How to Become a Writer - 4 Steps Along the Way

You've heard it... the best way to become a writer is to write. You shouldn't be surprised. It's true.

But it's not the whole truth. There's another element that's equally important. You have to believe in yourself as a writer. That can be quite a challenge, particularly for young writers just starting out.

When you lack the confidence to call yourself a writer, sitting down to write becomes exponentially more difficult.

So what can you do to overcome this behemoth challenge?

See if these suggestions can help:

1. Write For Yourself

Writing is about passion. It doesn't matter if your love is for writing magazine articles or poetry or historical romances or a newspaper column. As long as you hold true to your vision, you'll have a powerful bedrock to help you through the tough times. As a result, you'll find yourself working much quicker through those days when the right word just never seems to show itself and you feel like anything but a writer.

2. Take A Chance

Sometimes it's easy to forget that writing is a form of communication. It doesn't do you any good to lock your writing in the bottom drawer of your desk and forget about it. If that's what you've been doing, then it's time to pull it out and give it a little sunshine. Meaning...

Share your work with someone. Try it out on a co-worker, or your grandmother, or your spouse, someone you feel you can trust has your best interests at heart.

Just give it a shot.

It'll probably be scary at first, but that's the whole point. You have to be willing to challenge yourself, to step out of your comfort zone and take a chance.

3. Behave Like A Author

Want to feel like an author? Do what an author does. Write every day, at a set time. Set a daily goal. Maybe it's an hour a day. Or maybe it's a daily word count, such as 500 words. Either will do the trick. The point is to hold yourself accountable on a daily basis.

4. Make Things Happen

Again, if you want to feel like a writer, act like writer... submit your work to publishers. Are you setting yourself up for rejection? Yeah, there's a good chance of that. Won't a rejection make you feel like a failed writer? It shouldn't. Not in the slightest. I've never met a professional writer who hasn't got a file of rejection letters. It's an important part of the process.

Bottom line: you have to send out your work.