Changing Your Writing By Changing Your Habits

[womanofletters]

by Woman of Letters

Every writer has his habits. By recognizing them, you can change your writing for the better.

Comments

[hlwar]

Wow, another great article! As writers we do have trouble dissecting how we think and act, even if it's obvious to outside readers. In fact, while I go over all my old books written as a teenager I can see all my redundant dialogue and action-right down to my repetitive thought process. To me, now, it comes off pretty stale, and I can even see influences from it in my more recent fan fiction.

I have trouble with change, but I know as I start writing again I want to diversify. I need to in order to create something different than my past works, where I was clearly thinking in a rut.

Not too long ago I was working with a beta-reader, and she helped me see my negative writing habits. Better yet, she taught me how to eliminate them. It really did make me a better writer. So all of your advice is absolutely on point!

Thanks again for sharing! \(^o^)/

[womanofletters]

You're welcome! Thank you again for commenting -- it's exciting to have the feedback. (It makes me want to come up with a new blog entry.)

I recently tried rewriting a story I had done 20 years ago. I found that the story flowed so much better -- I was able to approach it with much more maturity. I wouldn't suggest resuscitating all your old pieces -- some things are best scrapped completely. But sometimes you can come back to a piece that was stale or not well-developed and breathe new life into it.

And there are ways to shake up your writing. I'm a big fan of experimentation. Change what you're doing, try new styles of writing. What's the failure cost here? Even pieces that don't work will teach you something.

[hlwar]

Oh, absolutely, you're welcome! It was a great article and deserving of some attention. I'd love to read future posts from you; keep up the excellent work