As a hopeless optimist, I believe there’s nothing major standing between you and your success as a writer. I believe that anything is possible if you set your mind and heart to it. That said, read on below for more on how you can become a successful writer this year.
- Stop sabotaging yourself: I feel it’s crucial to start with this point. A lot of times our mindset needs to shift for us to find success. Are you sabotaging yourself? Are your daily habits shortchanging you from getting to your success? Have you resigned yourself to the fact that you will never succeed and hence you don’t give it one hundred percent? Have you let fear dictate to you how to go after your dreams? Start by changing your mindset. Be consistent in what you do this year and let’s compare notes in December, God willing.
- Give yourself permission: Have you given people so much power to the extent that you have allowed them to box you in the ‘Not a professional writer’ category? Friend, stop waiting for others to give you the title ‘professional writer’, claim it and own it. That means your daily habits have to change to those of a professional writer. i.e writing and creating consistently, reading consistently, read scripts online at simplyscripts.com, network, pitch your work, go over and beyond your head writer’s expectations and so forth, in short, behave like a professional writer this year and you’ll be surprised by what happens.
- Break down your goals: Set achievable goals then break them down into what is achievable for you. Are you checking in on yourself daily? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? I would advise having small daily targets to avoid overwhelm which leads to not getting on with your goals.
- Find a mentor: By this I don’t mean start harassing other professional writers to read your work etc. Instead follow those you consider your mentors on social media, read up on them, check out their habits, be curious about their daily, weekly, monthly habits, something will change for you and success will start following you too. If you want an indirect mentor in me, sign up for my free weekly e-newsletter where I write to you with inspiration, information and education to keep you on your path to successful creating. Head over to my website www.damarisirunguo.com and subscribe, grab your free guide on writing while there.
- Find an accountability partner: This could be a friend or colleague who you are at the same level with, hold each other accountable, read each other’s work and positively criticize each other. Don’t wait for someone at another level to read your work, e.g if you send me your work I will not read it, I’m too busy with my own stuff, so find a friend who you can watch and analyze stuff with and grow together.
- Just do it: Put your work out into the world. You don’t have to wait to get enough money to shoot that short film, just shoot it, shoot a scene of your most powerful scene, write a short scene and put it online. Write that book and put it online. Get visibility by working in public and give yourself a fair shot at succeeding. Analyze TV series and films online. Basically as you learn more on writing, show the rest of the world just how well you understand story.
Hope these tips have inspired you to do more and be more.
Want a kick starter to get you on your journey? Grab my book on writing ‘Get Writing, A Beginner’s Guide from Idea To First Draft’ Available as an e-book on Amazon.
If you’d like a hard copy at Kshs 850 only and are in Kenya you can order from me through my email damaris@damarisirunguo.com and we can take it up from there!
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Happy Creating!