The 10 Most Important Lessons I Have Learned As a Writer
These are lessons I think will be of value to you, too
All writing helps me write better
When I first started, I was focused on short fiction and poetry, and I didn’t really see what the overlap might be. I struggled to write a novel, which seemed an insurmountable task Then I wrote children’s stories and realized that what I’d learned from writing short stories helped me keep a tight rein on plot and action, especially useful in children’s chapter books. Now I see that fiction writing skills help me write strong creative nonfiction, a focus on imagery and rhythm in poetry helps all of the other writing I do, and good sentence and language skills improve everything I write.
If you’re having trouble with setting and description in your fiction, go and read some poetry with great imagery, and then have a go at writing poems yourself. If you’re struggling with dialogue, read some film scripts (good ones) and have a go at writing a short scene between your characters as a script. There are more overlaps than you think. Skills are skills.
