On The Desire to Become a Better Writer

Growing up, some of my fondest memories have involved writing. When I was a kid, my best friend and I used to write actual scripts for plays. We would create our own characters, give them a storyline, and we'd even cut out pictures of models from JCPenney catalogs to play the characters. Like most kids, we had a very vivid imagination, and it was something we both loved to do, so we took it seriously. I'm sure if I read those plays as an adult, I'd laugh at how silly they sounded, but back then, they were our little masterpieces.

Fast forward to the early 2000s, and in comes the popularity of the personal blog. If you were a permanent fixture online during the height of Blackplanet and Myspace, then you probably had your own blog at some point. Xanga and Vox were my primary blogging platforms of choice for many years. They stored all of the personal tidbits of my life that I shared with a few select women with whom I had created a bond. Looking back, I can't believe how many personal moments I've shared online. I currently cringe at the thought of it,  but at the time, it was so refreshing (and fun) to have my own little personal place on this big ol' world wide web to share the daily happenings of my life. I mainly enjoyed blogging because of my love for written expression, and ever since my first blog post, the desire to improve my writing skills always lingered.

My writing style is one in which I usually type the way I speak. I subconsciously wrote this way because I wanted to make sure I showed my authentic self through my words. So, sometimes that meant profanity and slang. I have been told that you can get a true sense of who I really am through my writing, and that has pretty much been what I have wanted to convey, but of course, I am my own worst critic, and at times, I do become discouraged, especially when it pertains to things that I really want to succeed in, and don't feel like I'm doing "enough" to get there - and that could be anything from my education, to my job, to my personal interests/hobbies.

I'm always told to "just write!" when I express my frustration with how much my writing annoys me, and I guess "just doing it" truly IS the only way to become better at it. A friend of mine posted an article the other day that discusses tips on how to write daily, and the different ways that writing can be beneficial to you, and it really inspired me to want to pure more energy into this, because this is something I want to do, for me. Check out how to write daily and 10 simple ways to improve your writing skills. I'm definitely taking notes over here. Maybe you're stuck in a writing rut too, and hopefully these articles will light a fire under your ass (see, there's that profanity!) and inspire you as well!