In this weekly series of blog posts, I’m going to focus on writing tips for beginners. These are tips I use in my coaching practice and that I found the most useful for my own writing practice. There will be a weekly image (as below) posted on Instagram along with a blog post, and a live video discussing the tip on my Facebook page.

How To Ensure You Stay Writing as a Newbie

The first thing I tell all my beginning writer clients is that comparison kills creativity.

What do I mean by that?

Well, first of all, comparison in any shape or form should be eliminated from your mind. We are all unique individuals, and it would be rather boring if we were all the same. In terms of writing, and especially for beginning writers, comparison can do great harm. Not only will it stifle your creativity, but it can also cause you to lose your authentic writing voice. Add to this the loss of your focus and dedication, and I hope you see what I’m getting at.

I’ve seen beginning writers give up on wonderful book ideas because they started comparing themselves to other writers.

I’ve seen them become disheartened and give up.

You see, our brains are wired to come up with negative statements when we start comparing. Things like:

• My writing will never be that good.
• He/She is so much better than me.

The list goes on.

As negativity seeps in you lose the will to write. You start over analysing and finding fault in every sentence. You find excuses not to get the words down, and pretty soon, all the excitement you had about writing your book fizzles away.

It happens more than you think, and I want to tell you that it doesn’t have to. I want you to keep the excitement and the passion for your story going. No one will ever write it the way you do. In fact, no one will ever write the way you do. We are all unique and that is why there are readers out there for every story.

Don’t Let The Negative Voice Win

If you don’t start comparing, you won’t allow you mind to conjure up false negatives. (Read that again.)

I’ve been there. I’ve gone down the comparison rabbit hole. I’d see other writers posting about amazing word counts or getting their books finished in a month or two, and wham! Just like that my mind would start comparing, over analysing, saying things like:

‘You’re not doing enough.’
‘Look at what they’re doing.’
‘You’re not good enough.’

You get the gist of it. All those rubbish thoughts were created to stop me growing and achieving my goal of writing my novel.

I’m happy to say that in the end, my determination won out, along with some very good observations and learning on my part.

You see, the writers I was comparing myself to were fulltime writers. They had all day to get huge word counts. I had TEN minutes. I also realised that the words I did write all added up and it didn’t matter how long it took as long as I achieved my goal of writing my story.

There were more negatives that appeared. My story wasn’t as good as XYZ, and no one would ever read it. It took a lot of willpower to remind myself that my goal at that stage wasn’t readers, it was to write a book.

Change Your Mindset

In order for this writing tip to actually work, I had to change my mindset.

Comparison is natural and so to keep everything running smoothly, I began to compare myself to the person I was the day before, the week before. It worked. I was competing against myself, looking at bettering my own word counts. I created milestones to reward myself and all the time I was getting the words written.

You see, if you must compare yourself to anyone, do it with yourself. That way, you get to enjoy your writing and keep the story flowing.

You are unique and your story is unique. Readers don’t want a book that’s the same as every other book. If that was the case, they’d have robots writing books (they have tried). When your brain moves into comparison mode remember the only person you need to compare yourself to is the person you were yesterday.

Be You. Be Unique. Be the Best Writer You Can Be

Whether that’s 100 words a day or 10,000, it is you that sets the goals and you that achieves them. Don’t let comparison steal your creativity.

If you are struggling with this issue, why not reach out. I’d love to help you overcome it and write the amazing story you want to write.

Until next time,

Keep writing,

Amanda