Indie Scriptorium—What does it take to become a writer?

Chatting with my new, and delightfully talented, hairdresser, the conversation flowed to my writing aspirations; to get my first novel self-published by August this year.

“Oh, I’ve always wanted to write.” she said.

Many people want to write. Their family history, memoirs, self-help books, picture books for children, cookbooks, books about their interests, passions and creative short stories, poetry and novels. But where do you start?

 Indie Scriptorium has been a revelation. What do you need to know to become a published author? What are the steps required? In Indie Scriptorium, we have identified, and are currently collating information that we hope our readers and members will find helpful. But I will start at the beginning.

Step One – Writing for yourself.

Pick up a pen, find some paper and write. Start with a paragraph and then try to set some time aside every day to write some more. Don’t judge your work, just write. If this is rewarding and addictive, you’re on your way to becoming a writer.

Writing for yourself can be rewarding. Keeping a diary of your thoughts and activities, describing events you’ve attended, people you’ve met and places you visit is a record of your life. Jotting down recipes in a book with your impressions of the meal builds up into a great cookbook. Letters to friends and relatives can be enjoyable to write and lovely to receive. They provide wonderful memories and may be helpful to family members interested in genealogy down the track.

Writing can be therapeutic. A way to express your feelings in a safe way. You may be angry or disappointed with someone you love, but can’t tell them. Write it down and get it out of your system. I find this can help define my emotions and sort out what happened.

Even if you are writing for yourself, you can choose to improve your writing skills. A good dictionary and thesaurus are a good idea. If you have a computer, try writing using the Word program. It has a built-in spell checker and thesaurus. There are also books and magazine you can buy or borrow from libraries and if you google improving your writing skills, you will find a plethora of ideas and exercises.

But it doesn’t matter. If you choose to write for yourself, and you alone, what you write and how you write it is entirely your choice. So just write and enjoy.

Tune in for Step 2 -Writing to be read -to be posted 16th June 22

Elsie King © 2022