Writing is for Everyone!

Let’s Get Writing! is a course designed to help you begin your writing journey. Explore the lessons below and start writing today!
(This section is currently under construction. New content will be added regularly.)

Introduction

Regardless of the length or complexity of the story you are trying to create, the act of writing can seem daunting, even impossible. But as someone who started writing at only 11 years old, I am here to tell you that your passion and dreams are well within your grasp. Let’s Get Writing! is a course designed to give you all the tools you need to succeed in your writing endeavors; the only ingredient you need to bring is determination!

Writing is a messy activity. You’ll mess up plot lines, think your stories are broken, and even want to give up at times. That’s why you need to bring the determination with you. There is rarely a straight path from A to B, but there is always a path as long as you have the will to find it. Put in the effort to struggle through, and you will find the effort is worth it in the long run.

Even if the path you are following is not straight or even entirely clear, a map is always helpful when making a journey. This course seeks to make such a map accessible to new writers by providing guidelines for how to find your way. We will discuss topics like choosing something to write about, how to keep pushing through the dreaded writer’s block, staying focused so you can finish, and so much more.

So grab a typewriter, pad of paper, word processor, or whatever your favorite method of writing is, and let’s get writing!

The best way to learn to write

A question often asked of writers is “What is the best way to become a good writer?”

Any author worth their salt (and who is not trying to sell you a course) will respond with some variation on this concept: The best way to become good at writing is to write. The reason for this should be obvious. A person who never writes a word, often because they worry it isn’t good enough, will never write a book much less a good one.

As novelist Louis L’Amour put it, “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

That’s all fine and good, but what if, when you begin writing, what you produce isn’t very good? This is a phenomenon we refer to as “life.” The fact of the matter is that not every word an author writes is good. You have to turn on the faucet for the water to flow, but it could be that the first stuff out of the pipe is greyish-brown and smells vaguely of fish that went past its due date one or two years ago. But you have to turn on the water to flush out the bad stuff to get to the good stuff.

My advice is therefore very simple: write. If you are procrastinating because you doubt the quality of what you will produce, write the worst opening to a novel that has ever see the light of day. Your first chapter might be a little bit better, and the second chapter even more so. In time you will find that you have written a novel which, no matter the quality, is leaps and bounds ahead of the version you never wrote at all. You can edit and improve what you now have. You may also find it’s not nearly as bad as you thought it would be.

Writing is for Everyone! is currently under construction. New content will be added regularly. Check out existing content in section 1. Let’s Get Writing!