Zen…

Are you an aspiring author or a beginner writer? Here are a few writing basics and tips that helps.

1. Quality: Make sure your idea is a good one. An idea that sells. If it’s boring while you’re it, there’s 80 percent chance it’ll bore your readers

2. Establish your writing space and assemble your writing tools: as writer you can write anywhere but you also need a space where all your writing tools are assembled pen, pencils, journals, recorders, laptop, cup of coffee and so on. It helps you feel organized and calculated

3. Break the project in small pieces: don’t try to write 4000 words in a day. It’s very possible but it won’t be good for your mental health and creative flow. Write 1000 – 2000 words per day. The ensures creative flow and balance.

4. Settle on your big idea: don’t switch from one idea to another it has to tell us a story, solve a problem, find a missing piece in a puzzle and make a strong impact on your readers

5. Construct your outline: some pantsers may not agree with this, cause they sit and write at a go. But outlining helps keep you focus on your idea and understand steps needed to be taken to solve whatever mystery you have created and it prevents writer’s block. What happened to Jane at 13? Why does she hate singing? Outlining tracks your idea and expands your story, making your story cool with a good character arc.

6. Consistency matters: set a writing schedule, stick to it. Don’t be lazy. Sometimes productive procrastination is good for creativity but don’t over do it.

7. Write a compelling reader first opener: your first line tells your readers this book is worth skipping meals and sleeps for. Your first lines should be either- surprising, a dramatic statement, philosophical or poetic. Whatever your first line will be, think readers first.

8. Fill your story with conflicts and tensions on every page: not too intense but it must be true. If you want the story to sell, there has to be conflict and tension on every chapter perfect is boring there has to be something to find, figure out or a problem to surface which must be solved. This keeps the reader going.

9. Turn off your internal editor: this should have been the first step but here it is anyways. Turn it off ( vampire diaries in Damon’s voice) it’ll ruin your creativity when you keep going back to your lines and wondering if you should add more stuff or if it’s good enough or if it makes sense. Don’t worry about it, just write. Your first 3 – 4 copies are drafts and they still needs polishing. What I mean is you can always go back to your first draft and fix the lines, just don’t do it on the go.

10. Don’t quit: it might not be perfect or good enough and your reviewers might criticize it or your publishers might reject them but don’t stop writing. There’s always something to learn. Writing takes time, don’t rush it.

11. Write a resounding ending: don’t hurry to end your story. Let it sit. Go over it. A perfect ending is good but go for a resounding one, if you got many options, go for the most emotional, readers remember what moves them.

12. Polish that story: when your story is ready, you’ll know. Keep polishing that book until you are happy with every single word. Conduct your research, fiction or not, especially fiction. People think because it’s fiction you can write anything no fiction needs to believable. Use a credible lie to sell your truth.

I hope these tips work for you! Let me know your thoughts 👇🏾