Five Things You Should Never do in Your First Five Years of Writing
Or ever
“The scariest moment is always just before you start.”
— Stephen King
To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing in 2015 when I decided to take writing seriously. Five years later, I don’t still know what I’m doing on most days, but I’m not as confused as I was then. Looking retrospectively, there are a lot of things I wish I never did and things I want to stop doing and that is what this article will be about. Sit tight as we explore five things every writer should avoid like a plague!
1. Put Yourself in a Box
My writing journey started with writing flash fiction and articles. At that point I was so sure I had found my calling. Poetry was the last thing on my mind. It was for some certain people. All the shakespeareans and faithful scholars of Maya Angelou. I didn’t even give it a thought till someoneI met then literally pushed me to try it out. I can boldly say I have written more poetry than any other forms of writing. I even grew to performing poems. So, you see, you don’t really know your ‘limit’ because you don’t have one. The ability to bend words to any shape in itself is a super power that can be expressed in various ways. Do your future self a favor and diversify a little, we all still figuring this out.
2. Swallow the Lie that Talent is all You Need
2020 was the year this truth hit me really hard. You know, being a writer is really cool. ‘What do you do?’ ‘Amma Writer!’ It just has this sleekness. But, beware of bearing that title without doing the work. To build a successful career as a writer, you need wayyy beyond talent. Talent is the key that grants you initial access to this path at all. However, along the line you’ll need to develop consistency, resilience, dedication and did I mention consistency. I’m not even gonna lie, it can get hard and lonely on this path. On most days, you just want to curl up on your bed and binge watch all your Netflix series. Like the rest of us, you are human and you need breaks and you have an entire life outside writing. That’s okay. In fact, a few minutes ago before I put myself to writing this, the last thing I wanted to do was write. However over the last few months I have developed a theory around why most times I don’t feel like writing. That leads to the next point.
3. Expecting Perfection
Do you realize that the very things you overthink about doing or excessively mentally plan for don’t get done and if they do,it’s never perfect. I mean, nothing in this world is. When it comes to writing, most times we expect to wake up writing best sellers and never suck. Sorry to disappoint you but everybody will suck. As a matter of fact, your greatest work of today might just have you cringing in the next few years because that is what growth is about. Doing crap and growing to do less crap. We are all growing and doing our very best at every stage but we might not just get it perfectly the first few years and that’s okay because we are getting better by trying at all. Taking a few steps, however minute, still moves us closer to the destination.
For someone who is an unrepentant perfectionist, this is also hard for me, most times I stall in doing a lot of things because I’m so scared I won’t do it right and even being here is one of my intentional steps forward.
Today’s best is tomorrow's crap. If we avoid doing today’s crap, how do we get tomorrow's best?
4. Comparison
In writing, comparison isn’t just the thief of joy but the thief of time, inspiration and progress but we all know this but can’t help but notice how many claps a piece we don’t consider as good as ours gets and we just can’t fight the sudden desire to delete everything we’ve ever published because we saw how lifeless they look beside that jaw dropping article. ‘Why didn’t I think about this?’
This, my darling, is a daily battle. Everyone is figuring it out, however perfect it might seem, these very people we shrink around have someone they shrink around too but we have a duty to fight for our serenity because, nothing productive comes from comparison, just self sabotage and further damage.
5.Stop Writing
Writing without getting any value for your work can be frustrating. The frustration can be so overwhelming that you might just choose to quit. And once again, that’s okay. Life in itself is a pain in the ass but don’t we all still indulge it.
You can always take a break, step back a little to rejuvenate but please don’t give up. The world needs you.
Just Maya Angelo said:
“The idea is to write it so that people hear (or read )it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.”
Keep writing!
