Writing Tips I’ve Learned That Might Help You Too!

As you can see by the length of time between this post and the last, I haven’t used my blog all that much.  I’m not the type to ramble on about my personal life in a public forum, and I’m not sure about sharing parts of my book in a place where just anyone can see it. 

Recently I began taking part in a creative writing class at the Veteran’s Hospital.  I’ve also been listening to more and more writing podcasts, and am currently enrolled in an English 1 class at City College.  Through these I’ve found some interesting and helpful things that have improved my writing skills.  So at long last I have something to put here in my blog.  After all, a blog shouldn’t just be interesting to me, it should be interesting to the person reading it as well.

Tip #1:  Get It Down on Paper first, then edit later.

The first step to writing is writing.  That sounds silly but if an idea stays in your brain, it’s not available for someone else to read.  A daydream doesn’t do anyone any good except the person who’s having it right?  So write it down.  Don’t worry about editing your work at first.  Just get your thoughts onto the page or computer screen, let the creativity flow until the work is done.  Then go back and edit.  If your edit as your go, you’ll constantly be going back and revising the story and making little changes, trying to make it perfect, and in the end you’ll never really get anywhere.   Finish the story, even if your chop it up into a million pieces and rebuild it later on, you still have achieved something and will feel better about it. 

That’s not to say that as you’re typing you can’t go back in the sentence and fix a typo, that’s fine.  I’m talking about starting from page 1 of 20 pages and going through and making changes.  If you figure out along the way that an earlier event needs to be changed, make a note of it and go back to it when you are done.   Remember, the first draft doesn’t necessarily need to make sense to anyone but you.  So if your story changes on page 25, and you know you have to make changes on page 5 for it to work, that’s okay, you’re in control and can fix it later.   Get to the last page, take a break, then go to your notes and start your editing.

Reference:

The Secrets Podcast by Michael A Stackpole:  www.michaelastackpole.com

Shitty first drafts by Anne Lamott from Bird by Bird