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How to Be a Better Writer in the Next 10 Minutes

How to Be a Better Writer in the Next 10 Minutes

Wanna be a better writer?

Wanna do it quickly and painlessly?

Here's how in 4 steps.

1. Step away from the keyboard. Take a walk, put on some music, even do the dishes, whatever. Just get 10 minutes of you time.

2. Look into your head for all the things you're saying to yourself that are making writing harder than you want it to be.

Are you doubting that your idea is good enough? Are you thinking that you don't know where you're going with it? Are you telling yourself that nobody will read or "get" what you're writing? Are you telling yourself you don't have what it takes to be a decent writer?

Take a good look and go as far as writing down the things you're telling yourself.

3. Look at the opposite position, and find real world evidence to support it.

If you doubt that your idea is good enough, put yourself into the position that you're idea is plenty good enough – and then find genuine reasons to support that. You're fired up about the idea, you have a unique insight or you've seen people talking about it so know that people will connect with it, for example.

If you're thinking that you don't know where you're going with your writing, take the position that you know where it's heading or that it's okay to not know exactly where it's going. Then look for evidence in your experience to support that, such as:

You've written great pieces before, and this is no different.
You've done your research so you have just what you need to write a coherent piece.
You know that you start writing knowing 50% of the content, and find that the rest comes to you as part of the writing process.

This isn't about making things up to make yourself feel better. This is about finding genuine evidence, based on your own experience, that gives more space in your head for the reasons why you can than the reasons why you can't.

4. Give yourself permission to write how you write.

It's a safe bet that you're your own worst critic, but placing your confidence in the things that critic tells you is not going to make you a better writer. Quite the opposite, in fact.

By finding real reasons that support you in writing things your way you can let yourself off the hook, and that frees you up to write some great stuff.

Place your confidence in the reasons you can write great work, and just watch what happens.

About the Author: As a leading confidence coach with clients right around the world, Steve Errey has a reputation for talking sense and getting results. Get more from him at The Confidence Guy.