Becoming a Better Writer

 

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one becomes a master."  This quote by Ernest Hemingway speaks to me as a writer. We strive for perfection, but will we ever reach that stage in our writing life? I'm guessing not, but can we come close? I think we can. 

 The five areas of writing are prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. The prewriting may be one of the most important. It's where we find an idea, gather information or do a bit of research, and a lot of quiet thinking. Next comes putting pen to paper or fingers to keys to write the first draft. Keyword here is 'first'. Third step is revision which lets us change positions of some things, add or cut words, and more. Editing is a step that is often repeated rather than a onetime only. Last, we prepare for publishing by looking at markets, adding final bits necessary if it is a book, and submitting to a publisher. 

Those five stages are important, and the more we move through them, the better writer we will be. The apprentice carpenter may have trouble cutting boards so they are straight, but he/she will increase the ability to do so by repeating the task over and over. Writers are no different. The more we work on the five areas, or stages, named above, the better our finished piece will be. 

If you've written for a year, five years, twenty years, whatever it is, a look back at our earliest efforts might be revealing. Go through your files and read some of your beginning efforts. You might be amazed at the difference in your writing then as compared to what you do now. If we write on a continuous basis, we continue to grow, to write better than last year or the year before. That is, if....!

The big IF! We will write better as time goes on IF we take steps to continue learning our craft. Only yesterday, I watched a video on putting 'sound' into our poems and essays, or fiction. A minor detail, but it's one I'll try to be aware of as I write. I'm of a mind that we, as writers, never stop learning, if we make an effort to do so. Take a class. Watch a video, join a critique group, go to workshops and conferences. 

Don't be a sometime writer. Write on a regular basis. Wait weeks between writing something, and you might feel like you're starting at the beginning of the race again. Write a part of every day, even if it is only 15 minutes. Write in your journal. Write a letter. Do a writing exercise. Short stuff counts, too.

We don't achieve success in writing overnight. It takes time, patience, perseverance, determination and a love for the craft. Never stop learning and keep writing.