Added Writing Tips 2

Like I stated in my initial article, Added Writing Tips, my aim is primarily to help novice writers looking to establish themselves. You may decide to join the ranks of freelance writers or just be a regular mainstream writer. The choice is yours. However, even more established and experienced writers would find that my Added Writing Tips might still hold a tip or two to better their literary skill. The trick here is to find out how best to express your individuality. This is what distincts a professional writer from a common one. A professional writer should find freedom in self-expression; this comes naturally using the right tools and techniques.

Simple Diction

For most fledgling writers, the temptation to impress is a burning desire. Witty and well-formed ideas are usually tainted by too long phrases, words specifically selected to bamboozle their readers. The result is a literary piece in which the idea is blurred in the obscurity of a barrage of colossal words.

This I must say is highly unnecessary because it defeats being concise. It is like looking at a diamond of low quality. It is murky, like looking through a hazy glass. Yet, it is still a diamond. The clearer your literary piece without the excessive use of verbose words the better. Readers appreciate any work that is easy to understand. Do not make them loose sight of the central idea. You should sustain the reader’s train of thoughts while not disjointedly interrupted them. It will be easier for your literary talent and professionalism to be appreciated. A simple and straight to the point literary piece is appealing, it reaches out at readers from the print of your write-up.

You do not have to force the horse to drink once you take it to the river. Good readers (and let me assure you, there are good readers and poor ones) are always thirsty for good writing.

Don’t go over board with your diction. You even stand a lesser risk of running into a fix. A sentence should contain at best a single clause. For a fledgling writer, any more and you stand the risk of loosing yourself and your reader. Know exactly what you want to say and simply write it.

You should keep in mind that not every reader is a professor or has an MSC in English or English literature.

Have it mind that it takes very little to discourage a reader, especially on the Internet. You would want your ideas to be straight forward and interestingly captivating. Under this circumstance, the idea is not to carry a gun to a knife fight. Imagine how distracting it would be for some one on his computer constantly breaking to make reference to a dictionary.

Flowing Thoughts

Another mistake I have noticed fledging writers make is distracting or interrupting their own writing flow. This is in line with the first mistake. In fact they are so linked that the former leads to the latter.

What they do is to keep a dictionary by their side and while writing, make constant trips to the dictionary and lift heavy words to substitute simpler words and phrases. Just as it is important to maintain a flowing write-up that does not distract your reader, your constant trips to consult a dictionary are equally distracting. Maintain a flowing train of thoughts. To know how to achieve this, just read on.

Good Memory

Can you remember how it feels when an idea with great potential pops into your mind? Remember how you toy with it? You view it from all angles possible until suddenly you realize… eureka! You quickly pick up your pen and blast your guns away. Remember?

If you have ever had this feeling then it would not be news when I tell you that it can be slightly euphoric. If you are a fledging writer, this moment is like a big bang. As soon as the idea goes supernova, you pick up your pen and before you know it, you are quickly lost in your idea. First, it’s the introduction, a body you can’t recall, a conclusion you didn’t plan for and then the final period. On reading it, you discover that the presentation of the ideas in your write-up are somewhat disjointed.

Here is the tip. To maintain a flowing train of thoughts, why not be practical and first of all decisively jot down your ideas as they come to you. Not that you may not have a good memory, but it makes your work a whole lot easier if they are initially jotted down in little points and notes. This gives you the option to later sit back and decide how best they would fit in a flowing, unbroken stream of thoughts. This saves you the trouble of rushing into a literary web of words in which the ideas are all tangled and convoluted.

Maintained Theme

I do not intend to sound patronizing to anyone, but the point here is that any literary piece should hold fast to its central idea. The whole write up should revolve around a central theme. Do not loose sight of the subject matter of your write-up.

It is my experience that keeping to the basics, especially ones that stem all good write-ups make your literary piece easier to follow. It keeps you on track, more like a check and balance situation. This may sound trite to more seasoned writers but keeping this technique paramount in my thoughts has never failed me till date. It is important that you equally do the same. This helps to keep you on your toes and at the top of you game.

Depending on the style/technique that you wish to adopt for your literary piece, having a paragraph that states what your literary piece is about at the beginning of your write-up can be very useful. This gives you and your readers a picture and a good, firm understanding of what your write-up is all about.

Some techniques may have short stories or anecdotes to introduce their write-ups. (Check out an example of this technique in my article, Life of a Graduate in Nigeria at this URL: http://www.socyberty.com/Sociology/Life-as-a-Graduate-in-Nigeria.94875) This is an easier way to spark your reader’s interest. Your theme, while reflecting through your anecdote helps in conveying your subject matter to your readers, helping them to conceptualize your aim. This is especially useful for writers with a hard or serious message to convey.

