I am launching a series here on Steemit to help writers find their voice, improve their writing, and complete their work.
Why? Because we are all in this together, because I love to share knowledge, and I believe that everyone who wants to do so can write. The hurdles to writing, and becoming successful at it, can feel overwhelming. Take it from me, a “writer” who has been circling around the idea of writing with discipline and getting my work published for too many years to count! Bits of my own journey will be told through this process, but only as a side note. My goal is to get serious about writing with discipline. If that is your goal too, let’s walk this walk together.
What it is
In this ongoing workshop, I will provide ideas to help jump-start your writing, or keep you going. We will talk about voice, plot, narrative styles, and enriching your writing with real world details. We’ll talk about things like the nuggets of surprise that inspiring writers drop into their work to delight their readers. And I will provide assignments. Use them, if they are helpful to you, and share what you produce. (See “On your part” below.) You can find the very first writing assignment at the end of this post.
The workshop will primarily be tailored to fiction writing. I will confess up front that my personal focus is literary fiction, versus any particular genre such as the romance, horror, thriller or fantasy genres. But hopefully if you are a genre writer, you will find some nuggets of wisdom and helpful tips that will spur you on anyway. Non-fiction writers are also welcome. I write more non-fiction than fiction, myself, and it comes naturally to me, whereas fiction is more work. The two endeavors are not mutually exclusive by any stretch of the imagination.
On your part
Get writing, and share links to your writing in the comments. If you want to share your work on Steemit in this workshop, please use #writing as the first tag and #workshop as another tag. (You can also add the #fiction tag and others, of course.)
Comment on these workshop posts and share writing strategies that are working for you. Complete assignments, if you find them useful. Provide feedback on other writers’ work (see “Rules” below).
Let’s create community together. If our community grows, we can all help one another. That is fundamentally the most exciting thing about workshopping; it helps you to get writing, keep writing, and get feedback on what you produce so you can improve.
Rules
There is only one rule: Be kind and constructive when giving feedback. When you comment on other writers’ work, tell them what you think is working well, and what you think they can improve – respectfully – just as you would like to have done for you. (Yes, this is simply the “golden rule.”) Remember that we are all in various phases in our development as writers, and there is no one right way.
Workshop assignment #1: Free writing
I was once involved in an ongoing writing workshop. My beloved instructor, an ageless Hungarian woman named Laura who was brilliant at teaching the craft of writing, bless her soul, sometimes had us write in class. This was truly inspired, as it is very easy for writers to get stuck, and to believe they can only write under certain conditions, such as in a dead quiet room or in a coffee shop, or on an old manual typewriter while drinking Scotch whiskey. She wanted us to break out of such trappings.
Do this: Write for 10 minutes right now, without stopping, and incorporate these three words into your piece: balloon, sugar, impossible.
Set a timer and go. Do not stop writing for those 10 minutes. You must keep putting words on the page, no matter what. And you must not stop to edit along the way. Feel free to share your piece. (I will share mine too.) You never know where your writing might take you. Let it breathe and come to life.
To your success!
