’re doing. It helps to be reminded of your goals or motivations, letting those dreams guide you and keep you enthusiastic. Also, in relation to this, let’s talk about writer’s block for a second. Writer’s block  is that awful moment when the world decides to conspire against you, leaving your mind with a painfully clean slate.

You know what the remedy to this is? Keep writing. It may seem counterintuitive, but just do it. Whatever pops into your head, even if they’re popsicles and kittens, just keep writing. Constant practice, happy effort and willingness are the things that hone a writer, transforming you from a diamond in the rough to a shining jewel.

As I said before, keep at it. Good writers didn’t become good ones because they let themselves become pushovers. So, when somebody asks you:

“So you think you can write?”

You know your answer, right? Hell yeah I can!