Ten Writing Commandments: Write For Yourself

Hey everyone! I’m back again with a new post in a new series! I am so excited for this series. I’ve spent a lot of time coming up with the perfect 10 things to choose for these 10 posts. Before I get started, I would like to state that there are definitely more options than just these 10 that I chose. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. If you want more ideas, then googling other writers blogs with the same topic is a really good idea. A few of my ideas came from things that other writers have written on their blogs. So without further ado….

Ten Writing Commandments: Write For Yourself

I’ve heard a lot of different advice about writing over the years. I think it’s sometimes hard to decide what pieces of advice are the most important. You can get advice about all sorts of things such as plot, character building, or scene setting. Networking, self-publishing, and book marketing are topics that have many an advice blog post written about them. Coming up with things to advise young writers, aspiring authors, and published authors is not the hard part of this blog for me. The hard part is organizing that information and advice in ways that actually make sense and is easy to access. This is the main reason that I began doing posts in series. This made it easier for me to organize information. So in the ten writing commandments these are the ten things that I think are most important for writers to know and do.

Writing for yourself is important. I think one of the key differences between a writer who keeps writing and eventually gets published and a writer who writes occasionally and doesn’t go anywhere, is the attitude they have towards writing. I know a lot of people say that sometimes you have to work a job that you don’t enjoy. That’s true in most of my experience. But I personally think that writing is an exception to that old adage. If you are a writer, you don’t do it if you don’t enjoy it. Or at least you shouldn’t. Writing is a career for those who enjoy writing and writing a lot, even in those moments when it’s not actually all that fun.

For example, when I first started this blog. I started this blog around 3 years ago. I began writing this blog because I had a couple friends who wanted some advice on writing, and I discovered that I really enjoyed giving them advice. I’d also always wanted to start a blog but was never sure what it should be about or how to go about it. And so, I decided a writing blog was a good idea for me. When I first started writing my blog my only followers were my parents. Haha. But I continued writing it. Even now, my following is rather small compared to some other writer blogs I know. A lot of my social media followers don’t actually read the blog posts. But I write them anyway. Why?

Because half the time I write these I’m writing for myself.

I began this blog as a blog to give advice to young writers, aspiring authors, and anyone who enjoys writing. But as I continued writing it, I found that it did two things for me. 1. It was a record of my own growth as a writer. I can look back on many of my earlier posts and definitely see how I’ve grown as a writer. There are things that I’ve written in earlier posts or ways that I’ve written it that show I have grown and changed throughout the last 3 years of writing. 2. It helped me organize my own thoughts on writing. Sometimes I have an idea about a certain style of writing but I’m not quite sure how to say it. Writing and rewriting posts for my blog on certain topics have helped me really understand my viewpoint on certain areas of writing. It’s made me a stronger writer who knows what styles I enjoy and what things I still need to try.

Writing for yourself is important. I have a book series that I have been writing for almost 7 years. I’ve only shared small bits of pieces from all five books to others. Not even my family has read everything I’ve written. And yet I’m still writing it. Why?

Because I’m writing it mostly for myself.

When I write something, and I’m sure there a lot of writers out there that would agree with me, you write what you would want to read. That’s one of the first pieces of advice an author ever told me. They told me to write what I want to read. Because then you’re writing for yourself. Writing for yourself is what gives you the motivation to keep writing what you want to write. If you didn’t write for yourself and you became a published author who then took writing on as a full time job then there would come a point where either you quit because all the deadlines are stressing you out or you begin to write for yourself. I’ve found if I write for myself, I never miss deadlines because I’m ahead of them because I was writing for myself and not for the deadline.

So, I personally think that the first writing commandment is to Write For Yourself.

I hope that this post was helpful for everyone. As you probably noticed with this post I’m now updating on Saturdays. I am once again back in University and so I’ll have less time on Fridays to post updates. I’m making sure to spend any free time I have writing posts ahead of time so none of them will be late. I hope that Saturday updates are okay for everyone who reads this. Don’t forget to give the post a like, follow me on social media at the bottom of the page, leave a comment if you have one, share this blog, and become a page member so you can receive on demand updates. And remember,

Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!