Fortunately, just about any activity you may be engaged in, if you do it right, can improve your creative writing because simply observing others will yield an endless harvest of material. The top three best ways to improve your creative writing are read more, listen carefully, and look correctly.
Seeing What’s Really There
What, you ask, could that mean, “the right way” of looking at the world? Quite simply, one must develop what the masterful Southern writer, Flannery O’Connor called the “habit of being.” Simplified, the habit of being refers to a kind of writer state of consciousness wherein you allow yourself to see, hear, feel, and intimate as much of your surroundings as possible. In this state of being one is not constrained by normal social roles because one has consciously decided to just be a watcher, an unbiased observer experiencing the unfolding of this world without an ego that actively participates in influencing the unfolding.
That Sounds Hard
Now, it’s tough to do, getting into that just watching state of mind. First, establish a practice schedule of consciously trying to mentally remove yourself, just a tick, from daily situations. Try to just step back oh so slightly, just enough to become more aware of others by getting a bit out of your own head by a slight adjustment in the distance between you and what is happening around you.
Tools to Get Out of Your Own Head
Meditation of all kinds is also helpful in developing the disinterested watcher state. Next, don’t distract yourself with it right at first, but as soon as you think you are getting the hang of being the uninvolved watcher, carry around, literally, carry around a notebook and pen and begin taking note of this or that thing you are watching. Don’t over think what to include in your notebook. Let it flow. In no time you will find yourself in possession of a fat lot of good notes for your next writing project.
Read, Read, Read, and Read Some More
Read everything that you want to and read all the time. By the time most writers first read that admonition, they have already established a lifelong habit of reading. If you haven’t, start today. Anytime is fine, but the hour before sleep is the most popular time for pleasure reading. It is a relaxing habit, so it aids in getting to sleep. More importantly, introducing the cast of characters and themes of a novel before sleep sends that information to your subconscious, which can think about the novel while you sleep and provide you with insights when you awaken.
Additionally, read in the genre you write in, at least a little. You need to be vigilant in keeping up with what’s being written right now by others doing your sort of writing. Now, if you are a technical writer, that topic may not beckon you to bed early. You’ll have to modify your particular reading schedule to suit yourself. Just don’t forget to spice it up, include themes and genres you don’t customarily seek out. Variety, as they say.
Listen, Really Listen
Not only are all the best stories being told everyday by people all over the world, the people are telling it in rich, intricate speech full of tags and quirks of geographic location. Dialog bears a huge load in any literary situation, so the better you can get at it, the better your writing will sound, and the only and best way to get better at writing dialog is to get better at hearing it. Cultivate the habit of listening intently to the words and expression in people’s speech, under duress, in joy, in rage. Listen, even, to languages spoken that you do not understand. There is a kind of underlying score to all speech, and when you can hear it, you can not only reproduce it but also gain deeper understanding of the Collective Unconscious where all the Freudian Slips are harbored.
Of course, if you can afford to travel, you will have many more opportunities to listen. However, just within the North American continent there is much to be heard, so money doesn’t have to stand in your way. Actually, let nothing stand in your way. Get your notebook and get busy.
To read more by this author or more about the unsettling, troublesome writing issues that torment writers’ minds and scare them awake, join us at http://www.greenswriting.com. We’ll leave the site on for ya.
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