by Aleisha Brooks

Sunday, January 26, 2020

How to be a writer.

How to be a good writer.

How to know you are.

How does self-criticism stop you before you start?

(*Below this post, I am sharing some wonderful book recommendations to help you discover yourself and your voice.)

A decision to BE a writer.

Decide your purpose. Why do you write?

Many writers ask themselves, “Am I a good writer?” Or better yet, “Do I suck?”

This is what’s called instant self-criticism, instant self-doubt. It’s one of the most destructive habits you need to break yourself of as a writer. Now, how do you do that? One could argue that that’s just the way that it is and all artists have this flaw but the strongest artists work despite the internal struggle. But how?

First of all, it might help you to identify what this self-criticism is.

Let’s ask ourselves some questions:

Do you feel relieved when you decide you can’t do something? If you decide something is too hard to do, do you sit down and sigh with relief? Do you watch TV? Do you do something else that is a time-waster? Like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, for instance?

If so, this self-criticism is an excuse to justify inaction, laziness(another word). Because, of course, if you’re not good enough, how can you expect to create a bestseller, when you don’t expect it from yourself, so how could an audience expect it from you?

When the self-doubt kicks in, do you push through it and write anyway? Does the self-doubt just makes you criticize yourself more? Or get angry or destructive to your own work?

If this is you, then this is actually not you, but the combined criticisms you have had throughout your life, now taken on by you, because you accepted the criticism as your own. Only now, you're using it against yourself.

Any criticism and self-doubt is exactly this. It started outside you and you adopted it as your own. That’s all. You are a creative person and unfortunately, as creative people, we are magnets for critics. But knowing that, you cannot be the negative affect of it. In fact, you can use it to motivate yourself.

Any time you feel the self-doubt come in, make a cognitive decision to turn it on its head and disagree. You know what it is, it’s not you. So, don’t let it be you. Don't agree with it. Give yourself a positive thing to do. One tip you can do when this comes on, give yourself a task that makes you feel accomplished. Because self-criticism wants nothing more than for you to not accomplish something. So, instead set the next goal and accomplish it, even if it's a single page.

Here’s an exercise:

Decide what your purpose is as a writer. Why do you want to write?

Decide you want to be a writer.

What do you want to write? What subject matter or genre?

Now, write a paragraph or two about what you like about that genre.

Take a few minutes and work out a schedule today for when you will write and for how long. Now, make sure you follow this schedule today.

Happy writing!

Here are my inspiring book recommendations:

Stephen King's "On Writing" 

William Zinsser's "On Writing Well" 

"The Power of Focus" by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt 

Sun Tzu/Cleary: "The Art of War" 

"The 10X Rule" by Grant Cardone 

"20 Master Plots and How to Build Them" by Ronald Tobias 

"Dragonology" 

"179 Ways to Save A Novel" by Peter Selgin 

"Weekend Novelist" by Robert J Ray 

"Structuring Your Novel" by John D. Fitzgerald and Robert C. Meredith (Good for beginners)

"The Novel Writer's Toolkit" by Mayer  

Bullfinch's Mythology 

The Cambridge Factfinder 

"Dead Men Do Tell Tales" by William R. Maples, PhD and Michael Browning 

"The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason 

"The Action Hero's Handbook" by Borgenicht and Borgenicht 

"The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook" by Piven & Borgenicht 

And my book... sure why not the shameless plug?

Crush Writer's Block Forever 

If you don't see what you're looking for above, here's an additional page of tools for writers.

Inspiration can and will come if you keep yourself inspired with these tools. :)

Pens, notebooks and journals

Digital voice recorders

Portable writing desks 

Noise canceling headphones