Thursday, 5 November 2009
Tip Of The Day #13
"Try something new and write about it"
When you run out of ideas sometimes it is quite hard to just sit there and write about something new, especially if you don't have first hand experience of this. So try something new and it could be anything. I have recently started looking at flats to rent and have looked into a lot of information surrounding that. I now have enough knowledge to be able to write an article about it and I hadn't known anything before!
Even if it's not something quite so dramatic as that, you could try a new hobby out and then write about it. You don't have to stick at the hobby, just know enough about it to then be able to write an article. Go check out local events that take place and take your notebook (you could be needing to buy a new one of them soon!)Just trying to 'think outside the box' and put yourself in new situations is great, you can never know too much and always remember that!
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Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Tip Of The Day #12
"Write a weekly/monthly plan for yourself and stick to it"
We are all guilty of having a wonderful idea and starting it off and not finishing it or taking a lot longer to finish it then necessary. So print yourself of a calender that's got 1 month to a A4 page and pencil in what you need to do within that month. Only fill in work related projects though. Check it each day and make sure you stick to it, it's easy to get side tracked. If for any reason you can't do something on one of the days, be sure to write it in for another day.
Start with writing a list of everything you want to achieve in that month and then go along writing them in for appropriate days. But make sure you really plan them in, don't write something in for a Saturday if you know you don't have time to commit to doing it on that Saturday, so maybe pencil in that you have to read a chapter of that book you are studying at the moment. It can be anything from planning a chapter, to writing a whole chapter to just reading a page of your essay. Try it out and see how it works. I personally think its great to look at the beginning of the month and know what you want to achieve and then be able to look back at what you actually did achieve.
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Monday, 2 November 2009
Tip Of The Day #11
"Post-it to stay positive!"
When something good happens we often forget it but will always remember the bad. So trying to stay positive can prove quite hard. When you do something you are proud of or something positive happens write it on a post-it note and stick it up in a place where you will see it. When we feel down we often think about negative things which push us even further into feeling down.
This happens a lot when you are a freelance worker and trying to break free, sitting at your desk and having a complete blank. You start to think about why you are not achieving what other people are or just think general negative thoughts. By displaying post-it notes around you with ONLY positive thoughts and feelings on them, this is going to help to pull you back out of a dark place and remind you of why you are sitting there at your desk. This works for day to day life too, not just work life. Stick a post it note on your fridge, so when you wake up to make your morning tea/coffee, you are reminded of whats good in your life right now.
Surrounding yourself with happy thoughts doesn't make you naive to life, it helps you to live a more positive life and enjoy it.
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Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Tip Of The Day #10
"Listen to what people talk about most whether it be positive or negative and write it in your notebook"
If you like to write articles or even need ideas of conversations to put in your story then listening out to what people talk about on a daily basis is going to help you. Day to day chit chat fills up most people's days and we spend a lot of our time doing this. But how often do we really listen to what people are talking about and use it to help our own growth. So go back to one of your first tips I gave you about getting a notebook and spend your day really listening to what people are saying and jot it down in your book. Then when you are next writing an article and need ideas of what is being talked about at the moment, your notebook is going to be a great tool. Or if you are writing a story and need some general conversation for your characters fill it up with some notes from your notebook. It will really help and it saves you time sitting there wondering what to write when it comes to chit chat, when all you need to do is listen to the world around you! Try it out today.
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Monday, 26 October 2009
Tip Of The Day #9
"Wake up an hour earlier and get some work done, it sets you up for the day"
We all wish for that extra hour in the day to get something done or some of us even wish for an extra day in the week to get those things done which you can't quite fit in during the week. So my partner has been trying out something new for the last week and it has worked really well and I thought it would be great to share with you. He has been getting up an hour earlier and getting some reading or general work done that when he gets in at night time he doesn't have time to do. He has found that it has motivated him for the day and really made him feel awake by the time he actually gets to work!
To make sure you don't really tire yourself out though, make sure you go bed maybe half hour earlier the night before. Or even if getting up earlier isn't right for you. Over the last 2 weeks I have been putting aside 30mins - 1 hour to read before I go to bed and get some ideas together for my next chapter. Once I get in from work and get everything out the way that I need to I feel relaxed and can then get deep into my reading/writing. So I suppose today's main tip is to make sure you put an hour aside a day to spend time doing what you enjoy, whether it be 1st thing in the morning or last thing at night. Let me know how it goes!
