Tag: Creative Process

Why you should read

Have to say that in such a hectic world, people have lesser time to devote themselves to intellectual leisure activities like reading or playing board games, for example; but luckily for aspiring or settled writers, reading is a must, for it is the only exercise that the brain needs. Reading is the booster to the writer’s mind.

But how to get the necessary time to sit and relax with a good book or ebook at hand, especially if one doesn’t have time to devote to intellectual activities for whatever reasons – well, the answer can be found in these in-between mindscape moment – these moments where instead of pondering on past, future, or fatalistic issues, you are in fact reading. The writer needs to read everyday, to allow their mind to get acquainted with the natural flow of words, which in return will help the writer to automatically structure sentences without effort. The more you train your brain to deeply assess and learn texts, the more pleasurable your writing will become.

Reading helps to feed the mind, and where even a zero in the spectrum of writing can overnight write something that will make them proud. Reading and writing work hand in hand – an intellectual association that boosts creativity, while helping you to gain the needed confidence to show your work. Why self-confidence you’ll ask? Well, because you’ll have obtained the necessary knowledge of what pleases your mind as a reader, and in return you’ll eventually discern the arrangement of your own sentences during re-writes and edits, working towards that same aesthetic that pleases so much your mind when you read the works of the other authors.

Of course, if you could be reading more than 15 minutes a day, you would have been at the epitome of your writing creativity, but for the others that have a hectic, or even disorganized life, try to find the necessary 15 minutes to read, even if these minutes are broken down to fit your own agenda.

Thus, there is no other way that is more beneficial to your writing skills than that of the activity of reading 15 minutes a day, knowingly that you’ll eventually end up making your sentences automatically more fluid.

*And as for you folks, do you find reading as being beneficial to your writing skills?

Why Notebooks, pens, and digital-notebooks, are the self-taught writer’s best friends

If today I have contents on this blog and as well as a poetry book in preparation, it is greatly due to the scribbles jotted down here and there on different pages of different notebooks I keep; without forgetting the various digital-notebooks that permits me to type-in hastily my thoughts.

Thing is, anytime of the day inspiration and ideas might lightstruck my mind — and I insist on the word ‘lightstruck’, because if I don’t pen down this sudden spur of idea it evaporates instantly into thin air, just as the sudden appearance and disappearance of a streak of lightning into the sky.

That is how, uncountable structured sentences have slipped away from my mind, all while my attention was focused elsewhere, and where seconds afterwards I was unable to remember what gushed forth my mind.

It goes like that: a full-formed sentence lightstruck my mind, where most of the time my attention is already turned towards doing the dishes, ironing the clothes, immersed into a cool ambiance, or even while being online looking at interesting and inspiring images. And if ever I don’t rush on paper and pen, or open my digital-notebooks to type the words I’ve mused about, I instantly lose the idea on the way. Hence the importance of always having notes to write-on/type-in all the time.

So why does the self-taught writer needs keeping notes filled of scribbling?

• As scribbling-blocks for later word building

As a self-taught autodidact writer, all of these scribbles will serve you later for whatever writing project you are onto. So write whatever and wherever you can at any time of the day, so that you might get bits of words from where you can extract the necessary inspiration for you to focus on.

• A pool of inspiration to dive-in, on writer’s block season

Concerning me, there is a time where I can get loads of inspiration coming-in while focusing on my work, but there are some other days where my mind’s creative juice is completely dried out. And that is where I turn to my notebooks, trying to build upon all of these bits of scribbling words I’ve penned down or typed-in in haste. And believe me, there are enough inspiring lines in these notes for me to extract a whole paragraph.

• The best self-motivational insight on times of self-doubts

There are so many times where self-doubts have gnawed my mind, making me want to abandon everything, even finding myself ridicule for daring calling myself a writer/blogger, and even more to be writing a whole book… when at present time there are so many talented writers that give full proof of their craft through the composure of their published books.

But strangely, the moment I go through my notes–even though these are in a scribble state–I instantly change my mind, for something in these untidy words lifts up my self-confidence to go write for more, knowingly that my scribbles are concrete proof that I can do it.

So, jot down your thoughts, and perhaps you might surprise yourself by going through your notes again, thing which can give to yourself that boost of solid rock self-confidence on these heartbreaking moments of self-doubts.

• To set your imagination into motion

There are many ways of kindling one’s imagination, but to me, the thing needs to rely on the perception of the individual — like an imprint or impregnation of one’s own mind on the final composition of that something.

The appropriation of one’s own writing style takes time and practice, but nothing will get you there faster than to go through your notes, trying to build up a story from the bits of untidy words you’ve scribbled down on times where you had some random spur of inspiration of your own.

Writing is an art that you can almost master in a rather short period of time if practiced arduously and self-consciously. But before you can achieve this phase, loads of craps, and as well as loads of unintelligible sentences will bleed through your ink, as for you to finally be aware of what fits your own writing style, or else take notice of the skills needed to do so.

As I always say, initially I am a fictionaire, a daydreamer, and someone that has a vivid imagination. And when I connected with the internet and got inspired by all the others who posted digital content, I too envisioned to materialize the abstract images that run wildly into my imagination, and thus took the chance to finally write. But still, I didn’t know back then how to aesthetically structure contexts, and just went on writing wildly what I wanted to so as to publish them right away, and this, without even caring of going through rereads for further edits. And it was much later that I came to the realization that there was a lot more work to be done behind a piece of good writing.

Thus, when I gained some further insights on what really lies underneath skillful writing, I hurried back to my old posts – which were then on my former WordPress.com blog – so as to go through rereads for further edits… and guess what!… well, I felt ridiculous while going through all of my writing debut posts, but still, upon realizing that I made significant progress, I felt more determined than ever to continue practicing my writing skills. Moreover, my writing evolution bloomed throughout composing my current science-fiction book, and what was then an ugly duckling format, found itself being transformed little by little into a swan… yes, that’s the effect it made on me.

So after some bragging about the dilemma, I faced, here are some of the tips that I wished I knew before publishing online my first pieces of writings:

1. 1. If you are not used to be reading books, then it is the right time for you to do so, because it is only through this act that you will likely gain proper insight about the anatomy of the different use of textualisation, which will further serve you towards writing on your own.

1. 1. You should also be writing a lot every day, for it is only through practice that you will be able to upgrade your writing skills.

1. 1. Write what you wanted to write, without taking into any consideration or so to grammar and style, and keep in mind that this first draft of yours will be very very ugly, but you won’t care about its ugliness for the moment being, and will much more enjoy the roller coaster of writing about what YOU want.

1. Then afterwards, after having finished your writing project, it will be time for you to go through the polishing phase, where rereads and re-writings, in between different intervals can make a whole difference about what you have been writing into that first draft.

To conclude, keep in mind that you will perfect your writing skills the more you practice your craft, and don’t forget to trust yourself upon judging if your own writing appears as beautiful as you intended it to be.