The Big 10 Tips for Your Writing Project
There is always a project in the wings. A project that you’ve neglected because you weren’t sure how to get started, or have been stuck in a rut and felt uninspired–thus letting the project grow stale. These are my Big 10 for getting it done. Most of the tips you’ve heard before and will more than likely hear again–BECAUSE THEY WORK! Don’t be timid. Don’t be shy. Do not go quietly into the night. Write!
Right or wrong—we must write to be free—expressing ourselves, letting our emotions and imagination flow, wander, and expand beyond our hopes and dreams.
1. The outline
If you haven’t started with an outline. Stop. Go back to the drawing board and forget what you’ve written and put some direction together so you can have a map on what you hope to accomplish and how you will get there. An outline is a simple means to nudge you along in your journey.
2. Start in the middle
When starting in our saga, a work of fiction, blog, or article, we often can’t seem to get started in a way that appeals to us and gets us going. I have known writers to pick up in the meat of their project and begin writing what they wanted to say to get the creative juices flowing. Once we are out and running and the proverbial ink is flowing, we have a better grasp of where we are and how we can back up and write the led to capture our reader’s attention. Here is a blog post A Complete Guide to Writing Incredible Novel Opening from ProWritingAid.com that could be beneficial.
3. Picture your ideal reader
As you write, use your mind’s eye to think about the reader of your project. Imagine them perusing the title, capturing their attention with the first sentences, and how they respond to the information you thrust upon them throughout the writing. Think about how you want them to feel and react as they read your work. It may have you rework a few sentences or inspire you to go beyond the bland to lay a foundation that will inspire someone. It can give you the courage you need to persevere and finish writing something great.
4. Set deadlines
Most of us working for others have set deadlines. Whether we have external or self-imposed deadlines, we need to establish our deadlines. They can force us to push forward and meet our goals. I’m not just talking about starting and finish. I am referring to milestones for your project. Just as if you were going on a cross-country trip, you must plan how to get there. Pack what you need and see how far you need to go with each leg of your journey. I give myself two days for a blog, one day for two chapters of a book, or a week for a particular project such as a 100-page manual or white-paper.
If we do not set performance deadlines, we can easily fall behind when feeling less than inspired.
5. Create consequences for not meeting deadlines
When dealing with self-imposed deadlines, it is essential to establish consequences for not meeting them. It takes discipline. When you do not finish the first page of an article before lunch, you only allow yourself 15 minutes to eat—or no cup of hot tea this afternoon. Get creative. You are a writer, aren’t you?
6. Know your subject
Whether you are writing about a fictional place, a character, a living person, or an issue, it is crucial to learn about what we will write about. The background work can’t be ignored. When writing fiction, take the time to develop your character and make notes about them, their looks, habits, the way they dress and mannerisms that make them human. When writing about places, think about how they feel. The look, the vibe, characteristics of the people, the way they interact, animals, the colors, and how an outsider would compare this place to their home.
It doesn’t matter if you write about a real person or subject; the background work is the same. It’s important to interview, read, and interpret findings from the work of others to assimilate some thoughts that will prepare you for such an endeavor.
7. Have a team
Build a team to support you. Friends, family members, colleagues, they can all work together in some form or fashion to help support you. They can provide inspiration, feedback, and proofread sections. Sometimes we can use people who aren’t directly involved in our work to give us better ideas on making our passages read well. An administrative aid in my office would read my reports for me. She would give great advice. She wasn’t involved in anything related to my work, so it was all “cold” to her, enabling her to provide smart feedback. Do not underestimate those you live and work with. They can be valuable assets if you are open to all they have to say and stay away from being defensive.
8. Write
For goodness’ sake, just write! You don’t have to be inspired or even write well. Force yourself to put the pen to page or the type the keystrokes. The act of writing helps you to get motivated and start putting something down. Even if your initial trials are mostly incomprehensible gibberish, you will gradually bring yourself along and get into the groove. It happens! Even though you have no reason to do so. This works.
I’m not saying that the copy you produce will amaze you and that it will be all sweet songs and tales of your greatness will inspire others. What I am saying is that it will get you started. Just as rolling a motorcycle down a hill to start it (if you’re old enough to remember how we did that back in the day), it is a known method that works.
Go back and clean up some of your work to get everything in the same voice you intended most likely, but it will give you an edge that will work.
9. Finish the first draft and edit
It’s important to know when the work is good enough. That is when you must say, I finally finished the first draft, and that the editing process is ready to begin. Read the whole document through and mark every problematic finding, whether it is wording, grammar, spelling, punctuation.
After the first read-through, edit your work at least twice more and then have two more people look it over to catch things you may have missed. People miss their own mistakes because they will read them correctly in their heads and miss what may be before them. It takes someone to run it through with their own voice to be more objective. It is embarrassing the things other people can catch that we miss ourselvles.
10. Use a Professional Writing Aid to check your work
As professionals, it is imperative that we double check ourselves for grammar, punctuation, and readability again before sending our completed work to the client or publisher. There are a few great tools out there beyond the grammar and spell check features on Microsoft Word. ProWritingAid is one of the top recommended aid. I’m using it in this article before submission. Others can help writers to varying degrees, such as Hemmingway and Grammarly. Professionals have found consistent content review before submitting to their clients is the best way to maintain their stature as true professionals, worthy of their rates and stature.
Writing for a writer is not about the work; it’s about the journey. The places that our mind goes when pulling from our experiences, imagination, our friends, family, and our lives. It allows us to share a piece of ourselves in every work we publish.
A method to our madness? We only need a nudge to get us going in the right direction. The author of any work knows the best is always in us. Prompts, nudges, tools, these all serve a purpose as we embrace who we are.
