Kerensa Jennings
I'd say the best thing you can do is read. Then read some more. Then carry on reading. Pay attention to the world. Learn to notice things. Become finely tuned to the things people don't say as well as the things they do.
Voraciously consume art in all its forms - the stuff you are naturally drawn to and the stuff that you feel might be boring or not quite your 'thing'. Hone your sixth sense for story and develop your Perception Superpower.
Say less and listen more. Be happy in your own company. Learn to appreciate silence and stillness.
Let your ideas flow into you and jot things down as and when they occur to you. Not everything you write has to be your masterpiece. Collect the things you notice and scribble them down and notice what makes them special.
Start to join the dots on themes and thoughts.
Live life mindfully, allowing quiet moments to become brain nourishment. Feed your soul with beauty and light. Enjoy the company of others and where you don't, extract what you can for a character in the future, or an emotion you can draw on as you write.
Bit by bit, your scribblings and your musings will start to percolate into something more substantial. I think writers are born to write... you can learn technique and you can get better - mostly by reading great writers and noticing what makes them great. But you either need to write, or you don't.
When you are writing, you are creating something where nothing was. Be proud. Be brave. Find your truth. Discover your voice. Let it happen.
A good technique for anyone stuck is to see what you have around you and use an object, a photograph, a view as a starting point. Start making stuff up.
Gracie and Billy (from Seas of Snow) arrived fully formed in my head - and I realised I had seen them before. A delightful black and white 1950s photograph by the extraordinary American photographer W Eugene Smith - a little girl dressed in a smock holding hands with a little boy. Walking off into woodlands together, slightly silhouetted from the back; haloed in light but embarking into darkness. A whisper of evil lurking over them as the voyeuristic viewer sees their innocence clinging precariously between them, the picture of sweetness possibly soon to be tainted by who knew what horror... I even place the photograph itself into Seas of Snow, as Gracie's Ma takes a picture of Gracie and Billy when they head out to play one day...
That's the kind of thing I would advise. All of that.
And did I mention... read!
Voraciously consume art in all its forms - the stuff you are naturally drawn to and the stuff that you feel might be boring or not quite your 'thing'. Hone your sixth sense for story and develop your Perception Superpower.
Say less and listen more. Be happy in your own company. Learn to appreciate silence and stillness.
Let your ideas flow into you and jot things down as and when they occur to you. Not everything you write has to be your masterpiece. Collect the things you notice and scribble them down and notice what makes them special.
Start to join the dots on themes and thoughts.
Live life mindfully, allowing quiet moments to become brain nourishment. Feed your soul with beauty and light. Enjoy the company of others and where you don't, extract what you can for a character in the future, or an emotion you can draw on as you write.
Bit by bit, your scribblings and your musings will start to percolate into something more substantial. I think writers are born to write... you can learn technique and you can get better - mostly by reading great writers and noticing what makes them great. But you either need to write, or you don't.
When you are writing, you are creating something where nothing was. Be proud. Be brave. Find your truth. Discover your voice. Let it happen.
A good technique for anyone stuck is to see what you have around you and use an object, a photograph, a view as a starting point. Start making stuff up.
Gracie and Billy (from Seas of Snow) arrived fully formed in my head - and I realised I had seen them before. A delightful black and white 1950s photograph by the extraordinary American photographer W Eugene Smith - a little girl dressed in a smock holding hands with a little boy. Walking off into woodlands together, slightly silhouetted from the back; haloed in light but embarking into darkness. A whisper of evil lurking over them as the voyeuristic viewer sees their innocence clinging precariously between them, the picture of sweetness possibly soon to be tainted by who knew what horror... I even place the photograph itself into Seas of Snow, as Gracie's Ma takes a picture of Gracie and Billy when they head out to play one day...
That's the kind of thing I would advise. All of that.
And did I mention... read!
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