Thousands of people want to write – and why not? Creative writing is enormously satisfying and can also be genuinely therapeutic. Indeed, it is used in hospitals, hospices, prisons, care homes and GP practices, to help those suffering stress, grief, pain or loss.
However, you don’t need to be a ‘patient’ to benefit from the practice of writing prose or poetry. All you require is application, an open mind, and a willingness to explore the many different aspects of yourself and of the world in general.
To help you get started, I’ve drawn up my Twenty Top Tips for would-be writers, garnered after a lifetime’s experience – not all of it successful! Don’t worry about failure or rejection at this stage. Simply enjoy the sense of achievement in filling that first blank page.
|
- Take your writing seriously. Make time for it, even if you have to ‘steal’ time from other people or cut out other activities. Commit yourself to a certain time each day or week, and stick to it.
- Never mind whether you’re ‘in the mood’ or not. Making a start can change your mood and get to you the other side of fear, fatigue or negativity.
- Embrace mistakes. They are teachers. Perfectionism is not a quest for the best, but a way of telling ourselves that nothing is ever good enough. Give yourself permission to write badly.
- Don’t edit at the same time as trying to create. Give the words a chance to flow before you blight them with harsh criticism.
- Take one step at a time. Just 100 words a day adds up to 36,500 a year. An old Chinese proverb says:"A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step."
- Use automatic writing to get in touch with your unconscious. Just let go & write anything & everything – whatever pops into your mind. You may surprise yourself!
- Aim to see the world afresh, with a child’s eye. Use all your senses & develop an eye for detail.
- Don’t block your creativity with drink, drugs, junk food, endless busyness, or harmful relationships.
- Be true to your own voice, rather than trying to be another Helen Fielding or Nick Hornby or whoever. Don’t worry about ‘what will sell’, but express the world in the unique individual way that you see it and experience it.
- Cultivate your own ‘acre of ground’ – all the things that made you the person you are: your family, childhood, locality, religion, friends, lovers, influences, experiences. This is the basis of your writing material and should prove very fertile.
- Carry a notebook at all times. Make notes on the weather, on weddings, funerals, or family gatherings, on the people you see on buses, trains or planes. Get into the habit of listening and observing. Build up an image-bank, like an artist or photographer.
- Also keep a daily journal, recording any interesting thoughts or incidents, or any strong or complex emotions. This journal is your ‘larder’, stocked with fodder for your future writing.
- View the world as a source of stories. Be constantly vigilant. As Raymond Carver said: ‘There are significant moments in everyone’s day that can make literature. You have to be alert to them and pay attention to them.’
- Ideas rarely come fully formed. Collect scraps and fragments. They may turn out to be precious. Examine every idea, however sketchy and disjointed it may at first appear.
- If you’re starting a new project (e.g. a novel or short story) don’t lock in too soon. Remain flexible and playful as long as possible, constantly ready to entertain new ideas, to change direction & to experiment.
- If you experience difficulties, break the task into the smallest possible parts. Aim to write just a line or a paragraph, not a whole scene or chapter. The simpler your goal, the less threatening. And achieving minor goals can spur you on.
- Or try a completely new project – e.g. a play, poem, or piece for radio. This may refresh the mind, & you can always return to your original project later.
- Don’t give up. Many ‘overnight successes’ took years of preparation and determination, & many famous writers faced rejection at first. Tennessee Williams suffered years of poverty and despair before he was recognised. James Joyce’s ‘Dubliners,’ was rejected by 40 publishers, Agatha Christie’s first book was rejected six times, and Beatrix Potter had seven rejections for ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’. Fay Weldon had every single thing she wrote rejected for a period of 20 years.
- Act and think like a writer. Silence any doubts or fears.
- A writer is never on holiday!
|
Home page