5 Things I Regret On My Writer’s Journey
and what I’m Looking to Correct in 2021.
I have always enjoyed writing. Whether it was writing (bad) poetry and book reports for high school, college research papers, (better) poetry in college, or the writing on-line I do now. It has always been a passion and creative outlet for me. Like any other writer, I’ve had my ups and downs. I’ve stopped and come back. I’ve learned a few hard lessons about the life of writing.
I have some regrets about the choices I’ve made. I will never regret writing but I regret some of the ways I went about it or things I did on the journey. I’m sharing today to hopefully encourage someone else to not take the route I’ve taken.
Going Into Debt Buying Courses
There are some really good courses out there. I have learned a lot from some of the courses I took in college and beyond. However, I’ve also made some really bad decisions on purchasing others. I’m talking about the 300–500 dollar ones where people tell you things that they learned directly from others or things that should be obvious. I’m currently in the process of paying down a 5,000 debt that I took from buying these overpriced courses.
What I would do if I was going to start over is to start with one platform. I would read a lot about the art of writing itself and learn everything I could from platforms like skillshare and youtube. I would enroll in a course that allowed me to get feedback on my work. I would also check into things like the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit which comes out every fall.
Most importantly, I would wait until I knew exactly what direction I wanted to head in before I bought any course. No matter how much I loved the person offering the course or what the incentive to buy was. Marketers are experts and I’m a sucker for the “Only 4 hours remaining” label. Sometimes I’d even wait until it stated “1 hour remaining” and get a brief rush. Dumb decision.
Being On and Off with My Commitment
I’ve noticed a pattern in my behavior. I’ll be solid for 6–7 months and then drop off the face of the Earth. I’ve been this way since I started with my poetry journey in college. Most recently I quit because I was too discouraged with the stats and not making money. I shoved it to the back burner to work on something else, however, I always feel the tug of writing on my heart to come back.
Main point: consistent writing pays off. It’s easy to get into the habit of skipping days if you don’t take at least a few minutes to write every day. Each day missed makes the habit harder to complete. I regret the time I missed due to a lack of discipline
Playing It Too Safe
There’s a lot of things that I’d like to do creatively. I still refuse to have a niche because I want the world to be open to me. Usually, when I’m writing I write from a list of 5–7 topics anyway, but I enjoy the freedom of being able to pick and choose what I write. I’ve begun to accept the use yourself as the brand train of thought and don’t worry about it beyond that.
I also have a list of places I’d like to pitch work to once I get really good at writing. It’s a dream list but I’ve never submitted because I’m scared of rejection. That’s one of my goals for this year- to pitch to publications both inside and outside of Medium.
Listening to Negative Feedback
If you have something that you want to learn: pursue it, learn it, get better at it. I studied Journalism and writing for a year at Clarion University. While I was there, I received some harsh feedback. I’m completely for constructive criticism and especially if I’m paying for it- please tell me how to get better. However, I had a non-fiction teacher tell me I’d never make it as a writer. That he didn’t have it in him to teach someone at my level. I dropped his class the next day. My heart was broken and he honestly didn’t deserve the money to teach me. Secondly, I had a journalism major who was editing the paper send me major corrections- which was okay but when she took a piece I had written and put her name on it and refused to give me credit because “I had to rewrite most of it” I quit the paper.
These two experiences stopped me from trying to write non-fiction for a long time. Every time I tried, I heard their voices and it killed my drive. I went into poetry first because it felt safe, but my heart was always with the nonfiction crowd. I got really good at poetry and found it to be easy. This was the challenging stuff I wanted to try to work with. I regret wasting time due to people’s negativity.
Not Writing for the Love of the Craft
I’ve written for a lot of reasons- creative expression, to try to be published in various publications, and to try to make money as a side hustle. I haven’t always followed my heart or listened to my inner creative when working. She comes up with some amazing ideas and work. I wish I had spent more time listening to her.
Conclusion
Each writer has a lot of experiences while traveling this journey. While I’m glad I chose this as my passion, there are some things that I regret doing on the road to where I am today- which is still pretty much a beginner. These are also the things that I’m looking to correct in 2021.
