Chapter 2
Personal Experience

I’ve been writing and editing for 2 years now. Throughout my life I’ve never held interest in writing as it was seen as an obligation the educational system required of me. Everything was structured in a creativity-killing way, therefore, I couldn’t have my own opinion about a piece of work, and I always had to have my thoughts in-line with those of withered critics or dead authors.

There was no space for creativity. It was shut down with hammer and fist… Well, not really, just with F-s and F-s. Good thing I didn’t grow up in those times when they’d beat you up with a stick or make you kneel on corn for the duration of the class.

The system made me disgusted at literature, poetry and writing. Most was done on paper as well, and nobody taught me structure, as probably they believed I can teach myself such if I wanted to.

My toughest forte was the English language upon which I held good control of, nevertheless, I found out I was extremely incompetent as time moved on with new knowledge flooding in.

I’ve probably read more than 3,000 pages worth of literature in less than 5 months, a bibleworth, and my mind found beauty within it all, fueled by enthusiasm’s energy.

I started with fanfiction, since it could boost my start into this strange unknown. I didn’t understand the legality, but I didn’t care, since there was no profit to be gained from such, only raw beam of emotions. Even if it’s classified as fanfiction, it isn’t any different than standard fiction.

The first chapter of my fanfiction? I didn’t know what the hell I was doing! I didn’t know how to structure dialogue or paragraphs, I didn’t know what to write in the dialogues and I didn’t know what my goal was, but I knew I wanted to keep writing because I was making something. I could feel excitement with every sentence finished.

And it was convoluted…

I didn’t know about capitalization, advanced punctuation, dependent/independent clauses, character/plot development, types of narrative and more of lots. And even so, that did not stop me from loudly forging on.

During these 2 years I’ve learned a lot, I’ve written more than 400,000 words, which is the equivalent of 1,200+ pages. I’ve also read fiction of established and successful authors, which I’d contrast to how my own work is structured and edited. My editing experience was of the size of my work plus other projects I had undertaken with other authors, which now amounts for more than 700 000+ words.

I developed structure for learning new information and storage for later use. I created sheets for keeping track of what’s going on, how many words were in a chapter, while calculating how many pages that actually was. I do agree most of my time was invested in creating these structures, as I had a goal to be a multi-functional Swiss Army Knife.

Such is still my goal, and I’m climbing strong.

Remember, if you’re replaceable, then you need to keep learning. And after you become irreplaceable? Well, why would you stop there? I wouldn’t!

None of this should discourage you, as it’s my example of what I’ve achieved through the perseverance of my efforts, which I, a normal person, have managed to do. Therefore, you can accomplish the same results, if not even grander and more magnificent to those of my labor!

There’s nothing stopping you from achieving betterment and exploring the realm of creativity. The barrier before you is that of your insecurities and lack of confidence within the self. Stop thinking of how’d you look or if what you’d write would be weak, use that as motivation to ignite your need to do better and climb the ladder of writing’s craftsmanship.

‘Everyone can be anything’ is the moto of Zootopia, and I do think there’s some truth in it, as long as one sticks to the objective reality. The objective reality is that you can be a writer, and nothing is stopping you from trying, only your own misplaced fears which need be crushed to a juiceless pulp.