The Most Important Thing About Writing

Traci Kenworth

Psst. There’s a secret when it comes to writing. The most important thing you need to know. Believe in yourself. Believe. When the nights are long and hard. When you’re suffering from a cold or the flu. When you’re kids are dive-bombing you with anxiety. When the bills mount up and you’re near to disconnection. When your best friend calls and wants to take you out to lunch for the day (you may just want to go to break the isolation). When the holidays put you in a tizzy.

When, when, when. You need to dig down deep within yourself and find that spark, that will that made you pick up that pen in the first place, put your fingers to the keyboard, or perhaps record your ideas. It’s there. It whispers the stories in your ear, won’t let you sleep till you get the words down, and wakes you up early. It’s like a fever, a hunger gnawing inside you, and you have to soothe the illness.

Don’t worry about getting things perfect the first time out. Let your draft be messy, full of absolute chaos, because it’s in the re-writing that you find your path to the light. It’s here where your work really begins. And it’s here, that you’ll need that absolute, unfailing believe in yourself. You can do this. The stories wouldn’t come, the characters chatter, the need to be in that chair/office setting if you didn’t have belief.

This glimmer will keep you persevering when times get rough. Because writing is a struggle, a lonely profession, but through everything, if you hold onto that unshakeable faith that this is what you were meant to do in your life, you are going to make it. Despite the naysayers, despite statistics, you will climb that mountain. It’s been proven time and time again. There’s no shortcuts, no easy routes here, just plain old-fashioned hard work. And you’ll need that believe in yourself to sustain such. So find that flame that burns inside you and feed it: with love, attention, and bottom in the chair. If you can do that, you can accomplish your dreams.