This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Take your writing seriously. Make time for it, even if you have to ‘steal’ time from other people or cut out other activities. Commit yourself to a certain time each day or week, and stick to it.
Never mind whether you’re ‘in the mood’ or not. Making a start can change your mood and get you to the other side of fear, fatigue or negativity.
Don’t edit at the same time as trying to create. Give the words a chance to flow before you blight them with harsh criticism.
Embrace mistakes. They are teachers. Perfectionism is not a quest for the best, but a way of telling ourselves that nothing is ever good enough. Give yourself permission to write badly, and take just one step at a time. 100 words a day adds up to 3,650 a year. An old Chinese proverb says: ‘A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.’
Don’t give up. Many ‘overnight successes’ took years of preparation and determination, and many famous writers faced rejection at first. Tennessee Williams suffered years of poverty and despair before he was recognised. James Joyce’s ‘Dubliners,’ was rejected by 40 publishers, Agatha Christie’s first book was rejected six times, and Beatrix Potter had seven rejections for ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’. Fay Weldon had every single thing she wrote rejected for a period of 20 years. Take heart from such stories and silence any doubts or fears. Act and think like a writer – you are one!