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The biggest challenge most bloggers face is not a lack of ideas for content because coming up with ideas for content is simple. No, the biggest challenge most bloggers face is having faith in their own writing.
You could say that the genesis of this post comes from the guest post that Lindsay Bell wrote at Spin Sucks about The Art of Storytelling. I highly encourage you to read the post because storytelling is a critical skill that can be applied to every part of your life.
Anyway, in the comments I shared my standard piece of advice about writing:
A good story doesn’t have to be long. It just needs to have a beginning, middle and end that doesn’t taste like cardboard and sawdust.
Good writing doesn’t have to be complex. Simple is usually better. Â Just tell your tale in a way that people can relate to and remember.
It should be easy except sometimes we lack the confidence that we should have in our ability to communicate with others.
Have Faith In Your Writing
I intentionally used the word we in the sentence before the subhead because I am not immune to this. There are more than a few moments where I look at my words and wonder why I can’t craft something that is more elegant than the crap I see on the page.
If you ask me to name the biggest challenges I have in writing this book I will tell you that there are two things time and confidence. In a perfect world I would have no problem heading off to a beach house or mountain resort to do nothing but work on my manuscript.
It wouldn’t matter if it took a day, a week or six months because I would have the time and ability to do nothing but focus on finishing it.
But that wouldn’t address all of the issues. It wouldn’t fix the question of confidence. I know that I have some skill with words and that I am proficient at punching out content with more speed and accuracy than most people can.
What I don’t know is if that skill translates into storytelling on the scale that I am trying to do it. This project is officially bigger than any I have ever taken on before. People have told me that they like it. Some have said that they love it and a few have told they really dislike it.
That is all fine with me and something that I expect. I am not trying to please everyone. At the moment the most important person in this equation is me.
Nothing happens until I finish. And unless I have faith in my writing and confidence that the words flow there is little point in continuing. So out of force of habit I force myself to keep going. I quiet the self editor in my head and write and if past experience is any measure of the truth the story is better than I give it credit.
Have faith in your writing because it usually is better than you think.
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