This letter is just for you. Bruno from 2011. That’s when you first decided to start writing right?
Well, there are some things you wish you had known back then, but you didn’t and no one told them to you, so I might as well say them now before it’s too late:
- You love writing in short sentences and listing items, so let’s do it that way.
- Writing is your dream, that much is clear, so you have to fight for your dreams, that much is clear as well.
- Writing is an art more than it is a science, so you have to be born with the talent, that’s where you have some kind of advantage. You love writing and that is the most important thing. For you it doesn’t feel like work, writing is what you do after work to unwind.
- Now that you know you were born for it all that is left is focus and dedication, picking up the habit to write is easy, just like any other habit, you do it every day at the same time for a while, after a few weeks it becomes a habit so you don’t think about it too much and just do it.
- This one is somehow important: DO NOT SECOND GUESS YOURSELF. Your writing isn’t perfect, well guess what, it never will be, nothing is perfect, but it’s good enough. No one really expects much from you anyway so just keep doing what you do because you love it, that is the best reason to do something. Maybe someone doesn’t like your writing, so what? You didn’t choose to be a writer because you wanted to please other people, you do it because it makes you feel good and because there are some things inside you that need to get out and this is the way for them to do it. Writing is the way to freedom in some way.
- So again, write because it makes you happy, not to please others. You will never be able to please others anyway, people, in general, are unpleasable, not that the word exists but you know what I mean.
- Through writing, you will learn a lot about yourself and that’s what’s all about in the end.
- Schubert is good music to write with, cafe del mar is good as well, sometimes kings of convenience will do, depending on the mood. Otherwise just google ‘music to write’, keep yourself inspired, keep learning, keep discovering new stuff, stay alive, stay present in the moment.
- If you ever feel like you’ve hit a wall just google ‘writing exercises’ or something like that to keep the blood flowing.
- Read as much as you write, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Asimov, Lem, Lovecraft, Murakami, Kafka, just read whatever you can get your hands on to get more inspiration and experience.
- Tired of writing? Go pet the dog, do some housework, go for a 1okm run, edit some old writing, better yet edit someone else’s work, or translate them, you speak a bunch of languages, put them to use, grab a drink, sit in the park, walk the dog, stay alive, stay inspired.