Writing Techniques

Love to write? Use these writing techniques to overcome writer's block and be the best you can be!

If you don't already keep a journal, start now. Your journal can be as simple as a spiral bound notebook. Write about anything you want, but do it every day. It can be a personal rant, what happened at the office today, your daughter's upcoming slumber party, whatever. This writing technique gets the creative juices flowing. As time goes on, you'll be able to see that your sentences are more carefully crafted, your vocabulary increases and you more often say exactly what you mean.

Keeping a journal will also help you eliminate that old bugaboo, writer's block. When you can't think of a thing to write about, go to your closet and fetch that Hawaiian shirt. Write a detailed description of the shirt. Make it as glowing and flowing as you can manage. Ideas will start popping into your mind. Jot any such interesting ideas on a pad for future development. You'll be amazed at the mounds of material this writing technique produces.

This brings us to the free association writing technique. Sit at a window and write down the first object or idea that comes to mind. Looking outside means that clouds move, breezes blow and birds fly, so you're not likely to get stuck looking at that sofa you hate, which just sits there, as stale as your thoughts. Let's say y6our eye is caught by an elongated, thin cloud, so close to the ground it's almost a fog. Sunrise, sunset, chill, a dog barking, leaves swirling ... just let your mind roam, writing as you go. String the ideas into an interesting form. Create a mood.

Write what you know. You've heard that. Use this sage advice as a writing technique to develop little vignettes on topics you find fascinating, or to increase your areas of expertise. Let's say you love quilting. Write descriptions of the process of making a quilt. Write a piece about color and design elements of quilting. As you go along, you'll hone your skills in sequencing stories and will enhance your observation in every day situations. You might end up with a book, too.

Start working on character development and settings. An hour on a park bench will surely result in at least one interesting person happening along. Observe that person. Make notes of odd mannerisms, a flowing coat, whatever captures your attention. Now write about that person, as though they were a character in your story. If it's terrible weather and you're the only one out on this bench, write about that setting.

Use humor as a writing technique that helps develop style, inserting a lighthearted side of yourself. This can be a valuable rhetorical tool in any writing genre, as well as non-fiction pieces. Think of the funniest thing you've seen lately. Write about it.

Speaking of rhetoric, anyone who loves to write will benefit from a study of rhetoric, the way in which an idea is presented and words woven to create an image in your reader's mind. Wayne C. Booth's 'The Rhetoric of Fiction' is a classic and highly recommended.

Once you've integrated the writing techniques mentioned above in to your every day activities, you'll find that you are developing your own voice and style. Cadence, the way the words flow in a sentence, starts to improve. Awkward constructs start to disappear. This is great news!

These writing techniques will make you grow and open up your artistic nature. Save that couch you hate as an ace-in-the-hole topic for a truly boring day.

Recent Articles