Do You Face These Difficulties When It Comes to Writing? Here's What to Do

Perhaps you've always imagined yourself becoming a prolific, famous author or screenwriter because you've been praised for your writing abilities in school or simply have an expansive imagination. Although those are commendable traits, being creative or good at writing when given an assignment isn't the same thing as being able to make a craft or career out of writing.

Here are some habits that could be interfering with making you the best writer you possibly could be:

1. You only write when you're inspired. You don't write every day as part of a routine. If this is the case, know that the most successful animators, actors, writers, anything- you name it- don't wait around for inspiration! They designate a certain time every day to perfect their craft, despite how they're feeling. Over time, it gets easier to write even when you don't want to, just like it is with working out and other habits.

2. You have so many ideas and you forget to take notes or jot them down in your phone to develop them later. There's a giant spectrum that you should access where you lie on. Are you more prone to writer's block, or do you have too many ideas at once? Regardless, make sure to take notes anytime something funny, interesting, or magical comes up in your life. This is content you can use to develop further down the line.

3. You have such grandiose ideas of what you want to write about that you feel intimidated when you actually sit down and have to make your thoughts concrete. If this is the case, break up your story into an outline that has a beginning, middle and end. And then begin to fill in the blanks there. Know your arc, your characters, and the conflict. Make it more of a mechanical process than one that just feels like its lit by a flame of inspiration.

4. You don't have enough creative ideas or inspiration regarding a topic or story to embellish on. Or perhaps you do, but you feel as though every topic and idea in the world has already been written about. It doesn't matter because when you write, you add your own personal voice and style to it.

5. You're too self-conscious of your grammar and the editing process to just let the experience of writing flow. Hiring an editor or simply asking a friend to help you correct grammatical errors should be the least of your worries. As long as you have an interesting idea and a solid beginning, middle, and end, you should be fine!

Perhaps the reason the writing simply isn't flowing is because of one of the two reasons:

1) You've either wrongly assumed your a solo writer or a team writer

2) You're creative process is off

Let's address the first point to start off with. Some people thrive better when they're working with the synergy of others to produce something great, like a song or a screenplay. Others, like myself, work better by themselves, hidden in the dark confines of their room. Take some time to truly reflect. When it comes to writing, what feels right? Writing alone or bouncing ideas off someone?

Now for the second point, your creative flow may need some fine-tuning so the best writing you could produce will manifest.

Here's what singer/song-writer Jake Davies says about his popular rock n' roll band, Of Limbo's particular process when it comes to song-writing:

"We find it's always better to start with the riff. It almost never works out for us to try ad write starting from the lyrical concept and work backwards to music".

He's coming from a group-writing perspective.

As a solo writer, it took a while for me to establish the write kind of ambiance I needed to nurture the best writing out of me. I make it a habit to wait until everyone's asleep to get on my laptop and being writing on my desk. I turn off all the lights in my room except for some colorful Christmas-lights I have to string through my bedroom. I light incense that is specifically supposed to help with concentration, and then I play bebop in the background.

Your writing routine doesn't have to be as complex as mine, but it's a matter of knowing yourself and what makes you comfortable enough to tune out the outside world and feel as little friction as possible between you and your writing.