Charity Marie
1) Expose yourself to anything and everything you can. Experiences will enrich your writing in incredible ways. The writing I do now at 37 years old is so much richer than the writing I was doing in my 20's and that's because I hadn't really experienced much of life. So just allows yourself to experience as much as you can.
2) Train yourself to observe the world around you. At first it might seem awkward and uncomfortable (I really shouldn't stare at strangers!), but with practice you won't notice you're even doing it. My senses (all of them!) are always wide open, which is a huge benefit. I'll see and hear and smell the most amazing things which impacts my writing. Maybe not right away but eventually it becomes something you do naturally. Be a keen observer of life - you never know what you'll experience!
3) Read, read, read! Then write, write, write! These two things go hand in hand and are essential to the writing life. If you want to be a "serious" writer, you have to immerse yourself (within reason) in both of these worlds. The more you write, the better you'll become. And writing is not something that's easy to teach OR easy to learn. So expect to spend your whole life learning. I've been doing it for over twenty years and I still am learning.
4) Don't be afraid to be insatiably curious. It is something that will serve you well. If you can teach your brain to look at situations and ideas like a rubix cube, you'll never run out of ideas.
5) Be yourself! I learned this lesson recently - it's okay not to do it the way anyone else is doing it. There's a ton of people out there who will give you advice about how to write. Try it, see if it works, and if it doesn't, don't force yourself! Try a different way, make up your own way. I recently discovered that I was forcing myself to meet a word count every time I wrote and it was stifling me. I need the freedom to write as much or as little as I want. I had to give myself freedom and in doing so, I wrote almost 5000 words in two days. Sometimes you just have to figure out what YOU need, not what someone else does.
2) Train yourself to observe the world around you. At first it might seem awkward and uncomfortable (I really shouldn't stare at strangers!), but with practice you won't notice you're even doing it. My senses (all of them!) are always wide open, which is a huge benefit. I'll see and hear and smell the most amazing things which impacts my writing. Maybe not right away but eventually it becomes something you do naturally. Be a keen observer of life - you never know what you'll experience!
3) Read, read, read! Then write, write, write! These two things go hand in hand and are essential to the writing life. If you want to be a "serious" writer, you have to immerse yourself (within reason) in both of these worlds. The more you write, the better you'll become. And writing is not something that's easy to teach OR easy to learn. So expect to spend your whole life learning. I've been doing it for over twenty years and I still am learning.
4) Don't be afraid to be insatiably curious. It is something that will serve you well. If you can teach your brain to look at situations and ideas like a rubix cube, you'll never run out of ideas.
5) Be yourself! I learned this lesson recently - it's okay not to do it the way anyone else is doing it. There's a ton of people out there who will give you advice about how to write. Try it, see if it works, and if it doesn't, don't force yourself! Try a different way, make up your own way. I recently discovered that I was forcing myself to meet a word count every time I wrote and it was stifling me. I need the freedom to write as much or as little as I want. I had to give myself freedom and in doing so, I wrote almost 5000 words in two days. Sometimes you just have to figure out what YOU need, not what someone else does.
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