An A-Z of thoughts on this writing life

Including a few quick ideas for helping to get your writing started and improved

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Sometimes it’s useful to read something that reminds you of an aspect of writing that is nestled comfortably in your head and occasionally needs a light shining on it. Sometimes it’s good to read something that gives you a fresh insight, or sparks an idea. Sometimes you just need to know it’s okay, everyone struggles. Sometimes you get an A-Z which attempts to do all of those things. Enjoy!

ASK QUESTIONS – Particularly of your characters. Give them struggle, then complicate things.

BEAT WRITERS BLOCK - By adding a tiny twist of creativity to anything you write. Every. Single. Day. Here’s one that I use. When I write out a list for shopping I will add items I couldn’t possibly want, but then imagine a character who might be putting these strange items in their trolley. Bingo! You’ve created a character and a potential story idea.

CHARACTERS ARE PEOPLE, REMEMBER? - Sometimes we are so caught up in what a story is about, we create archetypes, or stereotypes. Characters are never ‘totally’ something, there’s always a flaw or a saving grace.   

DOGGEDNESS – Let me put that another way: Fuck rejection.

EMOJI  - What can we learn from the humble emoji? Concision in describing emotional response often works better than a long drawn out analysis on the page.  

FIND YOUR PEERS AND TREASURE THEM – An honest group of other writers, prepared to give you useful feedback, shifts a huge amount of time and effort otherwise take up by trying to do this writing thing alone.

GRAB INSPIRATION - Read last week’s post on using your phone’s camera as a tool for gathering prompts and ideas.

HUSTLE – Accept that you are going to have to do the admin to get your work out there. Whether you are writing micro-fiction or a novel, there’s hustle involved. So go, hustle, do the best you can even if you are not a natural hustler. Don’t fight it.

INNER CONFLICT – Get your characters to ask questions of themselves. Sow a little doubt about the place.   

JUST WRITE – Trust me, I know this, you can overthink things. Sometimes you just need to write and forget about the result until later. Concentrate on the process, not the outcome.

KINDNESS - Be kind to yourself, listen to your compassionate voice more than your critical voice. It’s easy for the latter to drown out the former. You’re doing okay.