Help! I’m an entrepreneur not a writer

31 / 01 / 2019

Some of the biggest misconceptions about me are:

* I have an English degree

* I studied journalism

* I’ve worked as a journalist or in another writing role

The truth is that my first piece of published writing was a blog post for Rightmove.

When I launched my business I constantly felt like a fraud, worrying that one day someone would catch me out and expel me from the writing world. My estate agency clients were exceptionally happy with my work; it was my own personal demons that were making me feel like an imposter.

I remember when people would ask me what I did, I would never use the term ‘writer’. A writer is someone who is trained or who has written a book; what I did wasn’t writing, was it?

Around this time, I came across blog post by Jeff Goins, in which he describes a friend asking him what his dream is; he replies that he would like to be a writer. “You are a writer; you just need to write,” his friend told him. Well, there I was writing, so I must also be a writer! Fear was what was holding me back.

Fear is a funny thing; it can be good, and it can be completely debilitating. Fears of not being good enough is often what’s stopping you from getting started. Yes, you are an entrepreneur. Why? Because you started a business. Now it is time to recognise that you are a writer, too.

Everyone has writing potential, but in our quest to be perfect we often hinder our talents before we have even gotten started. We’ve barely finished writing the first sentence before we’re already analysing whether we’ve used the right word, whether it sounds right, and – nope, it’s crap – DELETE!

Who cares if it’s crap? What’s important is that you’ve started.

You need to start to love the ugly duckling that is the first draft – yes, you heard me right!

Your first draft will be ugly. It should be ugly. You have to give yourself the freedom to let all your ideas fall onto the page. Does it matter if it makes sense at this point? Of course not; first drafts are works in progress, but as soon as you start to think too much about what you’re doing, you can stop your creativity in its tracks.

We all have an internal editor, that little nagging voice in our heads that criticises us as we go. When starting to write, the biggest lesson you will learn is how to switch that voice off, or at least turn the volume down. There is, of course, a time to edit, but it is not now!

When finally you give yourself that glorious freedom to just write you might find that your writing goes in a different direction, or that a multitude of ideas suddenly appear. You should find that you are unconcerned with spelling, grammar, and structure, giving your mind the space it needs to be its most creative.

All ugly ducklings grow into swans, and when your first draft, in all its rawness and ruggedness, is complete, you can then switch your editor back on and mould it into the genius copy that you envisaged it to be.

The secret formula

What! There is a secret formula?

Give it to me now!

Oh, if only everything was that simple. The secret is that practice makes perfect: the more you write, the better you become.

Write every day, write ugly, write crap – just write.

Write your ugly ducklings, and every day you will find that it becomes that little bit easier to turn them into swans.

You may be an entrepreneur, but you’re also a writer.

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