Hi everyone!
I’ve not written a ‘Writing Tips‘ post for a long while and seeing as I’ve had a little time today, I thought I’d write one now – So here are another six tips.
Titles
When you’re writing a title for your article or anything else that might require a title, you should not capitalise every word. Though different publications will have their own styles with which they work, generally speaking, the rule of thumb is to always capitalise the first and last words and also any words that are five letters or more.
Back Up
Back up everything! Always! This is a critical piece of advice for anybody doing anything important on a computer or tablet. We’ve all experienced some version of the ‘I went to get coffee, came back and my computer had inexplicably decided to turn itself off,’ scenario and if you haven’t it just means that you’ve been lucky thus far. It will happen. Back up everything! Protect your hard work.
Keep Creativity Alive
When you’re not writing it’s always a good idea to keep your mind on your work – even if you have to put it on the back burner in your mind so that you can do the other things that are important in life, you should try to keep thinking about your project. It can help to prevent you from feeling disconnected from your work and help to keep your subconscious churning out ideas.
There’s Always Something to Write About
If you ever think that you’ve hit a creative wall or that you have nothing to write about, just start writing about what you did over the weekend. The act of putting pen to paper – or fingers to keys – can be enough to stir your imagination and help your creative side to come forward.
Don’t Compare
A lot of writers compare their work with that of others, but this really isn’t a good use of your time. Everybody is different, and people write with different processes and styles and since art is subjective, something that might seem to you to be the most exciting piece of writing you’ve ever read, to someone else, it might not. Comparing yourself to other writers will only serve to dishearten you and maybe even put you off writing altogether. Just write to your best ability and believe in what you write.
Try Everything
Try your hand at all kinds of writing, not just what you’re used to or what you think you’re good at. Writing fiction is a different ball game to writing non-fiction or articles for a website and stepping outside of your comfort zone like this lets you gain some experience and helps to sharpen your skills as a writer too.
As always, thank you so much for reading my words, I really appreciate your time!
Until next time,
George
© 2018 GLT
Categories: Writing Tips
GEORGE L THOMAS 
Hi George! Nice tips! 🙂 One way to keep the spring of creativity bubbling through the dry years is to be part of a writing group, and attend the meetings even when you’re not writing anything. It worked great for me! Are you part of a group?
Also, the “don’t compare” bit is gold, but SO HARD to follow! 😀 Also, I feel we all must do some comparing to get a sense of standard for our writing. So it’s a bit of tightrope walking between not comparing too much, and comparing enough!
LikeLike
Hi Alice, thank you! I am part of a writing group and you’re right the creativity from a group of writers gathered together is almost tangible. And about not comparing, I see what you mean and I agree, we do need to compare a little as a sort of quality control over our own work. 😃
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey, out of interest, how big is your writing group, and how often do you guys meet?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Alice. Not huge. There are five of us who meet once a month (when life allows) at our local community centre.
LikeLike
That sounds like a great size for a writing group. 🙂 Smaller is more intimate, and there’s less chance for some mouthy individual to steal attention from everybody else. How often do you meet?
LikeLike
We used to meet every two weeks but life keeps us a little too busy for that so we try to get together once a month now which seems to work.
LikeLiked by 1 person