Writing is not difficult. If we can form a thought, we can write. It takes time to get organized, but once we have a general outline in mind, it's time to get down to the business of writing. I've attended conferences where people have written several rough drafts or just outlines but have not published.
That's a shame. Writing is art. If we accept that art should be shared and that as art it does not need to fit someone's notion of what art should be, we should release it into the world.
For years I worried about whether I could write something as important as some of the writers who have been traditionally published in the field of literary fiction. However, as time went by, I realized that I could sit on my writing forever or release it as the art that it is.
I like to think of what other writers and doers advise about going forth in the world.
Nothing is impossible. The very word itself says, "I'm possible." Audrey Hepburn
When anyone tells me I can't do anything. . . . I'm just not listening anymore. Florence Griffith Joyner
--Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony. Ralph Waldo Emerson
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Some advice to get started:
1. Write an outline to give yourself a map for the writing. If it is fiction, consider what characters you will use and what their goal or challenges will be. Don't worry if the characters take the story someplace that surprises you.
If you're writing non fiction, write an outline and try to stick to the main theme. Worry about cutting out unnecessary ideas later.
2. Write --whether it's a little every day or a lot on selected days, don't give up. Finish what you have to say.
3. Read what you've written. Edit it yourself for errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. Writing programs, such as Microsoft Word, offer great advice and help you to clean up your work.
4. Ask someone to read it for you. Ask them for concrete feedback -- not just, I liked it. Ask them to point out places where you might have, for example, given the reader more information or developed a character better.
5. Don't let what others have to say about your writing discourage you from writing. Keep writing!
6. When you've finished writing your material, copyright it. More on that later.
