What’s your writing process?
This is a question I try to revisit often. I have read On Writing by Stephen King, It’s been a good life by Isaac Asimov, Zen in the art of writing by Ray Bradbury. Every writer has a different process. But there are certain common elements I found in some of these famous writers. How does your writing process look like?
I want to distill some of the elements to depth. Writing is meditative, it is also looking at yourself with a mirror and see where you are fumbling, where you are improving. But to improve the craft of writing itself, is a tedious process.
As a writer, I can tell you million reasons about writing or why I love writing. At the end, it all depends on every individual how they handle this process. Life is busy. Not everyone get the whole day or night to write. Also many of us have day jobs, writing is a hobby that we love.
- Daily Writing – I like to write daily. It keeps my emotion in checks while allowing me to indulge on things I might have forgotten about. Daily experiences make my writing more lively. Even if you write for 10 minutes, it’s enough. But write daily.
- Don’t Judge – Most important advice for your writing, is don’t judge your writing. If you are writing for a year and comparing yourself with a writer who honed that craft for fifteen years, then that’s not fair comparison. Also don’t compare with other writers. Everybody has a different style, different voice. You must find your voice. More on voice later, but first drafts are for getting things out, second/third drafts are more making your writing readable.
- Reading is a food – If you don’t read, you can’t write. It is as simple as that. Reading is a food to your writing. Read some great writers who worked hard for their craft. Read short stories, poems, non-fiction. But read daily, just like write daily.
- Get feedback – If you write and nobody reads your writing, then you will never know if you are improving or not. Growth is what every writer looks for. So you must get some kind of feedback on your writing. Write on a blog, so people can read it for free. Get into a critique group and get feedback from fellow writers. Submit short stories to magazines and get feedback from those magazines. If you are not getting rejected, you are not learning.
- Live the life – To write better, you must live an interesting life. Daily experiences will feed you with what you love, what you like, what you hate, what you fear. Those feelings and emotions are what will be at center of your writing. So live a life and reflect on it to find out what you will love to write about.
This are the key elements of my writing. Of course, I am still learning and will continue to learn for rest of my life. It never gets over. Journey has started. I hope you love writing as much as I do.
References
- On Writing by Stephen King – On Writing