The Art of Butchery

New Writer. These Are My 4 Lessons in My 4 Months of Writing Online.

Write endless content online.

I love these self-reflection topics.

I look back at the mess I made, I realize that the road isn’t a straight one. It’s so bumpy that it hurts my behind!

I can see where I had to collect dog poop. Where I swallow a frog, and when I detour from the pigs when I set the neighbor’s house on fire.

All are valuable lessons that hardened me as a writer.

I survived hell and lived to tell them, so you don’t have to.

Leçon 1: Readers and Writers come and go.

‘Leçon is French for Lesson. I figured it would sound bossy as my 7th-grade teacher did. Ahem! Let’s continue.’

Readers are not guaranteed to stay.

• If your writing is a lot of telling and not showing — you lost them
• If your writing is a lot of fancy words like ‘uh la-la, mon ami’ type of crap — you lost them,
• If your writing is not as clear as the water for the dog to drink — you lost them
• If your writing looks like building the Great Wall of China — you lost them.

Keep them engaged, keep it simple. The reader wants an energy bar, not a 4-course meal. Have them energized, not counting sheep.

Fellow writers will stay or move to greener pastures.

The grass is not always greener on the other side.

Yet we see them leave.

Our carers have the best intentions to see us eating grass.

Yet they send some of us through the slaughterhouse.

Times can get rough as a writer, so build that thick skin. The pasture (platform) is not yours but the grass (words) you eat is.

• Thick skin will protect you when readers, or when fellow writers leave.
• Thick skin will protect you from the data taking a nose dive.
• Thick skin will protect you when moving to new pastures.

Build resilience writer because the only thing that will keep you afloat is your writing.

Leçon 2: I tried niche and I like it.

It tastes good, but I can skip it for now because I’m a toddler.

I’m wearing my diapers in this writing online world.

• Ain’t got no niche
• Ain’t got a clue of what to write

The data from the 6 months of writing will be important to know what you will continue to write.

It’s a hard choice but one that the young padawan has to make.

It will suck, thinking you want to write about other stuff. But if you want to build a creator business, you must wear big boy pants.

What you should care about the most is to enjoy what you do every day. It will feel a lot easier when you create the stuff you love.

Leçon 3: Find your style and voice.

Don’t sound dodgy.

How low can the human effort go?! Do Wall-E overweight people ring a bell?! [I said Wall-E, not Dall-E, m’kay?]

With some much spewed AI content out there, we should do better.

You don’t need to sound like Shakespeare or write like Hemingway. You sound fake if you pretend to be someone you’re not.

For the most prolific writers, it took them years to develop a style and voice. For you and me:

• It will come when you place yourself in the background and write for the reader
• It will come when you write in a way that is natural to you.
• It will come when you emerge from your writing. You don’t feel restrained by beliefs, norms, or other’s opinions.

You will hear from the readers’ comments when you sound different and unexpected.

Leçon 4: Goals you set, keep you on track.

Why do dogs chase their own tails? Because they get bored.

As a puppy, everything is playful and exciting. Same for you writer.

That excitement wears off fast. And you start chasing your own tail if you don’t keep track of your progress.

If you want to continue to be a puppy, by all means, skip this lesson.

If you are dead serious about making it something bigger like I do then you need:

• Write better than the day before
• Read more about what you want to write
• Publish more than the week before. If you do it every day, keep it going for 3 months. 6 months, 1 year. Push yourself.

If you want to perform better than the others you can’t keep going in circles. You will have to run through the obstacles you will face as a writer and conquer them.

C’est fini. Being a successful writer is hard.

But don’t you worry. As soon as you click on another story, you will start to feel better. You’ll remember that you don’t believe in any of this ‘Be a better writer’ crap.

You’re in control of your own writing, remember?

If you want to know what I’ve learned in my first two months of writing, 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.