Consistency and Mindset

New Writer. Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Writer?

Traits That Will Set You Apart From Others.

How bad do you want to be a writer?

Will you give up the first time it gets difficult? Or will you push forward?

Will you look away or eat a bucket of chocolate ice cream when a troll throws you a tantrum?

Achieving success at writing is hard.

It is a one-way street full of potholes. You curse the road conditions wondering if it is the right way or worth it. In your journey you’ll experience:

• Your fellow writers dropping like flies.
• Your stats crashing faster than the stock market.
• Your self-doubt. It’s sunny outside and wondering why you’re sitting in front of a screen in a dark room.

It’s demotivating and sometimes looks bleak.

Do you have what it takes to succeed? Let’s find out.

You have traits of a growth mindset.

You have the right mindset to be a successful writer or anything in life.

The way you see yourself can tell a lot about you. You have a fixed mindset when you think your traits are that stubborn belly fat and your genes are the culprit.

You are afraid to fail.

If you are, then you are not willing to try.

You prefer to use the keyboard and the left mouse button for games than stare at a blinking cursor for writing.

Change your mindset.

Carol Dweck in her book ‘Mindset’, explains the difference between two mindsets:

The fixed mindset is what I compare to the Pinky.

The Pinky’s brain is static. Having a static brain means you have the desire to look smart and thus:

• Avoid challenging situations,
• Give up at the first bump in the road,
• See effort as a waste of time,
• Ignore useful negative feedback, and feel threatened by the success of others.

As a result, you will throw the towel early and blame it on the algorithm, the platform, or other external factor.

The growth mindset is what I compare to the Brain.

The Brain’s brain wants to get smarter. Having an evolving brain means you have a desire to learn and so, a tendency to:

• Embrace challenges as the daredevil
• Keep rollin’ even if the road is full of potholes,
• See effort as part of world domination
• Learn from failed experiments. Find lessons and inspiration in the success of others.

As a result, you will cross that road with bigger holes than Grandpa’s used underwear.

In short, successful writers are the Brain.

This will be important for crossing the journey as a writer. You will need to keep doing it for a long period of your life.

When you start writing, give yourself time to let go of any ‘Pinky’ thoughts. Grow the seeds for that ‘Brain’ aspect of yours.

See if you can be consistent:

Writer, do you want to be successful? Carve on your desk the word “Consistency.”

I’d dare you to carve it on your wrist, but let’s not go to extremes here.

Don’t even read this if you don’t publish regularly. You’re doing this for fun and that’s ok.

Any growth hack you want to kung-fu your way out to stardom will not work.

To work, you need to be consistent in publishing articles.

You as the writer have to fulfill the needs of your readers. You have to tick all the boxes from their shopping list when looking for content:

• Solving a reader’s problem.
• Action-packed stories that keep them wanting more
• Serve them in bulk quantities with a regular schedule.

That will be your ticket to hook your readers and keep them sitting on that sofa. Remember writer:

• ‘Cat memes in Tiktokville’ are a thing when your reading is boring with the same platitudes.
• Don’t ‘dumb and dumber’ your content. Make it easy to read. A piece where the readers can figure out what’s on.
• A piece where they can lock into pieces of information that capture their attention.
• Reader chose to read your stories. Give them a reason to stay and stop skimming your stories.

No tarot cards will read your readers’ wants and wishes. You must figure out what your reader wants. For that, you must:

• Pick your poison. Choose the topics you’ll write about.
• Become a data hoarder. Be careful not to become a junkie. The data will tell you which direction you should sail to.
• Find yourself ‘Where’s Waldo’ style. When having enough data, you must decide if to keep writing what you want, or what your readers want more of.

Do all the above for at least 6 months and you are on your way to becoming a writer.

Prove you have the right attitude and you can be consistent.

In your journey, be willing to learn and face adversity. Only with a growth mindset, you will grow and succeed as a writer.

There will be many obstacles and challenges to overcome:

• Writing consistently for months with no results.
• Writing with a fickle audience.
• Writing to earn readers’ attention and keep them engaged for more.

All this while you refine your craft. Are you ready, writer?

If you want to know how I quickly select my images, check out this piece right here:

Thank you for reading, if you like what you’re reading don’t forget to follow and subscribe to read more of my writing.

I’ll see you in the next one.