We have it pretty easy in the modern world, right?

In many ways, this is the golden age of writing. We have more opportunities than ever before to publish our work and impact other people with our words.

Yet at the same time, it’s also a challenging time for writers. Why? Because there are so many options for writing and publishing that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and paralyzed by all the possibilities.

As a person of faith, I grew up learning about the Ten Commandments. These are the rules that governed God’s people in the Old Testament, and in many ways, they have formed the basis of ethical behavior in human culture for thousands of years.

The helpful thing about having a set of commandments is that it simplifies things. You have a clear idea about what is right and wrong. Those guidelines govern your behavior and eliminate your options.

What if there was something similar for writers? Something like a code… or perhaps a set of commandments… that could guide our behavior and show us clearly what is most important?

You’re in luck because I have put together such a list. Of course, these commandments are not original to me. These principles have been practiced by writers, and all successful creatives, in one way or another for a long time. However, it’s helpful to have these collected in one place.

I believe you can go to the bank on these commandments. If you practice them consistently, you WILL be successful as a writer. These are the principles I try to follow in my own writing, as well as my ghostwriting business. But they will also help you, no matter what type of writing you do.

Commandment #1: Embrace your identity as a writer.

The #1 problem that stops most people from writing has nothing to do with talent or ability. It has nothing to do with a lack of time or opportunities. But it has EVERYTHING to do with them not believing they are a writer.

When you stop and think about it, this is kind of crazy. The average person can easily write 1,000 words a day between text messages, emails, social media, and other communication in their everyday life. Yet when it comes to writing a short blog post of 500 words, or even something like a longer book chapter, they don’t believe they are talented enough.

Success as a writer has very little to do with talent. Instead, it has everything to do with seeing yourself as a writer, then putting in the work on a regular basis. That’s pretty much it. If you write… by definition, you’re a writer.

I have recently been training for a half marathon. I guarantee that when I do the race in a few weeks, I will be in the bottom ten or fifteen percent. I’m slow. I’m not in as good a shape as most of the other runners. But I’m going to get out there and do it. And most importantly, I’m going to finish!

I AM a runner. I’m slow and there is lots of room for improvement, but I still embrace my identity as a runner. Why? Because I’m running. I’m putting in the work every week to train and prepare. And that makes me a runner.

So, if you write, you can proudly call yourself a writer.

Commandment #2: Don’t compare yourself to other writers.

You can make a lot of mistakes as a writer and still be successful. But one of the mistakes that will kill both your enthusiasm AND your success is constantly comparing yourself to others.

Granted, it’s almost impossible not to do this as a writer. After all, it’s human nature to compare ourselves. And social media has made it impossible not to notice other people’s success in writing. Whenever you see a friend hit a bestseller list or launch a new book, it’s hard not to feel jealous.

But that negative energy doesn’t really help you with your own goals, does it? When you focus on what you lack, that negative mental energy only slows you down and makes you feel bad about yourself.

Worse yet, what you see on social media is only a small part of other people’s lives. When you see a successful book launch, you’re only seeing the highlight reel. You don’t see the months—or even years—of hard work that went into the making of that book.

So instead of feeling jealous, let other writers’ success spur you on to your own achievements. You’re not on the same journey as they are. You have your own journey with writing. There is no point in comparing yourself because you either end up feeling bad about yourself, or you feel prideful because you seem to be doing better than someone else. Both of those will take you off course.

Commandment #3: Take action on what you learn.

A few months ago, I cleaned out my home office. Over the last few years, I had printed off thousands of pages of free PDFs, e-books, seminar and workshop notes, and other material that I thought would help me with my business and writing.

Truth be told, I used very little of it. Most of it was great material taught or written by leaders worth following. But it was too much information. WAY too much. For several years, I fell prey to the curse of knowledge. I was accumulating way too much knowledge and was putting very little of it into practice.

Maybe you have done this also. It’s very easy to do! There is so much great information out there that it’s almost impossible not to have a constant stream of it coming into your podcast player or inbox.

Here is the key: the next time you listen to or read something helpful, figure out if it’s something you should take action on. Then do it. It’s a pretty simple concept that will work wonders for your writing or your business.

This may sound counter-intuitive, but I also encourage you to delete or unsubscribe to things that are not helping on your journey right now. Too much information can absolutely paralyze and confuse you. Trust me, I’ve been there! And I’m still there, sometimes.

