Writing is one of the popularly embraced and recognized industry but it’s not a walk in the park for many. Becoming a professional writer entails a lot self-development and improvements such as acquiring experience. In addition, it also involves building skills as well as establishing a platform. In this article we will look into step-by-step guide on how to become a creative and confident writer.
Develop Your Writing Skills
Reading materials from different authors or genres is a good way to improve as a writer. This is important in understanding different techniques, skills and narratives which are core pillars in the writing framework. As the saying goes practice makes perfect. Setting time aside to regularly write is very important to see improvements. Some people normally go an extra mile to even considering attending to writing workshop or even take courses. These classes can be offered by universities, colleges, local community platforms or even an online platform. It’s also very crucial for any ambitious writer out there to have a good grasp on writing styles as well as grammar.
Find Your Niche And Voice
Taking your time to try different areas of writing can be very helpful. The reason for this is because they give you a chance to explore a variety on niches and get to know which fits well with you as a writer. Success and energy to keep working has been researched and known to come best from things that one enjoys and loves doing. Therefore, choosing a niche that you can relate with plays a very big role when it comes to becoming a successful writer. Every writer is unique in their own special way that is in terms of writing style or even in line of thoughts.
Establish A Writting Routine
Having goals is one of the key factors to anyone achieving success in life, business or even career wise. This is the same state when it comes to writing. Therefore, it’s important for a writer to seal goals whether it’s completing a chapter, word count or just finishing an article. To ensure that your thought is given a chance to reorganize its important to find a quiet and relaxed place to avoid any unnecessary interruptions.
Get Feedback
The journey to becoming a professional writer takes time .It’s important for individuals to have a hardworking and committed team. This way you have people to cheer you up during down moments, give you feedback or even just to provide support when you need it. Among your teammates you can choose to give someone else to go through your work and receive critique that is constructive to outgrow yourself. Be ready and open to whatever feedback that you receive but focus it on becoming a better version of yourself.
Revise And Edit
Self-critique is the first step to self-improvement as well as development. Learning self-editing is a huge milestone and one can achieve this for coherence, clarity, style or even grammar. The next stage after self-editing is usually the professional editing and here hiring a professional editor is the recommended way.
Build A Portfolio
Building an audience, people supporting your work is very key thing to do. Today with the advancement in the technology sector the writing industry has undergone drastic changes over a period of time. To have a platform to showcase your writing portfolio you can opt to set up a website or a blog. This gives you the advantage of reaching out to a bigger audience. In addition, it gives access anytime regardless of where you are globally. Traditionally we would have recommended submitting to a magazine or a journal for publication but this move is lacking popularity as time goes by.
Connecting And Networking
To expose yourself to more opportunities to learn networking and connecting with other people is recommended. In this networking circles you not only learn but also find inspiration from people you can relate with or have a common conversation and goals. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have done a really good job in marketing. Today we have Facebook groups that bring people together those that have common interests may be writing, publishers, readers, editors or researchers.
Build your Work
Back in the day this would mean taking your hand written materials to a publisher for the materials to be reorganized then publishing would start. The process would involve waiting and querying for acceptance. Today things have really changed and we have platforms such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). KDP is a self-publishing platform and it enables you as a writer to have more control over your work and how you want sales and marketing done.
Keep Improving And Learning
Growth of any writer in one way or another has to be attributed by reading books about writing. Books that have done a very good job on this includes “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott and “On Writing” by Stephen King. As one progresses in the writing career it’s wise to take advance courses as this will hone your skills further.
Stay Patient And Persistent
The more you do something the more you become better at it. The same applies in writing the more you write the better you become. People who tend to persevere in something longer than other, tend to see success more often. Therefore, by embracing rejection is one of the processes that one has to learn and keep going.
Summary
To become a more confident and creative writer you have to follow the names process.
Write regularly-By writing more you tend to be more comfortable as well as confident.
Read widely-This is the only way for you to be exposed to different authors ,styles and genres.
Start Small-At the beginning stage you have to handle small and less complex projects and as times goes by you progress into more complex ones.
Seek feedback-Critiques from friends or colleagues is a way to learn quickily and improve.
Set goals-With no goals you are doomed to fall. Clear goals are the fuels to your success.