The Only Three Things You Need To Do To Improve as a Writer

Are You Serious?

Rejections for 2025 (to date): 52

Stories currently out for submission: 12

Number of stories published so far in 2025: 7

In case you’ve missed them, my two most recent publications are “Shooting for the Moon,” published in FlashFlood, and “Collector’s Items,” published in Neither Fish Nor Foul.

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As Easy as 1, 2, 3

In October of 2020, I wrote a blog post in which I compared running and writing, a comparison that’s still valid for me. The point of the post was to encourage writers to not get too caught up in preconceived ideas of what it means to be a writer. You don’t have to be published to call yourself a writer. You don’t have to have won awards. And you don’t have to maintain a blog or have a specific social media presence.

Because if you write, regardless of any of those things, you’re a writer.

Similarly, I run. But I’m not a fast runner, and I’m never going to break any records. I occasionally sign up for 5k races, but for me, running is simply a form of exercise, something I enjoy doing.

But I can still call myself a runner.

Because I run.

However, I could list a lot of habits I’d have to change if I wanted to be considered a “serious” runner.

But that might be boring. And, in this context, irrelevant.

I am, however, a serious writer.

And last week, I was thinking about what that means, being a “serious writer.” What is a serious writer? What do I do on a daily basis that makes me a serious writer?

What I realized was that there are only three things a serious writer needs to do to improve. And—guess what!—it only takes a few minutes each day to do at least one of these things—and not all need to be done each day. (See my previous post for how you can show up for your writing on a daily basis with very little time commitment.)

Are You Serious?

I’ve recently (with some supportive prodding) decided to start a YouTube channel, and for my first video, I delved into these three habits of serious writers. Watch “Are You Serious? Ways of Being a Serious Writer” to learn what the three things are. (Don’t worry—the video is short!) And if you like what you see/hear, please subscribe—I’ll be adding more videos soon.

Photos from my most recent art lesson. The top photo shows what I was assigned to draw; the bottom photo shows my rendition. This is not meant to be a masterpiece (clearly!); the focus is on learning technique. To get better at running, you need to run. To get better at drawing, you need to draw. And to get better at writing, you need to write! Just remember that practice doesn’t have to be pretty (or publishable).

If you’re a JEK Writes paid subscriber, you can read more about the three things you need to do to improve as a writer below.