Writing Do’s and Don’ts

When writing, it can be integral to write so that you capture the readers’ attention.  Keep your writing as interesting as possible, but without too many ‘fillers’ (sentences that repeat, words that aren’t additionally needed to express what you’re getting across in your works), and write with the readers in mind, as though you are reading the words you are writing as you write them.   This can help keep your words written in such a way that can be read with ease.  Also, write without making everything too technical and drawn out when writing, focusing only on what you are trying to get across in your work, plus write with passion.  Then work on the revising and editing after each chapter, piece, etc. that you are writing, later on.  Doing this will help make your writing flow, more easily and more freely, plus, it will make a world of difference in your writing when you do this, and will capture and hold the readers’ interests, easier.

When writing the details of your characters or of situations in your works, put in your all.  What I mean by this is to write with everything you have of your thoughts, feelings, and passion.  The characters and situations will be sharper, seem more real, and it could then be easier for readers to identify with the characters and the situations.  And, the readers’ interests can be captured and held, easier.

When writing poems or prose, the style in which you write can make all the difference.  If you have a narrative you want to express, writing in prose can be better than writing a poem.  Writing in traditional style of poetry can work well to express about love, lost lost, desires, or about feelings.  But it might not work well if you are wanting to really want to make your words ‘speak.’  What I mean by that is that writing about love lost could work better in prose if you want the main focus on the piece to be solely about the subject, itself, and want to emphasise the piece, more strongly.  Prose can be a good form in which to do exactly that.  Plus prose pieces are often spoken at Spoken Word events because of the rawness in which subjects are written and expressed.  Poems can also show rawness of the subject written about, as well, but not necessarily as strongly as prose pieces.  And prose pieces can actually be easier to write than traditional forms of poetry because it doesn’t focus on iambic pentameter that is so common in traditional poetry, nor on grammar so much as just the narrative aspects of writing.  Additionally, writing with feelings, first, no matter in what form of poetry you are writing, is key.  Here, too, writing with feeling does help, immensely.  And, writing with pure passion and completely from feelings with feeling is key to completely get across whatever it is about that you are writing.  Again, it is best to focus on the grammar, revision, and editing after you are finished writing what you want to express because focusing on it before finishing writing your work can interupt your thought processes, and, therefor, can create writer’s block, however temporary that may be in duration.

If writer’s block does happen, it can be okay to take a break for a bit and then come back to writing whatever you were working on, previously.  Meditation, listening to music, or just clearing your thoughts for a bit can help relax you.  And when that happens, sometimes, your mind and thoughts goes back on track, again, or can be put back on track, again, well, to what you’d been writing about, and continue forward.  Writing can then sometimes be continued at this point when this happens.

If writing novels or something where you aren’t trying to express about sad experiences, situations, or subjects, adding humour into your work can really be positive and keep the reader upbeat while reading your work.  Additionally, in some cases, such as in stories, articles, etc., adding humour or writing with humour can make a piece or story that is sad or that has sad parts within it seem a little nicer, more positive, and easier to read.  Adding humour can make all the difference in pieces and stories.  It might not work as well, though, within poetry.

Writing with time can be an issue for many writers.  Deadlines can come up, which, in turn, can make stress happen.  Writing something when you have a deadline for it to be finished can be stressful.  How do you write something, well, when you know you have a deadline?  By following the following tips:

