writing worries (me)

I worry too much about what I write and that’s why I’m hesitant about writing professionally.

I worry about how it will be received, if it will offend anyone, if I’m qualified enough to talk about whatever subject I’m writing about, if people will comment pointing out the gross generalisation I made writing about something I don’t know much about. The list goes on.

Case in point: even with this, what I’m writing right now, I’m worrying about all the above. Like, how could I presume I would even get the chance to write for a living? What do I know about the industry and the writing process?

But that’s not the right attitude. Obviously I’m not going to become an expert about everything before I go into the world of work, and in life in general. There will be some topics that I will be able to write about with the authority of a lifelong expert, and others that I’ll have researched the same day.

What matters is not letting that get to you and still continuing to write. That you always try to improve your writing style and, and this is my opinion, the range of topics you feel comfortable writing about. For me personally, I tend to stay within the boundaries of arts and culture because that’s my area of speciality and where I feel comfortable (relatively speaking of course). But I want to try and write about other things as well, stuff that I don’t feel as comfortable with but still want to write about. Obviously in order to do this you need to do research and not just pretend to be an expert from a place of total ignorance on the topic, and there is still a reason for having a particular area you prefer, but it is also true that the more you think about how to articulate an idea and practise expressing it, the more confident you become in doing so and the more authoritative you sound.

Part of this is letting go of caring so much about other people’s opinions, which is very much easier said than done, and I’m not even close to doing this. There’s a reason I haven’t told many people about this blog, and why I didn’t care that much about making it easy to find.

This might be the most honest thing I’ve ever written and (hopefully I feel brave enough) posted online, and I hope that comes across. It’s the most off the cuff and not-thinking-too-much-while writing piece I’ve written in a while as well.

One of the things I still struggle with in writing is the ending.

Image Credits: Ramdlon via Pixabay