Six Things That Writing Has Taught Me
From short fiction to essays, I have always been an avid and passionate writer, eager to share my thoughts and work with others. However, my writing journey over the last few years has been incredibly challenging. Yet, all of the obstacles have helped me grow in ways I never thought possible and have given me knowledge that not only made me a better writer, but also a better person. Writing has been, by far, the most valuable and unique experience of my life so far, so here are six of the things that I learned from it.
- There is nothing wrong with changing your mind.
Oftentimes, I will come up with an idea for a story that I am very excited about, but after a few months of working on it, I suddenly start to feel disinterested. This has happened to me countless times, and every time it happens, I feel obligated to keep working on my previous story idea, even if I no longer feel passionate about it. I feel like I have to finish my story or all of the work I had done and all the time I spent will have been wasted.
But recently, what I have learned is that there is nothing wrong with deciding to start over. The worst thing that can happen is if you no longer feel thrilled and overjoyed at the thought of your story. If you do not feel like your story is satisfactory, then how will you expect your readers to enjoy your writing? Make sure that you are writing what you enjoy most and what you feel most devoted to in order to produce your best work.
As a result, do not worry if a little bit of time is wasted here and there, as it will most likely be best for you in the long-term. If you are only writing what you feel best about, your pieces will also be the best they can be and you will constantly be growing as a writer. Additionally, you will never feel exhausted and dull while writing and writing can stay something that you look forward to. You should never feel obligated to write something you don’t want to.
2. Stay determined and keep working to reach your goals.
As a writer (or in any other field), you must be prepared to win some and lose some. Glory and victory are incredibly enjoyable and are beneficial to feel every so often. On the other hand, winning and achieving constantly will only make your next defeat that much more unpleasant. So, when you lose, just remember that you always have a long way to go and that everything will work out in the end if you stay determined and ambitious. It’s extremely hard to remember this at times, but it is important nonetheless.
At one point, I felt as though I was not achieving very much with my writing and I almost forgot how much I loved writing. It’s not that difficult to fail to recall how passionate you are about something when you are concentrating too hard on how far you are getting and how much you are achieving. However, you must take a step back and realize that you are doing what you are doing because you love doing it, and keep going to fulfill your desires and enjoy the process. Remember the journey is just as important as the ultimate destination.
3. Don’t set expectations for yourself beforehand.
This is one of the most important lessons that I have learned in my entire life. As much as you think you know yourself, you truly cannot accurately estimate your own capabilities. Therefore, it is extremely important that you do not set expectations for yourself beforehand. Please note that this is different from setting goals for yourself. Goals are simply targets that you want to meet by putting in a specific amount of effort/time or achieving something, but having an expectation is being excessively confident in your predictions about you being able to get to a certain level or reach a certain mark and are often subjective and too harsh.
When I had just started coming up with ideas for stories, initially, I was always incredibly delighted with what I had thought of. I always thought, ‘This will be my best story yet!’ or ‘I can already picture myself writing it.’ I would then rush to get my ideas down on paper and subsequently realize that when written down, my ideas were not nearly as brilliant as I had once thought because I had pictured them being the best thing in the world. In fact, because of the nonsensically high expectations that I had set, all I could now see it as was a disappointment.
This was a pity, because my story idea was actually rather good. It could have then gone on to become a highly successful piece if I had actually given it a second thought. It was because of my expectations for it that it had failed, rather than because I was not a skilled writer or because my story idea was not quite up to the mark. This is why we cannot set expectations for ourselves before we try anything out. As good as it might feel to imagine how profitable an idea might be, you must execute it first. Do not set expectations for yourself or how ‘good’ your writing will be. Instead, trust in your abilities and surprise yourself. It will be more than worth it in the end.
4. Patience is a virtue.
Quite frequently, we take on substantial projects with the hope that we will be able to see results quickly. I made this same mistake once while trying to write a piece that was particularly long and that had more depth than anything I had attempted in the past. Before, I had become accustomed to writing my stories or pieces and finishing them within a short amount of time. I received satisfaction almost immediately, and I expected the same results to come from my new lengthy undertaking.
However, things did not go according to plan. Instead, my piece took far longer than I had predicted and I was facing new hurdles every day. It was the biggest challenge that I had attempted, and I failed almost instantly. I say this not because I was unable to pass these impediments quickly and produce results in a timely manner, but rather because I grew impatient and discontinued the project altogether. This was one of my biggest mistakes and I am incredibly thankful that I decided to pick it up again a little while later.
So, what I learned was that it is important to be patient, especially when trying something new and facing a challenge more difficult and complex than anything you have done before. You may not start seeing results immediately, but that is just fine. In fact, a lot of the time, you put in a ton of trouble and get no result at all. It takes continued efforts like these before you may actually be able to reap the benefits of your hard work.
5. Sometimes, the solution is right in front of you.
A lot of the time, when I was writing, I lost inspiration and felt like I had nowhere to go. It was incredibly hard for me to pick up with my writing again. I would spend hours trying to write, but I was unable to do so and I could not gather my thoughts or produce any work for days or even weeks. However, once, I set my laptop down and just decided to look at my room for a few minutes. I ended up sitting on my bed and looking out the window, watching the birds and the trees. I noticed how beautiful the flowers looked and much greener my lawn had become over the spring. From there, one thought led to another and I found inspiration for my next story.
A lot of the time, we keep racking our minds for solutions to our newfound troubles, when really, instead of searching within our minds, all we have to do is open our eyes, look thoughtfully, and our answer is right there. We sometimes get lost in our own sadness and despair and we do not realize that what we need is not far away. So always remember to just look around with fresh eyes when you are in doubt and you may just find the cure to all of your worries.
6. There is always room to grow.
When we accomplish something, it is all too easy to believe that we cannot get any better and that we have reached our peak. We somehow manage to be convinced that there is nothing we can do to get better and that this is the farthest that we or anyone else can go. But in reality, that is untrue. Just as long as you believe otherwise, there is always more that you can do and more to learn and improve on. It’s never truly over and you can always keep getting better some way or another.
Once, I did well in a short story contest and decided to take a break from writing. I believed that the story that I had written was my best work yet as well as the best thing that I would ever write. But not too long after, I sat down to write another piece and another and another. And, much to my surprise, my work just kept getting better and better and better. We are always improving from everything around us and it is simply not possible to have reached our limits. We all have endless potential and can learn and grow at any time. We just have to be eager to do so and willing to put in the effort.
All in all, writing truly is a special experience and has taught me so much. Not only have I found a lifelong passion, but also I have discovered many things that will continue to help me in all aspects of my life. I am sincerely thankful to writing for teaching me these six things that I will keep with me forever and that I hope to share with those who need to hear them.
