Writerly Craft Advice
Suggestions for improved, and easier writing by Stacey Alysa D.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you have, or had, a warm and delicious holiday. Thank you for subscribing to my Substack. I’ve assembled my writerly advice into this one post for easier navigation. Enjoy!
The Art of Feedback
Each of us needs to develop a positive relationship with our writing (or other art), rather than one of dread, guilt, or fear. All authors need useful critiques to grow their work. Giving your fellow writer feedback is one of the most encouraging and energizing things you can do, and it will improve your writing as well.
Free Your Voice with Freewriting
For most of us the critical voice inside our heads is much louder than the creative one. It’s a shrill voice that sounds like the third-grade teacher who said you couldn’t write, or draw, or sing. Your creative voice is…
Writing in Scenes: The Ultimate Show Don’t Tell
In a previous post, I wrote about using all the senses in your writing. If you stick with what your characters can see, hear, feel, smell, and taste, your writing will come alive because you’ll automatically be including elements of a scene.
Vibrant Writing
“If you write in words that evoke the senses, if your language is full of things that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted and touched, you create a world your reader can enter.” – Janet Burroway, Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft
Bring writing to life with multi-sensory imagery
Productivity Hack for Writers
If you don’t have any content, write some. Lots and lots of stuff. Not just “Here’s how my day went” kind of journaling, but descriptions of people and settings, brainstorms, random ideas, etc. No critiquing, just let ‘it flow. As Summer Brennan says, “First drafts are innocent; no judgement.” Brilliant!
Use Styles in Microsoft Word to Organize your Content.
Stages of Writing
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance: the stages of grief, which actually occur in non-linear spirals, are remarkably similar to what many people go through on their way to creative expression.