i donāt care if you only get a few sentences down, try to write something every day. i find using a prompt generator or list like (x) (x) or (x) can really help ā it forces you to be flexible, creative, and usually itās pretty fun trying to work with the topics. writing is like any sport: you need to practice and keep it up and push yourself.
i think poetry is a very good way to write something in the spur of the moment, if you canāt think of something to write. lots of times you can connect it to your emotions or surroundings, and since itās very free and unlimited, thereās less stress to make it conform to something. if youāve never written poetry before, and youāre not sure youād like it, i suggest looking up spoken word. if you look upĀ ābutton poetryā on youtube you can watch performances or you can just google spoken word to read some (i canāt remember if poetry out loud requires an account to read their poems, but itās free and there are some pretty fun stuff). this is usually what gets people really interested in poetry, from what iāve found, and thereās something for everyone
if you have an idea, jot it down. chances are you wonāt remember it, and even if you do you might lose the drive to keep it going. try to flesh it out so you have something to go on. i can still remember some old plot ideas from years and years ago, and iād probably revise them at this point. thatās fine too. but the more ideas you have the easier it will be to write something on a given day, because if you donāt want to work on one thing, then youāll have something else.
make a storyboard, make something to organize your plot, characters, ideas, etc. just as long as it makes sense to you, i promise it will be helpful in the end. you may not need to do this for every story but itās definitely a good habit to get in to. if you like writing fantasy, i can guarantee youāre going to need something to reference, because even if you think you remember something, itās better to have something to look at to make sure you didnāt mix up small details. if youāre writing a drabble, this obviously isnāt as essential. ultimately, youāre the judge of what you need to know. i started making an outline for essays and itās helped me out so much, though, so really consider doing this for anything (i only used to make outlines for stories, because i planned my essays mentally, but itās nice to cross out things or organize your thoughts because sometimes what you end up writing doesnāt seem as good as how your outline had it).
if you proofread or edit, donāt do it right after youāve written. this is usually a tip for essays, but itās true for all forms of writing. either youāll be overly critical and change something thatās good, or youāll be too tired to do a thorough job. if you have the time, wait a day. really strop procrastinating, especially if itās an essay. i canāt count the number of times i got a better grade on a paper because i gave myself enough time to plan, write, relax, edit, and still have some more time before it was due. i know you wonāt always have time to space it out, but if you refer back to the first step and write every day i can almost guarantee youāll be able to write more, rather than sit around for hours trying to think of something. maybe try to keep two different documents (if youāre typing) of your work, so that way you can see an unrevised version and compare it to something you edited.
donāt think vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and high school classes are the only things that matter. you can be a great writer and not know your grammar. i have a friend whoās dyslexic and she used to think she was a bad writer because she canāt spell things well, but she realized once the vocab tests ended that she was really good. i know itās very difficult, especially when lots of people are snobs about spelling and grammar, but you need to remind yourself. i get really impatient with people who keep sniffling about their writing when itās actually fantastic.
sometimes write something bad. get weird ideas out of the way, or else theyāre going to clutter your head. you can write a paragraph thatās terrible and erase it, and it helps because it actually shows you what not to write. it can just get you to write something, too, if you have writerās block. itās okay if you start writing and your characters are unoriginal or you make mistakes. thatās natural, and most of us have all gone through that. we have to be bad before we can be good.
you donāt need to win competitions or awards or even be good at writing essays for school to enjoy writing. i got pretty bad marks in a 7th grade english class, and my teacher hated me, but i tried not to let that hinder my interest in writing stories and poetry. the next year i won a writing contest but i still didnāt necessarily get Aās on every paper in class. you can be great at creative stuff and bad at analyzing, or vice versa. itās okay. if you love writing then you just gotta keep writing. you gotta write for yourself. you may be an amazing author but never want to share your stories, and thatās cool too. writing can be as personal or as public as you want it to be
donāt listen to people who say writing will get you nowhere or that itās pointless or a waste of time. even though iām not an english major or pursuing a career with my writing, itās gotten me through some pretty tough times. i know it sucks to hear people discredit what you do, but the personal gain should be enough to remind you that writing is worth something
adding on to that, you donāt have to be an english major to be good at writing
you are incredibly smart and talented for being able to write. if you can create a world, a plot, characters, anything, youāre smart. think about it ā itās tough. really tough. why else do we sit in front of a screen (or stare blankly at our notebooks) and bang our heads and rip our hair out trying to think of what to write? how proud do we feel when people actually like what we write? and even if you canāt come up with something ā that doesnāt make you dumb. writing is hard as hell. youāre gonna get there, it just takes a ton of practice ā a ton of discarded ideas and frustration
bad reviews donāt mean you can never be a good writer. itās going to make you better. everyone needs critique to improve. donāt be discouraged. just like the characters we write, we too need to develop and grow and improve. itās apart of the process
