by Elton Gahr

Created on: March 31, 2009   Last Updated: April 01, 2009

Anyone who has written more than a few words has had one of those moments when they looked at the page and realised that what they put down isn't good. It's not even that it's poorly written or grammatically incorrect, it's simply not real or authentic or perhaps you just don't like it. You erase it but then as you look down at the paper you realise that you're not sure what you really should write down. This feeling of frustration at not knowing what to do isn't new but there are a few ways to make your writing seem more authentic.

The first of these rules is to care about what you are writing. If you're choosing the subject this shouldn't be all that much of a problem. Choose something you're passionate about to write about. If you love a band write about it, if you hate a movie write about that. The hardest things to write are the things in between because people can tell if you just don't care and not caring is boring.

Second is confidence. The more you know about a subject the more comfortable you will be writing about it, which will show confidence and understanding. If you can't move forward on a subject it's likely time to go back to the books. Find out more about it, make the subject something you understand rather than a few notes on three by five cards.

Next if you want to truly be authentic you have to be willing to offend people. This doesn't mean that you should go out of your way to offend, writing something to be shocking is just as inauthentic as avoiding controversy because you don't want the trouble. Anything worth writing down is going to have two points of view and if it's something that people care about you're probably going to have people who don't like your statement. Who cares. No one ever promised that people could go through life without being offended.

Stop censoring yourself. There is more than enough censorship in the world without writers doing it to themselves. You might be turned down on rare occasion because something you wrote was simply too controversial but if you never write down what you feel not only will your writing be inauthentic it will be bland.

Write for yourself. Stop trying to copy the style of other people and stop trying to write so that they will like it. If you want to be authentic then write down something for yourself. Write the story or article or novel that you would want to read and trust that other people will too. There is nothing more inauthentic than the stories you pick up which are "in the style of".

None of these will guarantee authentic writing, finding the truth and writing it down is never easy, but these few pieces of advice may move a few obstacles out of your way and as you practice them you may also discover that the writing comes easier too.

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