New To Writing? - Welcome Writers

You have a natural gift, so use it. Sure you’ll make mistakes, just like the very best writers, but just start and you’ll find writing will become easier; you’re thoughts will become more focused and you’ll begin to relax and take it in your stride.
Every human being has a unique set of experiences so every writer has a unique perspective and voice. Don’t try to copy someone’s style or subject matter or message. Tell us what you think, what you feel, what you see. It’s your individual mind and thoughts that are needed. If you try to copy the shape of someone else’s spirit, that place will have already been taken. Be yourself and your place in the grand scheme of things is waiting.
Don’t wear blinkers, keep your vision clear and sharp. As children, we quickly learn which behaviours are praised and which are punished. We learn to act other than we really feel in order to maximize our life experience. Often this is done to please others, but in fact, it harms your expressive self. In time this blunts our ambition, leaving us afraid to explore the depths of our secret hearts and reveal our true selves in words. To speak with an author’s true voice, you must shatter that image, uncover your actual self, and let the world know who you are.
The structure and layout are important but not at the expense of passion. No one reads a book or goes to a movie to experience a great structure. Authors come to a story to express their passions and readers and audience members come to ignite their own. While content is the method upon which passion is transmitted, without the passion, it’s just noise. Conversely, passion without content can be full of sound and fury yet means nothing. Just find the proper balance and let your passion be your lead and structure be your guide.
The easiest way to give yourself writer’s block is by trying too hard to come up with ideas. Your mind is always coming up with ideas – just not the ones you want. If you try to limit the kind of material you will accept from her, she’ll shut up entirely. You have to let your mind run free. When she gives you an out of this world moment with a vivid, graphic scene, while writing a serious death scene, consider including it, perhaps as you saw it. Give it a try, it might liven up your death scene! After you’ve written it, if it doesn’t work, then save it in a file for later use. It may seem like a waste of time, but your mind will know she has been treated with respect, and will likely now give you just the idea you need.
Beginner writers often look to other popular stories to learn how things ought to work. But so do all the other beginner writers. A book editor, agent, or script reader sees hundreds of manuscripts every year, all made up of the same pieces and hitting the same marks. You’ll never get noticed in that crowd. If you want your work to be discovered, break format, shake it up, do something different. Make your sheriff 8 years old, make your two lovers twins, set your gothic romance underwater. You’ll never be noticed if you don’t stand out. Let your imagination run wild.
Write something, don’t overthink it, just do it now. Now look at it not as an author, but as a reader or audience and ask questions about it. For example, I write, “It was dawn in the small western town.” Now ask yourself: 1. What time of year was it? 2. What state? 3. Is it a ghost town? 4. How many people live there? 5. Is everything all right in the town? 6. What year is it? Then let your mind come up with as many answers for each question as possible. Example: 6. What year is it? A. 1885 B. Present Day C. 2050 D. After the apocalypse. Then expand by asking questions about the answers you just wrote such as: D. After the Apocalypse. 1. What kind of apocalypse? 2. How many people died? 3. How long ago was the disaster, and so on. By alternating between critical analysis and creative thoughts, you will quickly work out details about your story’s world, who’s in it, what happens to them and what it all means.
Too many beginner writers see genres as checklists of elements and progressions they must touch, like checkpoints in a race. But a genre is not a box in which to write. It is a holdall from which to pull only those components you are truly excited to include in your story. Every story has a unique personality, you build it chapter by chapter or scene by scene with every genre choice you make. By drawing on aspects of many different genres and combining those pieces together, you can fashion an experience for your readers or audience unlike any other.
No matter what your natural ability, you will never approach your potential without exercise. Jot down every idea, no matter how small. Carry it as far as you can before it runs out of steam. Do it again, and again: as many different ideas as far as you can take them. Even write nonsense words. Write your concept of a villain’s shopping list for the supermarket (they have to eat, don’t they?) Write about anything or write about nothing, just don’t stop, not now, not ever. After all, aren’t you a writer? Then be one, JUST WRITE!
That’s right – tip 10 is the same as tip 9. Why? Because it is the single most important tip of all: If you want to be a writer, write! When you write, you are a writer, when you don’t, you aren’t. The more you write the better you get. Your vocabulary becomes more fluid, your play on words, more playful. True athletes don’t only run in races – they practice every day, for hours at a time. So even if you aren’t writing something for publication or even to simply share, keep the mental muscles toned and ready. Then, when a great idea does strike, you can put your ideas on paper.