Writer's Tips

The following tips for young writers were taken from an article in The Hamilton Spectator

• Keep a writing notebook. Carry it with you as much as you can...Write down things that interest you, things that happen to you or that you see, snippets of conversation, your ideas and feelings.
• Train yourself to be a good observer who notices the little details. They are the details that will make your writing come alive.
• Read a lot...Unconsciously you will learn from what you read - techniques, styles of writing, even spelling!
• Write as often as you can
• Enjoy writing. Let it pour out and worry about things like spelling afterward.
• Learn how to revise your work. Once it's finished, put it aside for a while so you can come to it with a fresh eye, and then read it with a view to make changes and corrections. Keep doing this until you feel it is the best piece you can possibly write at this particular time.

• Invest in hard copies of the 'Oxford Canadian Dictionary' (Or American etc if that's where you are), 'Roget's Thesaurus', 'Bartlett's Familiar Quotations', 'Fowler's Modern English Usage', and 'Strunk & White's Elements of Style'.
• Spell it right, say it right. Learn the difference between 'lay' and 'lie', 'me' and 'I', 'sank' and 'sunk'. Nothing damages credibility more than careless grammar, spelling, punctuation or factual errors. When in doubt, look it up.
• Don't use a boring or cliched word when you can substitue something more engaging.
• Keep it simple.
• Avoid the first person as much as possible.
• Proofread. And then do it again. Twice

• Never try to create a masterpiece. Just write something you like.
• Read every kind of writing
• Try writing every kind of writing
• Don't hang your hopes on inspiration, but rather on imagination, creative play, and developing skill.
• Publish - Make your own books, chapbooks, magazines, and zines.
• Make or discover a community of other writers.
• Make or discover and audience of readers and listeners.
• Find a thoughtful, inspiring, non-patronizing mentor who's not afraid to tell it like it is.
• Like most writers you may think that what you've written is lumpy, mishapen crud, but look at it next week.
• Like most writers, you may think that what you've written is better than Dickens, but look at it next week.
• Be willing to eddit, eedit, editt, and edit.
• Try out other solutions: you can't break a piece of writing, and you can always go back to an earlier draft.
• Don't hold on to your initial ideas, but be open to what you discover as you write. Your writing process may be smarter than you are.
• Try to imitate other writers and don't worry if you don't end up sounding like them. Once you've started a bad imitation, you may find something interesting in what you've written.
• Buy all my books. Give copies to your relatives. (Modest, ain't he?)
• ...Keep writing, an Olympic runner runs and runs and runs. A writer keeps writing and writing and writing.
• Finally, remember painting when you were 5? You used your fingers, your nose, your little brother. You played. You experimented. You had fun.

• Keep a diary. Read, write, and don't let anyone tell you it's impossible.
• Make friends with the librarian at your public library. Make friends with other readers and writers.
• If you have a dream, chase it and don't let anyone trample on it. The naysayers have a name. Cameron calls them "creative monsters".

• Write your first draft recklessly. You want every word to be a pearl the moment it drops from your fingertips. But results are often better if you plunge right in, let the thoughts tumble out and then move on to the massaging and polishing.
• Don't set out to commit an act of literature. Or even an act of journalism. Just tell a story.
• Don't use the word "tragic". Or "heroic". Or "miraculous". Or "Outrageous". If you've done your job right, there's no need to weigh your piece down with such descriptors. The reader will finish your story and say "Man, that's tragic." By showing readers the right detail and telling the narrative, you give them the privelage of drawing their own conclusions. They'll like you for that.
• Don't tell your story to everybody until you're tired of hearing it yourself. Tell it to the keyboard first. That keeps it fresh, electric. Sometimes you'll even tingle when the words hit the screen. With luck, your readers will tingle sometimes too.
• Don't push too hard for a style. Tell your story clearly and vividly. Tell it naturally. Your voice will come.
• Don't use a long word when a short one will do.

I think the most important skill for writing is paying attention, from the beginning to the end of the process.

It starts with observing everything you can absorb: how a bank machine works, how people talk, what vanilla ice cream tastes like, how a cardinal calls its mate.

All good writers are curious. If you don't understand something you observe, ask someone or look it up. Reading is a form of observation.

Consider how you would describe something you know to a stranger who had no idea what you were talking about. Practice doing this by writing it.

Remember that what you do with a pen or a keyboard is only printing or typing. Writing is the mental act of translating ideas into marks on a page. By the time you make the marks, you must pay even stricter attention to your writing. You must assure that what you have written makes sense. You must make it accurate and consistent. You must check and correct your spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Still, precision is not enough. Time is short, and you must try to make your writing entertaining enough to justify a reader's attention.