My journey as a writer didn’t start last night. I’ve always been someone who loves to learn and express my ideas and since talking isn’t always the best option, I’ve resorted to writing down my feelings and thoughts on paper. The first kind of writing I practiced in my early years was creative writing, it started after reading a story my friend wrote in my JSS1 (junior high school known as 7th grade in the most countries). After reading his wonderful imaginative work, I thought “Hey, I can write that too” and almost immediately bought a notebook and started my own story. It was very similar to his and I have to admit I stole a few ideas from his book, nevertheless, a lot of people read it and loved it, which made me proud of myself and encouraged me to write more.
By the start of grade 8, I had written quite a few fictional stories and had become known among my classmates for my awesome stories. Unfortunately, I stopped writing after 8th grade when two of my stories disappeared due to my companion’s neglect. It made me so angry and I swore never to give them any more works, which made me stop writing for a while, the only form of writing I still got into engaged was essay writing and other school-related work.
However, in my second high school (11th grade), I came across blogging, not that I had never heard of it before, but I always thought it was only something for adults until what I learn otherwise. I immediately took an interest in it and started browsing through ways to start my own blog. I came across the concept of web design and almost got discouraged when I saw that you had to know how to create a website using certain programming languages or pay someone to do it, which didn’t sound good to me. . Fortunately, just when I was about to give up, I came across this platform called wordpress which allows you to create a website in minutes without having to know any programming and that for free!
I started my blog: diary of a life puppet in 2019 and in 2020 I was accepted to write for an amazing online teen magazine. So far I have learned a lot by writing and I am still learning because I believe learning the art of writing is an ongoing process. However, I cannot deny the fact that writing has and has changed my life and these are some of the ways it has influenced and helped me immensely over the years.
MY WRITING GOT BETTER.
As obvious as it may seem, writing has made me a better writer. We all know the saying “practice makes perfect” and it’s almost impossible to keep doing something over and over again without getting better, so when I say writing has improved my writing skills, it would be foolish not to not agree.
Writing on my blog has made me more creative and practical, but writing on teen magazines has given me so much more! Whenever I wrote on my blog, I barely sat down to proofread and carefully edit my work and if I did, I didn’t do it as carefully as I should. That changed when I started writing for the teen magazine. The fact that my work goes through editors to be proofread and corrected has helped me in many ways. I became more focused and careful with my use of grammar and punctuation, learned to use and combine words skillfully, and finally started proofreading my articles.
I FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT WITH WORDS.
Writing helped me build a good relationship with the English language. Before, I had to check and recheck every word I wanted to use in an essay, article, or even just a text to make sure I was using it correctly so I didn’t embarrass myself. Now that weight is on my shoulders and I’m proud to say that I can use words effectively without having to run to a dictionary every second.
MY SPEED AND IMAGINATION INCREASED.
The more I wrote, the more my imagination grew to such an extent that everything around me began to become a source of inspiration for an article. At first I thought it was just my curiosity and desperation for new pitches and story ideas, but soon it got so wild and demanding that I could literally stare at a pencil and write a 500-word essay on this pencil (that’s how I went crazy).
I went from someone who struggled to write a 450 word essay for their school essays, to someone who could write a 1000 word essay in less than 30 minutes, not to mention tons of interviews and conference speech that I make up in my head when I’m doing the dishes (lol, I’m crazy).
IT IMPROVED MY MENTAL HEALTH
If you’ve heard of journaling then you probably know what I mean, but in addition to journaling, just putting down a few words and creating a work of pure imagination gives me inner joy and peace. Whenever I feel down, I write and often I end up marveling at how the words flow continuously.
Writing has really boosted my self-confidence and helped me improve my self-esteem because when you feel good on the inside, it always surfaces on the outside.
IT IMPROVED MY TECHNICAL SKILLS
Creating my blog introduced me to the world of web design and its technology. My blog is a wordpress and wordpress blog although a beginner friendly CMS (content management system) can be quite tricky so I spent days and weeks watching YouTube tutorials and reading WP tutorials before I finally got used to it. Also, working with my phone and a laptop (sometimes) has made me more tech savvy. I found easier and more efficient ways to do things on the computer and get the most out of all my blogging and text-editing tools. Blogging helped me achieve that and writing is a big part of blogging, so I guess I can say writing helped me that way too.
WRITING HAS MADE ME MORE GRATEFUL TO GOD AND NATURE
I’ve gotten so much better at what I do and sometimes when I’m looking for inspiration I go back to my old works on my phone and read them and inspiration comes out of nowhere. It made me realize how good I have become and how grateful I should be to God for giving me such a wonderful talent and giving me so many amazing opportunities to use them.
I learned to appreciate nature even more when I first wrote about animals on my blog. Learned so much about the amazing animal abilities/superpowers you wish you had. and it made me realize how perfectly God created the world and nature.
To finish…
Writing is both a gift and a skill. A gift like some people are born with (I included) and a skill anyone could pick up if you put a lot of effort into it. The next time you’re feeling down or lonely or seething with anxiety, try writing. Don’t worry about being perfect because no one else is, just pour your heart out on your paper or screen (if you’re writing) and let your words flow.
ANYBODY BOX WRITE!
