If you don’t read, you can’t write
If you really want to write, you need to read. You have to know what has been done and what people are doing now to gain any sense of what you should be doing.
Conduct research
Don’t just read other stories or poems. Research a variety of media for facts and ideas that can be incorporated into your writing. Many writers keep a running bibliography of sources and reference texts that they’ve come across in their research.
Find your voice
Don’t try to be Charles Dickens or Jane Austen. Don’t get hung up on Shakespeare or Christopher Marlowe. Those writers had rules, values, tastes, and entire worldviews that supported their creative processes. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. Write in your own time, your own culture and most importantly, your voice. Find a style and tone that reflects the most authentic version of yourself, even when you’re writing fictional characters and events. It’s one of the most important steps in creating your own world with your writing.
Make a routine and stick to it
With any craft, success demands discipline. We love the romantic notion that writers produce books in a creative frenzy after being struck by a sudden flash of brilliance. But the truth is that writers work at it, with a set, disciplined routine that demands daily writing and revising.
If you want to write, you can’t wait for the mood to strike you, or for a muse to float into your dreams. You need to work. Find a routine that suits you, mark it in your daily schedule, and get it done. This can be hard at first, but the more you do it, the more your momentum builds, and the easier it becomes.
Know your audience
All writing is writing to someone (even if that someone is just you). You need to keep this in mind when writing. Really consider the question: who is your audience? How can you expect them to handle certain narrative decisions, plot devices, or characters? What is their goal in reading your piece? What is your goal in speaking to the audience? If you don’t have a readily defined audience, make one up and work from there.
Practice the craft
Writing is a skill, and like any skill, you have to practice it constantly if you want to be any good at it. This doesn’t; mean, however, that you should just keep dumping words into your computer day in day out and expect to grow. You need to practice with focus.
A number of noteworthy books address the subject of craft, and how you can work to develop yours. Some of these books are better than others. Some speak to specific audiences and some to more general audiences.
0 Comments