Writing Tips

Writing Tips from our members

Always keep a little notebook handy to jot down ideas. --Judy Di Gregorio

Words are like smoke, you better catch them when they are on fire. --Peter Quinn

It's not so much revision, as translation. Write for yourself, revise for your reader. --Scott Savage

Try to write for at least a few minutes around the same time every day. It keeps you in practice and fuels the flow of ideas. --Martha Yarnell

Schedule a time to write every day and treat it like any other important appointment you wouldn't consider missing. --Terry Shaw

Crappy first drafts lead to marvelous beginnings. --Sue Dunlap

Invest in a small digital voice recorder. Read aloud what you write and then play it back. You'll find new insight for revision of your work. (Also carry it everywhere to record inspirations.) --Cathy Kodra

If you can, walk instead of drive--it frees the imagination. --Judy Loest

Write something every day. --Jim Johnston

Show me, don't tell me. --Gene Brennen

Remember when writing you don't need to write in chronological order. Write what you feel like, whether it is
the beginning, middle or end of your story. There is no point forcing a good beginning if at that moment you want to write the ending. Do what you feel like... there are no rules in writing! --Lauren Pridding

Be prepared to accept that not everything one writes is going to be accepted and/or appreciated. It is better to do a little bit each day even if it is one sentence, or one correction. Sometimes the ideas come and the story flows. Other times there lies dormant the seeds for more sprouting of fresh growth. A little tendering goes along way to having the burst of new growth. Since I started to treat my story as a series of new growth, I have ceased to worry, and await with optimism the story to emerge like a new eruption of a silent volcanoe. --Chris Shearer

At the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Jim Galvin once said that "talent sleeps late." To that I add, "always with deadlines, often in drafts." --Julia Beach

Do not listen to your Enemy. "You cannot write. What, are you nuts? It is too late in life for you to begin a new career. Too much competition. Look at how much time it takes to warm up, gather your materials, research, study, read, do your practice sessions, gather props, complete just ONE character sketch." Anyway, turn off that negative old nag and sit down, pen in hand and write something. Anything. It WILL evolve-with your resolve. *Note to MYSELF! --Carol Bartlett

Remember GALAXY QUEST? "Never give up...never surrender." A writer should never give up. They should write, rewrite, submit, resubmit and never give up until they are published. There is no such thing as "overnight success" in this trade. It may seem that way when you sell your first story/article/novel, but if you look back, you will see that there is a long road behind you. So be patient. It takes time to become an overnight success. As an author who sold her first four books in one year after spending nearly twenty-five trying to sell one, I know this from experience. --L. Underwood

"When writing a character in fiction, keep in mind the person who inspires you. It will aid in your work and give your character a voice." --M. Krause

"Write like the wind!" -- Jesse Stuart. Write whenever and wherever you can. Tell your stories and mentally categorize the people who show interest in them; those people represent your audience--your publisher's "target market." Go deep inside yourself and ask, "What do I want to share with the rest of the world?" and "How can I help make the world a better place?" Travel, meditate, love everyone and everything you can...nurture your Muse. And think long and hard about whether you want to write for a living or whether you would be a more creative writer if you kept writing as a beloved avocation. Remember T.S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams. --Doris Ivie

Reading widely is absolutely essential in strengthening and maintaining your writing heart and muscles. Essays, fiction, plays, history, poetry, biographies, and even cookbooks extend new possibilities in language, story, color, and images. I always title my poetry classes "Reading and Writing Poetry" to emphasize the connection between the two. Reading is like yeast, if you will, allowing so many other elements such as imagination, personal experience, and memory to combine and breathe life into your work. --Linda Parsons Marion
Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes, Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite, "Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write." by Sir Philip Sidney, "Astrophil and Stella" --Candance Reaves

Avoid using empty adverbs,such as really, very, always, never. If you want to describe how large the "really big barn" actually is, try simile: Like Carlsbad Caverns, the barn was filled with silence and whispers of movement.
--J. Pantanizopoulos
A sense of audience is the key to nonfiction writing. We all hope that our articles or books will be snatched off the shelves by hundreds of thousands of eager readers, but the more precisely we can identify who those potential readers are, the more likely we are to be published, paid, and ultimately read. As you plan a piece, ask yourself who will find this subject interesting, who will benefit from the information, who will be willing to pay to read what you are going to write. Once I've identified an audience, I like to think of someone I know well who is clearly a member of that target group and write for him, or more frequently, for her--just like writing a letter. I try to find the tone, the sentence structure, the vocabulary that will work for that person. I give an example when I think she'll need one and go on to the next point when I think she's ready. Several reviewers said that the tone of "How to Find Help for a Troubled Kid" was just right--authoritative but never condescending, helpful, reassuring, and personal. I think that's because I wrote most of the book with one of my sisters in mind. --John Reaves

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