My Tips for Writing (Part 1)

      1) Read. A lot. Reading is our only apprenticeship into the art of writing, and to do that we must do it as often as we possibly can. Read as much as you can, even if you wonder how on earth it got published. Read newspapers, classics, sci-fi, romance, biographies and anything you can get your hands on. Why? It got published, so it’s doing a hell of a lot better than us. Ask yourself why it was published; learn from it. Your stories will grow as a result.             

     

     2) Write. This may seem like simple advice, but it’s surprising how many people don’t adhere to it. If you’re reading this blog post, you’re not writing. You’re procrastinating. Hey, everyone does it. I’m doing it at this minute, writing this blog post. Write every day; get into a habit of doing it. Even if you write 10 words; even if you write a journal entry. It will still count. 

    

     3) Do writing exercises. This follows on from number two. I’ve got a great little book called the Writer’s Book of Matches, and it has hundreds of writing prompts. Writing prompts are great if you’ve got the mysterious “writer’s block” (more on that in a later post) and can’t seem to get those creative juices flowing. Also, they help you take a break from a project that just doesn’t seem to go anywhere.

    

     4)  Plan your writing. This isn’t so much needed for short stories, but a must for novels. People have told me that they’ve given up on a novel because it “wasn’t going anywhere.” The real answer is that they didn’t take it anywhere. If you plan out the large-scale structure of your novel beforehand, it will save you a lot of time staring endlessly at a blank screen or page. To do this I mostly use the Snowflake Method, but you can use whatever works for you.

   

     5)  Have a writer’s group. I cannot stress this enough. It doesn’t matter how you do it; if you meet in person or on the internet or in space. Whatever. Just as long as you have other people that can critique your work. Chances are you’re either too harsh on yourself or too easy on yourself, but either way you’re not going to pick up as many things as another person will. Even if you hate what they tell you, listen to them. You're the writer, so you have the final decision, but you should still listen, because chances are they might be right.

     I'll cover some more topics in my post tomorrow. Do you have any writing tips? If so, share them in the comments below.