Your mind is full of stories but you find it difficult to pen them down???
Do you love writing but struggle to articulate them and pen down???
We all have a writer in us. Some know it, some like it, some love it but very few manage to bring that writer out. Confused???? That’s because writing calls for a sync in your knowledge of subject and ability to articulate your thoughts. This balance is the crux to create your niche as a creative writer.
Creative writing is not just a great career option but in general is a great way to de-stress. It can also be called healing. It allows you to bring in a balance in your thoughts and actions. But most of the us feel writing is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Writing is not an easy skill, but is a skill that can be learned. So, here we bring you the top 5 writing techniques that will help you improve your creative writing style:
- Read more: The first technique that can be called the most powerful or the foundation to building your creative writing skills is to read more. When we say read more, it means read more of different genre of different writers. Another aspect of reading more is to read same topic different interpretations. For example reading different versions of mahabharata. Every writer has a style, so reading more will help you not only experience different styles but also understand your style.
- Write more: As you aim to write, you need to write more. However, you may say, the whole hiccup is to know how to write. So, here is the trick. When we say write more, it doesn’t mean that you start writing something born out of your imagination. Start writing something that you have read. In other words, start with some small paragraphs of existing stories of newspaper piece. Read it and try to write the same paragraph in your style i.e. in your words or point of view. Then compare what you wrote and what you read. Identify the gap and make points of where you lack.
- Learn more: The biggest hurdle when you embark on the journey of improving your creative writing style is to learn more. When we speak of learning it means, learning new words. In other words, one of the biggest hurdles that come your way is lack of vocabulary. Because of this, though you know what exactly you want to write, you are unsure of the words that would suit what you wish to convey. Therefore, building vocabulary would blur the line between wanting to write and able to write. However, building vocabulary is not about knowing more words. Its about knowing words with their meanings and what they convey when you used. Then using the new words in the real context by yourself would make you gain practical knowledge.
- Edit better: A good writer must be a critical editor. In short, during your learning days as a creative writer, give equal importance to editing. Ensure that you edit the document well. One common trick for effective editing is that once you finish writing, leave the piece of writing for a day or so. Then visit what you wrote. This gap is necessary to let your mind relax and move on from the flashes of your writing. This is necessary because when you write, the thought you want to write is literally playing in your head. Therefore, the mind fails to identify errors in writing. When you take this break, the mind breaks the loop of thoughts and is fresh to edit the doc without any bias. Thus, give sufficient time to editing.
- Have a learning partner: Learning is a long journey and the initial phase can be extremely demotivating as you fail more and try more. However, to avoid this, you can have a learning/writing partner. This will add flavour to the learning journey. Will make you feel serious and responsible to your learning goals. Helps define timelines and instills the aspect of meeting deadlines.
Though the above mentioned points are the foundation stones to building creative writing, the fact remains that writing is a process. If you are serious of making creative writing your career or a serious passion, you must try different writing techniques that will impact your writing skill. Amidst the numerous writing techniques, you can choose and implement the one that best suits you.
Learning creative writing can be a self learning journey as well. However, if you are someone who feels self motivation doesn’t work and you need an external resource to guide you or lead you in this journey, then you can opt for online creative writing courses. The virtual world is filled with many who provide various creative writing courses that cater to amateur writers to professionals. These courses are tweaked based on the learner’s skill. So, if you have the passion to write and a commitment to learn, nobody can stop you from becoming a creative writer.
