Who would have thought negativity could help you? I’ve often blogged about how negativity damages your writing career, but it’s often difficult to stop those whispers in your head.
How many times have you had that little voice telling you that you’ll never get a client no matter how many people you email? How often have you said to yourself that your writing is too poor to stand a chance in the world of freelancing?
Yes, it’s time to stop those thoughts, but it’s also time to use your negativity to help your writing career. Is that really possible? Of course it is! Here are three ways to use it right now.
Find Areas to Improve
We’re not perfect. No matter how long we’ve been writing online, there are new things to learn and mistakes to make.
This can seem like something bad to say, but it can also work out in your favor. It gives you a chance to learn and adapt. You can improve your writing abilities, and increase your chances of getting hired by your dream clients.
I often go through old posts and the most recent ones. I’ll look at areas that I have improved but where still needs work. That way, I’m focusing on some positives as well as giving myself some constructive criticism.
If you struggle to critic your own work, you can always hire beta readers to help you. I’ve found this helpful for my fictional works, where I’m a little closer to emotionally.
Work Out Why You Feel Negative
Why is your inner voice telling you that you can’t do something? It’s important to give these thoughts some time—just not too much. The time you want to give them is to work out what you’re feeling, why you’re feeling them and how you can overcome them.
As you do this, you have something to work on. This isn’t necessarily going to be something to work on in your writing. You have something personal to work on, so you can become a more productive and happier person in life as well as in your writing.
It’s not always easy to listen constructively to your bad thoughts. I find that writing things down and looking at each feeling one at a time to delve into them works better for me.
Share Your Experiences
When blogging, you will often give your personal experiences at the same time as offering tips and advice. Just look at this post for example. I’ve shared what you can do and how I do it to give you an example.
Sharing your experiences is a powerful way to get your message across. When it comes to negative emotions, you can share these and then let people know what you’re going to do to overcome them or how you managed to fight back.
This is something I do on a regular basis. It also means that I have something to look back over if the negative thoughts creep back in now and then; and they do, even though I’ve been writing online for the last six years!
So, it’s time to use your negativity to fuel your writing. It really can help, as long as you do it properly. Hopefully my tips will help you become a better writer.
Have you found a way to make negativity work for you? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below. And if you feel like this post has helped you, I’d really appreciate a share on social media to help others use their negativity to help their writing careers.
