WATTMAG Issue #3

The TWO tips to boost your writing confidence

Perhaps you are at a position in your life where you are ready to launch your professional writing career, or getting ready to contact that publisher you have been stalking for the last months, or maybe just maybe you are prepared to begin writing that novel you seem to think about before falling asleep. There is no time like the present time to set new goals, standards, milestones that will catapult you into a new threshold literally academia.

I like to think of this as an epiphany, the New You Epiphany! Epiphanies are a way to learn about ourselves, our thought process and whatever you want of your life. These moments of realization don't always come with a shining beacon of light and cherubs or a mind altering out of body experience. Sometimes these realizations simply present themselves to us when we read something we wrote a long, long time ago, in a distant galaxy. That experience can plant the seeds to spring forth a lifestyle change.... that is if we act on them.

Set optimistic, realistic, and accountable goals.

First, if you want to make changes in your writing life, start by making small habits that are no-brainer easy to achieve. For example, tell yourself you will write one sentence every day, then gradually build on to one paragraph, then half a page, and so on and on. Until you have reach the optimum daily writing page number. Why is this important you may ask?

Visualizing realistic and optimistic goals will help you keep motivated on the long run. Think about this approach as a pyramid, you start with a lot of blocks in the bottom, and eventually build your way up to the goal you wish to achieve. The key here is consistency, if you are not in the habit of writing every day, chances are you will never write that next big hit readers have been craving to sink their eyeballs on. 

Also, think optimistic realistic goals, I say this because I have so often made unrealistic personal goals in every aspect of my own life, and what I found always to be helpful is to find the vantage point and charge from there. Knowing your destination will make the journey a lot more enjoyable and fun. Setting a realistic goal and holding yourself accountable will likewise streamline you to writing your opus opera.   

 The self-fulfilling prophecy

Building on the previous point is what my high school art teacher called "the self-fulfilling prophecy." In order to explain this not so lofty metaphor let me tell you a story! There was a certain classmate in my sophomore art class who would complain every day she could not paint, and that no matter how much she tried she would never be able to paint. She would practice every day and no matter what she tried she could not master painting a bamboo tree with leaves. At the end of her attempt, she would say publicly that she would never be able to do it, no matter what. My teacher Mrs. Lua, used to reassure her she could do it, but her attempts to persuade her were always fruitless. Do you think she learned to paint successfully in order to pass the class? (trust me high school art classes are the easiest to pass) Well, the answer is no, she never learned how to paint. Mrs. Lua told her and the rest of the class alongside her, on the very last day of school, that she wished us a happy summer and most importantly that we should tell ourselves every day that we CAN do anything we set ourselves. Otherwise, we would fall victims of the self-fulfilling prophecy, a self-induce physiological roadblock that would hinder us from achieving certain tasks.

Now I will admit I did not believe in such a thing at first, until I heard of this once again later on in college from the mouth of a phycology professor. Then I paid attention, he explained that our brain in their chemistry can associate disappointments into negative and even fearful thoughts, emotions, and action. Telling yourself you will fail an important math test, too many times might actually come true, if you keep dwelling on it and allow your brain to cook the right chemical compounds that will make that fear a reality by messing with your memorization or critical thinking skills in your hour of need. 

I know you might be thinking, "wow where dis all this verbal diarrhea come from, is this Daniel guy an expert?!" Answer is no, I am no medical expert but I certainly have had moments in my own life like that one high school classmate. I have also found that telling myself that I CAN do something is the best way to actually help me achieve that one something I want to do, especially when it comes to writing we can come up with DOZENS of reasons why we tell ourselves we can't do it. If you at any time feel like this, try to remember this soup of words I wrote, and tell yourself I CAN DO THIS, and the next day tell yourself the same, and the next, and on and on.