Check out my partners webpage http://calvin-t.blogspot.com/
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Thursday, 8 October 2009
Tip Of The Day #9
"DON'T let things get you down, following a passion is always worth while"
Sometimes in life we are all guilty of letting things get us down. Whether it be work related or personal. When things don't always go right and that job you have always wanted just doesn't come along, then as a human being we instinctively take offence to this and can be put off what ever we were doing. So when you are writing and writing and feel like no-one is reading then don't let it get you down, don't stop writing because there will always be someone who is reading and someone who believes in you, and that should be yourself too. You need to believe in yourself to succeed. So today's tip isn't so much about a writing technique or style to help you write, its more a mental tip to help you when sometimes you get stuck and are struggling. Never give up on a passion if you honestly enjoy doing it. Even if you don't get anywhere with it career wise, then just enjoying it as a hobby should be enough. And one day you might just get your big break if you keep persevering with it.
So I want to say a big heart felt Thank You to everyone who reads my blog!
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Monday, 5 October 2009
Tip Of The Day #8
"Conduct a short interview for practice"
So sometimes work does dry up and you sometimes don't have the drive to keep going but there is always a way you can keep your brain exercised and get some practice in for yourself, while putting something interesting on your blog for others to read. To start off with pick a friend at random, someone who is interesting and generally has something worth writing about. It could be that they are great at a certain hobby or have just started a new job, sponsored a new charity, anything. Write out some questions, keep it short, only between 8 and 10 questions and sit down with your unsuspecting candidate and take some notes! (your notebook from Tip #1 will come in handy for this exercise!) Take some details down and then go away and write it out into an interview, don't make it too long and tedious to read through because people could get bored as its an interview on somebody they don't know. But this is great practice for you and its a little bit of fun. Its great if you want to go into article writing. Look at your local newspapers and check out how many of them have small interviews, 60 second interviews even. Try it out!
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Sunday, 4 October 2009
Tip of The Day #7
"Read your work aloud"
This may sound like quite an odd piece of advice but let me explain first before you decide. When most people write you find that you get into a flow and you keep writing and writing and you read back over it in your head and it sounds fine . Now read it aloud and you sometimes pick up on things you wouldn't if you were reading in your head. I used this example on my partner the other day (I hope he doesn't mind me mentioning it!) He had written a short piece of writing and read it over and was happy with it. He asked me to read it through it but instead I asked him to read it out loud to me. As he was reading through it he kept stopping himself and rearranging words that didn't quite sound right and by doing that he completely edited his writing himself.
I always read my work out loud to check for mistakes or to see if a sentence I have written makes sense. It also works well for me if i am writing something and get stuck, can't think of what to put next, so I read it aloud to see if anything naturally follows it or if I need to change it. 9 times out of 10 it works for me. So today's tip may be short and simple but it really is a little tip worth knowing!
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Saturday, 3 October 2009
Tip of The Day #6
"Read as much as you can, from books to magazines to e-books"
I enjoy reading all types of books from romance novels to crime and thriller stories. I love nothing more then getting stuck in to a good read. Reading has always been something I am passionate about but it is also a great learning tool. You get to pick up on how different people write. If you are particularly interested in writing novels then it it great to read books to allow you to pick up on different writing techniques. If you are more into article reading then you can gain so much from picking up a newspaper and magazine a day and reading through different articles. Read main articles that really grab your attention and then take a look at the one's which don't stand out as much. What is different in the way they are written? You can really analyse people's work and look at it in depth, even set yourself little essay questions on them or take the main contents and try to re-write it yourself.
These are great exercises and I find myself now whenever I am reading a book, looking at the way a sentence has been formed and if I would have done it differently. As a writer you are always looking at other people's writing techniques and looking for new ways to write your own work, the work doesn't just stop when you stop writing! So teach yourself something new today. You really are capable of it and it keeps your brain fresh.
There are so many online tips and e-books that you can go through as well to help you gain different ways of writing just from reading. Go on to your favourite writer's website and look at how the articles on their website have been written. Happy reading!
Tip #7 coming soon
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Thursday, 1 October 2009
Tip of The Day #5
"How to help you to concentrate and get the most from your writing time"
When you sit down to get on with your work, whatever kind of work it may be, it either takes a while to get into it or its hard to keep concentrating for long periods of time. Firstly when you sit down to concentrate, sit in a quiet room, don't have the TV or the radio on in the background because although you may not realise it, it will be causing a distraction from your work. When you have loads of ideas and you just want to keep writing forever its great but you need to have breaks. Write down all your ideas (so you don't forget them) and then start writing and continue for about 30 minutes. Then take a break, move away from your desk, go get a cup of tea/coffee and take a 10-15 minute break. Have a change of scenery for a short space of time and you will see the difference. When you go back to your desk you will find it a lot easier to concentrate.
Your brain can not concentrate for long periods of time, hence why when we were in school we had so many breaks. As adults we are expected to concentrate for longer, although sometimes it may be the case that we can sit there for hours writing, but the quality of the writing my differ. It will be fantastic at the beginning and as time goes on you can tell where the writer needs to put down the pen/stop typing and take a break. There is no harm in having a break, it does some good. So when you start feeling tired or a little weary, remember it is ok to take a break and that you are generally only expected to concentrate for about 30-45 minutes at a time.
