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HOW TO BECOME A BETTER WRITER

You’ve always been a reader – perhaps you may not be even aware of the number of pearls of information at the bottom of your oceanic subconscious mind. And now you are reading all the ‘how to’ books on writing. You’re attending seminars and conferences on writing or researching the vast internet for the right material that will help you polish your skills. Whoopee! You have arrived at the right place. Here are 8 simple tips that’ll help you become a better writer.

OBSERVE: Everyone might say in order to become a successful writer you need to read, read and read. But reading is just a part of the most important trait that a writer must have - observation. In order to express an idea, we must first fully understand it. And mere reading about an idea limits our observation to the eyes. The key to becoming better observers is to work with all your senses to capture every dimension of an idea. Rely on your sight, sound, touch, smell and taste to write a book. And as a writer you must read, not just ink on paper but the world around you.

TAKE ONE STEP A TIME: To some, the thought of becoming a writer could be overwhelming. When you think of the pages you have to write, number of times you have to re-write a page or re-rewrite a page, the editing, proofreading, getting an agent, waiting for the agent’s response, doubting and fearing about rejection, worrying whether your readers will like your book or not etc. can make you postpone you living your dream till your ship of life reaches the shore of death. So, when these thoughts try to trick you, take a deep breath and replace the thought ‘I want to be a writer’ with ‘I will write today’.

STICK TO YOUR OWN STYLE: Don’t try to write like Stephen King, William Shakespeare, J K Rowling, Anne Rice or any other author who have made their mark in writing. Adopting your favourite author's writing style is quite different from being inspired by his/her work. It is as important to develop a unique writing style as learning from great authors.

WRITE FOR YOURSELF FIRST: Don’t base your writing on the market because the market changes. The thing to remember is, the books that are releasing now are generally sold two years ago. So, the trends you are seeing now on the shelves were really trends two years ago. If you start writing your book at the height of a genre explosion, by the time you finish writing it and the query is ready, the explosion is probably going to be on the declining end. In the end, agents, editors and readers don’t fall in love with the genre. They are going to fall in love with the story. What you don’t want to do is write a book just because something is popular right now. As I said earlier, it won’t be the same by the time you finish your book and most importantly, your heart won’t be in it and readers will see that. So, write for yourself first. Don’t worry about the market and don’t worry about what’s selling and what’s not. Just write your book. Maybe it will sell or maybe it won’t. But you won’t have lost anything because you will learn from the experience of writing. And if in the end, you have to put your manuscript away, that’s okay too. You never know when you are going to be able to pull it back out again.

WRITING IS MORE THAN BECOMING FAMOUS: Writing is about enriching the lives of those who will read your work and enriching your own life as well. So write, not for money. Write, not for fame. Write, for it is the right to freedom of mind.

MAKE SURE YOUR GOALS ARE ACHIEVABLE: Imagination is a good servant but a bad master. We should be realistic. Like it or not writing is a time-consuming task. Start with simple goals and as your novel progresses and you gain experience in writing set tougher goals. Setting unachievable goals will discourage us quickly. Don’t exhaust yourself. Take a break at regular intervals. It’s not important how many words you have written in a day. All that matters is how much time you have invested in your writing – quality over quantity, a trait of a good writer.

BE PREPARED TO FAIL: Failure is not the end of the journey, rather the pebbles in your path which you must kick aside as you continue the journey. Always remember, it is the journey that you must enjoy not your destination. And I can’t think of a single writer who has not come across some sort of failure. Harry Potter was not the first novel J K Rowling wrote, It was her first novel that got published – apparently after being rejected by 12 publishers.

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL: What authors mainly control are the words in the book. But, that’s not 100% true, it would be right to say authors control most of the words in the book. If you go for traditional publishing method and your agent chooses to publish your work there are certain aspects you won’t be able to control: You don’t control how the cover page looks like, you don’t control the interior design, you don’t control which retail outlets will stock your book, you don’t control the response of your readers and the list goes on. Moreover, the authors have to undergo editing, copy editing, proofreading and might have to even face people who tweak the words on top of the changes already made by the author and it goes back and forth. However, it’s a completely different story for self-publishing authors.
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“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
-Maya Angelou

___Author’s Note___
That's all for today and just drop me a line if want me to cover a topic that you feel is missing on this blog. You can reach me on twitter, fb or G+. Please share if you liked what you just read and subscribe to join the journey of a writer. Don't forget to share your thoughts in the comment box below 😊


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