Just Write!

I’ll be honest here, I’m not the patient type. As a writer, that’s not a good trait to have. It’s the main reason I have yet to finish a full length novel actually. I’ve always gotten too impatient with how slow the story was going and I’d eventually discard it.

Here’s a quote I found recently that makes a lot of sense:

 

Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer.

~Ray Bradbury

Everyone has heard of writer’s block and I dare say the majority of those of us who write have experienced it as well. I suffer from it quite often and it really bogs down my writing at times.

But this quote goes hand in hand with how I push past my writer’s block and my impatience.

I just write. Simple as that.

I write each and every day, no matter if it’s five hundred words or three thousand. I write when I don’t want to and I write when I do. Because that’s the only way I’ll conquer my impatience and triumph over writer’s block.

Eventually the creative juices will begin flowing again and patience is learned with time. Now I’m not saying this approach works for everyone, because it doesn’t, but if we try to keep writing and not give up so easily when our writing takes a wrong turn, we’ll improve.

This brings me to my second point of “just write”. Editing.

It’s a pain, especially to those of us who are perfectionists and can’t abide errors. But there’s no need to go crazy. There’s a reason a first draft is called the first. Stories are meant to have mistakes in the beginning. If we don’t allow ourselves complete freedom with our first draft, we’ll often end up getting frustrated and giving up (been there, done that). You can always go back and edit as many times as you want.

So just write. Push yourself to write each and every day, even if you noticed three grammatical errors in your last few paragraphs, or you’re just not motivated. Because if you do, you’ll only ever improve.