Recently, I have been writing a lot of blogs as part of a Communications class I’ve been taking to improve my marketing skills. While not all of my blog posts thus far have been winners, I must say that I’ve felt a greater sense of accomplishment with the number of posts I’ve been able to write, as well as impressed with the range of subjects I’ve been able to write about. It’s forced me to get out of my comfort zone and build on my portfolio of written works beyond the novels that I so desperately want to promote over any other content I could be creating.

Back when I was an undergrad at Utah Valley University (UVU) majoring in creative writing, I was told by one of my professors that the best way to become a great writer was to simply write and keep on writing with no impulse to edit. It didn’t matter if I had read the latest books on the techniques of fiction writing or if I had come up with a great concept for a story. I had to write every thought that came to me and not worry about whether it was perfect or grammatically correct because, according to my professor, my writing was going to suck in the beginning. So I did just that by writing the first draft of my debut novel, and, guess what: he was right; my writing did suck in the beginning. Though the potential for a great epic fantasy did exist within the pages of that rough draft, it was still a jumbled mess of words that needed a lot of refining when you went back and read it.

My point in sharing this anecdote is to relate my past writing experiences to this weeks-long blogging exercise and demonstrate how the principle is the same in both instances. Much like my fiction writing skills improved as I continued to write and revise the book I had written at UVU, so did my blogging skills as I continued to write three blog posts every week for twelve consecutive weeks. Like any talent, writing requires time and consistent effort to master, and once you make your peace with that, the process becomes relatively easy to endure. Looking back on all the time I’ve invested in it, I can say with absolute certainty that I am a better communicator—and an overall more refined individual—because of my passion for the art and my commitment to being better than I am.

In conclusion, blogging has been a worthwhile experience for me and will continue to serve my professional development long after the class has ended. I used to think that writing was difficult, that you had to have everything thought out before you could start typing everything that needed to be written up for any given project or assignment. That is simply not the case. Sometimes, the best and most insightful thoughts come when you are engaged in the process of writing, as your mind is engaged in ways that it is not when you are merely sitting and thinking. It just goes to show that you can’t claim to be a writer if you don’t make it a practice to write on a regular basis.