What Makes A Writer Great - Continued

If you haven’t seen the first half of this series, check out my Medium post here.

Becoming a Great Writer is something we all dream about. Do we work towards it, though? We’re gonna start. 

Right?

Right??

Keep Learning. To carry on with the theme of the last post, I’m handing out extremely unique and original advice. And good advice it is! Continue learning, never stop. Learn from modern writers, listen to free lectures from writing classes, go to writing classes if money allows, read blogs, and listen to podcasts. Do it all. 

Rest. Getting burnt out is easy. Too easy. Force yourself to take writing breaks - this could mean no writing on the weekend, or while on a holiday, or as simple as in the car. There needs to be a ‘no writing zone’ to let your mind shut off and relax. It might feel like you’re ruining your productivity by ignoring all your brilliant ideas, but in the long term, you’ll thank me. 

My ‘no writing’ space is in my bed. No writing is to be done on or in my safe space. I don’t want ideas when I’m there, I don’t want thoughts, and I don’t want problems. It did take a while to teach my brain there was a ‘no writing’ space, but now I can fall soundly asleep (almost) every night.

Challenge Yourself. You can’t write Romance? How interesting. Now write me 10 romance books. 1….2…. Keep going! 

You don’t know how to write a villain - give me 10 villain character profiles now. I said 10! No, not flat characters, big beefy ones that you’ll fall in love with. Don’t stop until you’ve figured out how to write them.

Anxious about starting? Write 10 intros to 10 different books. 

The more you push yourself outside your comfort zone, the easier everything will get.

I once thought I was terrible at writing intros. I worked on this until I was confident in my ability, and to this day, intros are my strongest skill.

Live Your Life. Go out there and learn about the world. Learn what’s normal and what’s not. Learn how people talk. Learn how people react to you when you trip and fall. Learn how you feel. Learn what it’s like to abseil into a cave. Learn what it’s like to write about it. Learn what it’s like to make money off- No. Just have experiences. Have experiences, learn what brings up what emotion, and really focus on how it feels. Now practice writing those feelings down.

Add a little something to your routine. Drink coffee or have some wine. I forget the saying - something about wine to write and coffee to edit. I’m not really sure. If you need a little ‘zing’ to get ideas going, have a cup of coffee or an energy drink of your choice. Too anxious to write anything down? Have a glass of wine or a beer to keep the nerves at bay.

I don’t want to encourage stimulant use (even though they do help), as we all know, there is a problem with alcoholics and caffeine addicts in the writing community. 

Another option would be to have a big meal or do some strenuous exercise to get the blood pumping to your brain.

Want to read about my writing routine? Check it out here.