Writing Advice/Tips

Since a the age of about six, I began writing stories for fun. One of my most vivid memories of my very young writing life was writing my first puppet play, to be performed in front of my grade three class. I was never so proud to accomplish such a big writing task than at that moment. Throughout the many years since I have grown to love writing more than anything and have worked hard at perfecting my babies to the best of my ability. I might be only twenty one but I have learned plenty from some amazing people along the way. With their writing tips and guidance I am finding I am slowly getting better with each word I write.

With that, I would love to share with you some writing tips and advice I have received from those wonderful people along the way. I hope that they will be as useful to you as they have been for me.

1. I have a really good friend I met on www.writing.com a few years back. She goes by Tirzah and when you need a laugh or in my opinion, motivation, she is the girl to go to. She recently started her own blog called A Clever Whatever Blog (http://acleverwhatever.blogspot.com/) and in a recent funny post she brings up a great point and an obvious tip for all writers in my view. No matter how badly you think your novel is at the time of writing it, never give up on your novel. It might suck. It might be horrendous, but the best thing for that novel of yours is to finish it and finish it NOW!
2. When I was in high school, I was fortunate to have a wonderful English teacher who encouraged me to keep going with my writing dreams. She even set up a group for the school to help aspiring teen writers to hone their craft. The main thing I learned from being in that Writers Group for four years was how to keep the muse going by using prompts. There are many days in my own life where going to my desk to write seems like the worst chore, especially if your brain turned to mush. Random and fun prompts can be found anywhere online, and could help your mind have a mini vacation from what you are currently working on.

3. Back in October of 2009 I attended a really cool writers conference online (and for free ). It is called The Muse Online Writers Conference (www.themuseonlinewritersconference.com). The creator, Lea Schizas, did a wonderful workshop called Assaulting a Writer’s Thinking. She mentioned how Determination and Perseverance are two things a writer must have, which I personally find is true. Determination drives you forward and makes you want to accomplish the goal you have in mind. I personally do not know what to do without it. Perseverance helps you through all the critics, rejections and so forth. It is not always easy to hear the negative aspects when it comes to your writing baby, but after that workshop Lea had done, I still feel as if I could burst through those barriers and be proud of what I have done.

4. Most importantly I have learned a lot from one in particular person....or animal you might say. *Sings: Just keep swimming, just keep swimming* Sound familiar to you? Being a child caregiver on the side, I have watched Finding Nemo too many times to count. The movie is fantastic and Dory is definitely my favourite character. She taught me something incredibly important. Just keep swimming. Just keep going. Just move forward. Hard times will come and go but I promise you if you take five minutes and keep singing that song it will brighten your day. Heck, you might even get motivated to write while singing it.

I hope you enjoyed my small list of tips/advice that have helped me thus far in my little writing world.

I would love to hear from you all and have a question to ask of you:

What advice has been given to you during your life that you live by?

Until next time, Happy New Year to you all and be safe!