Steps To Becoming Confident In Your Writing
Anonymous asked: *Rolls around the floor* I feel like my writing sucks and no matter how much I write and edit it doesn’t get better. Do you have any tips on how to be confident in your writing?
*Throws around pillows so you don’t bang into the furniture*
Stop comparing your writing to that of other people’s.
Seriously, stop. It’s not doing you any favors and it’s a surefire way to make yourself miserable.
Even published, successful authors have times when they’re convinced that they suck. (Except for Nicholas Sparks, but, well…)
Focus on what you do well in your writing, and don’t be humble. For this exercise, you are Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove. What is it about your writing that you’re most proud of? Are your verbs spot-on? Do your descriptive passages put Romantic-era writers to shame? Breathe humanity into your villains? Hell yeah! Think about what you’re good at, put them into list form, and pin it to the wall above your desk. See? You’re not nearly as bad as you think you are.
Make another list of what you believe are your weak points. Approach this step with courage. Brave heart, Tegan. The only catch is that you’re not allowed to make this list any longer than the list of good things. Let me repeat that: You are not allowed to make this list longer than the Good Things List. Got it? Okay.
Pin it up next to the list of good things. Compare the two. Squint at them and make a photographer’s square with your fingers. These two lists represent the base of your writing.
Now take the bad list down. Look at it again. Rank the items in order of Not-So-bad to Must-Fix-Immediately. That’s the order in which you’re going to work on improving them.
Work on improving them. Hit up the Internet for ways to combat your specific weaknesses. Write short pieces strictly for dissection purposes - use prompts to help you think of ideas. Write. Write. Write. Write like it’s keeping your electricity on.
Whenever you get discouraged, look at the list of Good Things you’ve kept pinned to the wall. Hey! You’re good at this! Really, you are good at this - and even better, you’re working on getting better.
Remember: there are no real benchmarks. There’s no core standard for writers. Everyone comes at this thing in their own way, and that’s what makes writing such a cool art form: it truly is individualistic.
I really hope this helps.
