How do you become a better writer?

You’ve probably read a bunch of how-to articles from gurus teaching you the secret to writing better.

Certainly not an expert here — but I’m a constant learner.

I’ve personally enrolled to courses, downloaded e-books, watched webinars and anything I could get a hold of to learn and improve my skills.

Sure, these have all been helpful. But you know what?

There’s only ONE THING you should be doing.

~~drumroll~~

PRACTICE.

No one is born great. Being a genius is overrated and it most certainly doesn’t apply to everybody. But that’s okay!

You don’t have to wait until you’re an expert before you can start a career.

Zig Ziglar put it into words:

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

No amount of courses or books can help you if you don’t apply what you learn.

START TODAY!

You want to be an artist?

DRAW. PAINT. CREATE.

You want to be a dancer?

Set aside time for rehearsals everyday!

You want to be an actor or actress?

Take classes, practice, show up to auditions!

You want to be a writer?

Well then, put your pen to paper! Start a blog!

I could go on and on, but you get my point.

Of course, there’s no such thing as an overnight success — unless you’re a lucky bastard who wins the lottery. But even that would require you to do something: BUYING THE TICKET!

In this case, our ticket to success is practicing everyday.

10,000 Hours

If you’ve read the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell — it talks about a concept called the 10,000 hour rule.

It basically says that your number of hours of deliberate practice is the only thing that would differentiate you from your competitors.

Most of us are already good enough. What we’re lacking is deliberate practice.

To emphasize this, let me share one more quote (that I got from a friend):

“10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer

Write.
Write more.
Write even more.
Write even more than that.
Write when you don’t want to.
Write when you do.
Write when you have something to say.
Write when you don’t.
Write every day.
Keep writing.”
― Brian Clark

CONCLUSION

That’s it. If you want to be good at something, PUT IN THE WORK.

You can’t just wish for something and expect it to fall into your lap.

Good things take time.

If you can afford to waste time on useless things, I assume you also have time to make your dreams come true.

I have a long way to go, but at least I’m already on my way.

Are you willing to put in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to be the person you want to be?

Yes? Then, what are you waiting for?

WRITE! ;)