Why Just Write Is The Best Advice You Don’t Listen To

Before the last 6 months, I hadn’t written anything that wasn’t for my job or university for a number of years.

I wanted to write more, I used to write all the time just for fun. I used to write poems and short stories that were just for me. I used to show them to certain members of my family but it was the process of writing them that I really enjoyed.

I loved to create a world and then discover it through the eyes of a character. This is probably why I like big open-world RPGs because I can explore these strange new worlds and interact with them through someone else's eyes.

As I read, watched, and played though so many different worlds I stopped writing my own. Nothing I could write was as good as what these professional writers could come up with. So I would wait until I had the perfect idea and then I would start.

Ideas would come to me still as they always had but I no longer wrote them down or experimented with them. So the ideas went as quickly as they had come with no trace of them ever having been thought.

At the start of this year, I was quite ill for some time. This led to me spending a lot of time basically housebound and on my own most of the time in the day. I have written a few articles on how journalling has helped me and this period is what helped me get into the habit of doing it every day.

I had expected journalling to help a little with mental health and clarity of thought. I had read enough about it so I knew what the research said. What I didn’t expect was for it to reawaken my desire to write fiction again.

Now that I was writing whatever came to mind. Those ideas that had been forgotten previously were now being preserved in ink on paper. And over a few weeks, I realized I had a story I wanted to write. The story might be awful (I think it's quite good so far though) but I am enjoying the journey of writing it just as I always did as a child.

I write my story on Saturdays. I dedicate at least a few hours every weekend just to writing it. As I get ideas through the week however I note them down. And if inspiration does strike I may expand them into a few paragraphs to explore the idea a little more.

In April I decided to start writing online. After some research, I chose to write on Medium. I haven't picked a niche yet, I know the advice from many is to do so, but honestly, I might not. I want to write something every day for the purpose of just getting better.

I have a good job, I enjoy my job (usually) so I do not see myself ever giving it up completely to write. Even if my wildest writing dreams came true I don't think I would fully walk away from teaching in some form. So niching down to create a business is not my goal.

That being said currently I am experimenting a lot with ways to be more productive. I am very much in the middle of a several-year-long quest for self-improvement. And this is an area I will be writing about a lot because it’s on my mind.

I am no longer waiting for the perfect story or the perfect article. I just write. I am still trying to improve and get better as I go of course but the main goal right now is to get words onto the page.

I saw a quote the other day

Perfectionism is procrastination hidden behind a mask

This perfectly summed up my experience. When I look back at all the excuses I have had not to write they all come back to the root causes of procrastination. Fear of failure or fear people will make fun of what I create.

If it is perfect I have nothing to fear but nothing is ever perfect. So if you are procrastinating, if you are scared of failing please just write. Even if for now it is just for yourself write something. Take that step, and don’t worry about how many people are reading it, or how much money you are making the journey is the goal.