7 Killer Writing Tips to smooth your writing journey
15.9.16"Writing is a noble profession pursued by the most imaginatively open creatures on earth. "
Yeah, that came off a bit cheesy. Anyway, it is true that it takes years to hone the skills needed to become a good writer. Which is the same story for attaining other type of creative wizardry. So how do you embark on this journey of writing your first book?
Here I am just going to scrape off writing wisdom from some of the world's most well known writers, and give it to you in 7 small scoops. Whenever you are writing just come back to these 7 tips. I promise they will assist you.
1) Catching the ideas as they come
Ideas, many a times, take birth from the most insignificant places. Sometimes, from nothingness. Note down every single idea your brain conjures, then and there. Ideas just come to you, you don't have to search for them like Pokemon GO.
Everyone I know carries their phone everywhere including their toilet seats. So your 'carrying-a-notebook' part is taken care of. Start dumping you ideas in there every time you catch one. And take a glance inside your idea trove once a while. You will be surprised.
2) Close the door initially
"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. " says Stephen King.
You first write with the door closed, meaning, you write first for yourself , so 'you' understand your story. No one's gonna read that but you.
The pressure of writing beautiful words and putting down a story simultaneously is too much. So just scribble down your thoughts in your messiest language without caring about flow, rhythm or art. It would take a week, or it would take 6 months, depending on what you are writing, but try to get over this part fast. This is the first draft.
The pressure of writing beautiful words and putting down a story simultaneously is too much. So just scribble down your thoughts in your messiest language without caring about flow, rhythm or art. It would take a week, or it would take 6 months, depending on what you are writing, but try to get over this part fast. This is the first draft.
After spitting out the story on paper (or MS Word), feel proud, because now you have won half the war. Or simply, you know what you are going to write. And that is the time you turn the knob and open the door. You rewrite those words you spat on paper in all the glory you intend to give them. You write it for others now, as opposed to the first time when you did it for yourself.
It's a well known story that JK Rowling got the idea for Harry Potter while in a train during a delayed train journey to London. She scribbled it down. Then she spent the next 5 years developing that idea into the huge magic world we know today, filling it with characters we all know and love, outlining the plots for all of the 7 books. This was before she even wrote the first book.Yeah that sounds like real aggressive planning. If planning is in your blood, I'm happy for you. You can jump to the 4th tip.
3) The Plan
But planning isn't in everyone's nature. And there is a big chance that you might be tempted to just sit down and write when an idea strikes. Believe me, that is gonna be a tough road to drive. At the least you need to have a sense if not a clear idea, of what lays ahead for your story
To put it into perspective, "Writing a book is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. " That was El Doctorwo. So, you don't have to know the whole way, but u have to turn on the headlights. Otherwise you are going to hit something.
To put it into perspective, "Writing a book is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. " That was El Doctorwo. So, you don't have to know the whole way, but u have to turn on the headlights. Otherwise you are going to hit something.
4) The best way to stop for the day
Ernest Hemingway has never written anything much about writing prose itself. But he had a knack for giving the most useful and specific advice as far as writing is concerned.
"The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it."
It is of utmost importance for you as a writer to never dry your well of imagination. So the best thing to do is stop for the day exactly when you know what is coming next. Your motivation to write never dies that way. That is more important than completing a specific word count. And who knew Ernest Hemingway had a pill for writer's blocks.
5) Working, like an elf
Googling for writing tips, absorbing the knowledge, and feeling excited is the easiest part of the whole thing. Getting stuck in a rut of just googling is also pretty easy. If you dream of it, there is no other way to achieve it than just getting down and dirty, exhausting yourself and earning the prize yourself.
JK Rowling put a solid eight hours into writing everyday. According to her “Sometimes you have to get your writing done in spare moments here and there.”
So your writing is a job like plumbing is a job or filing papers is. And you have to endure it everyday, even the days you don't feel like it.
Hmm..That was depressing, so let us move to another lighter but killer tip by Ernest Hemingway
6) Never think about it when you're not doing it
Do you always fry your brain thinking about the story when you're not writing? And don't you feel that rarely something comes out of it than just exhausting your idea. So stop thinking about it when you are not actually writing.
“That way your subconscious will work on it all the time, But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.” -Ernest Hemingway
That is one of the most genius tips on writing. I don't even have to elaborate on it further.
7) The Golden Rule
We have reached the final and the most ignored advice on writing. Remember, this tip can override any of the above tips. That is....
"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
Somerset W. Maugham put it perfectly. All the tips here are to assist you. You are the boss, so there are no rules for you and you can bend the tips if you have to. Have fun writing.
Yeah, bye...
