Writing Tips Among Friends

Writing to me has become much more than a hobby or a passing fade. Over the years after giving my writing career way, too, many breaks I always return to it. Each time I bring back more inspiration to my desk with me, which I get from where ever the spark may come from. Friends, new and old inspire my thinking as well as my writing. Knowing as many writer friends as possible to share both their experiences and their friendship with is important. If you learn some extra lessons along the way, you can consider yourself lucky to have found a teacher as well as someone to share your interest with.

My writer friends are mostly online acquaintances, but are every bit as valuable to me as those I have meant in person. Writing tips are shared freely among friends. I welcome every one of them. The most important tips may turn you around completely and without knowing you were ever on the wrong track to begin with.

Here are some tips I have learned:

Hub Pages is a great place to seek feedback for your work. Getting traffic to your hub can sometimes be difficult. Without a good title and a place to promote yourself you might find the audience just isn’t there. A well written interesting article could be lost in space, cyber space that is. Keep track of how many views a hub gets before considering it a bad piece of work.

Hub Pages makes it easy to share with social media. Your friends can help spread the word that you are looking for an audience. Don’t be alarmed if your stuff doesn’t get read there. Many likes may be on your Facebook post, but by checking your page views you will see that they never opened your page. Not all social media followers are updated on how to view web pages. Smart phones especially may throw them off guard as to using the internet outside of Facebook.

Don’t be jolted by bad reviews or comments that degrade you. If you know your work is good and the quality is fair, it could be a sore subject matter the slamming party does not like. Everyone has an opinion and out spoken people will tell you right up front that they don’t like your work.

Critics can be helpful. They see things you don’t see. They view errors quickly and that’s not a bad thing for you to take to heart. Thank your critic for pointing out something that editing missed.

Secrets to being a successful writer may not be secrets at all. Read everything you write over and over. Sometimes sitting on something you wrote for a few weeks will change your mind all together about what you are trying say.

Errors are easily missed even with the best spell checker and grammar software. Word usages often are the biggest goofs. Dictionaries are your best friends. Don’t be afraid to use them.

The great Stephen King’s memoir suggests putting your desk in a corner away from any distractions. He certainly knows the secret to success. So it’s wise to try his ideas.

Writers tell stories of going off grid back in the sticks away from everyone and every possible interruption. Nature alone could inspire beautiful words to flow freely.

Most folks are not use to quiet time not even when they sleep. Perhaps a television blaring in another room or music playing can be their way of avoiding interference. It is somewhat like the white noise of a fan purring near one’s bed to drown out any outside distractions.

Too much of anything can be overwhelming. Everyone needs a break from even a good routine. If you find yourself lost for words or yawning your head off you need to get up and do something else. A walk or drive around the block can help. The writer’s block is what you are actually walking around. Just stretching your arms and legs will help get your creative juices going again.

Sometimes a nap or a good night’s sleep is needed to cure a writer’s block. Other times much more effort is needed. Read a book. Watch a movie. Take a trip. Don’t stray too far away from your original goals. Remember you want to be a writer.

This one should be easy. Life has a way of making us avoid things that we enjoy doing by keeping us focused on current events around us. Keep a journal and write about those current events if that’s the only time you have to spare. Be consistent and try to do it every day.

Write anything and everything. The more you write, the better you get at it. Write letters to your family that otherwise don’t hear from you. Elderly enjoy a hand written letter. It’s likely they would also enjoy a type written one.

A spouse, a sibling or a friend can serve as an editor. They tell you what they think and they suggest what needs fixed. It sure sounds good. It is much harder to find someone like that than it sounds like. People mean well and we certainly need encouragement. What we don’t need is embarrassment by submitting material we thought was good only to find out that most people would not read it.

Hub Pages can help you with this issue. As a rule followers won’t comment if they don’t like something. That may not always be the case, but most are kind and try to avoid hurting other people’s feelings. If you get good comments on your hubs you can most likely appreciate the fact that the commenter is sincere.

This could very well be where the thick skin comes in the handiest. We are harder on ourselves than any critic would ever be. We are paranoid by fear of not being accepted. We hurt our own chances of fame by expecting more of ourselves than we are able to give and we don’t credit ourselves well enough on what things we have accomplished.

Think positive and all things are possible. We have the power to control our own future.