If you’re successful in your field but not sharing your knowledge and expertise publicly, it’s time to start writing. There are too many problems in the world for people with solutions to be sitting on them.
We all get busy with work and life. It can be hard to find the motivation or energy to write about what we do when our time is filled with doing it.
Even as a professional writer, I fell into the trap of putting all my energy into my work (writing for others) and not saving anything for my own stuff. I would write in my journal and even jot down ideas for pieces to publish, but most of those ideas stayed safely tucked away.
I finally decided I had to start writing to publish, because I want to have a greater impact in the world, and holding back was starting to eat at me.
Not sharing ourselves with the world means there’s a big part of us that stays hidden. This can feel comfortable and safe, but it carries a high cost in terms of happiness and fulfillment.
We miss out on an entire dimension of our work that involves reflection, interaction, impact, collaboration, and creativity.
So to help you break through into your life as a writer, I’m going to share some of the obstacles to writing I’ve encountered in myself as well as clients and colleagues, and then some solutions for overcoming them.
The 7 Top Challenges When You Want to Start Writing
There are a lot of obstacles that can get in the way when you want to start writing. Some have to do with mindset, some with lack of knowledge or experience in writing, and some with external factors. Any of these sound familiar?
- Lack of confidence: the sense that you’re not a good writer
- Lack of time: feeling too busy or stressed
- Lack of platform: where should you share your writing?
- Getting stuck: trying to start writing but hitting writer’s block
- Structural issues: trouble organizing ideas or getting them to flow together
- Too few ideas: all your knowledge stays locked up when you try to write
- Too many ideas: leading to overwhelm or meandering
The good news is, you can overcome all of these challenges, and some more quickly and easily than you might think.
Solutions to Start Writing
First, you have to make writing a priority and a habit. This is both a mental decision and something you can take action to solidify.
Put writing on your schedule, in whatever amount of time you can give to it. Stick notes on your wall to remind yourself that yes are now a writer with all the privileges and responsibilities of the calling. Find some way to give yourself permission and commit to writing.
Next, start small! If your goal is to write a book, start with an article, or even a social media post. Experiment to figure out what you can create in the amount of time you have.
Then there are specific solutions for each of the common challenges I listed above…
1. Lack of confidence
The best way to gain confidence in your writing (as in anything in life) is to start writing. Get okay with sucking at it, and get constructive feedback so you can improve. Challenge yourself to publish something small and don’t worry about perfection.
2. Lack of time
We make time for what we value. If you’re having trouble setting aside time for writing, remind yourself why it matters to you. And start with whatever time you have, even if it’s 10 minutes every other Sunday. Another option is to hire a professional writer for coaching or collaboration.
3. Lack of platform
In order to share your writing, you need a place to share it. Start with whatever’s easiest. For most people, that will likely be whatever social media platform you use. Other options could be an email list, a blog, or a content platform like Medium.
4. Getting stuck
When you try to start writing and nothing’s coming out right, you might need to take a different approach. That could mean doing some reading on the topic, free-writing about whatever comes to mind, talking into a transcriber, or stepping away for a while. (Stretching or moving your body can also help free up your mind for writing.)
5. Structural issues
If you’re not sure how to structure a piece of writing, look around on your chosen platform and see what others are doing. You don’t have to copy them, but you can get a sense of what you prefer as a reader, and then format your writing accordingly.
6. Too few ideas
It’s a strange phenomenon that no matter how much knowledge, experience, and insight we have, when we try to start writing, somehow there can just be nothing there. Here’s the trick: don’t wait til it’s writing time! Get in the habit of collecting ideas when they do come up (often at random times), and come back to them later to flesh them out. Just make sure your initial notes are meaty enough so you won’t be confused later about what you had in mind. (Even the great F. Scott Fitzgerald made that mistake, although he did get an amusing essay out of it!)
7. Too many ideas
On the flip side, once the floodgates are open, you can find yourself overwhelmed with too many ideas. Again, keep a bank of all your ideas and just work through them as you feel inspired. The idea for this post you’re reading was in my idea bank for several months before I came back to it.
Start Writing
When all else fails, just start writing. It doesn’t matter what comes out. You have to convince yourself of that. Tell your inner critic to take a break and let any words that come to your mind flow onto the page. Editing comes later (a topic for another time).
Remember two things: done is better than perfect, and you’ll get better with practice.
