How To Guide On Writing

So you want to be a writer. How? Allow me to tell you.

Drum roll, please.

You write.

Okay, I'm not the first person to say this. Nor will I be the last. But it seriously is that simple (and complicated). You sit down and you tap into whatever levels of determination you have. There will be days the words come so easily. There will be days you have to force yourself to sit there and continue your plot line.

There will be days that you wonder if you even like writing. There will be days you think you might hate it.

But at the end of the day, the thing that makes you a writer is the act of writing. That no matter what kind of day you're having, be it one where your fingers/pen/pencil are constantly on the move or one where you do more staring than actual working (full of second-guessing yourself and your potential), you just keep going. Ten words or thousands of them, you keep going. 

Right now, I'm having problems. I can't focus. Too much is going on around me. I've wondered if I need to start getting out of the house to write. Sometimes music just isn't enough to block out home life, or maybe I'm more interested in home life than my fictional one. And yeah, if Supernatural is being played on the TV, nothing's getting done. Why would I give myself a headache trying to force words out when I could stare at the Winchesters instead?

So step one, you write. Write always. 

But step two, forgive yourself. If you slip up, if you don't write a single word (I've had many of those days. Yesterday was one of them), forgive yourself. Just go at it again tomorrow. 

Step three, you have got to let go. First drafts are never pretty. They haven't gone through puberty yet. Actually they're not even born! They're stuck in the oven, baking, and nothing looks great when it's still cooking.

Believe in yourself. Believe in the worlds you have in your head. They're beautiful, and they're yours. Those characters are yours. That work is yours. OWN IT! Be proud of it!

You can be a writer. You are a writer! 

Now click off this blog post and write something.