Everyone is a writer. Writers all over the world say the same thing. It does not matter if you write well, with perfect grammar, or if you write sloppily. Are the words your own? Then you are a writer.
I have spent years avoiding putting content out there because I was afraid I wasn’t a great writer. Before starting my first blog, I researched the best practices for blogging. I got super discouraged because article after article all told me the same thing.
They all said, “If you don’t read a lot, then you’re not a good writer.”
I was at school when I began my first blog. I also ran a business growing food for my community. I was very busy. I hardly had time to read, leisurely. Because I was in school, I had a lot of books to read but that wasn’t what these articles had in mind. They wanted me to read business books or any book on my blog topic.
All I wanted to do was blog about my philosophy. Did that mean I needed to review Marcus Aurelius’ interpretations called Meditations? I mean, I did, eventually. But no! That’s not true! All that would do is influence my writing to be more aligned with Marcus than my very own thought processes.
Best Advice on Blogging
Don’t research blogging tips – except this one, of course. I regret doing that. If I were to start over again, I’d just go in and learn as I kept writing. Bloggers out there are mostly arrogant. In fact, writers are arrogant.
True story, I was volunteering for a political campaign in Washington, D.C. On my first evening settling into my hotel, a group of us went over to the bar lounge to get more acquainted. There was a Writer’s Convention happening at the same time and many writers were also at this lounge. I can’t tell you how many people I saw in Dark Academia outfits – black newsboy caps galore – who walked around with the same smug attitude. I couldn’t help but chuckle inside. I got to talking to one guy sitting next to me, black turtleneck, John Lenon glasses, and a stopwatch… yes, an old-fashioned stopwatch hooked to his belt loop. I told him I was a writer, too. He looked me up and down, laughed, then turned his head and ignored me for the rest of the evening.
Stop researching. Stop hesitating and just get into it. You are special in your own way. Write with broken English. Write with commas in the wrong places. Read when you want to and what you want to. Write 1300-word blogs. Do whatever you want to do.
It’s one thing to look like a “writer”, whatever that means, but it’s another to be a writer.
You already are one.
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