Because writing involves many skills – from understanding grammar to understanding audience – writing is like a muscle. The more you exercise or practice using that muscle, the more proficient you become. The stronger the muscle becomes, the more able you are to perform more and more complicated, challenging tasks.

Think about starting an exercise program such as lifting weights. At first, you can lift five pound weights (or less) with each arm. In writing, this level translates to being able to create a basic essay in high school or a really simple short story.

With practice and increasing challenge, you can soon lift twenty pounds with each arm. The writer can think about writing a novella or a medium length book.

With even more dedicated, focused practice, the writer can tackle full length books, novels, screenplays.

The key is practice – constant, daily (or as often as possible) practice.

An associated key is to refrain from self-criticism at the beginning stages of development, when you’re lifting two to five pounds per arm, or writing a short film or story. Don’t get discouraged at your feeble attempts at your craft. Realize that practice is essential and building that muscle takes time. You must allow yourself time to grow those skills and confidence to the next level.

Don’t make the mistake I made. I would jump from one type of writing to another with each rejection. So I never stayed with any one genre or kind of writing long enough to become proficient in it. I finally settled on a few and got good enough to publish. But then, with all that skipping around, I learned a lot about many types of writing, and I learned to write better out of sheer practice of writing. Writing is always good practice for better writing, no matter what you write.

Some people like to start with journals, with the conscious intention that they will NEVER be published. That’s a good start. I never felt they were of much use to me, but now I regret not having recorded the events in my life. Ah well, I guess that memoir won’t be written. I could go back to my Daytimers (a daily scheduling system). I’ve got those saved back to about 1975.

Lew Hunter talks of training-wheel scripts, those first four or five screenplays that are truly awful, but that you need to write in order to learn enough to write a fairly decent script. These first scripts are not to be shown to anyone because they’d probably be embarrassing. Every writer has a time of producing training-wheel material. We’re so proud of what we’ve done, that we show it to everyone. Most are polite and encouraging; some will say “it needs work.”

Regardless, trudge on. Continue practicing, exercising that writing muscle. It’s the only way you’ll eventually get to that level of proficiency, so that your writing is taken seriously, perhaps enough to be published.

Granted, some people do hit it with their first attempt at a genre, but most of us need that practice before we’re good enough to be recognized for our accomplishments.

To get to that level, practice and stretching the muscle is essential. Write in a journal. Blog if you have the courage for the world to see your training-wheel attempts. Write novels and stories and screenplays for you alone as the audience. But write. And then write some more.

Do you have an experience with building up your writing muscle? Leave a comment for us to enjoy and learn from.
Do you want to use this blog in your ezine or on your blog? You have permission, as long as you send notice of publication with a link, to katie@ploegersservices.com,

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Katherine Ploeger, MA, MFA, is a writer, teacher,  consultant. She publishes practical, process-oriented information for nonfiction writers and screenwriters on her blog, Katie’s Writing Notes.  Also check out her information at http://www.ploegersservices.com.