#2 Become A Better Writer!

When I first started writing, I was a little apprehensive. I know this sounds silly, but I was afraid that I would be a bad writer. And now, I know there is no such thing. 

Well, of course there are people who aren't very good at writing, but what I mean is, there is no such thing as a person who is born with the natural ability or skill to be a bad writer. It's not like it's encoded in your DNA, and it's not a gene that passes down from generation to generation. I think when we all first start out, we are pretty much all on a level playing field, seeing as you can only get better with practice. 

And I found that I did get better with practice. Much better. Looking back now at the cringe-worthy story I wrote three months ago, I actually laughed while reading it. I'm being serious. And I the type of person that hates being laughed at, so you can imagine my surprise when I found myself laughing at what I wrote. 
In the small space of three months, my writing ability has doubled, tripled, maybe even quadrupled.

Why?

Because I practiced.

I had all of these great ideas in my head, bursting to get out. And in the beginning, I found it really hard to put them on paper. What I wrote was never as good as what I had imagined in my head, there was sort of this invisible barrier between my brain and my hands, preventing me from letting my creativity flow. And I found that with practice, the barrier became thinner and thinner, and soon it was nonexistent.

Of course, coupled with writing almost everyday, I read. A lot. I started to read at least three books a week.
And doing those two important activities, my writing skills blossomed. I'm not saying it was overnight, everything, no matter what it is, takes hard work and dedication- but it did happen faster than I projected.

So, to wrap things up, if you are an aspiring writer, yet you can't quite get the words on the page to match the thoughts in your head- read and then write. I know it's sort of reverse logic if you think about it, but reading broadens the horizon that is your vocabulary range. Not to mention your brain becomes inundated with new ideas and thoughts, just from reading a simple story. I'm not saying go out and copy from published books. That, my dear friends, would be plagarizm. But what I am implying is, you can adapt things, change them, mix them and in the end you come up with a completely new idea!

So, to be helpful- as I usually am ;)- I have one book suggestion here that I think is a perfect novel to start the new year with.

Title: Beautiful Creatures

Authors: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Enjoy!