So You Want To Be a Better Writer?

Many people want to write, but few people follow through.

What many people find out is that writing isn’t easy. And if you want to be a writer, you’ve got to be serious about it. It’s got to be at least a top 3 priority in your life. 

You’ve also got to have the right motivations. If you want to be famous, if you want to be rich, there are much better things you can be doing. My initial motivation was to explore my ideas and clarify my thinking and then it evolved into a love for the craft. I write because I can’t help myself, I love doing it.

Here’s my advice for those looking to get into writing:

Focus on quantity first, quality will come later. You don’t have to write every day like I do but I think that writing every day is much easier than writing every week or every month. 

Publish your writing online. You don’t need to make a high public announcement for your writing either. Instead, consider starting a blog or a private Substack. Initially, I created a blog and shared it with only a select few close friends. Writing online alters your perspective on your work, prompting you to refine it and feel a sense of accountability when posting it online. 

When you first start writing, it will be bad. But keep writing poorly and eventually, you’ll start improving and writing better.