Are you a confident writer?
Does the thought of publishing your writing online make you tremble?
Do you wonder how you can be a more confident writer?
Does the thought of having your words out there in the world for anyone to read make you feel anxious?
You’re not alone. Read on.
Barriers to building confidence as a writer
But, if you’re looking for a hug and someone to say ‘there, there, everything’s going to be OK’ you’ve come to the wrong blog.
I’m not here to invalidate your reasons. They’re your reasons. You get to keep them for as long as you want to be bound by them.
What the confident writer knows
Whatever your reasons for feeling apprehensive about publishing your work online, here are some truths to help you become a confident writer.
Call yourself a writer
Let it roll off your tongue. I am a writer.
What comes up for you? What monkey chatter is going on in your brain? Acknowledge it, then move past it.
Mindset is one of the biggest barriers to building confidence as a writer. Get comfortable calling yourself a writer #writing #writingtip #amwriting #writingtips Click To TweetMindset is one of the biggest barriers to building confidence as a writer. The more comfortable you become calling yourself a writer without the negative monkey chatter, the easier it will become to hit publish.
Practice practice practice
No one gets good at something by just thinking about doing it. And no one ever lucks out with divine intervention. Experts are made, not born.
The more your practice, logic follows that the better you’ll become. So, write write write and watch your writing and confidence improve.
The more you publish and put your work out there, the easier it will become.
No one is reading you anyway
There, I said it. Post away. Chances are, very few eyes are reading the work you publish online anyway.
It can take a long time to build an audience where people are regularly reading your work. So, if you’re in the early stages of your online writing journey, very few people will be reading your work.
No one is judging you
When was the last time you critically analysed someone’s work online?
Did you break it down line-by-line and dispute the writer’s opinion?
Did you leave a harsh comment?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
No one has time to judge your writing. Set it free.
Outsource editing and proofreading
Let’s get practical.
If one of the reasons you’re reluctant to publish is because you’re worried about publishing content with typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, hire a professional editor or proofreader to go over your work.
An editor will look at your work from a structural perspective and suggest changes to the text to make it flow better. They will help improve your writing by editing your content to bring greater clarity and brevity.
A proofreader will fix typos and spelling or grammar mistakes in the final draft before publication. They won’t suggest edits to the structure or changing your content other than to fix errors.
If you can’t afford to hire an editor or proofreader, find a copy buddy, someone you can swap work with and edit and proofread each other’s work. A second set of eyes on your week could give you the confidence you need to hit publish without the cringe factor.
Use online tools to help improve your spelling and grammar
Working as an SEO copywriter, I build the cost of an external proofreader into my final drafts.
But what about the initial draft I send a client?
I use Grammarly, a tool that’s like MS Word’s Spelling and Grammar tool on steroids. Try out the free online version, install the browser extension so it works within your browser, or pay for a full subscription and get the MS Word add-on.
Grammarly is a fantastic tool. Sure, we often argue about the placement of commas or whether a split infinitive is OK, but if you apply common sense and don’t take all of Grammarly’s advice literally, you’ll end up with a draft that is well-polished and hopefully free from major errors.
Using Grammarly on those early drafts gives me the confidence to send my client my copywriting work before a proofreader has done their magic and without stressing about mistakes that distract from the content.
Another excellent tool is Hemmingway. While it doesn’t proofread your work like Grammarly, it highlights words you could delete, identifies sentences written in the passive voice and shows you which sentences are too long. It gives you a reading grade score, too. I aim for content at Grade 8 level or lower.
Be a good reader
To be a good writer, you must be a good reader #amreading #amwriting #writingtips #writingtip Click To TweetOne of the best ways to improve your writing ability and therefore your writing confidence is to read widely and prolifically.
You will learn what you like and if you probe a little deeper, figure out why. Reading widely can also help develop your own voice so that you sound distinct from others writing in the same industry as you.
Let go and hit publish
Is it time to get over yourself?
Hit publish. What’s the worst thing that will happen? Tell me in the comments below. I’d love to know what holds you back from publishing your content.
7 replies to "How to be a more confident writer"
I have been stalling on working on a mystery novel for a long time. Can’t quite overcome my
fears. Your straight talk is something I needed to hear. For example, “No one is reading you anyway.” This made me chuckle. I write a blog and if I went by the number of people who comment on it, I’d be discouraged. But thinking about how that applies to the book I want to write, it makes me realize how silly it is to worry about the naysayers.
I am so glad that bit about no one reading you anyway made you chuckle. I was worried people would take it the wrong way. I’m glad to see you’ve taken it with good humour, as intended.
Go forth and write, write, write, and forget about those naysayers (especially the evilest ones that live inside your head).
Great advice – it took me a while to learn that calling myself a writer would be a major confidence-building step. As long as I’m writing, I’m a writer, and nothing can change that! Also, thank you for sharing those two proofreading and grammar sites. Really helpful and an inspiring article 🙂
Hi Megan, thanks for stopping by and for your kind words. Yes, it’s amazing what a difference being able to call yourself a writer can do for your confidence.
Grammarly and HemingwayApp are great. I hope you get good use out of them.
Definitely, just write. Last April, I posted every day on my blog. Then in February of this year, I published every day on LinkedIn. I stopped worrying about what people thought and just did it. Then I researched what people interacted with and now when I publish I am much more confident, not only because I can see an improvement in my writing year over year, but also because I better understand how I need to write to get noticed and write efficiently. I love LinkedIn short posts exactly for this reason: 1300 characters encourages me to write to the point and not waste words or ideas.
That’s brilliant! I’ve tried writing every day, but it has never worked out and after about a week I end up publishing such crap quality content I start rocking in the corner. But, having said that, I think this new website of mine is going to be the perfect place for me to unleash a lot of my personality and knowledge, without worrying about what others think. I can see myself posting a lot here and cross-posting on other platforms like Medium and LinkedIn. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
When I’m working on longer form, I tend to make the same point over and over. Or even worse, when I use bullet points, I might repeat the same structure for each point. In my experience, Hemingway doesn’t alert me of this. any other content writers have this problem, INK has a feature that tags repetitive phrases.