The five stages of every writer will go through
And you should too
Writing is a gift. Everyone will have to write something at some point. Writing is something that will get improved in time. There will always be content and people telling stories to each other. History proves the same. Stories never end.
Then what? What’s holding us backing from expressing what we have in our minds?
Language is the least of the concerns in the new emerging world. Every writer will have to go through the five stages to get better.
1. Start writing
The start is always a 100% improvement from the last day. Because you have done something. There’s nothing better than executing something and that’s satisfactory. But everyone will have a bit of a problem publishing the first article they write. I’ve seen many say so. They work on it day and night. But they’re not satisfied with the quality. But it’s okay. Because quality is a gradual process. You can’t achieve it in a single night.
2. Get discouraged
Send it to the most trusted critics in your network. Trusted means they’ll tell you to stop if it’s a bad article. Get some discouragement, failures matter. Because if you had enough of everything, what would be your purpose? Goals aren’t something that someone can achieve in a lifetime. It’s not something you should reach, but something you should look up to. Discouragement is a fuel to race towards a better you. It’s a realization of the current level.
3. Improve and write again
Is it simple? No !! If it was simple, everyone could do that. Discouraged and damned. You may never want to open an editor again. Keep trying, because some day, you’ll break the threshold to reach the other side. Improve. Read more, write more. Proofread more. Use efficient tools to improve your quality. Get a proofreader or an editor you could trust. Iterate on your content. Write again. Get less discouraged from the same critics again. Because this time, you have definitely improved.
4. Keep writing
Because quality does not have a threshold and it doesn’t matter how good you are. You’ll always have critics and discouragement from somewhere. You’ll have discouragements. But to make the last laugh yours, make sure you have a steep graph towards your goal. It’s inevitable because you should improve to stay in the game.
5. Get encouraged
At one point, without even knowing you’ll be getting claps from around. Because you’ve improved. And your standards have improved. Your levels change and you’re in the game. That’s thrilling, it should be. But don’t stop, because your goal is way ahead.
When you reach a stage where you are ready to relax a bit, you can call yourself a writer and stop worrying about stage two.
Originally published at blog.refly.it on September 8, 2017.
