Practical Tips to Help a Writer Move Forward with Confidence

by Lynn H. Blackburn @LynnHBlackburn

Ah, September, when summer is fading and school is in swing again. 

Do you remember the delight of a new school year? Or did the new school year fill you with dread? 

I loved learning. I was good at it and the prospect of learning new material made me happy. But I know it wasn’t like that for everyone. For some, school was a chore at best and a nightmare at worst. Some students couldn’t wait for the day to end so they could escape the constant pressure and sense of failure that they experienced on a regular basis. 

I’ve recently realized that our early experiences with learning can have a profound impact on how we approach learning how to write as an adult. 

Some of us dive deep into classes, blog posts, and books on the craft. We read everything we can find and learn from as many people as we can. We come out of these experiences confident that we can do this writing thing. 

But some of us approach writing with a more timid aspect. We attend online classes or large conferences where we can hide. We don’t speak up and ask questions because we don’t want anyone to realize how much we don’t know. And we come out of these experiences unsure if we can do this writing thing or not. 

If you find yourself in a less-than-confident position, I’d like to offer you a few practical tips and some encouragement as you move forward. 

4 Tips—With Encouragement—to Help a Writer Move Forward

1. Learning to write is hard for everyone. 

Hmm…you might be thinking, “Lynn, not sure if you understand the definition of encouragement if you’re leading with that.” 

Oh, but I do! Here’s the thing. Those uber-confident writers who are busy learning every possible way to write? Guess what? It’s still going to be hard for them. 

Are there rules, grammar, genre conventions, etc.? Sure there are. But no matter how many books you’ve read about perfecting your craft, when it comes time to write the story, you are going to have to figure out your own way. 

So relax a little bit. Okay? Don’t let the people who think they know everything dim your joy. It’s going to be a struggle for everyone. 

2. Learning to write takes time for everyone. 

I made straight As in school, was the valedictorian of my high school class, and had a professor in college beg me to change my major to English after I wowed him with a paper on Shakespeare’s Henry IV. 

Guess what? The first book I ever wrote broke every imaginable rule of writing. The story was pretty good, but it was completely unpublishable. I knew nothing about current publishing guidelines. I didn’t understand the rules of POV or the importance of picking a verb tense and sticking with it. I entered it into a contest and got this feedback: I wonder if this author even understands her own genre. 

Yeah. That one stung. 

The point is, your school experience means very, very little when it comes to writing for publication. It will take time to learn genre conventions and best practices. So don’t let your GPA or your class rank determine your path forward. 

3. Learning to write will always be challenging for everyone. 

No matter how much you learn, or how good you get, there will always be more you can do to improve your craft. 

When I teach children to write, one of the rules we use is “easy + 1” - the idea is to stick with what the student can do easily, and then add one thing to it. Just one. Then, when they’ve mastered that, and it’s easy again, you add one more thing. And then another. 

But you never add ten things at once because that’s overwhelming for anyone. 

So maybe you start with a short story and you work on POV until you’ve nailed it. Then you write another but this time you focus on characterization. Then another but work on conflict. Then pacing. Then…then…then…

You get the idea? 

4. Learning to write will always be easiest in a supportive community. 

I’m not sure why any of us think we can or should do this writing life on our own. And if you have great story ideas, but don’t feel confident in your ability to get them on the page, you need to be sure you’re working with people who understand that and encourage you to find the best ways to succeed. 

I have a child who is mildly dyslexic and moderately dysgraphic. He does not enjoy writing or reading, but he has fantastic ideas. He thinks deeply and carefully about various topics, and he can share them verbally with relative ease. But writing is a nightmare for him. So we make use of audiobooks, dictation, and grammar software to support him, and those things make a huge difference in his ability to communicate effectively. 

If grammar and spelling aren’t your strong suit, there are a lot of great tools out there that you can use to improve your writing and that will allow you to focus on the great story ideas you have to share. 

The bottom line is simple: God doesn’t only call the straight A, teacher’s pets to write. He calls people who have the stories He wants told. Please don’t keep those stories to yourself. We need them.

Fun fact: This whole blog post went in a direction I wasn’t expecting it to go. I can only assume that it was the one God wanted me to write. My prayer is that it will encourage you today. 

Grace and peace,

Lynn

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Lynn H. Blackburn is the award-winning author of Unknown Threat, Malicious Intent, and Under Fire, as well as the Dive Team Investigations series. She loves writing swoon-worthy southern suspense because her childhood fantasy was to become a spy, but her grown-up reality is that she's a huge chicken and would have been caught on her first mission. She prefers to live vicariously through her characters by putting them into terrifying situations while she's sitting at home in her pajamas! She lives in Simpsonville, South Carolina, with her true love, Brian, and their three children. Learn more at www.lynnhblackburn.com.