Everyday Canvas

Starting Out

"You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it."
Octavia E. Butler
Think about when you began writing, the struggles and the successes... did you think you were going to get there.

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Yes, Octavia Butler has a point and there's a great deal of truth to what she said. All writers experience some struggle, whether in the beginning of their writing journey or at any time later.

When we writers start a new project, we're all excited and we think we're coming up with something great. Then, either we're discouraged with the results and we realize that there is much room for improvement or we drop the whole project altogether.

Granted, the ideas behind the work may be good, but their presentation might be redundant, overly used, or nothing really special. Yet, getting discouraged is not the answer; however, continuing with writing to get experience is. We need to realize even the most used and trite ideas can be said in an original way, our way.

Come to think of it, I have been rather lucky. One of my uncles discovered that I was writing short poetry on my own when I was very young and he helped and encouraged me. Then, at school, my high-school lit teacher congratulated me in front of the whole class for something I had written. To this day, no matter what I did afterwards, I recall that moment as my crown of victory. I owe whatever else came up later to these two people's encouragement right in the beginning of my writing passion.

Then, possibly, what I wrote then might have been "crap," but I kept writing, nevertheless. That is why I think encouragement does a lot for a new writer and even an old one handling a new project.