Practice

To a writer there is nothing more terrifying and exciting than a blank page.  There is infinite potential for creativity, and there is an unending reminder of failure if you can't fill that space.  Finding things that inspire you to write can be difficult, inspiration can be elusive especially when you aren't feeling that great mentally.  Although having said that, some of the greatest writers throughout history have been incredibly depressed in their personal lives or suffered from terrible afflictions that make them feel abject misery.

For me personally, creativity has always been a reservoir rather than a well, not something I have to dig down into but something that is held back by a wall constantly that only needs to be cracked before it floods out.  To make my creativity flow, often all it takes is to start writing about anything at all.  If I hate it when I write then I usually realise what would make me happier, I pursue that to see how far it will take me.  The more I write, the easier it becomes.

The greatest advice I was ever given as a writer was from my English teacher when I was 14 years old, she said if you want to be a writer you have to write and never stop.  You have to come back constantly and keep going, keep writing, even if you think what you write is utter tripe, the act itself gets the part of the brain involved warmed up and it gets things moving.  The longer you go without writing, the harder it will be to return.  In many ways this is the same advice a personal trainer will give you when you pursue fitness, the longer you go without visiting the gym, the harder it will be to return to it.  To get the best result you have to do it often and maintain it.  The muscles in your body perform better when they are maintained.  This is the same idea for writing, to consider your mind a muscle and your talent to be something that you have to train and maintain if you want it to grow.

I write poems, and short stories, and blog posts, and I write much more than this.  I write technical documents, user guides, reports, and reference manuals.  I write as much as I can, and whenever I want to learn about something new, the best way for me to commit what I have learned is to take it and write with the knowledge I gain.  If you want to learn how to do something to the best of your ability and cement your understanding then imagine having to explain what you are learning to someone else - that brings up a depth of reasoning that goes much deeper than your own when you are receptive of information.

Whilst I share much of what I write, here on this blog, there is a wealth of other work I create that isn't shared here, primarily because it isn't relevant, or because it touches on themes that aren't the subject of this blog.  The poetry I write doesn't really fit here, and it doesn't fit on my other blogs either at the moment.  The short stories I write are published through Amazon, and most of the technical documents I write are either commissions or they are manuals I have written for my own reference - with the exception of the text books which I have published through Amazon via Kindle and just in time printing.  I'm not a fan of traditional publishing as it often results in wastage when you print a lot of books that don't sell, whereas just in time printing only creates physical copies when they are requested.

Whatever your interest, whatever your hobby, if you want to master it then the old adage is true - practice makes perfect -  or at least it will take you one step closer to it.  There's even a theory which is often quoted, to become a master at anything requires 10,000 hours of practice.  You can breathe a sigh of relief in knowing this has been debunked, practice alone won't lead to mastery no matter how much you do it.  To master any skill you need to increase your understanding of it and find ways to improve it.