1. Read as much as you can and all kinds of books.
2. Write as much as you can. A few lines every day. Not just pages of a book! A review of a film or play you’ve seen, your diary, your blog, a description of somewhere you’ve visited, or a childhood memory. Just get used to putting your thoughts and words and ideas onto a page or up on the screen. You are building pathways in your brain. Word pathways you will use and reuse.
3. Make an absolute decision to record and remember things. Save them into your brain. It’s like hitting the save button on the computer. You won’t forget. Also set up folders for clippings or articles or photos that you are interested in. My Ideas Folder is a physical folder on my bookshelf that is simply called ‘Ideas’. Anything that goes into this folder is something I really feel I could perhaps write about.
4. If something you have written is not working just get rid of it. Don’t waste your precious writing time on something that will probably never work. Take out a new pad, open a new folder on your computer and begin writing again.
5. Stop talking about writing and just go write!
The Rose Garden by Marita McKenna is out now.