Top Ten Writing Tips To Help You To Write More
Here in no particular order, are the ten best writing
tips I've discovered in 25 years of writing. They may work for you,
too. Try them.
=> Tip One: Pay attention to images
[http://www.jeanhouston.org/brain.html]
Your right brain thinks in images, and when you write, you translate
images from your right brain into words. Usually this process happens
so quickly that you're unaware of it. If you can make this process
conscious, you can goose up your own creativity. Stephen King calls
this process "writing with the third eye --- the eye of imagination
and memory."
To get the hang of this, try Jean Houston's process, adapted from
her book, *The Possible Human*. (URL above.)
=> Tip Two: Making mud/ laying track
Your first draft of any piece of work is "mud" --- raw
material. Julia Cameron refers to your first draft as "laying
track", another term I like.
If the first draft's awful, great! It's meant to be. It's only raw
material. However, if you don’t create the first draft, or
you wait until you have a really great idea that's worth a first
draft, you won’t write anything. Write. Make mud.
=> Tip Three: Just write --- think on the page, or on
the screen, NOT in your head
Thinking too much while you write is treacherous, because you can
spend two hours "writing" and end up with half a page
of work. Write-think. That is, think on the page, not in your head.
=> Tip Four: Grow your writing with lists
Listing is a form of brainstorming. It grows your writing, and it's
fun.
Listing is an excellent technique to use when you get stuck in your
writing, and it doesn’t matter what kind of writing you're
doing, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction. Listing also helps
you in the revision process, to add texture to your work.
Here's an excellent FREE software program to help you to produce
lists, and to save them:
http://www.flashpeak.com/slimlist/slimlist.htm
=> Tip Five: Use your magical thesaurus
Your most useful listing tool is ---- a thesaurus. Keep one on your
desk to kickstart your brain. Your thesaurus and dictionary are
perfect kickstarters. They're also vital tools whenever you're revising.
=> Tip Six: Make writing the FIRST thing you do each
day
If you write at least page, by hand, as soon as you get up, you'll
find that writing comes more easily to you for the rest of the day.
You're also more focused and relaxed for the rest of the day.
=> Tip Seven: Set WIG goals --- the best goals are always
unrealistic
Writer Martha Beck calls unrealistic goals WIGs: Wildly Improbable
Goals. In the September 2002 issue of Oprah magazine she says: "…
learning to invite and accept your own WIG can awaken you to a kind
of ubiquitous, benevolent magic, a river of enchantment that perpetually
flows to your destiny."
A WIG is exciting. Just thinking about a WIG will get your heart
pounding. Working toward your WIG (writing a book, writing a screenplay,
getting signed on as a contributor at a mass-market magazine) takes
hard work. Lots of hard work.
And at the end of that hard work, as Beck points out, you achieve
your goal, but there's a twist. You never achieve it exactly as
you envisioned it – you achieve something even better, something
you could never have imagined.
I'm a great believer in writing ABOUT your goals. This is because
when you write, you're using both sides of your brain, and are accessing
your unconscious mind as well. You live in your left brain, which
you regard as "you", but you have a silent partner, your
right brain, which is also you, and which communicates via images
and feelings.
=> Tip Eight: Separate writing and editing
Writing comes first, then editing. If you try to combine the two,
you will block. Writing should come as easily to you as chatting
to a friend. If it doesn’t, you're trying to edit in your
head before you get the words on paper, or on the computer screen.
If you're not aware of the danger of combining writing and editing,
you'll make writing hard for yourself, when it should be easy. If
you don’t have trouble talking, how can you have trouble writing?
=> Tip Nine: It's good to struggle with your writing
In his book The Breakout Principle, Dr Herbert Benson (who also
wrote The Relaxation Response) describes a struggle/ release process
that leads to a new level of awareness. When you struggle, and then
completely give up the struggle --- just give up --- there's a chance
that you can achieve a peak experience which leads you to a new
level of functioning.
How does this work in your writing? Let's say that you're writing
a novel. This work is hard for you. However, you keep at it faithfully,
working on your novel each day. You struggle with it for weeks.
Then you give up. Although you keep writing, you say to yourself:
"I don’t care any more what garbage I write. I'm just
going to do it. I'm just going to write."
This release leads to writing magic. Suddenly you're inspired, and
you finish the book in a rush. Although you will still occasionally
struggle with your writing (because struggle is a part of life),
you've broken through to a new level of functioning in your work.
This new level would not, and could not, have happened without the
struggle.
=> Tip Ten: Good writing = truthful writing
Writing truthfully can feel like undressing in public, so many beginning
writers worry about sharing their writing.
Be compassionate. Firstly, to yourself. Write. Write for yourself.
All writing takes courage.
When you finally show your writing to others, you discover the amazing
truth that _no one cares_. In her book "Writing To Save Your
Life", Michele Weldon advises: "Get over yourself".
No one is judging what you write. So write.
Stuck in your writing career? Get a coach! Angela Booth coaches
writers in copywriting (writing for business), nonfiction, and fiction.
A veteran writer, published by major publishers worldwide, Angela
is also an experienced writing teacher, who knows how to inspire
and motivate. You CAN make a success of your writing career. Free
daily info for writers at her blog: http://copywriter.typepad.com/
Start your writing coaching today by contacting Angela at her site
http://angelabooth.com/ Angela offers personal one-on-one e-courses
and mentoring for all forms of writing. Ask for a low-cost initial
phone or email consultation.
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