Writing Tips
I’ve been writing for a while, and over the years, I’ve made most of the writing mistakes. As a result, I’ve had to find a book, a webinar, a course or a youtube video to help me figure out what exactly I’m doing wrong. Here I’ll cover some tips I’ve learned, either because it’s relevant to my current writing or because something I learned on the way, struck me while writing.
Tip #1: One size does not fit all.
What works for someone else may not work for you and that’s okay. You aren’t doing anything wrong. There are many ways to write a story, many ways to get into it, many ways to revise it. You have to find your own way. This for me translated in to trying everything I learned and having an amazing epiphany that this was a fantastic piece of advice or, oh dear, this made everything worse. Throw out what makes it worse. Keep the positive epiphanies. But most important, keep learning new ways, and experimenting until you find your way. That way will be best for you. A hodgepodge of writing tools. One set does not fit all, and that’s okay. Find your set and use it.
Tip #2: Write fast, revise slowly.
You only know your story when you get to the end of the first draft. Revision is where the real writing happens. Resist the urge to revise. Get your story down quickly, then take time to consider your story elements. Don’t be afraid to throw away elements and scenes. That’s normal. You need to re-envision your story here. Don’t be afraid to do it. Take your time to see your story and scenes from different angles. Look at what might be under the surface. What scene could up the stakes, show more character development. Don’t rush it. Take the time here.
Tip #3: Write to a turning point
Whether it is within a scene or the main story, always write to a turning point. This will give your story direction and momentum. If you are in the first act, write to the inciting incident (where everything is turned upside down for your MC-main character), or if you are in act two, write to the midpoint, (where your MC has a big learning/aha moment). If it’s within a scene, where does everything change for the MC, where does the scene go in a different direction. Have this turning point in your head before you write. If you don’t, take a few moment to plan them out before writing. You can change them later if you don’t like them, but you can’t write without knowing where you are going, otherwise you’ll write aimlessly. A car lost in the wilderness with no GPS.
Tip #4: How to find my voice?
Don’t worry about finding your voice. It is already there. Who you are and what you like is infused in every word you write. What’s masking it is craft. Think about voice as a sculpture of you-all your life experiences, likes, dislikes, major influences. Lack of craft is the stone block surrounding your sculpture within it. As your craft improves-eg as your ability to describe, ability to convey emotion etc improves, the stone from your sculpture will drop away, until you and your voice are revealed. How to work on your craft? Analyse what you read. List what you like and dislike about each book and why. Write and revise. Finish WIP’s (works in progress). Attend workshops/courses/read craft books. In a nutshell, learn your craft and your voice will be uncovered.
Tip #5: Be wary of perfectionism: it’s not your friend.
Sometimes while writing a first draft, perfectionism can muscle it’s way in and along with it a negative tape. This is useless. The characters are flat. The words are basic and dull. Then it roars, STOP! DON’T WRITE ANOTHER WORD. Change it NOW! Get it RIGHT NOW! Don’t listen to it. Elbow it out of the way and keep writing. It will throw a tantrum at first, but if you ignore it for long enough, it goes asleep. It will wake up periodically, but just keep ignoring it and know, it will go back to sleep, but not if you listen to it.
My motto when writing my first draft is, any writing is good writing, because it’s words on the page that can be changed and played around with later. Who cares if what I’m writing is bad? I’ll fix it later (and I do). And sometimes, big surprise, it’s not bad, or it just needs some tweaking in revision, or the scene doesn’t work, but it’s given me a great idea for a better scene. I had to write the first scene to get to the richer, less obvious, more powerful scene.
So my tip is: give yourself permission to write bad stuff, wordy stuff. Let the story flow and later, much later, worry about wrestling it into a tight story that you’re happy with. You’ll be surprised at the end of your first draft, how much of your story you do like that just needs a bit of tweaking to be great. Other parts of your story will be a stepping stone to great story that was hidden under the surface, but you needed to get to the end of your story to see it.
Great writing happens in revision, but you have to get to that stage first, so just write and be happy. Any word you write is a good word because it gets you closer to the end. Messy first drafts are fun. Enjoy the process. Don’t try to be perfect. Just take it one word at a time. It all adds up.
