This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
1. Keep moving forward. Don’t stop to fret over individual words or an awkward sentence. Tell yourself you’ll come back to fix all that in the next draft. (You will.) Just keep writing.
2. Starting a novel is easy. Finishing one is hard. Let that be your first goal. Yes, you want it to be good and published and all that. But focus first on just finishing.
3. Some days you won’t feel energetic or inspired or enthusiastic about writing. Use those days to read back over previous pages and revise. Sometimes you’ll get inspired to do more by starting slow. It’s like exercise: you might not feel like you have the energy to run a mile, but if you say, “I’ll just jog for a minute,” you’ll often keep going after that minute’s up.
4. When in doubt, opt for clarity. No one ever went wrong writing a nice clear, simple sentence.
5. Any interesting life experience will make you a better writer. Sometimes you need to walk away from the computer and do something fun or unusual. (Advice I don’t always take myself—but I should!)
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1. Keep moving forward. Don’t stop to fret over individual words or an awkward sentence. Tell yourself you’ll come back to fix all that in the next draft. (You will.) Just keep writing.
2. Starting a novel is easy. Finishing one is hard. Let that be your first goal. Yes, you want it to be good and published and all that. But focus first on just finishing.
3. Some days you won’t feel energetic or inspired or enthusiastic about writing. Use those days to read back over previous pages and revise. Sometimes you’ll get inspired to do more by starting slow. It’s like exercise: you might not feel like you have the energy to run a mile, but if you say, “I’ll just jog for a minute,” you’ll often keep going after that minute’s up.
4. When in doubt, opt for clarity. No one ever went wrong writing a nice clear, simple sentence.
5. Any interesting life experience will make you a better writer. Sometimes you need to walk away from the computer and do something fun or unusual. (Advice I don’t always take myself—but I should!)