21 Tips About Writing From Twitter
Tips I got from Twitter about writing
I’m a writing tip junkie. Any tweet or blog post or random comment that begins, “Here’s the best tip I’ve ever gotten about writing…” makes me click. What’s thirty seconds of time when I could pick up a gold nugget that changes my writerly life?Mostly, 1) I already know them, 2) they’re pedestrian, or 3) they’re wrong, but occasionally I get one–or twenty-one in this case–that I think are worth passing on. See if you agree:
- Don’t try to be a writer
- Don’t expect to make any money.
- All plot twists must be foreshadowed in the beginning of the book. But use twists to keep middle of story alive.
- As Colm Toibin said at Shoreditch, ‘Just get the f****** book written. Oh, and then edit until your eyes bleed.’
- Although I write on a laptop, I like to tuck a pencil behind my ear. That way I can stab people who interrupt me.
- Minimize self-promotion on social networks.
- Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
- If you write for excitement, you’re better off dousing yourself in gasoline and lighting a match.
- If you’re a hammer, everything in the world looks like a nail. If you’re a writer, everything looks like a plot.
- It’s not the size of your words that matters.
- Successful writers establish long-term writing goals for themselves and long-term story goals for their protagonists and then set out to complete a series of short-term goals they believe will move them and their characters toward those final goals.
- Always be willing to change… repair mistakes, change your cover, change your blurb, change your marketing, and change your idea of what it means to be an indie author. We are living in a malleable time.
- Separate your editing from your writing. Otherwise you’ll be too critical when you need ideas to flow.
- If you claim writing is important, you’ll find the time to write. It’s that simple.
- Poetry As A Road to Prose – When Tolkien couldn’t express his thoughts in prose he “wrote much of it in verse.” He writes “The first version of the song of Strider concerning Luthien,… originally appeared in the Leeds University magazine, but the whole tale, as sketched by Aragorn, was written in a poem of great length.”
- Write at least five times a week. Doesn’t need to be long. Half an hour will do. But if you keep it up you will get there.
- Cut out all those Capital Letters–even in headings (I’m so on the fence on this one.)
- If you are truly a Writer, you can run, but it’s already in your soul. Have you ever met a retired writer?
- Make sure you write what you mean.
- Sometimes when you can’t write due to life/work/kids, don’t get frustrated, use it as brewing time.
- Unless required for voice-related purposes, avoid using “needless to say” or “utilize” or “awesome tits” in your writing. (Women: Fill in the blank: “Awesome _____.”)
What are your favorite tips?
These are great. I especially like #1 – it’s like a warning sign, sent back from the lost exploration team just before they were eaten by the Yeti.
Hehe. I think I should edit it, add your thought…
Awesome tips Jacqui. I like 5, 7 & 10. Currently I don’t keep a pencil behind my ear, but that would definately be a good way of telling hubby to keep clear while I’m writing
It’s amazing what one can find on Twitter. A lot of funny (and clever) people out there.
What a wonderful cool article!!! Cool subject & cool copy on it! Thank you Jacqui!
It would be interesting to attempt to serialize a novel using Twitter!
80% of social media content is unoriginal & shared & re-shared text and pix. Most social media-ists are soft, timid, middle-classers with no literary or artistic bent or interest and only looking for reinforcement of main pop-media narratives.
The way I see it Social Media writing or copy is a case of producing Aphorisms – or as I have coined them “eAphorisms” -original gonzo Aphorisms either as text or text-on-art or text-as-art. No more than one, maybe two sentences and only paragraphs when used as a highlighted post with accompanying art or media.
And the use of subversive infantile lies too is a freedom of creation the internet provides any anon-scribe.
Writing presented as live online mixed medium hyper-headlines – on visual art including upon gonzo mash-videos using found footage and found audio chopped and cut up – even text as speech.
All to catch the fleeting glances of narrowcast worldwide attention amid the billions of daily micro social media posts, clicks and views all of which are forgotten within minutes and hours.
I like to present my “Social Media As Art Wherein Language is the Medium” via all my multiple (20 plus) social media accounts – sharing posts across all platforms and using Twitter to promote Facebook posts which can in turn be posts of embedded videos from my YouTube channel. Or screen-grabs of Tweets used as text-as-art posts on Facebook or my social media text as speech on a video. This way it’s never overkill on any.
I once produced a series of videos of text-to-speech-audios of some chapters of a novel I was writing and upped them to a YouTube channel dedicated to it but my views weren’t high because I did not share it across all social media platforms.
Anyways thanks again for inspiring article – something I am most into.
Ian
PS/ I’d disagree with #19 – writing what one means – means one is only taken literally. Writing against meaning, rhetoric or context is fun and challenging.
‘ephorisms’–I might retweet that one. It’s become a sound-bite society, hasn’t it.
“social media copy should be sentiment based and give the audience new material which may scare them or confuse them by it not relating or meaning anything – AKA anti-post-modernist. writing without a narrative.
A cult obsessed solely with the subjugation and qualification of language as the singular absolute reality.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnOZP0i17EA
ian
Try saying that in 140 characters!
“The Internet is the Reincarnation of Kurt Cobain” 43 characters!
Either Number 7 has intentional humor or my dyslexia is kicking in again!
That one stops me every time–and I wrote it! The WA editor even contacted me before printing, see if I’d made a mistake.
Nope–you’re fine.
“Make sure you write what you mean.”
Love that one. Rings very true with me. My worst writing is when I’m trying to write a certain way or to fit a certain contemporary mold. When I write naturally, what I mean, it’s more effective and more unique (if a little archaic-sounding).
One of my favorite tips comes from my dear old dad, Fred Lybrand, who taught me that words create the thought, so to avoid waiting around for inspiration and just start writing, kind of like tip #4. It’s been powerful in getting me to go ahead and write and witness my creativity develop as I do so. It’s learning by writing. He’s included this tip along with a bunch of others that have helped me a dozen times over at http://www.advanced-writing-resources.com
It’s worth checking out, even though it’s geared toward how to teach children to write…writing is writing, so it’s helpful no matter what age or disposition.
It’s a good one. I can’t tell you how often I just didn’t get onto paper what was in my brain. That little tip is harder than it sounds.
Looks like a good course–your dad’s that is.
Hysterical — and great advice! My favorite tip by far is #21.
Thanks for sharing!
And your blank fill-in is….
#15 — I often employ a version of that… when I get stuck, I will (sometimes) write a diary entry for each of the characters in the scene. This gives me insight into what the characters are thinking about life, the universe and everything… and sometimes even gives me new plot avenues to pursue.
When writing scripts, I’ve often switched to prose when I get stuck. Writing out the scene as a “normal” story with dialog and narration can clarify how the scene should move forward, allowing me to then get back to writing the dialog to move the script along.
It’s pretty amazing how just shifting the form a little bit can really open up the floodgates sometimes.
Great tips. Especially like #5 and will have to give it a try. I read it to my husband, and he said, “But that doesn’t include husbands, right?” Hmmm…that’s a tough one.
Just slap him instead and yell, Mosquito!
Ha! Love that. I’ll let you know how it works.