•  Don’t fret.  Just do.  Worrying about deadlines can actually clutter the mind, thereby, making writing with ease more difficult, and can cause writer’s block.
• Take deep breathes, count to ten, and clear your mind (if practised, enough, clearing one’s mind can be done quickly and effortlessly.  So, if you aren’t used to clearing your mind, getting into practise, now, could help you get used to doing so.  And then, doing so can get easier to where you can do so, quicker, and with much more ease).
• Take a five minute break, if need be, then get back to work.  But keep to a schedule, even if you have to add into that schedule of taking a 5 minute break every two or three hours.  Taking a short break every so often from working can help to destress.  Stretch your legs during that break, or go get a low cal snack as that can also be good for the body to keep your nutrition up.
• Don’t forget to eat.  I’ve found while in college, that I often had forgotten to eat while I was studying so much.  Not eating can affect how well we do things (studying, writing, etc.).  So, keep up your nutrition, often.  Even schedule that into your schedule to remind yourself to eat, if you need to do so in order to keep up your nutrition.
• Don’t rush through your writing.  Doing so can affect how well your writing is.
• Relax.  This can help, especially if you don’t work well under pressure.  Relax and writing can then come to you, more easily, hence, making more writing get done, which can make beating that deadline, easier.
• Keep a schedule.  Keeping a schedule can help keep one on track.
• Keep organised.  A messy desk might not help in trying to get writing done.

Another writing tip is to use Microsoft Word 2010 of Microsoft Office (2010) if you can afford to get it because it has a lot of features that some other programmes do not have.  Plus, converting Word files you have into PDF files can be more easily done without any issues using this programme.  And, links added into files that are of PDF files do work and can be clicked on.  I know that some other programmes didn’t allow for this.  But, this particular programme does without any functionality issues of that type.  The Font and number of options of things you can do with this programme are numerous and wonderful.  The Windows Live office is also a good programme to use for writing.  I’ve used that in the past, as well.  Google Docs is another programme writers can use that I recommend because it can also be used for free and it allows you to save your documents to your hard drive.  I also recommend another programme called ‘QuiteWrite”  Its editor is out of the way, which allows you to completely focus on your writing that way.  Plus, your writing is automatically saved as you write, so that you don’t lose anything you’ve written before your current part that you are writing.  Additionally, you can share your work you’ve written on this with others, and export them to your WordPress blog if you want any of your writings exported to your WordPress blog if you have a WordPress blog.

Writers’ sites can help in your writing.  They can help you to gain critiquing of your writing, there, gain friends, plus interact with other writers about writing and subjects related to writing.  Plus, you can gain experience in sharing your work.  Occasionally, these types of site have writing contests to which you can enter.  A writers’ site I recommend to which I, myself, belong, is Writer’s Digest (http://www.writersdigest.com/).

Gain feedback for your work. Gaining feedback for your work can be a real help when writing because it can catch any errors you’ve made and help you to know what works, better, well, or of what doesn’t work better or well. Also, gain feedback for style and structure of your work , and use Beta readers (readers who read and then give feedback about grammar, spelling, characterisation, format, etc.; a reader who critiques writer’s writings (Mike Saxton, a wonderful writer and another member of Writers of Mass Distraction, came up with this piece of advise, which is really good advise).  Thank you, Mike, for mentioning about these pieces of advise.

Research what you write.  It can be good to research what you write to ensure accurate details about the facts in which you are expressing when you add the facts into your writings.  If writing on subjects into poems, prose, or any type of poetry, research might not be needed.  But, using the experiences you’ve gone through, or that you’ve seen, heard, or learned of others having gone through about that you are writing can then be what to write about when writing poetry, and can be sufficient, enough.

Use a ‘Persuasion Map’ (http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/persuasion_map/)  A Persuasion Map’ is a tool writers can use to map out their aurgements of their thesis to help them write their thesis.  But, I’ve found that it can help writing for other types of writing, well, and for helping me to organise, better, my writing, and help me in reasoning to myself how is the best way to write my pieces.  It can be a useful tool.

Use a tool called a ‘Notetaker’ (http://interactives.mped.org/view_interactive.aspx?id=722&title=).  It can help you take notes on what you read, help you organise, revise, and plan out your writing, which can help you when your pressed for time while writing.  If you’re a first-time writer, or if you are pressed for time, this can be a helpful tool.

Even after having taken everything else that has been stated, above, into account, the most important thing in writing can be to have fun.  Have fun writing, cus, even if nothing else is done, this can make a difference.  It will show within your work when you have had fun writing your piece, stories, poems, etc., and that can still keep readers’ interests.  That, plus having fun writing can be uplifting for those who write.  Have fun, and happy writing!

April Morone