J.D Salinger’s Top Writing Tips For Writers
Want To Write Like J.D. Salinger?
“It’s not too bad when the sun’s out, but the sun only comes out when it feels like coming out.”
J.D Salinger was and still is to this day one of the most popular writers of the decade. He is best remembered for his novel work Catcher in the Rye based on the loss of childhood innocence of a boy named Holden Caufield and for a collection of short stories that featured his fictional character sets called The Glass Family.
J.D Salinger was a very unique writer for his time. His mind, the way he imagined stories was simply amazing. No one truly knows as to how he managed to come up with such complex stories. Many say he lived through these experiences and wrote the books later from his own viewpoint.
But people keep asking as to what inspired J.D to write these stories instead of how. Even though J.D Salinger was a really good writer that doesn’t mean he was using magic to craft stories. He had a formula, a technique, a vision, and was prepared before grabbing a pen and placing his ideas on the paper. And he used these to his advantage to make better quality books and establish himself as a successful writer.
So here are J.D Salinger’s top writing tips for writers.
Write With Your Heart For Your Heart
Everybody writes. Out of them, many are writers. But what sets apart a great writer from the rest is personal involvement and the naked spilling of one’s heart. When you are vulnerable, you naturally write from the heart.
Being vulnerable in writing and in life is not very common. People listen when you’re vulnerable, and you speak your truth. Vulnerability can create immense power, and it’s that power that you can use to make better stories and stand out from everybody else.
Focus On The Character
Characters are everything when it comes to writing stories. They’re the core out of which expands the story plot. Without them there can’t be any sort of story continuation. Write in order to reflect a savvy insight spearheading straight into the emotional centre of your reader. Characters are meant to make the audience feel related in some way. Attached.
Once you think what works and what doesn’t, you can establish the character’s persona, attitude, perception of the world and ambitions. After that, let the imagination do its thing. See where it leads you and further develop your characters based on where the story stands.
Read, Read, Read a lot
Reading brings out the better part of someone. There is no writer in this world who doesn’t believe in the power of reading.
Reading has been proven to be one of the best and most effective tools a writer can have at his disposal. It allows the writer’s mind and soul to think differently. Many writers use reading to test their critical thinking. Additionally the more you read and the more you broaden your vocabulary and are able to articulate concepts accurately and more effectively to others.
J.D Salinger didn’t take reading it for granted. Neither should you.
Structure Is Important
Along with creativity and idea, organization, direction and structure are important too. Consider, for instance, the filing system of Salinger. He kept a set of files, where a red dot meant ‘Under progress’ and a green dot meant ‘Needs editing’.
Developing a simple framework for your writing before you start can save considerable time and will prevent the text from meandering.
There is no one set structure or framework that covers all possible forms of writing, except perhaps that writing should start with an introduction and finish with a conclusion.
Be Grateful
What J.D Salinger would do after he finished a book would be to ask himself three simple questions:
- What have I received from this?
- What have I given to someone?
- What troubles and difficulty may have I caused?
Ask yourself these questions and see if they can be answered.
Most important thing about this is to be grateful. Blaming yourself for your failures, not being able to succeed and failing to understand certain things are not your fault. Take a deep breath and exhale.
Your hard work will pay off. Your work will eventually be published, and your dedication to writing will improve overtime. Be grateful for where you are at the moment. Wherever you are, if you’re reading this you are already in a better situation than hundreds of millions of individuals right now. Be patient and all good things will come your way.