How To Get Better At Writing

How do I get better at writing?Oh, this question has been running through the mind of a lot of people. A lot of people are scared to pick up the pen because they think they are not good enough.Truthfully, I am not the best writer. Nope, I am in fact far from that. An amateur at my best. But with my little experience and countless rejections, there are some lessons I picked up along the way. How to get better at writing is the only question I could answer by myself. I began to write because of my love for reading novels. As a child, I detested the thought of reading a book. But as I grew up and got older I became a different person. At some point, novels became everything I had and everything I wanted. It brought so much happiness that I wanted to share that joy with other people. I have read enough novels to start a standard library in my head anyway. I know writing would be hard but with time I would get the hang of it. That was exactly what I did. I didn't publish any paperback books. Instead, I wrote on different apps. How exactly would you describe a trash fire? My book was worse than that. As a matter of fact, trash is too good compared to my book. 

As I was the writer, I decided to make the minimum number of words per chapter to be 500 words. Thinking that 500 words are like an overly long epistle. Maybe, it would just be fine as a really short chapter. It's funny how now I look back and realize that was an extremely rookie mistake ( In my defense I was a rookie). How I chose to add to my list of mistakes was by writing in multiple povs. Not the type of thing you're thinking about. I used the first-person point of view when it suited me and later I switched to the third-person pov. It was based on my mood. Now imagine a short chapter with about 480 words with multiple povs. It went from “ I stared at her with hatred in my heart...” to “ He chose not to do anything about how much he detested her presence.” Honestly, I was a clown with a pen. 

Don't you dare cringe yet! There is more to come.Now, I trusted myself. English is a universal language although it's not my mother's tongue. But that is the only language I know how to speak. So, I depended on myself and published every chapter without editing any. Ridiculous right? I know that now. At that time, it made a lot of sense in my head. I didn't even know Grammarly existed. Months passed and I never got any readers. If it was me, I wouldn't even have read that either. Along the line, I lost my account and my book too. It wasn't a problem because I moved onto the next idea in my head and started a new book. Not just a new book but I took on other challenges too. Contests and excersing different genres. Fast forward to about six months later. I read my first ever draft as a reader. I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. For a second, I wanted to apologize to everyone I have ever told I was a writer. That was crappiness at its very peak. Forget about the technicalities but even the entire plot was too unrealistic to even exist. Even if I decided to edit and republish, it isn't even salvageable. Yes, that bad! 

I compared what I wrote for the first time to the stories I write now. I deserve a whole standing ovation for my awesomeness. The transition and change are incredible. I have to say, it was like watching a baby grow into a toddler. { I haven't gotten to the adult stage yet}. The reason for telling you about my disastrous story as a writer is to say, if I hadn't continued writing then I would still be a mess. 

It took time, practice, and most importantly PATIENCE. I would advise anyone with the question “ How do I get better at writing ?” to do one thing. WRITE! Write till you're tired. Exercise your imaginations and watch yourself become legendary.