I get asked sometimes what I think it takes to be a writer. I preface that by saying writer, not necessarily a good one, but a writer in general. The answer? Practice. Practice, practice, practice.
Like anything in life, practice makes perfect (or as good as it gets!). How do you practise writing? It’s not like fixing your form when you’re shooting a basketball or making sure your fingers are correct when you’re sitting at the piano. It’s not even about taking grammar tests and learning sentence structure. It’s just about honing your writing. Read books, write a sentence and read it aloud, look at something in a room and start describing it! From there, your style emerges. From there, your creativity sparks. From there, you’ll be able to improve your writing quality.
Believe me, I’ve written my fair share of crappy work that I wish had never seen the light of day. Sometimes it’s due to poor flow and sometimes it’s due to lack of imagination. But I see those crappy stories or little paragraphs or one-sentence self-prompts as a learning tool to help me get better and better each time.
Even writing this is a practice in my writing. The next time you think you can’t write, just keep on trying. It’ll come to you. Working on the good part–now that’s something even I still have trouble with.
Eija Jimenez 