Category Archives for Writing
How to Use a Journal to Become a Better Writer
Am I a writer?
How do I come up with ideas?
How do I find an authentic voice?
What if I’m no good?
How can I keep my content interesting, day after day?
How do I make my writing more engaging?
Ever wondered any of these things? Well, I’m not here to sell you a webinar, or bribe you to join my mailing list with an ebook. I’m here to propose a very old-fashioned solution that can help with all of the above: writing a journal.
A Writer’s Emotional Toolkit
There’s a huge amount of technical help and guidance out there for us writers.
From grammar geek websites to detailed historical information sources, it’s never been easier to access the technical resources necessary to write. Need to pen an article on electric cars? A short story with a scene in Prague? A perfectly punctuated piece of dialogue?
No sweat, the Information Age has you covered.
However, there are some things the internet can’t help us with. (I know, I said it.) Things like the vulnerability to expose your weaknesses. The resilience to cope with hostile or indifferent responses to your work. The self-knowledge to speak to something deep and true in other people. The courage to say something you feel without someone else having said it first.
These are the things I’m calling a writer’s emotional toolkit. As a writer, you probably use many of these techniques without realizing it.
Write What You Don’t Know – How to Learn By Writing
How many times have you heard the advice, “write what you know”?
Likely it came from a well-meaning English teacher or peer in your writing circle. If you’re going to write, the argument goes, doesn’t it make sense to stick to things already in your wheelhouse?
In a lot of cases, probably yes. I mean, no one has beaten down my door asking me to write pieces on astrophysics or history. Those endeavors would probably end with an imaginary first-person account of Galileo’s weird nighttime hobbies, or a Lifetime channel-ready screenplay called What Really Went Down with John Smith –– The Untold Pocahontas Tale.
But I digress.Continue reading
How Writing Shapes Thought
Writing allows you to get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper or an electronic device.
When we write, our goal is to express our vivid thoughts in a disciplined manner. The images that we see in our head must be verbalized in a manner that brings them into a reality.
Look at George R.R. Martin. A Song of Ice and Fire, also known as Game of Thrones was about a vast world that existed only within his mind. His imagination created this huge world full of magic, political scheming, and hundreds of characters interwoven into an epic story.
Now what does he have?Continue reading