When I cleaned out my office, I literally filled up our roll-off trash can with those printed notes. It was crazy. But it was so freeing being able to discard the material that wasn’t helpful to me right now in my journey. Don’t be afraid to do the same thing.

Commandment #4: Make time to read every day.

This probably seems contradictory to the last point. Didn’t I just say that you should stop accumulating so much knowledge, and instead focus on putting it into practice?

Yes, I did. But here is the key: you need to read often, and read widely, in order to figure out what is helpful. If you want to be more creative, and you want to be a deeper thinker, you have to fill your creative well. Let me address two quick things on this point of reading.

First, what should you read? I recommend having two books going at any given time: one for education, and one for pleasure. Right now, I’m reading a book by the world-renowned copywriter Dan Kennedy on marketing. I’m also re-reading the excellent book The River of Doubt by Candice Millard. This is the story of Teddy Roosevelt’s journey down an uncharted river in South America after he lost the election for a third term in office. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.

Of course, you can develop your own system, but having two different books going at once works well for me.

Second, how should you read? I have one rule to help me read a lot: I always have a book with me. Whatever I’m reading, I take it with me everywhere, and I mean everywhere. You never know when you’re going to have a few minutes here or there to read. You can get a lot of reading done that way.

However you approach reading, make sure you read at least a few minutes every day. Those few minutes of filling your mind with good material will pay off hugely. After all, if you want to write books, you must first be a person who reads them.

Commandment #5: Write every day.

Now let’s get something clear for a moment. When I say the phrase, “Write every day,” it’s the kind of phrase where people ask, “Do you mean actually write every day?”

And yes, I mean write something every day. But what am I suggesting that you write? Here is my definition: write something that advances your goals as a writer. That can include material for your blog, book, podcast, or some other type of content that helps you reach your goals. But it can also be just writing in your journal.

Now, whether you include weekends, or whether you actually do it every day, is completely up to you. But I liken this to someone who is trying to live a healthy lifestyle. If you want to be healthy, you eat healthy every day, not just when you feel like it.

So the real question is, “How healthy do you want to be as a writer?” If you want to be in tip-top shape, I encourage you to write every day, preferably the first thing in the morning when your mind is fresh, before you have started checking email and getting into the details of the day.

Commandment #6: Edit what you write.

This is an easy step to skip because we feel pressed for time. We just want to get our work out there without the hassle of carefully reading it over, running it through editing software, or having someone else help us with editing.

I recently took my wife to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse for our 25th wedding anniversary. It was the most expensive meal I’ve ever purchased. The bill was over $200 for two people, including the tip. But the service, the food, and the setting all reflected the fact that we were in a fancy restaurant.

On the other hand, I can think of times when I’ve gone through the McDonald’s drive-through and gotten a cheeseburger, and it was just thrown together in a hurry. Even though the contents of the burger might be fine, the presentation was not so great.

This is the difference between writing that has been edited and writing that hasn’t. When you edit your writing, you are taking care to make sure your grammar, punctuation, spelling, and overall content are as good as you can make it. It doesn’t necessarily mean you need to hire an editor for everything you write, but it does mean we should take the baseline steps to ensure that whatever we publish is excellent.

I recommend, at the very least, re-reading your material a couple of times and running your writing through Grammarly, as well as doing a spell-check. Those are free and very simple ways to improve your writing.

Commandment #7: Publish what you write.

I don’t necessarily mean publish every single thing you write. That’s not realistic. For example, I don’t publish anything from my personal journal. But if you write something you intend for other people to read, edit it and then publish it.

This may seem like a silly commandment. After all, why would someone write a blog post, podcast content, or even a whole book… and yet never publish it? The answer is that we get scared of what others will think. We believe it’s not good enough. We wonder if we have any talent to begin with.

I confess that I have done this. In fact, there are at least two full-length books I wrote a few years ago that have never seen the light of day. So, I’m working through that material now to try and figure out the best strategy for publishing it, or re-working it.

This is more common than you think. There are many people who have written screenplays, books, speeches, and other material that they simply didn’t publish. They ran out of steam and just gave up. It’s easy to do.

So, this is my challenge to take what you have written and publish it somewhere so that it can help others. You’ve heard that saying, “If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?” Here’s a related saying: “If you write a book but never publish it, does it have any value?”

