Yet More Writing Tips

By georgelthomas on 29 Jul 2017 • ( 0 )

I’ve not written a post about ‘Writing Tips‘ in a little while so I thought I’d get my researching cap on write another one. The truth is that creating any sort of post for this blog gives me a nice refreshing break from the other writing that I do while still affording me the chance to write and improve myself.

Anyway, enough babble about me, on with the show – so to speak.

Interrogate your Characters
Interrogating, or less aggressively, interviewing your characters can be an excellent way to find out more about them. You can ask them anything you like but write the answers out as though you were your character. There are plenty of lists of questions available online and a quick google search will bring up a whole host of options. I usually prefer to use these because there are sometimes questions others would ask that I would never think to ask myself.

Develop a Thick Skin
Criticism can be harsh depending on who’s dishing it out and what they’re saying. Learning to take criticism from anyone but myself is still something I’m trying to get used to. I criticise my own work all the time in that I never think it’s ‘ready’ or ‘good enough’ and it can certainly be jarring when somebody else tells you they didn’t like something you’ve written.

Remember that it’s not Easy
When I had first dreamt of being a writer, I imagined that I would sit down and write with my ideas flowing nicely and neatly onto the page along with perfect grammar, spelling, well-structured sentences and with a unique voice and style. In reality, as I quickly learned, It is much more complicated than this. It is a detailed process from start to finish and requires a lot of work and dedication. So give yourself a break when things aren’t working. Try not to stress out and remember that everybody has to learn to do it, nobody can just sit and write a great novel or story right off the bat.

Don’t forget to Punctuate
The comma and the fullstop (or the period if you’re not from the UK) help your words to flow better. Remember that fullstops are used to end a sentence whereas the comma, is used to indicate a slight pause. If you were reading a long sentence aloud without commas, then you’d probably run out of breath, and even if you didn’t it probably just wouldn’t sound right.

Spell Checking
When you’re writing, by all means, use your word processor’s spell checker but try not to rely too heavily on it. After all, they’re not infallible and can miss words that have been misused such as there, their, and they’re.

Writing out of Sequence
Remember that you don’t necessarily have to write your first scene first. Some writers even suggest that you write the ending first, but you could conceivably begin at any point in your story. I would really like to be able to do this because let’s face it, some scenes are more exciting to write than others, but whenever I try, my brain keeps trying to drag me back to the beginning. I do keep trying though until I’m forced to revert to my old habit of writing from the start.

There we have another six tips that I hope some of you lovely people will find helpful. As always, thank you for reading the whole thing if you did, I appreciate your time.

Until next time, then

George