Self Reflection

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English: Self Reflection

Writing is a complex skill and a way of sharing our ideas, to get better ideas, and to nurture ourselves. Some people are born with a flair for writing, given a topic they take seconds to come up with best of the work, they write without any effort and quickly, whereas, most of us put a lot of time, energy and years of effort yet we struggle to get noticed.

During August, my writing skills were not as polished as they are now. Most often, I felt like expressing myself, but then I found myself short of ideas, I got into trouble finding the right words onto the page. I wanted the piece to be perfect, I kept it in drafts, and after some time, I lost the interest and motivation to complete it. I did not know how to come up with stuff that the awesome and perfect writers write. After a lot of practice and hard work today, I am able to present my ideas clearly on a piece of paper. I try reading books and articles that best match my desired style of writing. I have come to realize that prolific writing does not come from the first draft, but a lot of revisions and best writers are not writers at all; they’re communicators and storytellers.

Most of the improvement and growth has occurred in reading and improving grammar. I expose myself to the literature on a regular basis. This means that I am always on a research mode, discovering authors and topics they’ve written about, creating lists of what to read for the month and even the year, going to the library and making trips to the bookstore a weekly habit, then carving out time to sit down in a quiet corner and absorb the world written on the pages. I read with a pen or pencil in hand so I can take notes, write down passages or quotes, and add page numbers for future reference. The more I read, the more I learn and write my thoughts.

The area where I still need some practice and improvement is avoiding criticism. Whenever someone points out that he does not like my stuff, I get worried and forget that I should write whatever I like. Criticism of work sometimes seems like a personal attack, but criticism—especially when coming from critique partners, agents, and editors—is a vital part of the process. Acceptance of constructive criticism, learning from it, and using it to make my writing better is what I am practicing and trying to improve.

The most beneficial things that I learned were to practice writing every day. In order to polish our writing skills, we kept on writing and creating stories and essays on different genres. The best thing learned was that writing is a road that consists of its own sets of speed bumps—isolation, loneliness, rejection—but the benefits of this skill are endless and excellent. There were times when I felt hopeless with words and ideas, but today I am very well polished and improved. I am now able to put my feelings on a piece of paper and convey them to the reader effectively and easily. My grammar skills are much improved than before, and English does not seem like a challenge to me. Writing is a mode of conversing ideas or thoughts to others. Readers should feel connected by our portrayal to feel interested. Writers have the responsibility of delivering the message clearly to the reader such that it represents their views as well as invoke the readers to think likewise or incite criticism.