You discovered your calling as a writer. You’ve come up with an idea. You made the conscious decision to become a writer and started your writing journey. But now what do you do? How do you find your voice and start disciplining yourself in the craft? Here are a few things to think about when you become a new writer.

 

Get Out of Your Way

If you want to be a writer, you need to learn to ignore the negative thoughts that will inevitably show up. These stand in the way of you reaching your goal. They also tear down your confidence in yourself.

You might start thinking any of the following:

  1. I’m not good enough.
  2. I can’t do X right.
  3. I’ve made too many mistakes.
  4. I’ll never be successful.

These thoughts get in the way of your writing because they keep you from moving forward. When you start writing, you need to put in the work. Take your time. Keep learning. Reach the goals you set for yourself. You don’t have time to focus on these statements that aren’t even true.

So get out of your own way and keep writing. Start by taking that first step and ignoring those thoughts. Confidently believe you can do it and go from there.

 

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Practice Your Craft

Writers need to practice their craft if they want to get better. Practice makes progress, after all. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to learn more about writing. Here are a few:

  1. Read books you enjoy
  2. Join a writing group
  3. Get feedback from other writers
  4. Find books or blog posts about writing
  5. Take a writing class
  6. Write!

This last one is the most important. You can’t get better at writing if you don’t discipline yourself to write. And as you continue writing, you will eventually see progress. With practice, you can look back on your older writing and see how far you’ve come.

The point is, you’ll never be done learning as a writer. But taking the time to learn is a mark of a serious writer because it shows you’re willing to improve. So continue practicing your craft to see your progress.

 

Find Your Voice

Lastly, new writers need to find their voice. Besides practicing your craft, you also need to understand what makes you unique from other writers. Finding your voice means you have your own way of developing your writing and you get your ideas across without mimicking how others feel. Everything you write, in the end, should reflect you.

Over time, you will notice how you developed your own versions of things, including:

  1. Your writing style (how you write)
  2. Your themes (what you enjoy discussing in your stories)
  3. Your story ideas (what you enjoy writing about)

This isn’t something that you’ll notice right away. However, keep practicing your craft and learning from others. Soon you’ll start noticing what sets you apart from others.

Writing is a tough undertaking, and it can be daunting when you get started. But once you start learning, you can take steps from there. Just remember that starting is the first step. Happy writing!

 

 

E.S. Foster is a fiction writer and graduate student at the University of Cambridge. She is also the creator of the E. S. Foster blog. Her work has appeared in over twenty literary journals, including Aurora Journal, Aberration Labyrinth, and Paragraph Planet. Her chapbooks have been published by Yavanika Press (2022) and Ghost City Press (2023). You can find more of her articles here.