Clear back in 2007, Melissa Donovan in her blog Writing Forward (https://www.writingforward.com/) posted what she called “The 22 Best Writing Tips Ever.” Twelve years later, it’s still one of the most-visited posts on the blog. With a nod to Melissa, I’m sharing it here with very minor edits. Enjoy!
- Do it. Write.
- Read as much and as often as you can. Remember, every writer is first a reader.
- Keep a journal or notebook handy at all times so you can jot down all of your brilliant ideas. If you’ve got a smartphone, make sure it’s loaded with a note-taking app. A voice-recording app also comes in handy for recording notes and ideas.
- Make sure you have a dictionary and thesaurus available whenever you are writing.
- Be observant. The people and activities around you will provide you with great inspiration for characters, plots, and themes.
- Invest in a few useful resources; start with the essentials: The Chicago Manual of Style and The Elements of Style.
- Learn the rules of grammar and then learn how to break them effectively.
- Stop procrastinating. Turn off the TV, disconnect from the internet, tune out the rest of the world, sit down, and write.
- Read works by successful authors to figure out what earns a loyal readership.
- Read works by canonical authors so you understand what constitutes a respectable literary achievement.
- Join a writers’ group so you can gain support from the writing community and enjoy camaraderie in your craft.
- Create a space in your home especially for writing.
- Proofread everything at least three times before submitting your work for publication.
- Write every single day.
- Start a blog. Use it to talk about your own writing process, share your ideas and experiences, or publish your work to a reading audience.
- Subscribe to writing blogs on the internet. Read them, participate, learn, share, and enjoy!
- Use writing exercises to improve your skills, strengthen your talent, and explore different genres, styles, and techniques.
- Let go of your inner editor. When you sit down to write a draft, refrain from editing, proofreading, or rewriting until that draft is complete.
- Allow yourself to write poorly—to write a weak, uninteresting story or a boring, grammatically incorrect poem. You’ll never succeed if you don’t allow yourself a few failures along the way.
- Make it your business to understand grammar and language. Do you know a noun from a verb, a predicate from a preposition? Do you understand tense and verb agreement? You should.
- You are a writer, so own it and say it out loud: “I am a writer.” Whether it’s a hobby or your profession, if you write, then you have the right to this title.
- Write, write, write, and then write some more. Forget everything else and just write.
Melissa Donovan studied creative writing at Sonoma State University, where she earned a BA in English with a concentration in creative writing. Since then, she has worked as a technical writer, copywriter, professional blogger, and writing coach. My poetry has appeared in convergence: an online poetry of journal and art, and her debut novel, Engineered Underground, was released in March 2015.
(Photos: colored pencils, The Spruce Craft; woman with books, Wordpress; woman with head on desk, thesuedesofa.com; Melissa Donovan, writingforward.com)