Want to write a book? Stop dreaming, stop doubting yourself, and start writing.
‘A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit’.
Richard Bach
How many writers can you think of who never wrote a word — not a single word — before they became ‘famous’?
If that were the case, how the hell did they learn to write at all?
We all start out the same — born into this world with no language. No words. No ability to construct a sentence, worry about spelling, grammar or syntax, or all those things that go into learning how to ‘write’.
We all start as ‘amateurs’.
Then we start to develop speech and language skills from our parents and the people around us. We learn to recognise letter symbols on advertising billboards.
At school, we read and learn new words. We do spelling quizzes, learn grammar, write poetry, stories, and essays.
Regardless of how ‘good’ or ‘elite’ your education was, we all start out with these fundamentals in place.
[Sadly, some kids fall through the cracks through no fault of their own, and I like to think our governments and communities are doing something about that. But that is a topic for another time.]
So you want to be a writer?
How long have you clung to this dream?
Five years? Ten? 30? 50? Even longer?
Writing a book that you can hold in your hands is something we all dream of doing. Yet so often we fail to take action.
What’s holding you back?
We forget that every writer begins as an amateur:
Margaret Mitchell (Gone With the Wind) was rejected by publishers dozens of times before her manuscript was accepted.
John le Carré, William Golding, J.K. Rowling, Agatha Christie — all rejected, at first.
Beatrix Potter had to publish her first book (The Tale of Peter Rabbit) herself.
Stephen King’s first novel (Carrie), was rejected many times by publishers. When it was eventually accepted and published, over a million copies sold.
But don’t worry about Stephen King or J.K. Rowling — or any other writer who is a success now. They started out just the same as you and me.
As amateurs.
These writers honed their craft, believed in themselves, and persisted until they hit the jackpot.
Becoming a successful writer comes down to being prepared to sit down and write, day after day.
Unless you ‘get lucky’, success won’t come overnight. But that doesn’t mean you can’t write well.
‘You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.’
Octavia E Butler
Eventually, you’ll find that people are reading your work and buying your books.
What does it take?
Persistence. And practice.
If you write and write and write, you will become a writer.
When you’re still finding your feet, a blog is a great place to start.
At first, nobody is likely to read it anyway, except your best friend, your dad or your kids!
A blog is a perfect place to find your ‘voice’ and get over the fear of putting your writing in front of real readers.
Practice and persistence work.
For so many years, I dreamt of being a writer. I even started a few stories. Some of them date back to my school days, and there have been many more since — mostly unfinished. Collecting dust in a box in the cupboard.
I read books (many) about ‘How to write’. I did the exercises and wrote a bit more.
Then I joined a writing group in my local community and was deathly embarrassed to read aloud my short story (one of the few I’d finished).
I struggled with the criticism from the other aspiring writers in the group! Even the constructive comments were like a blow to the gut.
I faced the awful realisation that my story — so carefully crafted — wasn’t perfect.
That one, insignificant-and-really-didn’t-matter-at-all short story shattered my confidence.
So I went on dreaming.
Sure, I wrote any number of articles, workbooks, course manuals, etc. for my job, but to me, they weren’t ‘real’ writing. Not mine.
Not something I own and could hold in my hands and be proud of.
All I was doing was dreaming. Dreaming of being a writer, of living the writer’s life (whatever that is!), of one-day earning a living from my books, of having a shelf filled with volumes of my work … all a dream.
But that was then …
Now it is different.
No, I’m not famous. There’s still a lot of space on my bookshelf for more of my books — I have four (published), to date. And I’m certainly no Shakespeare or Hemingway or Stephen King.
But I write.
I write books I want to write.
I write books for my specific audiences. I write because I enjoy the process (most of the time), and I write to make money.
Stop thinking your work is crap.
What is ‘good’ writing?
Who gets to make that judgement?
It’s a vexed question because it depends on what you are writing — and it’s intended audience, style, and content.
It doesn’t matter what, or who, you are writing for — the important thing is to keep your reader engaged.
A few months ago, I was sitting on a plane, waiting for take-off. I was headed to Seoul in South Korea, on a much-needed break from work.
Having always found it difficult to concentrate on anything much while the cabin crew go through the pre-flight routine, I grabbed the airline magazine from the seatback in front of me. Naturally, it was mostly about South Korea, all the cool things to see and do, and places to stay.
Bypassing the articles written in Korean (!), I found one in English that drew me in with its fabulous photography.
But as I read, I became more and more disillusioned. The writing was no more than a long list of things to do, places to go, facts and figures, structured as sentences.
To be fair, there was nothing wrong grammatically or structurally with this article.
But it lacked soul. It had no heart. No life. Nothing. It was ‘dead’ writing.
