3 Simple Yet Important Lessons You Can’t Afford To Ignore As A New Writer

Looking back, I was destined to become a writer. From as early as I can remember, I was telling stories. There was kindergarten me, passing off my exaggerated, action-fueled tales as truth to my older brother, or high school-aged me, staring at the entranced faces during the intricate retellings of my visually stimulating dreams. But it wasn’t until college that I decided to put my pen to the paper to bring forth the characters and worlds that have long dwelled in my mind. Actually, it was more fingers to the keyboard, but pen to the paper rolls off the tongue better.

“It all started with a sleepless night.”
I’ll be totally honest, it all started with a sleepless night. Writing stories was not something that I would ever have seen myself doing; it just happened one night in college. I had recently made a decision to stop partying and hanging out at all hours of the night. I finally convinced myself for the fourth time that my days as an irresponsible adult were behind me. So I set my bedtime for 10:30 pm, as I thought a responsible adult would. But when it came time to go to sleep, my mind was willing, but my body was not. I was so used to being up late. Needless to say, after a couple of nights of endlessly tossing and turning, I decided to get up and write something.

Photo by Andres Ayrton on Pexels

It was a rough start. My writing was like a car trying to crank over on a cold winter morning. As soon as I wrote a sentence, my mind convinced me that it was not good enough. My pinky finger would receive the message and inch its way up to the delete button and erase it. Hours passed, and I had nothing. I slammed my laptop shut. It shouldn’t be this hard, I told myself. My friend was getting paid to write articles; another one published a book and was working on a second one. I was beginning to think that this writing thing was not for me. Defeated, I crawled back into bed.
“Thats when it hit me. All of these books were written by writers who worked hard to perfect their craft.”
But I could not sleep. I thought about all of the great books that I had read and how every word harmoniously moved across the page, only to stop or pause for the adequately placed punctuation mark. That’s when it hit me. These books were written by writers who worked hard to perfect their craft—the ones who put in so much effort that it seemed effortless. I was just beginning, and if I wanted to get better, I would need to put in the time they did.

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“Great stories are not written overnight; they are written over time.”
I sprung from the bed, opened up my laptop, and starting writing. My fingers jumped from letter to letter on the keyboard as  words appeared on my screen. Before I knew it, words turned into sentences, sentences turned into paragraphs, and paragraphs turned into pages. When I finally ran out of words for the night, I stopped to read what I had written. I was not surprised to see the number of spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. Honestly, if someone had read it that night, they would have called it a jumbled mess. But what someone may have seen as a jumbled mess, I saw as a story, my story.  After I finished reading, I realized that I had made a breakthrough, and in that breakthrough, I learned some valuable lessons.
  • Lesson 1: Writing is a process – Dorris Lessing once said, “In the writing process, the more a story cooks, the better.” This quote helped me understand that great stories are not written overnight; they are written over time. As a new writer, you have to be okay with walking away from a story and coming back to it later. Walking away allows you to clear your mind, recharge, and refocus.
  • Lesson 2: Do not compare yourself to other writers – When you compare yourself to others, you rob yourself of the opportunity to focus on your work. Not only is comparing yourself to others distracting, but the comparison game is also dangerous and has caused many people to give up before they even start.
  • Lesson 3: Write everyday – The last lesson I learned, and I will argue that this was the most important of them all; if you want to be a writer, you need to write, write, and even when you don’t feel like it, write. Writing every now and then is not going to make you a writer. You have to make writing part of your lifestyle by carving out a schedule and sticking to it.
Writing is hard, and as a new writer, it’s easy to get discouraged and quit. When you find yourself on the brink of throwing in the towel, remember; writing is a process, do not compare yourself to others, and write every day. Because great stories are not written overnight; they are written over time.

Published by Frito Cherenfant

Frito Cherenfant is a first-generation Haitian-American writer. He has been molding young minds in the field of education for over ten years. He is now on a journey to complete his first novel. On the road to completing the novel, Frito plans to release several short stories and inspirational blog posts for writers. Please stop by the shop to support his journey.

22 thoughts on “3 Simple Yet Important Lessons You Can’t Afford To Ignore As A New Writer”

  4. James St Louis says:

    This is great Frito. Thanks for sharing how it all began all looking forward to what’s to come. Cheers!

  5. Michael O. Peterson says:

    You already know that you have a special gift. Now that gift has been launched far beyond the shores of doubt and futility. Writing matters. You matter! Stay on your never-ending journey with your wordsmithing. Your creations and revealing through writing can only encourage and inspire. Share the countless bounty of your imagination to the world. Every step you take with this will result in riches beyond measure. I support you! I applaud you! I am proud of you!

  7. Brittney Woodard says:

    This is truly inspirational. It’s one thing to realize your passion but it takes true courage to walk in it. Keep writing and inspiring! Love it!

  10. Sucandra Williams says:

    Mr. Cherenfant,
    This is nothing short of AMAZING! I am so proud of you and the work you put out . I look forward to reading more great articles.

  11. Yves Benjamin says:

    Haha excellent story my friend! Love the site and can’t wait to read more of the stories you have to share!

  13. Gerry L Harris says:

    Wow! Man you painted a clear picture and i was just so into it. That’s good writing Frito, I felt like I was a fly on the wall and I saw how you jumped up out of bed when you started to write again after the 30 min just laying in the bed. Good story.

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