Yes, there is some value in going through the exercise of writing. There is always value in writing, no matter what it is. But imagine how much more valuable your words can be if you publish them, if you give those words an opportunity to inspire, educate, or entertain others.

Commandment #8: Do what scares you.

Think about some of the important achievements in human history. These would include Amelia Earhart flying solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbing Mount Everest, Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon, Magellan setting sail around the world, and many thousands of others who faced their fears and took action anyway.

You and I are no different. We have challenges and scary things staring us right in the face every single day. You can probably think of something that intimidates you as a writer. Is it setting up a website? Publishing a book? Pitching an article to a large publication? Writing and publishing a short story?

Whatever is it, run toward it. If you want to do it, but you feel scared, that is your subconscious mind telling you it must be done, no matter how you feel about it.

If you only do what feels comfortable, you won’t make any progress. You won’t grow. Progress and growth are predicated on the act of doing what scares you. So, put on your big boy or big girl pants and start moving forward. You’ll figure it out as you go along. And as soon as you overcome this challenge, there will be a bigger one waiting just behind it.

Commandment #9: Learn from other successful writers.

When it comes to dealing with successful writers, we commonly have two different responses. We dismiss their success as dumb luck, or we ignore them because their success reinforces our own insecurity. If you have ever responded this way, don’t feel bad. Every creative person on the planet has felt this way at times.

Our natural creative pride makes it hard to put ourselves in a learning position. But that is the only way we can grow.

A major key to success is putting yourself in the orbit of other successful writers. This can include people whom you’ll never meet, as well as people you can develop a personal relationship with.

Let’s take two examples. Stephen King and another writer you know personally who is more successful than you. Chances are pretty slim that you will ever be able to convince Stephen King to mentor you personally. However, there are plenty of interviews and articles about his writing habits and approach to storytelling. You can learn from all of these.

But even more powerful is the writer you get to know personally. Invite them out to lunch, have them as a guest on your podcast, subscribe to their newsletter and develop a dialogue with them, or join their course or mastermind. You will be amazed at the openness other successful writers have in sharing their strategies and what they have learned from their failures.

This is the exact reason I continue to pay to be a part of masterminds, courses, retreats, and conferences. I invest in myself because my future success depends on it. So many writers aren’t willing to invest time or money into their creativity or business. But when you do, you’ll immediately set yourself apart and get yourself on the fast track to more success.

Commandment #10. Teach what you know.

This is a corollary to the previous point about learning from other successful writers. In the same way, you must help other writers be more successful. There are plenty of people in your orbit who would love to achieve your level of success, whatever that might be.

Even if your only level of experience is starting a blog, there are plenty of writers who would love to learn how to do that. Don’t dismiss your skills just because they seem common. If you’ve taken time to build or create something, you can teach it to someone else.

It doesn’t mean you have to label yourself as a teacher or set yourself up as some big expert. It just means that you’re sharing what you have learned. You can do this on social media, your blog, an email newsletter, speaking engagements, and so many other ways.

A simple but powerful way to help other writers is to host a weekly mastermind call. I have been a part of a writer’s mastermind group for years. Each week, we meet on Zoom and talk about our successes and challenges. That weekly meeting has an amazing way of encouraging my spirit.

It also helps the other writers because they have challenges of their own. The whole idea of a mastermind is to bring together like-minded people to help each other solve your problems. I can’t begin to tell you how many times over the years that a mastermind has helped me push through a problem or obstacle.

And many times, the obstacle isn’t somewhere out there… it’s in my own head. I’m my own worst enemy. But when I help other people, it gets the focus off myself and reminds me that I do have some things to teach others. If you have a brain and you can write words, you can teach others.

There you have it: ten commandments for writers. Again, these are not unique to me. But having them collected like this can help you focus on what is most important in your growth as a writer.

Let’s review the list again:

• Commandment #1: Embrace your identity as a writer.
• Commandment #2: Don’t compare yourself to other writers.
• Commandment #3: Take action on what you learn.
• Commandment #4: Make time to read every day.
• Commandment #5: Write every day.
• Commandment #6: Edit what you write.
• Commandment #7: Publish what you write.
• Commandment #8: Do what scares you.
• Commandment #9: Learn from other successful writers.
• Commandment #10. Teach what you know.

I challenge you to choose two of these commandments and put them into practice over the next two weeks. Feel free to email me at kent@dailywriterlife.com. I’d love to hear about your success!