Obviously, the magazine publisher thought the article was great, or they wouldn’t have published it.
But I found it lifeless and dull and struggled to get to the end. I might just as well have picked up a checklist.
It’s possible the writer felt the same and was merely meeting a brief from the publisher to get paid.
I don’t know the writer of that article, so can’t answer that, but I like to think that was the case!
Stop worrying about what people will say.
Fearing what people might say about your book, or that nobody will even buy it, is common.
And I have news for you — you’re not alone! The thought of criticism scared the hell out of me at first.
Most of all, I was scared of my own Inner Critic. The little guy that rumbles around in your head muttering ridiculous nonsense about how you’re not good enough, or people will laugh, or nobody will buy, and I’m going to die of embarrassment … blah blah blah.
Your Inner Critic is simply energy. Energy that is doing its best to undermine you and set you on a path to self-sabotage.
This energy, however, is no more than interfering negative energy.
Negative energy is also, unfortunately, powerful. By not going into battle with your negative energy, you risk becoming paralysed by fear and self-doubt, unable to move forward.
Time to bring some positive energy into the picture.
Deep down, you know you have something to offer.
In my case, it was a matter of admitting that I was letting dreams, doubts and procrastination get in the way. I was worrying too much about the future and not acting in the present.
I just had to get on with it and start writing.
Every writer fears failure.
Failure is gut-wrenching.
But remember this — every failure is a step closer to success. Pick yourself up — you can’t change what’s already happened. Learn from it and move on.
Stop being a perfectionist.
Are you compelled to keep researching; to find just a few more facts and figures and examples and anecdotes to sound more authoritative?
I have to admit that I can be a perfectionist in the extreme.
Sometimes I fuss over my work within an inch of its life while I finesse and refine and edit until I can bear to share it with the world.
It’s a difficult habit to shake, but the day comes when you just have to say Enough and get your book out there.
If I let ‘perfectionist me’ rule my life, I would never have published anything.
The time comes when you have to put aside your perfectionism and JUST WRITE.
Stop fussing, stop dreaming and start writing.
Commit to writing and finishing your book
Over the years (before my first ‘real’ book was published), I’d written a lot of material. Journal articles, workbooks, textbooks, course manuals, etc. — but they were all written for work.
They didn’t feel like a real achievement.
It wasn’t until I started writing a blog that my writing ‘voice’ began to emerge. With that blog came more confidence. People liked what I was writing!
But still, I doubted, thinking That was a one-off, it won’t happen again. (the inner critic again).
Over time, I became more courageous, writing scripts for my (now hundreds) of videos, and for my online courses. The process of recording the videos helped build my confidence, too.
Finally, my blogging led to what I saw as a need for a book in that niche. So… da-daaaa … my first book became a reality.
And it sold. And sold. And sold. ✌️
Then I wrote another, and another and another.
One of them even became a best seller in its category on Amazon.
What had changed?
I’d confronted the doubts and fears.
Nevertheless, I still get nervous every time I release a new book … what if no-one likes it … but I’ve learned to push on regardless, push through the negative thoughts that can hold writers back.
It’s important to challenge your own boundaries. Extend yourself. You’ll be surprised at what you can do.
Don’t leave your manuscript in your computer or your desk drawer.
Drag it out. Prune that baby back to the bones, get it edited, and send it out to the world.
Publish it. Self-publishing (indie publishing) is easier than it’s ever been, so why wait?
Get your book out there and write another. It will be better than your first. Every book you write will improve your skills as a wordsmith.
Becoming a good writer is a matter of doing it over and over and over again. Every time you sit down to write, you’ll improve.
Yes, there will be days when all you write is crap, but at least there’s something on the page.
‘You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.’
Jodie Picoult
What to do next
Become a writer. Stop dreaming of being a writer. Just write.
Believe in your writing ability. Everyone can write, and there is a market for every type of book.
I know a writer who freely admits his work is not ‘literature’. He writes for specific markets on popular topics and makes a pile of money from them.
That may not be your thing. Everyone has their own reason for wanting to write.
Find the market, the topic and a writing style that is identifiably yours and write for your audience.
When your book is written, hit ‘Publish’. Yes, it’s a bit scary, but once it’s out there, you’ll realise it wasn’t so hard.
Open up your calendar and set a date when your book will be finished.
Give yourself a deadline and promise to meet it. Promise?
As I write this, there are two months left until the end of the year.
Two months is long enough to plan and write your first book.
Commit to a date now, create a writing schedule, and get started.
You have a book to write! 📚
Get my latest tips and strategies for writing and successful self-publishing.
Originally published at https://www.deborahwirsu.com on October 31, 2019.
