Ever wondered how writers become writers? Or what writers do all day? I’ll share the big secret. There’s five important things we do, over and over and over again. The bigger secret is this: We have tons of fun. So, dive in and join in on the fun.
A Writer’s Five Most Important Habits:
Habit One: Paying Attention to One’s Life:
Even the most magical of settings are grown from the every day textures and smells and sights of a writer’s life. We take what we know and exaggerate or distort or shrink or make the impossible possible. How well do you pay attention? For instance, without looking do you know the kind of doorknob on your own bedroom door? Could you describe in detail the plants in your front yard?
Activity: Start a Sketchbook
One of the best ways to pay attention to your life and to also gather story material is to keep a sketchbook. Draw, write, take photos, collage, just keep track of the small stuff. It doesn’t have to seem important at the moment. The cats and squirrels and crows you see on your walk all did something. Maybe they chased one another up a tree or scared you out of your skin by unexpectedly cawing at your head. The small stuff is what makes stories come alive.
Visit the blog for more ideas. All the Sketchbook posts are tagged sketchbook.
Habit Two: Focusing on One Thing at a Time:
Writing involves hundreds of moving parts. Characters, settings, word-choice, sentence structure, conflict, foreshadowing, point of view, description, and the list goes on. We’re all tempted to look at a finished book and think the writer is just a genius and the story came out that way the first time. Let me tell you: it didn’t. Writers write in layers. They write draft after draft and particularly in the years when they’re first learning their craft, they break it down into tiny pieces. The best way to work on your writing skills is to think about what you want to work on next, say “making your characters talk like real people,” and then coming up with some games for yourself to try that skill out.
Activity: Eavesdrop
Here’s a possibility: If you’re trying to write realistic dialogue, keep a notebook in your pocket for a few days and write down any words that people say that catch your imagination. Or sit at your kitchen table and write down exactly what your family says to one another for a few minutes. It won’t take too long to start to see how people speak: in stops and starts, in fragments, over the top of one another, on totally different subjects, not answering one another’s questions, interrupting one another… the list goes on. Be careful, though. You don’t want to step on anyone’s toes by writing down what they’re saying. If you’re at all worried that it might not be a good time to be listening in, you’re probably right. Choose a different time, with people you know. You can even tell them you’re doing a writing experiment.
Visit the blog for more writing skills and activities. These posts are tagged writing skills.
Habit Three: Experimenting and Playing with Ideas:
It’s tempting to think that playing is just for little kids, but playing is an essential part of being creative. In fact, if you move your body and become involved in an activity to the point that you are completely absorbed, your brain has the ability to move past it’s normal thinking pathways into a space where spontaneous new connections and ideas can show up. Moving can be small, say drawing or collaging, doing something tactile with your hands, or something big, such as running while playing tag. When you’re in “idea-development” mode, try it. Get up and move. Do your brainstorm on a white board on the wall, on an easel, in color. Maybe add images. Have fun with it. You’ll see. New ideas will come.
Activity: Collage it Out
Find an old magazine or two (yes, do this the “old” way.) Think about the question you’d like to consider as you collage. You can collage about a creative question such as, “What should I write about next?” or a personal question such as, “I’m feeling frustrated, but I’m not sure why. What’s happening?” Flip through the images and tear out the ones that appeal to you and don’t think too hard about the question. Somehow, these things tend to work out without thinking about them too hard. Use a gluestick to make a collage out of your images and then hang it on the wall and step back. What’s the image telling you? Write a quick journal entry to capture any of those ideas, or better yet, put them in your sketchbook!
Visit the blog for more playful activities. You’ll find them tagged under play.
Habit Four: Read Like a Writer
The very best way to learn new writing skills is to read. If you’re like me, you probably lose yourself in books, and that’s a good thing. Do that, and enjoy the story first. Then, if you really loved the story, go back and look closely at the text. See if you can figure out what the writer has done that made you love the story so much.
Activity: Read for Ways to Start
The beginnings of stories, those first few paragraphs, are some of the most important words in the entire story. They promise what the rest of the story will hold. Take a notebook to the library and give yourself an hour. Gather a stack of books of the kind that you might like to write. Read the beginnings and jot notes about what you like and also what you don’t. You’ll learn as much from what you’d do differently as what you love. Then, take all of those ideas back home and try starting a fresh story or rewriting your beginning.
Check the blog for more Reading Like a Writer activities, tagged Read Like a Writer.
Habit Five: Can You Guess It?
Yep. Habit five is the most important. If you don’t do any of the other four, do this one. Write. Try to write every day, or as frequently as you can. Writers write and they become expert storytellers one word at a time.
photo credit: pedrosimoes7 via photopin cc
