Tips For Beginning Writers

Writing can be complicated, especially for beginners. There are so many genres, rules, devices, strategies, and styles. The myths regarding the craft of writing can often deter people from doing it at all. One thing is for sure: there is not one way to write. Here are a few tricks to get the ball rolling in the direction of becoming a capable writer.

Find Your Voice

If you are new to writing, have grand ambitions, but you don’t know where to start . . . start by writing about what you love. Even if it is stream of consciousness, jot it down. There’s no better way to get into writing than writing, and focusing on something about which you are passionate. The longer you write, the more it will sound like you. When your writing starts sounding like the way you speak, and think, you begin to develop a strong narrative voice, a vital and essential element. This voice will determine the tone, seriousness, or even the identity of your writing. As you gain experience, you’ll have a greater understanding of how to utilize it, and observe the effect on the rest of the writing. But all of this starts by writing about the things you love.

Push Yourself

Writing is like other unfamiliar territory; you’ll never know what you are truly capable of until you push your own limits. The only way to improve your writing is to understand your strengths as well as your weaknesses. Sometimes those weaknesses are just areas that you never thought about pursuing. Explore those and write in new genres. Challenge yourself by writing in styles or forms you aren’t familiar with. What do you have to lose? No one expects you to be the next Stephen King or Kurt Vonnegut when you first start writing, but you’ll never know your true potential unless you push.

Multiple Drafts

Being ambitious is one thing, but expecting you’ll only need one draft to nail it is unreasonable. Human beings, by nature, make mistakes. Get used to the editing process, as you may uncover your deeper, more interesting work. You’ll also find a laundry list of typos, grammatical errors, even fatal flaws that can be easily overlooked in the first draft. This process isn’t just for beginning writers. Quality work requires multiple drafts. Even the best writers in the world completely miss the mark on the first draft.

Editing is Writing

While writing multiple drafts is a nonnegotiable part of the writing process, it doesn’t have to feel like a chore. The editing process isn’t just clean-up. Editing allows you to reassess what you have written and gives you an opportunity to take what you have in a different direction. Don’t avoid this process: welcome it and use it for the greater good of your writing. Your mistakes are only temporary intermissions for successes.

Have Fun

Writing should be an escape. Even if your job is to write for a living, you are in this line of work because you chose to turn a passion into a career. Don’t let your writing mistakes ruin the activity for you. Writing is your experience of translating thoughts in your head to words on a page, and no matter how many ways someone can teach you to write or a certain way or tell you what to do, your writing is your experience. Enjoy it.