Writing Tips 6

By georgelthomas on 8 May 2018 • ( 0 )

Hey everyone! I’ve found myself with a bit of spare time (a rarity these days I’m happy to say) and so I thought I would offer up another six Writing Tips that might help you out of a tricky spot.

Don’t Focus on the Finish Line
When you’re writing something that will take quite a bit of time to complete, such as a novel, it’s best not to focus on when you will finish.
Focussing on being done may cause your work to appear rushed as you unintentionally hurry towards the end goal. Just know that you will finish at some point.
You will be much more productive if you keep your mind focused on what you are doing ‘right now’ and before you know it, you will have completed your project, and you’ll be able to celebrate a job well done.

Try not to Overwrite
Overwriting is something that a lot of beginner writers are guilty of. They think they have to impress and end up writing long, drawn out and overcomplicated sentences. The key is to just be clear in your writing. Make sure the sentence you have written means what you intended it to mean.

Don’t wait for Inspiration
This one may sound counter-intuitive, but inspiration is not the be-all and end-all of writing.
Waiting around for inspiration will, likely, get you nowhere. You’re a writer. You should be writing whether you feel inspired or not. It’s not realistic to expect to be inspired all of the time.
By sitting down to write, even just a little every day, you will find that ideas begin to filter their way into your mind and that you are, in fact inspiring yourself.
If you wait around for inspiration to come looking for you, then you may very well realise one day, that you have waited too long and wasted time you could have used for writing.

Keep a Consistent Tone
If you are writing a scene wherein the tone is supposed to be dark or suspenseful, you wouldn’t want to use too many positive emotions or use a simile comparing the curly, white hair of the creepy old man, suspected of murder to white, fluffy clouds or cotton candy.

Sprinkle Reality
Just because you are writing something fictional or ‘made up’, it doesn’t mean that some of it can’t be inspired by true events or that your story can’t contain a true account of an event that happened in real life. In fact, adding a touch of reality to your story can help the reader to suspend their disbelief when it comes to parts that are more fantastical or otherworldly.

Give your Characters a Family Tree
When you are creating a character outline, it can be helpful to know where they come from regarding lineage and a family tree can help you to form a good idea of that.
You don’t need to put any of it into your story – and nor do you need to create a full bio for each ancestor. It is up to you entirely how far you go, but just the name of parents and grandparents and a general idea of when they lived and died (if they have) can be very useful. The point is to help you to know and fully understand your character’s background.

As always, thank you very much for reading, I really do appreciate it.

Until next time,

George