We Get Better at Writing by Writing

When I was a child, I always carried a diary, journal, or notebook, and I would write about what was happening in my life each day, with dates and everything.

When my cousin got jumped so badly that one side of his face was swollen, I wrote about how terrifying it was to see him like that.

When I graduated eighth grade, but my twin sister didn’t, I wrote about the guilt I felt for having to leave her behind and how nervous I was to start High School by myself.

I wrote everything down, from the boys I had a crush on to the ways my mom and aunts pissed me off. (I was an angry kid.)

It is why I can tell you what my thought process was like on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, because I wrote it down.

I can still feel what it was like watching the Twin Towers collapse like a dissolving palace of snow and what 14-year-old me was thinking at that moment.

I can tell you I was dumbfounded and full of nerves. I had never seen anything like this before that was not in a movie. And they were saying now we are going to war.

War? Will large army tanks cover the streets? Will soldiers greet me at the door? Will I ever go back to school? What does war look like on the soil of the United States? The only wars I knew were my own.

“God bless America,” I scribbled.*

*I laugh at that now, but I was so serious back then, lol.

I didn’t know it then, but I was doing something powerful.

It didn’t really sink in until I was an adult, but writing regularly allowed me to develop writing abilities and maintain my goal of being a writer by keeping it at the forefront of my mind. And even if my friends and siblings dabbled with other careers and hobbies as I grew older, my objective remained constant.

I was to be an author.

We can read all the books and blogs…

Follow all the writing tips and advice…

Listen to all the podcasts…

But the only way to improve at writing is through practice, and the only way to practice writing is to write.