The One Thing That Made Me A Better Writer

Have you ever sought writing advice and got the answer "WRITE A LOT" like a million times?

Everybody says, 'if you want to be a good writer, write a lot. There's no replacement for that.'

I agree with what everybody says. There's no substitute for practice.

Natalie Goldberg, the author of Writing Down The Bones, wrote in her book that her goal is to finish a notebook a month anyhow, somehow.

Your hours put in creating should be more than the hours you put in consuming, whether it's watching TV, scrolling through Instagram, or even reading books.

But here comes the things about 'writing a lot': you often wonder what to write about!

Am I right?

So, here's that ONE thing that helped me practice writing and hence, made me a better writer:

THE WRITING PROMPTS

I cannot describe in words what a crucial part Writing Prompts have been of my writing journey. They provided me not only the ideas and topics to write about, prompts gave me the courage to step out of my comfort zone and write beyond my self-imposed limits.

The first time I used prompts were the ones given by my best friend, Jyoti. She used to give me random topics to write on and she was my only reader back then. The one who constantly supported my writing journey.

Then, I won a month-long writing challenge on Instagram in which I wrote poems based on the prompts given by the organiser. Winning that writing challenge led me to publishing my poems in my first anthology and I never looked back.

It's been more than six years since I am writing and I still use writing prompts a lot and some of my best pieces always come out of prompts.

Not only that, this year, I also published my own book of Infinite Writing Prompts which is the only book you will ever need to beat that writer's block and start writing a lot, because in the end, what makes you better at anything and everything is practice.

You may grab your book of Infinite Writing Prompts here: BUY NOW

You will receive a PDF in your mail soon after you purchase.

If you reside outside India, kindly drop me a mail at authorshilpagoel@gmail.com or DM me on Instagram at @meetlife240