- Read quality material in the genre you are most interested in writing. Bestselling and enduring memoir for the memoir writer, for example. Award winning children’s books and teen series for folks writing for that audience. Learn what works well through being a consumer of the product you would like to emulate and create within.
- Don’t attempt to become a photocopy of the writer you are reading, use her style as an inspiration to create your style. I had a teacher who had us practice our writing by literally copying three pages of another writer’s words, writing them onto notebook paper. There is value there, like painters copy master works and singers practice by following another vocalist before branching out to discover a unique style.
- Read for style, skill and effectiveness rather than reading for “I like this, I don’t like this.” If I chose not to read Steven King’s On Writing because “I don’t like” his genre, I would have missed out on so much value! Read a chapter in a genre you “don’t like” simply seeking skill and effective communication. Watch your perspective shift as you evaluate for what works rather than whether it tickles your content funny bone.
- Read slowly. This isn’t about marking the book off your reading to-do list, this is about savoring methods so that you may become a better writer. This isn’t a fast food restaurant, it is a work of art.
- Write. Read. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat Again.
=====
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives.
Recent Comments