An Imperfect Writer

Writing as easy as it sounds can hand down be a really difficult task and that is something most people fail to recognize. As a beginner writer, my journey so far has been filled with a lot of downs and a few ups, and a number of times, I have genuinely thought of giving up completely on writing. I started out with no advice or push whatsoever, and because I had been writing short stories in notebooks for people around me to read and they really enjoyed them, I had that belief that I could make a career out of it.

I still am of that belief, but nothing prepared me for the actual writing community and how it works the moment I decided to write stories online for the world to see and hopefully read. Still being an amateur writer in the writing space, there are few things I had to learn and still have to learn, and advice, pointers, and guidance were all I had and used to get better by the day. Out of the many pieces of advice I had gotten from people, websites, and books, one of the few that stuck out to me was one I had gotten from a close friend of mine, a person I looked up to. She advised that I should take short courses that had to deal with writing, editing, word choices, and things along that line to help me in the arrangement of my words and sentences. One of the courses I took was on the Coursera platform which was Writing, and Editing from the University of Michigan, and to be honest, my writing game has gotten significantly better. I was always of the belief that since I could write and imagine a new world or reality for people to read and be lost in, that was all it took for me to put myself out there, but that piece of advice opened my eyes. Whether it be spending a number of years or months in a writing academy physically or online or taking short courses either online or physically also, there are things we need to learn as writers, and unless we put away the pride that resides in us, humble ourselves to the point of becoming the learner and open our minds up to new methods, styles and many other key things we need to know as writers, we may never evolve and grow. Even with all these, one thing I know about myself, about my identity as a writer, is that I’m not perfect and that’s what is unique about me, that is what makes me a writer. My writing is flawed and imperfect, but that is how I feel comfortable in expressing myself. This leads me to another piece of advice I got from a friend who is a freelance writer and editor. He made me understand that writing, especially when it comes to fiction or poem doesn’t have to be fully perfect because, your style, imperfections, and flaws among many other things would draw people to your book.

I believe that if I truly am trying to create a world for people to get lost in, a character that people can relate to, a story that people can understand and get lost in, my writing can and should only be perfectly imperfect. I’ve learned that writing should be fun for the writer too and not just for the readers, and that includes incorporating your style and knowledge into your work, inevitably leaving your unmistakable mark.