Creative Writing - The 5 Biggest Mistakes To Avoid That Stop You Become A Better Creative Writer

As a creative writer there are many pitfalls that can prevent you being as good a writer as you know you can be.

What start off as simple misconceptions can quickly turn into set beliefs and patterns of behaviour that actually damage your ability to write creatively and freely.

Here are 5 of the most common mistakes to avoid, so you can start to reach YOUR full creative writing potential:

1. Expecting to write perfectly every time. Creative writing is about exploring, learning and enjoying your writing.

By expecting everything you write to be perfect from the first draft, you’re setting yourself up for a great deal of disappointment.

2. The “Weekend Novel” syndrome. Most of us may struggle to READ a novel in a weekend. So why is it we expect to be able to write one in such a short space of time?

Be kind to yourself, if you’re writing a novel, break it down into manageable chunks and give yourself time for your novel to evolve at its natural pace.

3. A limited amount of ideas. Maybe you’re very cautious about how you use your creative writing ideas because you think you’ll only have a certain number of them in your lifetime?

The truth is the more ideas we have, the more ideas we have! Develop the habit of looking for ideas in everything you come across in daily life. Ideas are everywhere, if you’re prepared to open your eyes.

4. Fear of making mistakes. If you write with the pressure on your shoulders that you can’t ever make a mistake, your creative writing will seriously suffer.

It’s ok to rewrite, to edit, even to discard large chunks of writing because they’re not right for this particular project. It’s all part of the creative writing process.

5. “I’ll fit writing in where I can”. If creative writing is way down on your list of priorities after “rearrange my wardrobe in order of colour” and “dismantle and clean the filter on my vacuum cleaner” then it’ll never get done.

Set a fixed amount of time aside at the same time each and every day – a minimum of 15 minutes - and just sit down and write.

Which of these 5 do you recognise and relate to? How can you change your approach today to give your creative writing a better chance of thriving?

Get your creative writing kick started again right now with the FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com.

Creativity Coach and keen creative writer Dan Goodwin helps people who are struggling to be as creative as they know they can be. See more at his website: http://www.CoachCreative.com