To all “aspiring” writers, this is your sign.

Hello everyone, happy 2025! I’m not much of a new years resolution kind of guy but I do set some goals. These are soft goals so if I don’t reach them, I don’t stress too much. My closest goal is to finish writing one of the stories I’ve been working on. This particular post is for those of you that are “aspiring writers”. Yes, I mean you. Writing is hard but you know that. What’s easy is getting a starting point. I’ll give you a few ways to start getting used to writing.

Getting good at something takes practice. Begin writing now. I don’t care what it’s about. It doesn’t matter, it’ll suck and that’s the point. Take a look around and describe what you see. Start by describing your room exactly how it is. Do it in a five to eight sentence paragraph. When you’re finished, write it again. This second time give one item a detailed description.

Do this four times. Each time adding another detailed item. For example, the first has no specific item. The second try has one item. The third has two and so on. Do this all week, once a day. It shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes. By the end of the week you’ll see some progress. Keyword is some. Have patience or you’ll never get there. After two or three weeks of doing this exercise daily, do it mentally. Why? Because most of the work a fiction writer does is mental writing.

The mental exercise is more flexible because you can do it anywhere. Once you’re comfortable doing it, try pushing yourself. Instead of looking at someone attractive and mentally describing that, try something like this: “Her figure could turn a statue’s head.”

I said “she’s hot” but in a much more interesting way. This can be done with anything. If you read then you know what I mean. And again, do this for a few weeks. When you feel confident you go up a level. Go to reddit and search for the subreddit r/writingprompts. People will post a few sentences that’ll start a story, your challenge is to write a short story while following the guideline given.

It’s way easier said than done but it’s a good start. In my next post I’ll give you more exercises and resources too.