How to Write from Your Heart and #IWSG

Writing from your heart isn't easy. It's easy to follow the rules, but if all you do is stay within the boundaries, tick the boxes and play it safe, then your story will lack a certain spark. It's the heart that makes a story shine, the heart that pushes your story to a new and riveting level. Below are my tips on how to write from your heart.

Make yourself vulnerable. Get over those insecurities and put yourself in your writing. Bare your soul, showing the world your passion for the story and its characters.

Be wholly in control, but let yourself go, giving yourself the freedom and permission to make mistakes.

Ignore the trends. Ignore what you think other people will want to read and instead write what you want to read.

Be brave enough to break the rules, making certain you have a full knowledge of how and why the rules work in the first place.

Ignore the urge to write for publication, but know what works for publication within your target market and, more importantly, why it works.

Listen to your characters, but decide for yourself if what they want is what you want for the story.

Be honest with your emotions and those of your characters. Delve into the truth of a scene and don't be afraid to explore what you find there.

Know only you can write the story, but be open to outside influences.

Broaden your experiences--this includes reading widely and frequently--because they will influence not only what you write, but the way you write it. They will steer you away from writing copies of someone else's story.

Practise. Like anything, writing from your heart takes practise. So keep writing.

What helps you to write from your heart? 

This post was written for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, founded by Alex J Cavanaugh. Members of the group post on the first Wednesday of every month. Everyone is welcome. If you haven't already, then please sign up HERE.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

The Insecure Writer's Support Group website has launched!

I have the honour of being one of the admins for the site, along with Joy Campbell, Joylene Nowell Butler, Susan Gourley/Kelley, Michelle Wallace, L. Diane Wolfe and, of course, the Ninja Captain and spark behind it all, Alex J Cavanaugh. As a team, we helped to put it together and are currently working hard to build it into something truly special.

Along with being chock full of writerly resources, the site will offer encouraging and helpful posts on writing. We will post every Monday and the first Wednesdays. We hope to eventually open up the Wednesdays to guest posts too. So please check it out HERE.

We've also set up a Facebook group. We'd love to see you there!

Oh and our twitter hastag is still #IWSG

How has the Insecure Writer's Support Group helped you?

How to Write an Original Story

With a gazillion authors out there and a gazillion more stories written, some might argue that to write something original is getting harder. So often I’ll dream up a great story idea and think it’s original, only to find out it’s been written before. Sure there might be nothing new under the sun, sure there might be only seven basic plots, but there is a way of writing one of the seven in a new, original way. Below are 8 tips to write an original story.

1. Be confident to write your story, not the story you think others will want to read.

2. Read widely, inside and outside the genre you write in. If you read only within the genre you write, you’ll end up writing the same story that’s already out there.

3. Get out and live a little. Life is a great story generator. Sometimes we get so caught up writing, that we forget to enjoy everything life has to offer. The more we experience, the more we can draw on for our stories.

4. Avoid formula. While it’s good to know what sells, and why some formulas work, if you start ticking boxes, the readers will notice the story lacks soul and originality.

5. Don’t target an audience. This advice might go against the norm, but it’s also a fast way to write something unoriginal. Keep the knowledge of your target audience in the background of your mind and just write the story that’s calling to you. You might discover it’s meant for a different audience than you originally intended.

6. Don’t overthink your story. While some writers can approach storytelling in a highly analytical way, I’d suggest this is not the case for the majority of fiction writers.

7. Research. Find out what other stories similar to yours are out there. If they are too similar, then make changes. Don’t wait until you’ve finished writing.

8. Just write. Push those doubts and excuses aside and just write.

How do you write an original story? Can you think of any other tips? What’s the hardest part of writing something original?

-
A big thank you to Crystal Collier for the Shine On Award. You're awesome!