Writing Advice – Ninagracia

There is no “one-size-fits-all” answer to writing.

Writing is not the same as shopping for clothes, where one-size-fits-all would fit anyone.

Clothes may look so good on the rack, but most of the time, not on our bodies.

The same thing is true with writing.

We all come in different packages, and we are unique in our own way.

What we write reflects who we are – our strengths, talents, and style.

There would be areas in our lives that our level of expertise, experience, and skills would be the same as the others. Still, it is very unusual that two people would come out with the same materials. Multiple factors would normally affect the outcome of our work.

Even our education and our age, all contribute to how we write.

More often, we get the same advice over and over again from established authors on how to do things properly.

We followed everything up to the very smallest detail, hoping that it would lead us to the same path that made them successful.

Other writers can give us advice on the writing process or what worked for them. In many cases, we would never achieve the same result.

Their advice is precious gems that should not be ignored or discarded. They are valuable pieces of information that has been tested and tried by those successful authors.

Learn from that advice. Take the ones you can use and leave out the ones that don’t work for you.

Remember, those rules and advice should only serve you as guidelines and not a template. All the rest should come from you – your style, tone, and voice.

Pave the way and create your own path to success. It may take longer, but determination, perseverance and hard work would take you there.

Till next time, dream big and make it happen.

Cheers!

Ninagracia

Images by: https://www.nicepng.com/

I had several pieces of paper tucked away somewhere where no one could find them. Why? They were my little notes or letters I wrote to myself mainly when I was upset, angry or feeling unhappy. At a very young age, I had been accustomed to doing this over some time.

I wrote a short poem on a piece of cardboard of a tissue box when I was feeling down or confused. I wrote myself a letter on a page of my mum’s grocery list because the boy in my class liked another girl. I also wrote myself a letter on the lining of my school bag when I lost my dog. And, I also wrote a letter to Santa to give me a new puppy for Christmas. Big and small events in my life were all written down and hidden away from everybody. It wasn’t a diary. Most of them were accounts of sad, angry, or unhappy feelings.

And, I found it easy to write because these outpour of feelings and emotions were all meaningful imaginations and impressions of real events.

If you notice, some stories will pierce the very core of our hearts because beneath the surface of that imagined event lies a part of the author’s dramatic revelations of their life and experiences that were partly truthful and colourful.

Because writing can be brilliant.

It is a way of sharing our experiences, describing our feelings, and even communicating more complex ideas effectively.

But writing doesn’t have to be all about sadness and unhappiness.

Just because you are unhappy doesn’t mean you can write a beautiful story or a good poem.

Our life is an unfinished novel on its own. Each chapter tells what we have actually lived through.

And our life story will go on a chapter by chapter for many years to come until the writer of our life story writes the final chapter.

There are so many things that are making sense to me now because I got older and that life should be celebrated every single day.

So, do you have a celebratory song? I particularly love the song “I Can See Clearly Now” by Jimmy Cliff. It is a song that I couldn’t wait to play on my MP3 while lying in bed to celebrate a tiny happy event in my life. It was not all about writing, but every event that I think should be celebrated.

I played this song when I finished a chapter on the story I am currently working on.

I listened to this song when we adopted a puppy and when we got a new guinea pig.

I also played this song when I lost 200 grams after weeks of dieting. Well, try to understand, dieting is so HARD, that’s why it’s a celebration. (No food. I just listened to my favourite song. Honestly!).

Let’s celebrate.