Why it took me 20 years to write my first post, and how you can do it in 20 minutes.

Part of me has always wanted to be a writer. I loved writing as a child, I have written for newsletters and magazines at school and work, and my mind fills up with brilliant(?) new ideas for novels, comedies and self-help books several times a week. I love the experience of sitting down at a keyboard with no distractions and letting words appear, creating something that never existed before. I have started four novels two non-fiction books and a sitcom.

Nearly twenty years ago I signed up for a writing course (never really started it) and ten years ago I even went so far as to hire a writing coach to hold me accountable. That helped me get the outline of a novel and a first chapter produced, but then I stalled again. So I had never shared my writing, and was even scared to tweet, comment or even “like” something on social media. This is what I think was stopping me:

· The thought that people might laugh at me.

· Other people thinking I had no right to share my opinions.

· My friends discussing it with each other — “did you see what Simon wrote?”

· A feeling this will somehow come back to haunt me.

All of these are driven by fear. And irrational fear. I realised I had created a story in my mind that was stopping me from doing what I really wanted. And it turns out I’m not alone And then it struck me, if I could create a story that was a complete fantasy, that was strong enough to hold me back from doing what I wanted, then I must be a pretty good story-teller. And if I could influence myself, perhaps I could influence other people.

But I didn’t want to tell them the story that I had been telling myself. I wanted to share a positive story, one that would help, not hold back. And then, somehow, I’m not quite sure how, I stumbled across Tim Denning

Tim has been there, done that, and one of his emails managed to push me over the edge. It was a blunt admonition to JFDI

And contained 5 simple steps.

Step 1: Go to “Medium.com” and click “Get Started”

Step 2: On the next screen, click “Write”

Step 3: Go through all the mandatory sign up steps

Step 4: Start writing

Step 5: Add some tags and publish.

The same day I had gone from never having published anything, to putting something out there. It didn’t change anything overnight, but it got me started, and if you need a nudge to do what you always wanted to do, or even a kick up the backside just to take some action, I can recommend Tim. It got me started, which is the hardest part, and the rest is down to me.