Five Mindset Shifts I Made about Writing
These have made me a better writer.
The way I think about writing today is vastly different from how I saw things seven years ago. As I grew older, I adopted new mindsets which also led to a change in my attitude toward writing. For the most part, these new shifts in mindset have made me a better writer and instilled in me a sense of purpose.
Here are the five mindset shifts I’ve made over the years:
1. Writers are made not born
I used to think that the greatest writers were simply great because they were born knowing how to write. Listen, it might sound really stupid to you, but I genuinely believed this.
I saw writing as a talent one was born with and not a skill one had to hone with consistent practice. Writing, to me, was like dancing. You’re either born with great coordination skills or you’re just a rigid pole, like me. No dance moves at all. Or then again, this is probably a terrible analogy. Even dancers have to practice their craft no matter how talented they are.
I sincerely never thought that I had to practice a lot to become a better writer. Perhaps, I had this mindset because all my life, my teachers would praise me for my essays and stories. I thought that just like sports and art, writing too was my talent.
Who needs practice when you have talent?
I couldn’t have been more wrong about anything. Maybe, some writers are naturally gifted, yes. But talent isn’t enough. No matter how talented you are at something, you still need to practice a lot to get become even better.
I’m living proof of this as I’m a ridiculously terrible artist today. When I was younger, I was really good at drawing. While I enjoyed drawing all manner of things, my drawing skills were most displayed during our pre-technical skills class. My pre-tech teacher even thought I would pursue visual arts in senior high school. But by the time I was in my final year of junior high, I lost interest in drawing and grew fonder of writing.
I didn’t draw as much anymore, and now, I totally suck at it. And that was all because I never developed my talent in art. I’m not really mad at that, since I really lost interest in drawing.
But this phenomenon got me thinking that maybe, just maybe, one had to keep their talent alive through practice. With that, I began to seriously learn the craft by practicing as much as I could. I didn’t want to be mediocre in writing as I was in drawing. While I’m not great, I’m much better today than I was five years ago.
I’m sure that in the future, I’ll even become better than I am now.
If you’re a bad writer today, don’t worry about it. Keep writing. Keep practicing. And you’ll get better at it.
2. Fantasy is neither easy nor unbelievable
I’ve always loved writing fantasy. I love everything about it, from the magic to the mythical creatures, and yes, even the strange fantasy food. The first stories I started writing were fantasy.
As a child, I thought those stories were easy to write. After all, all I had to do was make things up and add all kinds of magical powers and creatures I could think of to spice it up. It was fun, to be honest. I just had to go with my gut and write whatever came to mind. Readers didn’t have to believe it.
Then I grew older and saw the light. First of all, fantasy is fucking hard. Secondly, it must be believable.
Just because you make up magic and stuff doesn’t mean that you can write chaos. While fantasy is about writing things that could never happen in the real world, it still has to be credible.
The credibility rooted in fantasy is why you can’t just give your protagonist a random magic power outside the magical confines of the world you’ve created. Do that, and readers will call you out on your bullshit.
I thought fantasy was the easiest genre to write because I didn’t have to do research since I was writing about things that didn’t exist. God, how wrong was I? My first three novels are all in the fantasy genre and the amount of research I made was enough to tear a rift in the space-time continuum.
Don’t venture into the fantasy genre because you think it’s much easier. It’s not. It takes a lot of creativity to persuade your readers into suspending their disbelief.
3. I’m still a writer even if I don’t earn from it
When I was five, I wanted to be a doctor. Then in junior high, I wanted to be a journalist. In senior high, I wanted to be a pilot. By the time I was in the university, I truly couldn’t give a fuck.
And yes, I never pursued any of the above-mentioned professions.
But the one thing that stayed with me throughout all this was writing Yet, I never thought of myself as a writer. Well, that was understandable. I wasn’t that committed to it anyway and saw it as more of a hobby than anything else.
A few years after graduating, I started taking writing a lot more seriously and dedicated more time to it. Yet, I never thought of myself as a writer.
Okay, something was definitely wrong. My mind wrestled with the thought of identifying as a writer.
Later, I realized that I felt this way because I wasn’t earning from writing. In my mind, I wasn’t a writer because I wasn’t making a living from it. How stupid was I?
Listen, if you’re writing, then you’re a writer. Period.
Saying that you want to be a writer when you grow up, though you’re already writing makes no sense. You write stories all the time. This is the definition of being a writer. Earning money is just a bonus.
