Best Advice for Writers

Honestly, there is so much advice out there for writers. Some is for writing in general, and some is for specific aspects. None of that is more important than this one piece of advice I am about to give you. None of it would matter without this single thing.

Always be writing.

I know: simple, right? Simple, but not only the most effective piece of advice I can give you, but also the hardest to follow. I’m betting some of you have already heard this advice, in which case you might already know the whole spiel. If you ask me, it can’t hurt to hear it again.

So just write. Write every day, once, twice, three times a day. Fill pages, notebooks, fill the screen with words. Because without it, you can’t ever do anything with the other advice. It doesn’t have to be good, it doesn’t have to be something you want to keep working with, it doesn’t even have to be coherent. Just write something. Keep your words flowing. For the past month or so, i’ve lost track of why I write. I lost the passion, I let other things cloud my desire to write and play with words. And I realized, its because I stopped writing. I stopped jotting down thoughts, dreams, ideas; I stopped using my writing skill, and it dried up on me. Temporarily, I assure you. But nonetheless, I had to kickstart it again recently.

So I advise you, please just keep writing. Nobody has to read it, so don’t worry about what you are writing, just write.

Don’t know what to write? Here are some ideas:

1. Write your dreams. First thing in the morning, grab your notebook, or plop down behind the computer screen and write everything you remember, in any style.
2. Writing prompts. They are ALL over the internet. Just google ‘fiction prompts’, ‘nonfiction prompts’, ‘poetry prompts’, ‘writing prompts’, etc. One day i’ll post some of my favorite sites to find them, but for now you will have to rely on Google.
3. Keep a journal. Write down what happened to you during the day at the end of every day. As much or as little detail as you want.
4. People watch. Grab a notebook and sit in a park, or a coffee shop, or a mall, or somewhere crowded. Watch people, write about them. Give them a background, a family tree, a tick, a character flaw (or two), a redeeming trait. Give them goals, motivations, enemies, friends, etc. Get creative with it!
5. Stream of conscious. Take a thought and run with it. Don’t censor, don’t think about what you’re writing, and don’t worry.

That’s all the ideas I can think of right now, but if you have any more please feel free to comment them! And if I think of any more, I will be sure to add them to the list!

Camp NaNoWriMo

Hey guys!

Today I wanted to talk to you about an upcoming event that I will be participating in. I’m sure most of you have heard of NaNoWriMo. I participated this past year and loved it, but they have an April event called Camp NaNoWriMo, which I think is even better.

For those of you who are unaware of NaNoWriMo, they have an official about on their homepage:

“National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30.”

It’s a lot of fun, you can have writing buddies, and for people who work better on deadlines, its great.

I think the camp project is better for two main reasons.

1. You get to choose your own word limit.

I think this is awesome! I have such a hectic schedule that having a lower word limit and still having a stats page for it is great for me. And I think most people will agree that if 50,000 is too much for them, this is a great feature. The other part of this that I like is, what if you are an overachiever? Or what if you’ve just got too much time on your hands? Well then up your word count! You can do that too, and still get a stats page.

2. Cabins

In the camp version, you are placed into a cabin according to certain cabin settings you pick. You can be in a cabin with certain people, or with people writing the same genre as you, or the same wordcount, etc. Or you can just throw caution to the wind and get a random group. Either way, you are given a nice little chatroom for you and your cabin, and you guys can keep up with each other as the month progresses.

So those are the reasons why I like the idea of Camp NaNoWriMo more than the normal one. I will be participating this coming April, and I encourage you to as well. The site can be found here, and if you do choose to participate then I say good luck to you!

Stay creative!

I know keeping up the creativity can be a problem. This article is a great read, very interesting, and extremely informative. Brought to you by www.writetodone.com:

http://writetodone.com/2013/02/21/how-to-be-creative-when-your-brain-doesnt-want-to-play/

Revising VS Editing

Stuck at a part of your story?

If you don’t know what will happen next, here is a great tip to figure it out…or at least get some idea.

Let’s say your character just got fired and you don’t know where to go directly from here, you just know he needs to be fired.

Well, ask yourself: “What isn’t he going to do?” and make a list of your answers.

Using the example above, your character is NOT going to:

• Be abducted by aliens
• Punch his former boss square in the jaw
• Cheer and shout with joy
• Etc.
• Etc.

Now, with a long enough list, you can gauge whereabouts you want your character. Well, I want him to be upset but I don’t want him to be angry and punch his former boss square in the jaw. So why don’t I have him start smoking again?

Not an amazing example, I know. But if you work with it, it will help you. Also, its kind of fun at times and can be a bit on the ridiculous side.

It works for me, and I hope it helps you too!

Prompt #3

Your Plot: Your character is arrested for something he/she didn’t do.

Your character: Make it somebody of a different gender or different race or different sexuality, etc.

Write!

Character Sheet

Hey guys!

Character is very important when writing any type of story, whether novel, novella, short fiction, etc. And having fleshed out characters means knowing more about the character than you would necessarily put on the page.

Sure, you will include maybe a past relationship or two, maybe their worst fear, or their favorite color, but some things you could never use in your story could be extremely helpful.

The reason being that some details will help you determine how this character will react in different situations. This is why today I’m posting a sample character sheet. I usually fill one of these out for most of my characters, because it helps me to get a better idea of who I’m working with, and makes your character more real.

The character sheet I am linking to was compiled by Rebecca Sinclair from www.eclectics.com/ and it is a great site for tips on writing. Because this is an extensive list, you may not have to use many of the things depending on the type of character. But the more of them you use, the more fleshed out a character you will have.

Make sure you read the copyright information at the bottom of this page so you don’t get in trouble, and I hope this helps you with your characters!

www.eclectics.com/articles/character.html

Sometimes inspiration strikes at 4 in the morning and you just have to get up, turn on your light, pray it doesn’t wake up your roommate, and write down your idea because it might not be there in the morning.

Inspirational Quote

I thought that today I would go with an inspirational quote. I am currently writing for a deadline and I know that many writers need a bit of inspiration sometimes.

“The heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”

– Thomas S. Monson