Try it out and see how it works for you. Happy writing. Come back for Tip #6 tomorrow.
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Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Tip of The Day #4
"Read your work, Edit it, Re-read it, Re-edit it..."
Everyone who writes, whether it be in a lesson at school, a story for yourself, an article or even a piece of writing for work, you all know how nice it would be to write something once and that be it. However it doesn't work like that (I hear you sigh) and there is a reason for that. Using my own example, when I started writing my own novel Sean's Story I wrote the 1st chapter pretty quickly and then put it aside for a few weeks and went back to it. In that time I had thought of new lines I had wanted to put in, so I read it and edited it for the 1st time. Over the last 6 months I have read that chapter and edited it to a point where I am now happy with what my 1st chapter says and where it is leading the reader to. Now I am hoping that it won't take me that long to write my next chapter, as I was still finding my feet throughout chapter one.
Whatever I write though I have the same routine with, write it and then go away and come back with fresh eyes, even the next day is a great start. You can only hold your concentration levels for around 30 min's - 45 min's and although you could keep writing for hours, when you go back and read it, you can tell roundabout where your concentration levels started to deteriorate. So by re-reading and re-editing you get to make your piece of writing perfect! It can seem tedious at times but I assure you only good results come from it. So go ahead and grab out an old piece of writing and see what you can do with it today!
Tip #5 will be coming tomorrow and talks about helping you with concentration levels.
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Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Tip of The Day #3
"Get yourself a crossword book"
Why? I hear you ask. Crosswords are great for keeping the brain trained and not only that but they expand your vocabulary without you having to read a dictionary! When you were at school you were always discovering new words, now being older, you get stuck into the same routine every day and rarely learn a new word. So not only does a crossword get you thinking but you learn new words from it, and new meanings. Even if you don't get yourself a crossword book, get the paper and do that one for a bit of fun. Although i have to say doing celebrity crosswords won't help your vocabulary grow as much, however you will be very up to date with the celebs!
So when your next scanning your local newsagents for a magazine or something to occupy you on the train to work, grab a puzzler or crossword book, they last a while too. Just doing one a day will add at least one new word to your own dictionary for when you next sit down to write that novel or article. Happy Puzzling!
Come back tomorrow for Tip #4
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Monday, 28 September 2009
Tip of The Day #2
"Never dismiss ideas - keep them aside to go back to at a later date"
So now you have your notebook (and you keep it by your bedside!) you will find that you jot down ideas on the spare of the moment. Using your notebook to write down anything that comes into your head is great. Even if it is one word, one sentence or a random group of words which you think will come in handy, even a setting for a story which you haven't started writing yet. These are all thoughts that you have come up with or had an idea for at some time during your career, so give yourself some credit for them, don't just throw them away, keep them aside!
If you don't use them straight away don't dismiss them, keep them for the future because at some point when you have writer's block (which we all get) they may come in handy and give you something to start writing about again. An idea which works (only if you are persistant and stick to it) is to keep a page for each date in your notebook, only an A5 sized book, write the date at the top and jot down your ideas for that day. And then when you look back and use them just cross them off. It could be a great idea you have but just nowhere to use it yet or no inspiration to do something with it. So save it for a later date. Never just cross it off or throw it away.
Look out for Tip #3
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Sunday, 27 September 2009
Tip Of The Day #1
After gathering my list together, I am now going to give a Tip Of The Day from now on, which I am hoping will be of some use to you at some point in the near future.
Your 1st tip is going to be
"Carry a note book with you where ever you go/Always have a notebook by your side"
It may sound simple and you may think I already do that but how often do you write in that book and how often do you refer back to it? For the last few months I have been carrying a note book around and it really helps when i am stuck or looking for ideas, to go back and have a scan through of previous ideas I have written down. The best place for my note book is on my desk right next to my bed. The most creative thinking takes place when I am trying to get to sleep. I become indulged in lots of ideas and find that I can't get to sleep, even though i am 95% of the time, shattered! So being able to grab my note book and jot down some ideas is great. They are then taken out of my mind (allowing me to get some sleep)and put on a piece of paper for me to come back to when I am awake and ready to start working.
This doesn't just apply to writers, this works well for many people. Again it may seem obvious but there are times when you are out and about and an idea pops into your head and you have no where to write it down. You say to yourself, 'I must write that down when i get home' (a line we are all familiar with) and no doubt by the time you are home, that idea is a million miles away from the fore front of your mind now!
So my 1st tip is get yourself a good sized notebook, that isn't to much hassle to carry around, and make it your new best friend. Remember to always keep some paper and a pen by your bedside. Its generally a lot of people's most creative time! Look out for tip #2.
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