Somebody once said;
“The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint
The greats were great cause they paint a lot”
Actually, in all honesty that was Macklemore on his track TenThousand hours at the beginning of his album with Ryan Lewis called The Heist. This may sound like one of my random tangents, which believe me you’ll experience at times, but it’s not. We as writers or artists, I find the words to be interchangeable in some contexts, weren’t born great. We weren’t born with the knowledge of a wide vocabulary, spelling skills, or even the skill to write. We didn’t know anything about the thing we hold so dear to our hearts. In school teachers formed our skills, marked our papers in red like a murder scene, and sent us on our way to writing proper eases. Granted most of it was thrown out in college due to the format changing. Yet, none of that really matters looking back. I’m thankful for the teachers who formed my love of writing. Who forced me to memorize these awfully long words and their definitions for tests. It all aided in the think I love the most. All of this is about the evolution of us or you as a writer. You weren’t born J K Rolling, in fact she had a rough life before her Harry Potter novels. (I highly recommend looking into her life story.) You were born a complete and utter idiot. You relied on those around you to support you and admittedly I even rely on others at times. My point is you evolved.
I evolved a lot in my writing, at least from my own observation. In fact my first Fanfiction I ever wrote was complete and utter shit looking back. My vocabulary was so limited because I was afraid to push the limits. I was afraid to write anything dirty or kill a character. Hell, now I thrive on giving my writers a sheer hear attack with every cliffhanger or character death. Even now I know my vocabulary is lacking the luster of a well seasoned author. Just like any problem I suppose you first need to admit you’ve got a problem. Well here I am admitting I need to expand my vocabulary. In the first story however I was always too busy worried about the story that I wasn’t worried about the actual writing. I was repeating the same verbs over and over again so much that now I cringe reading it! Anything I write now tends to get reviewed about a dozen times before I dare publish it or allow anyone to read it. Even still I miss the occasional error, which is common. We’re human and well that is what editors are for in the industry.
All and all, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Writing is a ever evolving craft. You won’t be a published author your first draft. If you are….well then congratulations you little shit. Fuc- (clears my throat). Anyways. Like I said, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. It helps you grow. I can tell you I’m proud of the process I’ve made in my writing and I know I have a long way to go. Even in this very blog I’m sure some of you will find an error or two and I purposely don’t review these anally because I want to show you that I am human. Surely I’ll never be perfect and I’ll never know every word in the english dictionary, but I’m evolving. I’m always making progress.
Best Wishes,
TMD
Life As A Author 