Not sure if you should write that blog— Begin anyways

#motivation #writing

Have you been procrastinating just because you do not feel confident enough?

If yes, then this post is for you. I am here to tell you, to motivate you, to push you to get started anyways. Do not bother about the results, just go for it.

Getting started

Getting started is the hardest part, it often feels intimidating and challenging.

Trust me, almost every writer once faced such doubts. But it did not stop them from publishing their thoughts, their experiences, their knowledge. And it should not stop you too.

Start small and be consistent. You do not need to have a perfect or unique topic to start your blog. Pick a topic you are comfortable with and list down all the points you want to share on that topic. It doesn't have to be even full sentences in the first try. Write down whatever comes to your mind, whatever you know about the topic. And then reiterate. Re-read the points, try to create sentences out of those points, try to relate it in a sequential manner. Re-edit and re-read it. How do you feel? You can ask your friends and family to proofread it for you and work on feedback if you resonate with it.

After a few iterations, you should just publish it. Overthinking about the content will only lead to more anxiety and lesser confidence to publish it. I do that, when I feel I am re-reading it too many times when it already looks readable, I just go ahead and hit the Publish button.

Is the content simple?

If you think the content is simple, I think that is a positive point. Because different people around the world are going to read it, and it must be clear and simple to be understandable for a broad audience.

I personally ask my brother (who has no background of the topics which I write) to review my beginner-friendly articles before publishing. This is because I want to understand how it will sound to the reader who might have no previous background of the topic, or who are just getting started with it.

Now, your topic might be for a selective audience, or for experienced people. In that case, you can choose someone compatible to the potential audiences to review it for you. That is a personal choice with so many options around it, choose what makes you more confident about publishing that article.

My motivation

My motivation to start writing my first ever technical article was a tech talk I signed up to deliver. I was very nervous and was quite confused about what to cover in the talk. So I started listing down topics and explanations with examples which turned out into a 4 part article on the topic — Unit testing React and Redux. You can find the series here if interested. I still refer to it when I need to check on some points.

Remember writing articles is a two-way learning process. It benefits the readers and it also benefits the writer. When you are writing something to share, you research it and create examples to showcase. When you write a lot, you read a lot, you explore new concepts, and hence your understanding of that topic enhance and it increases your confidence and expertise.

This is true for all kinds of articles. What makes you feel motivated? How do you maintain your positive vibes? How did you get started with the job that you are doing? How did you prepare for that exam or that interview? What made you keep moving even when you thought of giving up?

Topics are all around us, each of our lives and life experience is unique in their own beautiful way. You just have to find what you want to talk about and then go share it with the world if you want.

For example, this article is my first one dedicated to motivation. And a week ago I could never have thought about writing such a thing. But then, a friend called me for suggestions on how to get started to write. She shared that she had some topic in mind for a long time but never felt motivated enough to start writing. We had a long chat with a positive outcome in end (She said yes to start writing the article). It felt so good. Before that, I never really thought about the impact of my articles.

Hence, this came as a huge motivation to me and I thought of writing an article on this.

There might be many other people struggling with the same situation, what if this article reaches them and can motivate them to start writing. If even one person gets motivated after reading this, it’s a huge win for me.

The world is ready to welcome you, so what are you waiting for?

Advantages of writing articles:

It helps the writer attain a deeper knowledge of that topic which benefits them directly.
It helps readers who were interested in that topic or who were facing the same issue which you explained how to fix or overcome in the article.
It gives us a sense of giving back to the community and feeling of belongingness and satisfaction.
It also builds your brand and can help significantly in your career.
It gives you a broader reach, the world is the limit (unless we discover extraterrestrial life, then we might have even broader reach😜)
You might meet like-minded people, and have a rich discussion on the topics you love. Make friends and relations for life.
You might get opportunities to grow and also get financial benefits. What if you are the author of that next-selling book? You don't know it until you explore it.
You never know who you might be motivating and empowering through your articles.

Conclusion

How many times a day we google for issues we encounter? Well, I search pretty frequently and I read a lot of blogs. Now imagine if those blogs would never be published just because the author did not feel it was worth it. How would you have solved that issue, or how would you have learned about that concept then.

Consider this as the trigger point. Everyone has a different perception and a different way of explaining. What if your article is THE ONE that helps the reader?

Someone somewhere would be thankful for the article you wrote, even if you do not know about it yet. So start writing already.