The Voices in Your Head: Tips to Writing Just About Anything

I am a writer. 

"Duh," you might say. "You have a blog."

  Writing has always been a part of who I am, and I have been fortunate enough to meet others who feel the same way. In my college, I have minored in Creative Writing (which means I can write fiction) and Technical Writing (which means I can write for a business).

Ever since I was small, I wanted to write. The idea was always in the back of my mind, even when I considered being a zookeeper when I was in fifth grade. 

If you have ever need help writing, been stuck outside "the zone", or just want to get started on your journey, here are some ways that I have found help me a lot.

Writing is different across every genre and every medium. Journalism has different rules than MLA English papers, and those English papers are drastically different that the spider-webbing of creative fiction. Creative fiction is also much more complicated than a simple set of instructions on how to tie a shoelace. 

So be prepared: nothing is what it seems.

First, brainstorm. Get out the words and outline, plan, and draft. Jot down little snippet of conversation you overhear, or describe an object or image you find fascinating. At this point in your writing, just get the ideas out and the rest will come. 

Second, write. Again, get the words out. I find this is the hardest step, because there is so much I want to say that it gets lodged in my brain and I find it hard to sort out my ideas. So, write what comes to mind. Do not ever delete! You might write something and delete it, only to realize later that you wanted to keep that idea. Don't worry about spelling or organization here. The important thing is to get it out. Revising comes later, when the wheels of your mind have cooled down some. 

The third step is to edit, or revise, or proofread...you get the idea. Change what you are comfortable with changing, first and foremost. If it's a story, often the editing step is for you to decide on; what does or doesn't work with a certain character or scene? If you are editing a paper, especially for a class, well, you might have some guidelines on this. Below are some guidelines I have found make sense in writing papers, especially for college. Also, here is a link. 





1. Do not use contractions. Read over your work. Do you use contractions a lot? These could include "don't", "can't", "ain't", and so on. In papers, these have to be turned into their original form. "Don't" becomes "do not". If you are writing a story, by all means use contractions! But make sure in essays you do not use them. 

2. No comma splices. This is a pet peeve of mine when I correct papers. Comma splices        occur when two complete ideas are joined by a comma. 
     For example: "Leo is tall. He plays basketball well." Those are two complete sentences. If we use a comma splice, they look like this: "Leo is tall, he plays basketball well." No! This is incorrect. Use "and", or something similar that connects the two ideas. "Leo is tall and plays basketball well" is just fine. 

3. Do you have any run-on sentences? These are sentences that are indeed connected (often correctly) by commas, but are just way too long. If you read them too much, they merge together in your mind and the specific idea is lost. 

4. Be specific. Have a research paper you are trying to write? Make sure you are specific in stating your topic. In many papers, this is called a thesis. Make sure each paragraph connects to your topic, and make sure that you have the introduction, body, and concluding paragraphs well defined. 



Now, on to the fun stuff! Stories! Below are some tips on developing characters and plot lines. First, however: a bit of exercising. 

Pace yourself. In five minutes, write a short outline of why the mouse is hiding, and why the cat has green eyes. Go!



How was that? Developing stories is often similar to explaining the "why" of life. Why does the cat have green eyes and not blue? Why is the mouse hiding? Is the mouse sad? These questions can lead to amazing stories. 


Now, for the promised ideas for you budding authors and poets out there!


1. What flavor of toothpaste does your character prefer (regardless of genre)? Shout out to Dr. Eck, who was my creative writing professor and who asked this of us years ago. If you have no idea about every detail about your character, then keep writing and digging. Pull inspiration from everywhere. I once wrote a story about a guy who hated mint toothpaste purely because it stains.

2. What would happen if you changed the timeline? If you start your story in the present, experiment with what would happen if you began in that future and had that same character looking back into the past. Play around with transitions and time. 

3. Who are you writing for? Children? Adults? High-schoolers who are all about the romance? College students who want sarcastic humor? Pros who are used to reading Kafka? Pick your target readers and then decide, How would a five-year-old react? Try and be as real as possible in your writing, especially so that the target readers can relate to your work. 

4. Make a set of pages devoted to describing your characters. How do they look, what are their names, how old are they, who do they end up with, do they die? These pages will help solidify your characters so that you can present them as best as possible to the reader. 


5. Plot a shorter scene and add conflict. What would happen if the princess rescued herself, but then ended up having to rescue the prince? How do you see a scene between two roommates going if one of them stole a wallet five minutes ago? Write out a scene and practice adding conflict. 




P.S.:
I hope these ideas have inspired all you writers (and even non-writers!) out there! God Bless!
---KatG