Writing tips... for writers
I don’t have a creative writing degree, nor am I a professional writer. I’m just an 18-year-old girl who did really well in my essays at school. Reading that, I just realized that there is no reason whatsoever for you to follow these tips… unless you want to be the best 18-year-old essay writer in your school. Okay, a pretty good 18-year-old essay writer. Okay, fine, average!
Anyway…
Think. I’ve been in many situations where I thought of an idea and then immediately started writing things down, trying to turn it into a story but ended up a few paragraphs in, lost and out of ideas. Every time you think of something, think it through. Think about the idea and the story that will come from it – the plot, the climax, the end, even some of the words you’re going to use. Jot it down and look at it, see if it makes sense… THEN you can start writing.
2. Don’t doubt your ideas. Again, I’ve been in many situations where I was at the ending of my story, done with everything, and I read something else – a book, poem – and thought “wow, this person is really creative; I like that word, maybe I should use it; maybe I should change my characters’ names; my story isn’t as good as this, I’ll just write another one.” It was horrible! I could never be done with anything because I kept comparing everything to everything else. Don’t do that. Trust yourself and trust your work and trust that people will love it. Also trust that there will be another me out there freaking out over your work, trying to change theirs to look like it.
3. Don’t give in to distractions. I’m very lazy; I watch tv a lot, play games, eat and lie around. Okay, let me rephrase that… I’m a teenager. I mean, it’s not a bad thing (no, mom, it’s not), it only becomes bad if you want to write something good. Many times, I find myself opening my laptop while I’m sitting in front of the tv and just staring at a blank page for a whole hour while I sneak a peek at whatever’s playing on tv. Or maybe it was the other way around, maybe I was just watching tv and sneaking peaks at my computer – that makes more sense. Other times, I would open my laptop and then click on the Word icon, then the Solitaire icon and then focus on the one that opens first. Most of the time it’s Solitaire. Point is, get yourself in an environment where you will only focus on your writing.
4. Don’t make your sentences too long. I don’t know if this tip can be verified by professionals, lol, but personally, I like to read the stuff I write out loud to see what it sounds like and if it sounds good. When I do, I don’t like having extremely long sentences where I have to create my own pauses to take a breath or something – it kind of reflects on how the reader would feel while reading that sentence. I feel like it means that if I get tired saying out loud, the reader will get tired of reading it. It will get boring. So shake things up, use your punctuation… correctly.
5. It’s probably not writer’s block, maybe you just need some fresh air. You’ve probably had times where you started writing something and you just stopped along the way because you couldn’t think of anything else. Maybe you got tired or you felt like the idea just wasn’t right or you lost your direction. No? Okay. Well, if you do have one of those moments in the future, it’s probably because your brain is tired. Don’t be too quick to call it writer’s block and give up on everything. Get off your computer and take a walk… or go hook up with someone, for those of you who do that. Change your environment and then go back to your piece, see how you feel about it then.
(Took me five days to finish these five paragraphs because I didn’t follow tips 1, 2, 3 and 5)
Kitso :)