Did You Write Today?
July 24, 2010
Image by Chapendra via Flickr
Today is a great day to write! It really doesn’t matter what you write. The important thing is to get your ideas onto paper (or the screen). You can write a poem, a short story, a blog article, part of a novel or anything that strikes your fancy.
Challenge yourself to write something every day (you don’t need to finish it, just move forward on the project). You will gain confidence and will be that much closer to achieving your writing goals. If you were to work 20 mins a day on a novel, you would eventually finish it and I bet it would happen a lot sooner than you think.
If you want to become a professional writer, it is important that you exercise your writing muscle. No, not your fingertips, but your creative “muscle”. Trust me, the more you write, the likelier it is that you’ll be hired.
True, you will need to share your work, somewhere along the line, to really reach this goal. But at some point, you will want to. You’ll find your voice and you’ll know it is the right time to declare to the world “I’m a writer!”
But, let’s just start with a simple task. Write something now. If you’re reading this and you want to be paid writer, click your word processing icon and write something. Anything. Just write!
Just write! It’s great advice. I blog twice weekly but I am writing constantly. You learn how to edit yourself when you see the extraneous language. It’s so satisfying if that is what you want to do for a living. I began as a business reporter, moved into PR and marketing, where I managed more than wrote. Having come full circle, back to being a writer it is great to flex my fingers and brain.
comment by Jeannette Paladino — July 28, 2010 @ 10:44 pm
I count my morning exercise of writing what I am grateful for as well as my day’s intention. Thanks for framing writing this way – just write.
comment by Patricia Weber — July 29, 2010 @ 7:36 am
Excellent advice Laura. Have to be more disciplined about writing, defintely.
comment by Catarina Alexon — July 29, 2010 @ 8:07 am
Laura,
Very practical advice and I must it is easier to write a post now than when I started my blog. It involved changing the style from business reports which I found difficult at first and while it is a work in progress it slowly improving.
comment by Susan Oakes — July 29, 2010 @ 6:35 pm
good advice. Like anything the more you do it the better you will get. I laughed because I have about 15 half finished blog posts. Someday I will need to finish.
comment by Julia M Lindsey — July 30, 2010 @ 11:31 am
Sometimes sitting down to write seems overwhelming becasue you think it has to be to completion. I like hww you suggest to write for just a few minutes. It makes it seem so much more doable!
comment by Stacey N. — July 30, 2010 @ 11:48 am
I love it Laura – reminds me of what I often say: “Just do it!”. Sounds so simple right? How often do people talk about doing something, analyze it, bounce ideas off of others, etc. before they actually DO something? I am listening to you – I am “writing” on your blog
comment by Julie Weishaar — August 17, 2010 @ 3:38 pm
Oh boy do I ever write everyday! Only problem is that it is rarely creative or subjects of my own choosing. With luck that will come later when I have my own syndicated column and ten girls lounging by the pool, but my plans of world conquest have to take a backseat to paying bills for the time being.
I have a scifi story that I have had in my head for ten years. Every now and then, I’ll ignore everything else and put a little more of it down on paper. I hope to have it finished and actually shop it around by the time I’m 60.;)
comment by Paul Novak — August 27, 2010 @ 1:51 pm
You’re absolutely right! It doesn’t matter what you write, just that you get those ideas done on paper or whatever the digital equivalent of that is.
comment by Dennis Salvatier — October 19, 2010 @ 8:56 pm