Writing is an art, a craft, a tool for exploration, and many other things besides. Writing is a skill, too, and if you want to improve your skill as a writer, you need experience. You must work, think critically, and consistently command yourself to focus on your writing for extended sessions—which can be a struggle even for best-selling authors.
But the tree does bear fruit. There is a path that leads to your writing dreams, and you can walk it. You can write stories that are worthy of best-selling lists and tens of thousands of raving fans … or more.
One of the best ways to get better at writing? Keep writing. Every time you write, you get better at it. It doesn’t matter if you write for an hour, or only get a single sentence on the page. Every single time you transform your thoughts into letters on a page, you improve.
How Do You Keep Writing?
To be a writer, you must be consistent, but “writing consistently” can be whatever you make of it: Some write every day. Some write only on weekends. Some write only when they can catch a quiet hour away from life’s major responsibilities.
Your words shouldn’t be perfect. You shouldn’t stress over your writing, or your consistency. Bad days happen, bad weeks, etc.
If you want to be a writer, you’ll have a better chance if you try to love the act of writing. Love the work. Love the effort.
When you were a kid on the playground, you screamed and ran around and you were fully present, fully invested in playing. Writing should feel like that. When you write, let your soul play.
I want you to delight in your words and sentences, to live and explore your characters and the wondrous, thrilling, insane places they go.
Who cares if your writing is any good?
You are writing.
Which means you’re becoming a better writer.
Focus. Take all the time you need to sink into your stories. Soon enough, the words you put onto the page will flow. You’ll cherish your writing time, and you’ll feel creatively satisfied after each session. As you improve your consistency, the act of writing will become a recurring landmark in your life—one that brings joy, one you look forward to.
It is mental work. Writing is a skill. It does consume energy. But it should be fun. And the more fun you have while writing, the more fun your readers will have when reading.
You’ll know you’ve made it when you tell yourself, “I can’t wait to write.”
Keep writing, and keep loving it,
P. S. Hoffman