This is What I’m Doing to Become a Better Writer
7 simple ways to improve your writing.
One of the many questions new writers worry about is what it takes to be a great writer.
Not a long time ago, I decided writing would be the core of my career. Discovering writing as one of my passions was a slow process.
Like any other passion, it started out of curiosity. “What if I write down a short story for my little sister?”, “What if I start a diary to write down my adventures in school?”
Once figured out the fun part of writing, questions on the matter of “How to improve my writing?” or “How to build up entertaining and inspiring work for others?” began to show.
Here are some steps I follow to go from those “What if” to more intricate and structured writing.
1. Jot down all ideas
Imagine it’s 2:00 in the morning. You’re sleeping peacefully in your bed after long minutes of trying to figure out a comfortable position. You’re drifting away when: DING! An idea. The inspiration you’ve been after for the whole week!
Too tired, swaying yourself you’ll remember in the morning, throwing a sock to the floor so when you wake up you ask yourself why is there a sock on the floor, and then come back to that idea, you relax and close your eyes.
The alarm goes off. You get out of bed, stare weirdly at the sock on the floor, maybe thinking, “What idiot put a sock in here?” and jump into the shower completely oblivious of the whole setup you planned because you didn’t get up to write down that astonishing idea of yours!
But after that, you struggle all day because you’re out of ideas. Great.
How many times I’ve been in this situation is hilarious.
As a writer, you should let in all “What ifs.” Not caring if they make sense or not, if they’re perfect, or what expected.
Ideas come from everywhere. If I were to be waiting for ideas to flood my mind, I would probably still be there, waiting.
“See the creating and writing process as a puzzle. You first have loose pieces with no relation between them, but more keep coming. Then you’ll see something’s up, until the puzzle is finished,” says David Lynch on his Masterclass on Creativity and Film.
To grab more of those juicy ideas, to reinforce them, and find a solid structure for them, I do some work.
2. Research
Through research I come up with new ideas, I connect facts and stories to the ideas I already have, or give order to the amount of information I’m dealing with; as if what’s not usable and what it is.
This occurred to me while I was writing a specific article for a magazine:
“I have ideas, is just that they’re way too shallow and vague in the matter of facts or stories,” I confessed to a friend of mine. Waiting for an answer, I took a bite of my pink-glassed donut.
“So you’re sticking to your own ideas?” he charged back.
“Yeah,” I answered back, chewing my delicious donut.
“You believe your writing is boring?”
“Um, well, I just need new outlooks to make it more interesting?”
“Then quit being so goddam selfish and ask around.”
I immediately stopped eating my donut and reflected on my friend’s statement.
Why don’t you listen to other people’s ideas, or stories, or search for facts that could relate to your particular writing?
Research embodies one-self as well as the rest of the world. Research is about putting those ideas of yours into stories enhanced from your own experiences, coming up with imaginative backgrounds to settle your facts, and thus packing your information into entertaining and usable pieces of advice.
Research means being proactive in your surroundings and what you can learn from what you have.
Which, if you take a closer look, it’s a handful of material.
3. Read more
Being a kid I used to be that nerd who’d devoured books. And I still do. My dad, after finding out my passion for writing, but knowing I wasn’t much of a reader, would come to me and hand over a bunch of books.
“Read them, you’ll learn a lot about writing, among other things,” he said.
I, widely confused, looking at him over my PS3, asked, “Learn what? I already know how to write, dad. There’s nothing new there.” (watch out for tone of a smart-ass teenager on a wild streak)
Without saying anything else, my dad left the books over my desk and exited the room.
As they say, the rest is history.
“Think before you speak. Read before you think,” says Fran Lebowitz.
- Reading exploits my imagination.
- Reading delivers new ideas.
- Reading exposes arguments for me to reflect on.
Reading gives an order to my thoughts and life viewpoints.
4. Answer the what, how, and why
“A man sits in his workshop, busy with an invention of wheels and springs. You ask him what the gadget is, what it is meant to do. He looks at you confidingly and whispers: “I really don’t know.” Another man rushes down the street, panting for breath. You intercept him and ask where he is going. He gasps: “How should I know where I’m going? I am on my way.”
This is what Lajos Egri employed in his book The Art of Dramatic Writing to introduce the premise.
An idea is: I want to write about my career.
A premise is: I want to write about my career presenting the different points as to why I decided to choose it, what I was unaware of when I started, what would I recommend to other people who want to follow this same path, and what system I use to task my work.
Advice: consider simplifying all that into a brief and coherent title as to not make your readers delirious.
I do the following; look at my works as if they were being a character for a movie, or show. Is as simple as this:
- What does this character want (what do I want to write about)
- How is she/he approaching it (how I’m structuring it; am I being sarcastic, dramatic, would I write this section before this other one?)
- Why does this character want that (why am I doing it? what do I want to say?)
5. Arrange the way you think
“I’m getting it on with this idea I’ve been having in mind for weeks,” you tell your friend. He asks you what it is and your opinion about it:
“You know, this topic I get so angry about because I believe what my uncle said to me about that mistake this guy made and so I can write about what I felt the other day when I stormed my foot into the desk.”
There’s a silent beat. You both look at each other for a moment.
“Nex stop The New Yorker, man!”
Disaster.
How do you expect your readers to understand what you’re writing if for starters you don’t know what you’re writing and why you’re writing it?
By giving order to my values, beliefs, thoughts, and feelings I get to have a clearer mindset of what I’m aiming at with my work.
But how do I know if I’m actually improving as a writer, if my work is flowing with the correct quality?
6. Accept guides to ease your work
I listen to successful writers that could notify me of details I don’t come to notice myself. As brief and simple as some might seem.
“I was born premature. I came out much too early, and I wasn’t fully baked. I was very, very sick. The doctor would look straight into my mom and his yellow kid with black teeth and say: “He’s not going to live.” And I was in the hospital for months. And many blood transfusions later, I lived. That made me special. I don’t know if my parents really believe that, but I didn’t want to prove them wrong. Whatever I ended up being good at, I would strive to be worthy of the second chance I was given.”
Right after stating this on his TED talk on ‘The clues to a great story’, Andrew Stanton projected the scene for Finding Nemo where Marlin finds his son after the barracuda attack. Stanton being the writer and director of the movie.
And what he said next was a big slap on my face: “Use what you know. Draw from it. That means capturing from your experience, expressing values you personally feel deep down in your core.”
Guides, advice, and tips are resources to move forward when you’re stuck, in doubt, or having dilemmas with your work.
You don’t need to take all that religiously. You get to choose what serves you best.
This would make you a better writer, then? Yeah, because writing takes all that.
Though, this WILL NOT MAKE YOU A BETTER WRITER. Gasp!
At some point did I mention the part of eventually writing?
You can have all that from above nicely displayed. However, the number one way to improving your writing is:
7. Writing
Sure you need to take your time conceiving your “What if’s”, listening to advice, tips, exciting stories, and learning through reading books and articles while you do your research.
But start with what you know. Take from your experience. And write.
Because writing can take a lot of things, but ultimately writing takes writing.
Getting in touch with all these bases as to direction your writing is remarkably effective. Let’s recap, then:
- Have the ideas all jotted down
- Do the research as to structure them
- Read a lot on diverse subjects
- Know the what, how and why
- Give order to thoughts and emotions
- Use guides to improve your writing
- WRITING
