Addressing New Writer Insecurities

This article was written by Bryn Zilch, a Story Scout and member of the StoryForge community. Chat with us about guest writing at info@storyforge.com.

So, you want to write a book. But you have some insecurities about it. This is the post for you!

First thing’s first. There is no “right answer” when it comes to writing. Writing is an art form; an expression of creativity. There are different metrics that people use to judge writing, sure, but everyone’s judgments will be different. It’s very subjective. So do not try to be a “perfect” writer who can make a book that everyone will love. It’s literally impossible. You will not make a perfect book. So with that in mind, go forth and make something imperfect. I promise you, no matter how good or bad you think it is, someone somewhere will find the beauty in it. 

With that out of the way, let’s dive into some common insecurities that you might face or questions that you might have!

How Do I Actually Get into Writing? 
Start small. Write a single sentence. Then add something to that sentence. Let’s do it together now. I’m going to do it in one try while writing this blog post and not go back and edit it at all, and you can do it along with me! I’ll also add my thought process as I do it so you can have some insight. 

Let’s start simple. My first sentence is “The dog went to the park.” There’s a million places I can take this, right? So let’s pick one. I’m going to give him a friend. “His best friend, a cat, was waiting for him.” What are their names? “The dog, Gary, was so excited to see the cat, Sarah.” Why was he excited? “It had been a week since they’d hung out.” Ooh, why? “Gary’s owner had been sick with Covid, so they hadn’t gone to the park.” Sounds sad. What next? Well, what do Gary and Sarah do together? “Gary and Sarah often ran around the park together, chasing squirrels and getting pets from random strangers.” Nice! Let’s wrap it up. “It was a great day, and Gary couldn’t wait to go back again!” 

And that’s it! Look at that, I just wrote a short story! 
“The dog went to the park. His best friend, a cat, was waiting for him. The dog, Gary, was so excited to see the cat, Sarah. It had been a week since they’d hung out. Gary’s owner had been sick with Covid, so they hadn’t gone to the park. Gary and Sarah often ran around the park together, chasing squirrels and getting pets from random strangers. It was a great day, and Gary couldn’t wait to go back again!”

Hmm. I think it works better without the word “often” in this line:
“Gary and Sarah often ran around the park together, chasing squirrels and getting pets from random strangers.”

And now I have a short story that I’ve edited! It’s as simple as that. Is the tale of Gary and Sarah the next masterpiece to take the world by storm? No. But I still wrote a story. And the more I write, the better my writing will become! The same goes for you. Just sit down and write something, and let your imagination take you places one sentence at a time. 

Getting into writing isn’t sitting down and instantly creating the next big hit. It’s putting words on a page. And the more you do it, the better your writing will get. So don’t put pressure on yourself to create something amazing. Just create something! 

Do I Have to Hit Certain Requirements for It to Count as a Real Story, Such as a Word Count?
Nope! There’s no word count requirement, no required story structure, no knowledge of tropes needed. There are no requirements to writing beyond putting words on the page in an order that conveys a story. 

I Don’t Think My Idea is Good Enough!
I started writing when I was about 5 or 6. My first ideas were terrible. Some of them had some merit, but most of my stories I didn’t get more than two pages into because I decided I didn’t like my idea. However, even a bad idea can spawn a good idea. My novel in progress, Aegis, started out with a completely different plot line than the one it has now. It’s currently about a group of misunderstood antiheroes trying to get the hero to understand them, but it started about with a group of villains trying to corrupt a hero and somewhat succeeding. Those are wildly different base concepts! But the first idea created the second one, and that turned into me working on a full novel. And I know I never would’ve had the second idea if I didn’t sit down and try writing the first one. Sometimes, writing your bad idea can lead you in the right direction to have a good idea.

Besides, no matter how bad you think your idea is, it’s an idea, and that’s all you need to start writing. You can let your bad idea turn into a good one later, or just use your bad idea for writing practice! In addition to that, it’s important to note that most people think that their ideas are bad only for other people to absolutely love them. Like I said earlier, someone somewhere will find the beauty in it. Writers (and other artists) tend to see the flaws in what they made far more than other people do. So do yourself a favor and just try to write your idea. No matter what comes of it, whether it’s a throwaway half-finished story, a better idea based on what you created for the first idea, or even an absolute masterpiece, writing your “bad idea” can’t hurt. You’re practicing writing either way, so it’s not a waste of time to try it out and see what you can make from it! 


My Spelling/Grammar/Writing Style is Terrible, So I Don’t Think I Can Write a Book!
For spelling and grammar, there’s tools for that! Grammarly, for example, can help you improve your grammar to be book-ready, and most writing platforms have some form of spell check. For writing style, everyone’s is different. Yours doesn’t have to fit a template. But if you really want to change your writing style, read other people’s stuff and practice writing your own stuff. Even just a one-page short story about a dog going to the park. The more you practice, the more you’ll refine your style into something you can be proud of. 

I wouldn’t worry too much about either, though. It can always be fixed later. The point of a first draft is to get the story that you want to tell on the page, and the editor’s job is to polish it up after that. No matter how atrocious your writing is in the first draft, you can still create a masterpiece. So don’t stress about it. Just put words on the page. Your editor (whether that’s you, someone else, or a tool like spell check) will make them pretty later. 

How Do I Edit My Story?
I always have a hard time editing my own stuff, so I have a handful of friends that I send my unedited writing to and I ask them to edit it for me. However, I’m great at editing other people’s works! It’s often easier to catch others’ small mistakes than your own. 

When editing, you’re looking for:

• spelling (though I mostly handle that with spell check),

• grammar

• continuity (if someone says the person’s eyes are blue, then says they’re green 30 pages later with no reason for that to change, it bothers me, but some people don’t care about things like that)

• writing style (if your writing is hard to read because of the writing style, then fix it up in the editing phase)

• action flow (if you’re building up to something exciting like a final confrontation with a villain and then interject with a two page irrelevant ramble about butterfly types because your character noticed a butterfly on their way to the fight, you’re going lose the audience’s attention really fast. However, if your butterfly rant is relevant, you can use it to keep the excitement going if you do it right. It depends on the story, so this is great to have someone else look for. They can tell you if the rant broke immersion for them)
  
  No One Will Want to Read a Story from an Unknown Author!
  That’s the whole point of StoryForge! Post your story and get yourself discovered by the wonderful people on the platform! We love reading stories from unknown authors here.