After Using a Free Writing Strategy, My Writing Shot off In Exciting Ways
Try this method to help you, too!
Late last year, I enrolled in two writing courses, one for fiction and one for nonfiction. As a believer in lifelong learning, I fully embraced committing myself to learning the tips and tricks of being a writer. I knew that there were lots of things that I still needed to learn.
It turns out that I was right. I got so much out of the two courses, and one big takeaway is that it doesn’t hurt to show your work to others in a forum that encourages constructive criticism.
Previously, I had posted my stories in other forums and got very little feedback that could help me improve my writing. This changed immediately when it was my turn to post my selected stories.
The writers encouraged me to clarify my stories and fine-tune the endings. I wrote a short story about a sentient wall facing demolition (death) and found it odd that one student felt that my story was too dark. Of course, one can accept or reject students ’ suggestions to enhance your stories. In this case, I found her advice unhelpful because she was changing my storyline.
When it came to critiquing other writers, I didn’t hold back. I questioned why some minor characters were added, and another writer added too much scientific data that ruined the flow of her story.
What I liked about the courses was that the instructors gave us guidelines and encouraged us to read professional writers from the past and present.
I was happy to discover some fabulous nonfiction writers like Katherine Boo, whose narrative journalism captured the lives of the poor and overlooked. I was encouraged to rediscover the descriptive and captivating storytelling by the legendary George Orwell in his books like Down and Out in Paris and London
The following are a few key things I took away from these writing courses.
- Start writing your story or article. When you are finished writing, this is a draft.
- Return to your draft, read it, and edit it as necessary.
- Go back to it and edit it again.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 if necessary.
Since my courses ended late last year, I have applied these strategies to my article writing. My most important takeaway is that writers should rewrite their stories until everything makes sense.
Stories Are Works In Progress
My writing classes taught me to view my stories as works in progress. The writing is only done when you are satisfied that you haven’t omitted anything relevant to the story.
Some writers will tell you to keep writing and stay consistent. However, they forget to tell you something equally important: double-check your work and fine-tune your articles as though they were instruments.
When I applied some insights to my writing, my stories took off positively. One of my nonfiction stories became a top story on a platform other than Medium.
My attention to correcting, revising, and re-editing my stories shows promising results, and then I received a surprising notification: One of my articles got boosted on Medium.
I am grateful for this opportunity and for Medium for having this boost program to help writers.
Another biggie I learned is that I broke off a bad habit: thinking that your first or second draft is your final draft. Keep working on your creation until the sentence flows well and your readers understand what you are trying to convey.
Clear writing is cool writing.
Consistency is essential, but one must return to the basics. Learn all the rules before you can break any of them. Isn’t that what Picasso taught us? He learned to draw well before branching into different art streams. Am I digressing? I hope you got the big picture.
Try this out yourself. Please leave your article alone and return to it after one hour, two hours or overnight. What did you change? Anything? If you changed something, how do you feel about your article now? You can use Google Docs to save your story and then create a new copy to make some changes. This allows you to compare the changes that you made. You might be surprised at the results.
I often remove many words and complete paragraphs. Once I trimmed out unnecessary verbiage, my story started to flow.
Here’s some fun homework for you.
Ask yourself this: Who are your favourite nonfiction and fiction writers on Medium or elsewhere? Read one short story. What did you like about it? What didn’t you like about it? Can you figure out the writer’s structure for the story? If the writer were writing narrative nonfiction, did the writer successfully describe the characters? Do the same with fiction writers.
Other strategies I have learned are that nonfiction writing is similar to fiction writing because one needs to develop a great storytelling style, use an active voice, and create memorable characters.
I hope I have offered you some strategies you can use to improve your writing. Do you have any strategies you use to get boosted or have used to strengthen your writing? Please share!
That’s all today.
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