You hate writing because no one taught you well - 3 bad teachers we encounter

If you're like I was a few years ago, you hate writing.

You've never enjoyed it.

I'm such a passionate advocate for good written skills only because I didn't care for it 4 years ago.

Now, I believe that the only reason we hate writing is because we were never taught well enough.

Here are the 3 types of writing teachers we encounter and how they fail to teach us the right way:

1. Teachers at School

You've probably learnt writing in school.

And yet, so much of what school teaches you is worse than useless. It hurts you in real life. You need to unlearn so much if you want to write meaningful things in real life.

Here are some of the things that school made you do in order to get respectable grades:

• You wrote what was prescribed instead of what you wanted. You never realized that you write your best when you write about something that you are excited about.

• You followed minimum word limits. Whereas, the real world has maximum word limits - the key is to convey your message in as few words as possible.

• You followed rigid formats for "creative" writing. There was a format for essays, formal letters and even, informal letters! Well, guess what? Nobody likes it when you are formulaic and everyone loves being surprised.

• You wrote an introductory paragraph before you made your point. Whereas, in the real world, your first sentence needs to grab the reader. Nobody has the time to read an introduction to your main content.

No one told you that too much focus on getting good at school can actually do you harm.

2. Teachers in the online writing courses

Every other writing course on Udemy or platforms like it, promises to make you an author or a professional blogger.

Oh, that dream of writing like a pro and monetising your words!

But wait, most of us don't aspire to be a professional writer. You probably want to be an excellent programmer, a data scientist, a great manager or a successful entrepreneur. Don't you?

By connecting an incredibly useful skill with a dreamy aspiration, those guides miss the point of writing well.
Learning to write well is about learning to convey your thoughts to others.

Explaining things is an art. It is the art of getting your argument across. You cannot hope to learn that in a vaccum. Writing allows you to practice this art.

So good news, writing well can give you a leg up, no matter what profession you are in.

"Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success. Successwise, you’re better off being good at two complementary skills than being excellent at one."

• Scott Adams

Writing well is the extra skill that can double your odds of success.

3. New-age writing gurus

Today, there are a lot of inspiring developers who strongly advocate for the benefits of writing online. They advise their followers to start and maintain a blog.

Although well-meaning, these writing gurus only have vague advice for newcomers - like "just publish that first article" and "publish something every week".

That is scary, Level-5 advice.

It fails to empathise with the overwhelmed writing newbies. It does nothing to address hurdles like -

• Finding the confidence to capture your thoughts
• Unschooling yourself
• Empathising with the reader
• Understanding the need for rewriting
• Understanding the cost of being thorough
• Unlearning the fanciness of fancy words
• Dealing with a lack of ideas
• Dealing with a lack of motivation

No wonder, it doesn't work for a vast majority of newbies - it is meant for people already on the 4th Level!

When you're starting, you need advice on finishing Level 1.

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That is exactly what I intend to deliver here.

I am publicly reposting some of the lessons from my writing course that takes you from Level 1 to Level 5, one at a time.

At each level, I will address the hurdles of that level and give you advice on how you can overcome it.

So, follow me to get the notifications as I publish more.

Also, if you would like to get these lessons delivered to your email, one per week, sign up here. I'm giving them away for free!

Comments

[𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️]

They advice their followers to start and maintain a blog.

It took me a while to figure out why this caught my eye as feeling "wrong". Advice is a noun: They give advice to their followers. The corresponding verb, while it sounds exactly the same, is advise: They advise their followers.

[Nityesh Agarwal]

Yep that's right. Thanks for pointing it out! :)

[Nityesh Agarwal]

Journaling rocks!

It is:

• the perfect way to start your writing journey
• also a great way to maintain a steady stream of ideas that you're passionate about and that can make for a great article someday