Unleash Your Inner Genius: How to Be a Writer

Ask a writer how to be a writer and you can bet the superficial answer would be furrowed eyebrows or a scratch on the head. Honestly speaking, how to be someone, how to be a writer, how to be an artist, how to be a mother, is not really defined but lived. That is probably why it is happening in the first place. It is because it is a process that is ongoing in the present moment.

So when you ask someone how to be a writer, they can only recommend a few tools that you can use to guide you in your endeavor to become a writer. These guidance tools may include the following:

1. Think of an idea

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the best-seller Eat, Pray, Love, gave a talk about Ted on fostering creativity and commented that we all “have” a genius. And this genius is always giving each of us ideas. There are some people who believe that the same ideas are given to several people. Those who listen are the ones who bring these ideas to life.

The first guide on how to be a writer is to think of an idea, to capture the gift of genius that is within us. You will be surprised that the only thing that has been bothering you is the very idea that you are destined to bring writing to life.

2. Record the ideas that arise from your original idea.

If your genius gave you an idea, you need to listen a little more and a myriad of other ideas will emerge. Like a tree that suddenly grew millions of branches, your idea gives rise to other ideas and you need to record them.

3. Organize the chain of ideas

Once you’ve gathered the ideas that come from your original idea, organize them. Pruning and trimming takes place. Discard the redundant. Put in order what is important. And behold, you have your skeleton of chapters before your eyes.

4. Write

The ultimate guide on how to be a writer, which is truly an endless step, is to write, write, and write some more. This is where praxis meets theory. And how to do it becomes a process. This is when the way of being a writer becomes real.

How do you write? Do you hear the genius within you? What do you want to write about?