My Amazing Journey of Learning How to Write
By: Shreya Sharma
Tags: Writing Life, Content Writing, Learning, How To, Writing

6 Incredible Lessons I Learnt and 1 That I Still Need To

I took an initiative to learn how to write, specifically for an online audience. I took a course, rearranged my work and family time to suit the class timings and dived into it. As my classes come to a close, I find myself diving deeper into finding my voice and finding ways to engage with people who might be interested in what I have to say.

It is not easy, one feels like giving up every day.

But I Won’t.

Because of these 6 incredible lessons.

1) “A sincere will to gain knowledge will surpass any obstacle.”

You know those stories that our grandparents would tell us, how they would study under the street lamp or a single lantern light; or travel big distances to go to school?

Now I can empathise.

As I am staying in a village, there are frequent power cuts and inconsistent internet connection. The entire duration of my course I was sitting in that one corner of the Verandah where you get an internet connection to attend my classes,

In the middle of December,

At night,

With the phone being my sole light source.

And I am still sitting there to work on my writing. I genuinely want to have a shot at writing good content. Like I said a Sincere will…

2) “The difference between effective content writing and blabbing is intent.”

Writing is simple. I get a thought, I figure out what I think about it and I start writing.

Easy, Right?

But if 10 unknown people (or more) were to read my opinions and thoughts on the said topic, I have to make every word count. I learnt that –

· Gathering my thoughts calmly before writing give it a better direction.

· Researching extensively but smartly is important; we process information a lot slower than the bulk of it that we come across.

· Don’t stress the first draft or by the time you reach your tenth, you wouldn’t be thinking about effective writing.

There is more than one style of writing and content and more than one platform to show it.

Hence,

3) “You got a better chance with hard work and diligence”

I researched, wrote, failed, rewrote and edited more number of times than I cared to count. And because of it I want to be able to share it with as many people that I can. So If Content Writing is my marathon then Social Media and blog sites are my arenas and I have to amass my cheer squad.

Which brings me to my next lesson,

4) “Setting your standards higher changes your quality of writing (and life).”

Dr Bréné Brown once said that she worked towards keeping herself small, right under the radar, too scared of letting too many people see her work.

I made the same mistake.

You have to think(write) big to be big.

– Claude.M Bristol

I have been going to bed on time and waking up at 5 AM. I do my best writing then, and it sets the most remarkable tone for the entire day. Shifting my focus on good writing and has made me appreciate and demand better from other things in my life too, like my time.

5) Give more depth with less.

While writing my assignments one of the toughest things that I had to do was edit my work to a specified word limit, which I continued doing till the last hour of the submission date. I revisited each piece of writing I had finished after 2 days and rewrote more than half of them. Shredded each piece of writing till I couldn’t. This piece of writing is the only one where I have blatantly disregarded the set word limit.

What can I say; I am a work in progress!

6) People will forget what you said..,

..But people will never forget how you made them feel.

– Maya Angelou

My writing course was simple, straightforward and effectively communicated. All the information my trainer, Uma Madhavi gave during that time, easy or tough, was incredibly useful. It was uncomplicated and most importantly felt doable. At the beginning, I mentally sighed when she told how she started her writing journey. Cut to 1 hour later, I had already recited her story thrice to my family and remember it good still. It was the first time I had truly noticed my liking for storytelling. This is a personal thanks to how she made me feel about it, if that was not apparent with the 700+ words I have written above.

Finally,

It came as a surprise to me that my writing won’t get noticed online just because it exists. One has to find, attract and connect with people, who ask the same questions as me, make them see my content and keep them hooked to the writing. And at the end of it all, have a take-home in the long run.

Consistently.

Connecting with people and creating my tribe

This is

The 1 Lesson I still need to learn and apply

And I am up for the challenge!