Will a lawyer who only works on pro bono cases be any less of a lawyer because they don’t earn money? Absolutely not. Though one can argue that lawyers do in fact go to law school. Fair enough. But writers also learn to write through years of practice. The difference between us and other professionals is that we get to keep the title even during our years of practice.
It took me a long time to be comfortable with calling myself a writer. I had to constantly remind myself until it became second nature to me.
You can be an aspiring author as a beginner writer, but there’s no such thing as an aspiring writer. You’re either a writer or you’re not. To become a writer, all you need to do is start writing. As to whether you’re earning money from it or not is irrelevant.
You’re a writer.
4. The first draft is always trash
As Ernest Hemingway said, the first draft of anything is shit. Well, I had a different opinion in the past. To me, the first draft must be flawless. I thought that I had to write the perfect first draft on my very first try.
I never imagined that every great book I had ever read had to go through a lot of revisions to reach such excellence. In my ignorance, I tried hard to write a perfect first draft. Let’s just say I failed miserably.
I would rewrite one chapter over and over, without moving forward with the story. This stalled my writing and eventually made me give up on the story.
When I learned for the first time that writers did a lot of rewriting, the shit blew my mind. You mean to tell me that the final product of the Count of Monte Cristo is not the first draft? And this applies to almost every masterpiece out there?
Then why the hell did I think that a nonentity like me could actually produce a perfect novel on my first try? Was I insane or something?
Thankfully, I have changed my attitude about this. Now, I write without a care in the world. My first drafts are so painfully hard to read that I wouldn’t wish such torture on my worst enemy. It’s only after I have edited the crap out of my book that it becomes safe enough to be read by mere mortals.
My writing speed has increased tenfold because of this. Not only have I become more productive, but I have also become more confident. After all, I am no longer under pressure to be perfect.
5. I can become a full-time writer
Until recently, I never thought about earning a living through writing.
Remember how I said I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to be? Well, I finally found my calling during my final year at the university. Actually, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, however, I never considered it as a viable career option. I still don’t, to be honest. I see it more as a passion project.
No, it’s not writing, if that’s what you’re wondering. It’s philanthropy. I want to be a philanthropist. This is my true goal in life.
Since I was a kid, I wanted to help people. In senior high school, I would daydream about building schools and hospitals, and empowering the marginalized.
The older I grew, the more my passion deepened, and now I am fully convinced this is what I want to do. But there’s just one problem.
I need a lot of money to make this dream a reality. Like a lot of money. We’re talking Bill-Gates-tier money or at least, enough financial stability to support my passion. And herein lies the problem — the gates to my dollar bills have giant padlocks on them. For now, I can only do what I can with the little I have.
That’s not enough, yet I’m not ready to give up my dream either. This means I have to find a way to fund my dream.
And how the hell do I even do that? I wasn’t in the tech industry so becoming a tech start-up millionaire was unrealistic. In a country like Ghana, a 9–5 job wouldn’t make me wealthy either.
I weighed my options. What did I love doing so much that I could turn it into a profitable career to fund my dream? Two things came up: writing and music.
I chose the first option. But sometimes I wondered if I was delusional. I’ve heard so many horror stories about how hard it was to make a living as a writer, how writers couldn’t support themselves without working other jobs. Could I even make a living as a full-time writer or was I way in over my head?
I thought about this a lot.
Finally, I made up my mind and stopped obsessing over all the things that could go wrong.
I will become a full-time writer. Period. It will take time, but I can do it. This is how I plan to support my passion for philanthropy.
I chose writing because it was one of two things (the second being teaching) I was willing to do even if there was no monetary gain involved. I don’t mind giving my all into building a writing business even if I don’t earn a single dime for several months. I plan to finance my writing business with my teaching job. Eventually, when I become a successful full-time writer, I will use that to fund my dream.
On the flip side, if I never become wealthy as a writer, I’ll still have no regrets in life. After all, I dedicated my life to writing and teaching — two of the three things I’m most passionate about. That still counts as success to me.
But of course, I don’t intend to be lax about my goals. I’m willing to put in all the work to become a full-time writer. It won’t be easy, I know that. But I have already prepared my mind for the hellish ride.
Final thoughts
These are the major mindset shifts I’ve made over the years where writing is concerned. These have improved not only my craft but also my life in general.
Indeed, mindset is everything.
Thank you for reading.
Originally published at https://torshietorto.com on January 14, 2023.
