Writing's Most Important Essentials: What They Are & How To Get Them.

There you are! You have a Topic! You've done all the research! You have made your plan, got out all your reference materials, named your characters, assigned the roles, set the scenes and know what you want to tell. You are here! There the keyboard awaits, with the screen blank and the program opened at the word processor,waiting your touch, to make the magic happen.

There is only one thing stopping you! YOU! What more do you need to create that masterpiece you've kept from prying eyes? The moment of truth is at hand, yet you hesitate. The story has waited for the right moment, for ever  so long, So what is holding you back? "But What if They don't like it?" Asks the little voice! "What if someone else has the same subject, words or worse "Title?  What if it sounds too much, like someone else's work? Do I need a lawyer?  What about copyrights ? Am I ready?"

The doubts keep piling up and those gremlins, your insecurities, are hard at work building that wall of anxiety. Who am I kidding? I'm not a writer! My grammar sucks and my spelling...whoa! I don't even want to go down that road! What was I thinking? I hated writing in school with those short stories, compositions, essays 

and term papers! Longfellow, Wells, Kipling, Browning,  Shakespeare, Shaw, Dumas, Verne, Hemmingway and Twain those were writers! Are you crazy? A writer? You? You presume, to think that you are, in their league? 

         

Of course Not! But then they didn't think, that they were writers, at first, either! What was the one difference between you and say Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Olver Wendell Holmes Sr. or Lord George Gordon Byron? No it's not their aristocractic titles, influential status, nor their international celebrity. You, like James Joyce or J.K Rowlands and all other authors, who write, share the urge to create have it. CREATIVITY is the first, which all who write need to cultivate, by practicing diligently. Persistence overcomes resistance! 

The other main essential is CONFIDENCE! To be able to write for the readership of a select few, all the way to the Largest stage known as the World Wide Web you need to be confident. For many this is the hardest part! Think not? Just remember how you felt the first time you had to do public speaking! Yes! There it is!The butterflies, the sweaty palms, the dry mouth, the stuttering and the stammering, and the stage fright, that's it Fear. 

The ability to hide behind a persona has long been used by the cautious, reclusive and shy writers! After all Lewis Carroll was really Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Mark Twain was Samuel Langhorn Clements and Ayn Rand was born  Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum so Writing with an alias, pen name, moniker or pseudonym is perfectly acceptable.  

Still the confidence to achieve your goal is one which each person must face for themselves. The way to start is simple! Submit small well written pieces and post a few articles on a site with a topic that you feel knowledgeable in.  The more you submit, the more confidence you'll gain ,as the feedback received will reveal your strengths and weaknesses. Don't be too upset, if you don't get the results you expected ,on the first few attempts. Only with practice and practical development, will you grow in stature and mature into a writer, you can be proud of. 

Remember those axioms, "It's a cinch by the inch,  but hard by the yard!"or "The longest journey begins with the first step!" Those are very apropos, especially where Confidence and Writing are concerned. Just try to remember when you write be yourself and write for your audience. If you enlighten, inform and or entertain them, you will be well received and respected, by your fans. The Last is my favorite "Life is for learning and  Writing should be Fun!"