The idea being that you may not want to plunge your readers straight into any hard and serious literature or article. Smoothly coax them into your write up while sustaining their interest before you later use the sledge hammer of your ideas to smash their brains! Just kidding, but you get my point.

Remember that while some readers may be seeking to satisfy some intellectual purpose or desire, others may very well be casual readers.

Niche of Interest

Novice writers should, as much as possible, write in a niche or class of topic that interests them. With out a doubt, you will find that most topics that whet your interest tend to be well and articulately written. These classes of write-ups display a wealth of information from your experience. It is your experience and full grasp of the write-up that you display as a writer that draws appreciation and satisfaction from your readers. This is probably why most of the literary tips I have come across always tell the writer to “write in a niche of your interest.”

The idea behind this is that it would definitely make your write-up a milestone of information, show casing your experience and personal knowledge in that particular niche. Readers love the fact that they are reading an article written by a writer with first hand and/or personal experience in what he has written. It would be a gamble for you if you were an inexperienced writer to write in a niche that is alien and abstract. It wouldn’t take long before a critical reader gets the picture of a certain lack of depth and perspective flagrant in such write-ups.

A useful advice is that you should draw inspiration from your surroundings. The world around you is pulsating with lots of great ideas to build and write on. These experiences are floating in space just waiting for you to reach out and grab them. As a fledgling writer, you need to develop a critical mind. Just pause and look around. You live in a society that is a hive of ideas, of concepts, of information, of experiences. Know that you are a product of this society. The choice is yours to either sit back apathetically and be carried away by the waves of events around you, or use that writer’s instinct and channel the experiences of these events through your pen.

Accepting Criticism

Criticism is good, especially healthy criticism, or is it criticism is healthy, especially good criticism? Either way, you get the point.

This happens to be the dread of most fledgling writers and experienced ones alike. They fear to be told about their flaws and inadequacies of their write-ups. They think this means that the write-up may be worthless, which may also mean that they are equally not good enough. Here is a simple way to tackle this.

As a writer aspiring to be a professional, the ultimate trick is to “know thy self.” Acknowledging your shortcomings and mistakes as a writer is a good start to knowing yourself.

The “why?” behind knowing yourself is that is that it gives room for you to find solutions and a way around your mistakes. To achieve this is to be one more step closer to becoming a professional writer. To find solutions for your mistakes can be a confidence booster, “it should make you stronger.” This is a quality most professional writers possess.

However, if you feel your nerves may still be too raw to handle the esoterics of a more experienced writer criticizing your literary piece, there is a way around this.

One of the things you may do is to give your literary piece to a peer or rather, a friend. Their criticism, editing or what ever you may like to call it, should not be the final process. Bear it in mind they may not be absolutely accurate. However, what you are really looking for is an initial second opinion from someone you are more comfortable with. As long as they can be objective as humanly possible and point out where they think you should edit or make certain necessary changes or addition, that should be good enough for an initial opinion. This you may call, healthy criticism.

I always tell myself “we can only be writers of our generation, through which we can influence generations to come.” Hence, what better way to get some healthy yet constructive and confidence building criticism, than from peers, especially friends.

However, make sure you do not stop here. Endeavor to give your literary piece to a more professional person for his opinions, editing and criticisms even if the cost is a trip back to the drawing board. What is essential is a write-up worth publishing. Have it at the back of your mind that there are equally talented and very professional writers out there. You have to match up. You can match up.

Self-Editing/Re-Editing

I previously made mention of a phrase, “final process.” I mentioned that, “the editing of a friend should not be a part of the “final process.”

What then should be part of the final process? You may ask. “Self editing,” should be part of the final process. The idea behind this is that there is no limit to the number of times you should go through your write-up for editing. Read and re read it over and over and over again. Be sure that you have left no stone unturned, or rather, no word unchecked. Like I initially stated, what is essential is a write-up worth publishing.

Know Your Readership

In the end, my final advice is that you should have a pretty good idea or rather, know for whom you are writing for. The question may be re-phrased as… whom do you have in mind whilst writing your literary piece? Who is most likely to be interested in your literary piece? Know-your-readership.

You should choose words, phrases and sentences that best suit your readers. If writing for children, your diction should be simple enough for them to understand. It should not be complicated or convoluted.

There you have it. 8 Simple, yet practical guides on how to show case your individuality as a fledgling writer. Use these tips and you are on your way to becoming a professional writer.