Tuesday Writing Tip~Experience
Art imitates life, especially where writing is concerned. To write something truly compelling and special, we must experience life and then allow that to shine through into our writing.
#WriteTip: Use your experiences in your writing, down to even sensory details. If you haven't experienced something you're writing about, try to. If you can't, interview someone who has experienced it or do the best research you can.
Do forget to utilize the experience of your friends and family, especially your writing community friends. You'd be surprised the wealth of knowledge that lies within your own inner circles!
#WriteTip: Use your experiences in your writing, down to even sensory details. If you haven't experienced something you're writing about, try to. If you can't, interview someone who has experienced it or do the best research you can.
Do forget to utilize the experience of your friends and family, especially your writing community friends. You'd be surprised the wealth of knowledge that lies within your own inner circles!
It took me the first year of writing to realize that life must be experienced in order write compelling, intriguing, and drawing material. We all have our own journey.
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while too. I wrote as a teenager and it wasn't until later that my writing really enriched.
DeleteSo true. And if it's frustrating when you're young and inexperienced, the good news is you can write until you grow ancient, and get better with age! Something to look forward to. :)
ReplyDeleteLOL! Indeed. That's the beauty of writing, one can always do it and always improve.
DeleteLinda, that's exactly what I did! LOL!
DeleteExperience is very important to the craft of writing - our own and others. I often find myself drawing on my own life experiences - or wanting to experience the things that I want to write about.
ReplyDeleteGreat advice, Heather!
It definitely is, and I do too! I'm forever thinking, I've got to try that!
DeleteExcellent Tip Heather! I'm definitely doing that.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it isn't things we want to experience. But each thing we go through enriches our writing. (((hugs)))
DeleteThank you Heather! I'll drop by more often~
ReplyDeleteGreat post :D
Nice to meet you~
You're welcome, and thank you! It's always a pleasure to meet another book lover. :)
DeleteNeil Gaiman once advises a writer who wrote prose that hinted of promise to go out and live: have his heart broken, lose a cherished dream, get bruised by life a bit ... then go back to writing and he would have something to write worth reading. Good advise both he and you gave! Roland
ReplyDeleteThat is good advice. Neil is a wise man. Thanks Roland!
DeleteI think I can write more in depth about more complex feelings than I was when I was a teen. This is when sometimes the bad things (loss, betrayal, heartbreak, etc.) can find some type of meaning through the written word. As well as the joyful happy things.
ReplyDeleteI've found, even at this age, that I have to produce it on the page and use those feelings--w/o saying I felt this way or that. This is the hardest part of writing something that is compelling, and even while you know what you experienced, you still need to draw in the reader as though they are in your skin. Very difficult!
ReplyDeleteGood post as always, Heather!
So many experiences provide for a chance to write with emotion. I have personal experiences I can tap into, lots of things in life that have given me a pool of emotions to dip into.
ReplyDelete