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Have you always loved to read and wished you could write? Want to say something but have no idea where to start? Here are five surprising tips to get you thinking like a writer.

Listen

Record a conversation, then type it word for word. Audio re-play lets you hear patterns of speech and catch nuances of meaning you may not hear in the moment. Before you know it, you may have the voice of your next character in your head.

Copy

Imitation is more than the highest form of flattery. It is how we learn. Read what you love…novels, articles, poems. Then practice writing in the very same way. How? Paraphrase: Start with a paragraph. Re-write it in your own words—not great big flowery words or fierce competitive diction, just write what you think it means. Repeat. This will get you thinking like the authors you read, and get you noticing their styles and techniques.

Be a Kid

The best writing advice ever: “You’re eleven. I’m eleven.” Too many big words, too much impressing, too much explaining about what you’re explaining gets in the way. Just say what you see, as if you’re eleven and your readers are eleven. They’ll get it. And they’ll thank you for your simplicity.

Sing!

Really! Singing has been proven to open wells of emotion in the brain. When you sing, you contact your inner world…the place where imagination comes from. Open your voice and then fire up your computer and clatter away. Keep the music playing to keep you on a roll when your voice has moved from your throat to your fingertips.

Flow

Don’t stop. Write pen to paper, fingers to keyboard without time to edit. Give yourself ten minutes of no-stop writing, just go, go, go. Then build up to an hour. Re-work what you’ve written only at the end. The good stuff is rarely at the top of the page. It’s buried deep, like gold and diamonds. You have to mine it, in the dark, with courage to go deep till you’ve unearthed it.

Recommended and Related

The Artist’s Way Morning Pages Journal, by Julia Cameron.

Photo by _StaR_DusT_.