The Best Writing Advice I've Ever Received

This advice came from an old co-worker of mine. We started chatted and bonded over our love of books. I told her I always wanted to write a book and she just looked at me with a blank expression and said, "what's stopping you?"

I spent the next few minutes coming up with excuses. Stuff like, I'm worried about it not being good. I'm worried about all of the mistakes I'll make while writing. Yadda yadda yadda.

She then told me what may very well be the best writing advice I've ever received. You ready for it? Okay, here goes. (clears throat)

Just write.

That's it. Just write. Well, there may be a little more to it than that but that's pretty much it. If you have an idea floating around in that head of yours, then get it out of of your head and onto a piece of paper. Doesn't matter if it's a physical piece of paper or a digital piece of paper.

Just write.

You can outline if you want but that's a blog post for another day. Right now, I want you to understand that your story will never get written if you don't write it. I've known people who tell me they've always wanted to write but they just don't know where to start. Well, it's simple. Say it with me now! JUST WRITE.

If you're thinking to yourself, "well Mark it's not that easy," then you're just coming up with excuses. I'm telling you it is that easy. We've all read books. We've all watched movies. We've all seen television shows. What do you think all three of those things have in common? If you said "story structure" then you're absolutely correct.

Every single piece of media we consume has some sort of story structure. And get this, it doesn't have to be complicated. Beginning. Middle. End. That's it. If you can come up with a beginning to your story then you're already a third of the way there. Trust me, that story doesn't do you any good if it never leaves that noggin of yours.

"But Mark, my computer sucks and I can't afford a new one."

That's fair but most word processing programs can run on a very low spec computer. Heck, nowadays most of them are backed up the cloud so your computer isn't even doing the heavy lifting.

And guess what everyone has nowadays? Chances are, you're reading this blog post on it right now.

You guessed it, your smartphone! Just open up a note app (most are free, I prefer Notion) and get to writing! You can even use a word processor app like Microsoft Word or Google Docs on your phone. And they're free!

Look, the point I'm trying to make is, there are no excuses. If you want to be a writer then you're going to have to write. It's that easy.

And let me add that when I say "just write" I mean get that idea on paper. Don't worry about formatting, editing, or correcting grammatical errors. Just write it all down and make it pretty later. Any story you write, you're going to have to edit it anyway so don't worry about making your first draft perfect. Nobody's first draft is perfect. Not even close. That's why it's called a FIRST draft. You can have a second, third, tenth, or even thirtieth draft.

But none of those drafts won't exist until you write them.

Heck, I was still editing my first book after I published it. In hindsight, I was so excited to publish it that I overlooked A LOT. Don't be like me. Take your time.

Okay, I know this seemed like an oversimplification but ya know what... it is! That's how easy it is to begin your writing journey. There's no earth shattering revelation I can offer you. You simply have to write.

And I, for one, can't wait to see what you come up with.