We all feel like we should be writing well right off the bat. That what we create should be ready now, tomorrow, or maybe even yesterday. And when it isn’t, we beat ourselves up. It’s time to give yourself permission to suck.
Do you listen to and trust your imagination? Become an improviser with your writing and learn to do so. Say yes to your story idea and don’t block your creativity.
To improvise means to create and perform (music, drama, or verse) spontaneously or without preparation; and to produce or make (something) from whatever is available.
Patricia Ryan Madson’s book Improv Wisdom shows us how to apply the concepts of improvisational theater to deal with real-life challenges. Today, I will look at how the concepts of improv can also apply to how we approach our writing.
I am not a poet but I read poems regularly. Their succinct and succulent lines transform the way I see the world around me, fill my head with color and sound and taste and most important of all to me, emotion. And all without lots of words.
If you can’t quite say what you’re getting at, playing with metaphor-making may unlock your voice and expand your piece. And even if you don’t think you need metaphors for your writing, metaphor-making may unlock new ideas for you.
Today is the first of November. For many writers, that means one thing: National Novel Writing Month has begun.
One thing’s for sure: writing 50,000 words in 30 days takes a lot—a lot of dedication, of imagination, of perseverance. It’s important to know why you’re writing at all. Focusing on that reason for starting will help you power through when the writing gets hard and you’re tempted to quit.
There are hundreds of reasons to write a book in just thirty days. Today, though, I’ll focus on just one.
The first time I took up the NaNoWriMo challenge, I lost my first two days staring at a blank scene. I’d write a paragraph and then delete it. I’d get a couple sentences into a chapter and then change my mind. My writing was a disappointing mess.
By the third day, I was already so far behind my goal, I realized I was never going to catch up. I stuck it out for two more weeks, but then, discouraged and frustrated, I quit.
The second time I tried the NaNoWriMo challenge, my experience was different.
One preparation secret made all the difference in helping me start off on the right foot and actually finish my book.
Happy October! Fall is here, and that means one thing for me: NaNoWriMo season.
What is NaNoWriMo? It stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s a yearly event in November where writers all around the world set out to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. Insane, right?
It sounds crazy, and it is, but it’s very doable! You just need to have the right tools at your fingertips. But not all writers are the same. We have very different approaches to writing from each other. Luckily, there are lots of tools at your fingertips to help you reach your goal. Here are five different types of NaNo-ers and the tools they might use.
