6 Tips for Your First Jab at
Creative
Writing
world of creative writing is an ever expanding one as stories or genres
continue to evolve in a natural reaction to the changes in time. Having
confirmed writing skills, however, is not enough to succeed in creative
writing. Having passion for it is more important than having technical
expertise. Love for creative writing, and not adherence to the
grammatical elements, is what will ultimately guide you to doing things
properly and successfully.6 Tips for Your First Jab at Creative Writing 1. Don’t Stop Reading
– It’s impossible to become a writer, much less a creative writer,
without being a reader first. Discovering your love for writing
shouldn’t stop you from further devouring reading materials but should
instead encourage you to diversify your taste. If you want to become
good in creative writing, you need to broaden your horizons. Don’t
limit yourself to reading one genre because this can only provide you
with limited knowledge. If you want to improve, read everything that
you can get your hands on.2. Don’t Stop Learning –
You can ask Stephen King, Danielle Steele, Dan Brown, and JK Rowling,
and all of them will surely tell you that they’re not perfect writers
and will never be. No one can be perfect in any way, and if you allow
your writing to stagnate, readers will soon get bored with your work.
Of course, before you can continue learning about creative writing, you
first have to acknowledge the fact that your writing is definitely
imperfect. Get past your ego if you want to be a successful creative
writer. 3. Choosing a Topic – You’ve heard countless
people tell you that to be a successful writer, you need to write about
you know, and that’s true. But more importantly than that, you have to
write about something you love or something you hate, just as long as
it’s a topic that arouses passion in your heart and brings your pen
aflame! If you find something that interests you but you don’t have
adequate knowledge about then
research it by all means! Research,
research, and research, until you can safely say that you’re writing
something you know and love.4. Build Your
Vocabulary – True enough, Ernest Hemingway earned fame by using poignantly – but
sometimes brutally – simple words for narrating events in his stories.
But building your vocabulary surely wouldn’t hurt, would it? Broadening
your vocabulary and discovering its etymology can be one of the ways
for you to develop a story idea or an effective way of setting the tone
or mood for a particular chapter. But more important than that,
building your vocabulary will reduce the instances when you can’t just
quite say the word you want but it’s already in the tip of your tongue.5. Don’t Let It Get Away –
If an idea suddenly occurs to you, and it seems excellent for a future
story, write it down. If you’re walking down the street and you
suddenly think of a good dialogue for your characters, write it down.
Don’t let anything get away because the human mind is a tricky thing,
and it might be impossible for you to recall exactly what occurred to
you just three minutes ago. Good story ideas are a dime in a dozen, but
great ideas are definitely few, and who knows if what you’ve written
down will one day become one of the latter?