When you have some ideas for writing, but you’re not familiar with the fancy words that writers use. 

Have you ever felt intimidated when you hear writers talk about their craft? I know I have. When I was hosting a live event recently, I realised that I was using some jargon that might not be clear to everyone. Maybe I was confusing them, or worse, making them feel like they don’t belong! Sometimes writers use words that you don’t know, and you start to doubt yourself. That’s not a good feeling!

Learning how to write… as you write!

Sometimes you might feel unsure about your writing skills. Maybe you don’t know when to use an apostrophe, or what some words mean, or how to spell and punctuate correctly. But that’s OK. You don’t have to be perfect to write well. Or maybe you don’t know the technical word for something in writing, simply because you’ve not encountered it before – that’s fine. Even I have to check things sometimes when I forget or get confused. And then there are those days when you have a great idea in your head, but you can’t find the right words to express it. That happens to everyone. Don’t let that stop you from writing, or make you feel bad about yourself. No one is judging you.

Practice makes perfect!

Think of it like this: you get a Marvel comic book as a gift. You don’t have to know everything about the characters before you open it. You just dive into the story and have fun with it. Maybe you’ll get curious and want to learn more about them later. That’s how writing works too. You don’t need to study it first, you just have a go at doing it. You learn as you go along. Don’t they say, every day is a school day?!

There are some things you should learn all about before you start doing them. There are certain jobs or tasks where you will of course need some background knowledge, qualifications – situations where someone might get hurt, or your actions affect others. But writing isn’t like learning to drive, at least not in that way. You’re not going to do any harm by having a go at writing. Maybe you will do it badly to start with, but you can always get better with practice. You can improve the ways you did it the first time around, but by playing about with ideas and making a start, you have already given yourself a great start.

Write what you want to write

So, just ‘doing the thing’ – in this case, writing fiction. If you want to, you can try to do everything by yourself – just start writing and learn as you go, improve your skills, solve problems along the way. Or you might want to join others who are also writing and get their feedback and help – my Book Forge community is a good option, which is all about sitting in the chair, spending time writing, and achieving your writing goals. It’s nice to have people who share your dreams and can give you advice and support. 

Whilst it can be helpful to learn some of the common terms, especially if you want to communicate with other writers, editors, or readers – it’s not a requirement. The important thing is that you are actually doing it. Don’t worry too much about writing jargon. It can be useful, but it’s not a must-have. Write what you want to write, how you want to write it. That’s what matters most.