The Hardest Part About Being A Writer… And 5 Ways To Improve.

The Hardest part of being a writer is the writing…

An AI created image using DALL-E by Justin Bamberger

I usually write these blog posts from a 3rd person perspective that gives short information to the reader on various topics, but today, I felt I would pull back the veil a bit and talk about the struggles I have with being a creative writer and certain things I am trying to implement into my daily life to make my writing more consistent and to reach my goals this year.

The biggest takeaway from this is that to be a better writer, you have to be more disciplined. It’s not easy writing. We, as writers, are inherently living with a lot of stories in our minds. We are always thinking. We are creating worlds in our heads all day long. With this many ideas floating around up there, we are often overly judgmental on ourselves. We constantly critique our ideas and often overstimulate ourselves, causing us to shut down. We have to break these habits. We must be more disciplined.

I talk often on here about the need for more creative writing, new stories, new ideas, and better storytelling overall. One way to accomplish this is to make ourselves better. Here are five examples to implement this year to make yourself a better writer.

1.  Get Off Social Media.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Social media sucks the creative juice straight out of our lives. While it is a necessary evil in today's world, we need to limit our intake of it. Last year (and so far this year, insert sad face emoji), I had the bad habit of waking up and grabbing my phone first thing. I go straight to X (Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn.

I spend hours every morning searching for something, but ultimately, I am wasting my time. In all the years of scrolling through social media, it has never benefited me in the slightest, and if it has, it has been so minuscule that it does not warrant all the attention I give it. I know I cannot speak for everyone, but I have a hunching suspicion that social media has caused more anxiety and anger in your life and has stumped your creative growth.  Here are some quick ideas to help with this, and also the boundaries I am setting for myself:

                        Avoid your phone first thing in the morning (unless for emergencies)

                        Only spend 1 hour on social media a day.

                        Don’t check your phone unless you accomplish one of your goals that day.

Do these suggestions seem doable? Would you add or take away anything to this short list? Do you have a system in place to help you with this?

2.  Set Daily (OBTAINABLE) Goals.

We have to have something to achieve. Make a list of things you want to accomplish in the day and hold yourself accountable to those goals. This takes discipline and determination, but you can feel more accomplished with realistic and obtainable goals set for each day. If you feel accomplished, you will have more self-esteem. Feeling better about yourself will push you to be more creative and active. It’s not easy and will take time; here are a few ideas on goals to set as a creative.

Set a limit to reach each day, such as one chapter written daily or three characters created, one town created, one blog post written, etc. Make it obtainable and treat it as a job. You’re the boss of yourself, and as a boss, you should inspect what you expect.

Read “X” amount of chapters in a day.  Good writers read.

Study one new concept. Research something you don’t know how to do.

Try one new style. Go out of your comfort zone to try something new.

Work on your portfolio and add one section to it.

Do these goals seem obtainable? Not all need to happen in one day. You can choose one for one day and another for the next day. Try adding two of these goals to your daily routine. When these become natural, you can add another goal to your routine. Do you have daily goals that you already have set for yourself?

3.  Get Physical.

I know this one is always being suggested, especially at the beginning of the new year, but It is undoubtedly true. The issue with suggesting physical activity is that not all people understand exactly what that means. We all see the shredded Instagram gym accounts and think this is the way. While it seems enticing, most of these accounts are fabricated and pose a false sense of direction. While that might be obtainable for some, it’s far from the realm of possibilities for most.

So when I suggest physical activity, this is what I mean.

Take a walk around the office, home, neighborhood, etc.

It doesn’t have to be a life-threatening pace. Just moving your body will get your blood flowing and make you feel more refreshed. If you can only walk a ½ a mile, that’s fine. When that becomes easy, aim for 1 mile. Image a puddle of water; the longer it sits motionless, the more it becomes stagnant. Now imagine a river flowing. It's refreshing and inviting. As Bruce Lee said, Be like water.

 Stretch.

 We sit at our desks staring at our screens for long periods of time. Set a timer for yourself to remind you to get up and stretch. It will instantly make you feel better. If you need help with how to do simple stretches, you can check YouTube for easy guides. I spent most of my life in the military, training people for combat. I had to be physically fit at all times (I am far from that combat-ready physical person I once was). I still look up stretches on YouTube and always find a new one to do.

Light Therapy.

This is one of the most important parts of changing your body to be healthier. Getting outside and exposing yourself to sunlight (even if the sun is behind clouds) is life-changing. It might not feel like it, but sunlight is instrumental in having better health. It’s very easy to do as well. Check out the Hubermanlabs podcast or YouTube channel. He goes into depth on the benefits of sunlight and shows scientific evidence of it. I’m getting into red light therapy this year and hope to have something positive to share with everyone when I spend more time on it.

Your Diet.

Now, this is the most important aspect of a healthier life. It is also one of the hardest things to do. We hear it all the time through so many different outlets, but feeding your body with good food is so important. Good food doesn’t have to be expensive food, either. I’m not a dietician, so don’t take my advice as gospel, but removing processed food and reducing sugar consumption can change your life exponentially. It is very easy to do, even if it seems overwhelming. You don’t have to cut out things you love to eat, but finding cleaner versions can be a start. Don’t always go cold turkey. Start by limiting the amounts. Your body will thank you for giving it clean fuel—oh yeah and vitamins. Please take vitamins. **Reach out to a healthcare professional before implementing anything.**

I’ve set many health goals this year; while it feels challenging and out of reach, consistency is key. I did a lot of research last year on ways to improve my health, and this year is implementation time. Again, I’m not a health expert; do your research on the topic before starting. I will be happy to answer questions or help find a professional to give you sound medical advice. What works for one person will not always work for you.

4.  Journaling.

I know, I know — it's already challenging enough to think of things to write, so why am I suggesting journaling? I have to be upfront about this: I am terrible at taking my own advice on certain topics, and journaling is at the top of my "things I don't do but should" list. Let's try to understand this together, and perhaps we can keep each other accountable. As I've mentioned before, we, as writers and creatives, have a lot going on in our minds. Right now, I have countless different stories running through my head that I'm eager to tell. The problem is, I have so many different genres going at once that I don't make any progress on any of them.

Now, unless there's a market for a horror game/novel/comic/webisode/prose that involves zombies, pre-end of modern society, set heavily in history, but also during modern times and deeply encompassing a mystery element that's also a children's book… (vigorously writes new idea down). I jest, but we all have these ideas in our minds that would work well alone but are impossible to hash out together. That's where journaling comes in.

We need to get those ideas out of our heads and onto paper or your phone (Apple just added a journaling app with their latest update). I prefer to grab a composition notebook and jot down my ideas. Putting pen to paper draws more information out of me than typing. As I write, more details about the idea start to emerge. Before I know it, I have pages of information on one idea. To me, this "frees" up space in my overly crowded mind. It allows me to focus on one idea at a time and flesh out the story.

Now, if I could only remember where I left all those composition notebooks…

5.  Again, Get Off Social Media. 

I really cannot emphasize this enough. Social media is a black hole of all things wrong with humanity. This is also an election year, which means the amount of negativity will triple on all social media accounts. If you have to use it for your job, I suggest the classic maneuver of ghost and post. That will be my go-to move for the rest of the year.  

Really take care of your mental health and avoid social media.

Do you have any additional ways to improve yourself to make your writing better this year? I would like to know, and if I can, I would also like to add it to my schedule. We should support each other in all our creative endeavors. We might not see eye to eye, but that is where new creative ideas are born. Challenge yourself this year to become a better writer and a better person!