The 1 Thing You Need to Be A Good Writer

What’s the one thing you need to be a good writer? The answer may surprise you. You don’t need a college degree in English, journalism, creative writing, or communications to be a great writer. You don’t need to know all of the rules of grammar and speech by heart either.

Believe it or not, the one thing you absolutely must have to be a good writer is confidence. You must believe in yourself. You must also believe in your ability to learn and grow.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with studying to make yourself a better writer and earning a degree while you’re at it. But if you don’t believe in your ability to apply what you’ve learned in a real-life situation outside of the classroom you won’t make it very far.

In my experience, writers are notoriously insecure about their capabilities and instead of writing something and declaring “I know this is good” they’re more likely to say “I don’t know if this is any good. Let me find out what someone else thinks.”

There’s nothing wrong with getting someone else’s opinion, but before we hand our writing off to someone else in search of approval, we first have to believe that what we've written is full of great ideas, fresh perspectives, and solid writing. We have to know that we have something important to say that's worth being read. We have to know that what we’ve written is still good even if it needs to be polished, edited and proofread.

The sad truth is that you, dear reader, could be capable of winning the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award or being a bestselling author but if one or more people doubt your ability and tell you that you can’t do it, you’ll abandon it all in a heartbeat.

If someone asks, “Who do you even think you are to want to write a book or have your own website?” you’ll abandon your dream and shrink down to meet that person’s beliefs because you truly believe they must know better than you do.

If that’s something you wouldn’t do that’s great but it’s something to think about if you’re surrounded by naysayers. If your default setting is “insecure” and you’re chronically filled with self-doubt it’s time to start believing in your abilities and doing things that will build your confidence.

You can build your confidence as a writer by:

• Reading often to learn how the pros structure their sentences and use grammar.

• Joining writers groups to be surrounded by like-minded people who have similar goals.

• Asking for honest feedback only from people who are truly supportive of your dreams.

• Writing a few times a week and challenging yourself to become better.

• Submitting something you’ve written to be published in print or online.

Confidence won’t come overnight but if you keep at it your belief in your abilities as a writer will become stronger with each passing day.

Author: Chanel Polk