5 Neil Gaiman Insightful Tips For Beginning and Aspiring Writers
Ever since joining Masterclass and taking Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass on writing, Mr. Gaiman has been one of my favorite authors to listen to and learn from.
It is especially great for aspiring writers, whether you are a beginner or not.
As aspiring writers ourselves, when Neil speaks about writing it’s hard to not get inspired and want to create better stories and more interesting stories.
The way he talks about writing makes you want to be adventurous in your writing and throw caution to the wind. Not every idea has to be the pinnacle of all writing ideas ever. Just write down the idea in your idea journal and write a short story for the ideas that are really stuck in your head.
Neil is very good at motivating aspiring writers to go ahead and just write and not worry about everything coming out perfect the first time and his career speaks for itself.
So with that in mind for our aspiring writers, here are some great writing tips from Neil Gaiman:
# 1 Write.
I love it.
For years I’ve lived under the principle of just write. Just get it out on the page. Don’t stop and think about it, just write and get out it and then come back and think about it later.
It is easy for me and other aspiring writers personally to get caught up in trying to think out every corner of an idea and that it has to be perfect in order for me to get started.
But certain professional writers will tell you that that is a paralyzing fate and I couldn’t agree more, so I just love this simple advice from Mr. Gaiman.
Write. Just Write.
Don’t overthink it.It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time. It really doesn’t have to be perfect at all, but if you don’t get the story out, no one will ever read it and no one will ever be able to enjoy it. And there are too many stories that have never been told or heard for this reason alone and the world is worse off for it.
# 2 It’s Your Writing, You’re Allowed to do Whatever You Like With it.
As aspiring writers, we have to be very careful not to let others change it away from what you really want it to be.
The thing is, everyone has an opinion, even us at DTWT. I have my certain opinions on what elements of storytelling make a great story and my wife does too, and we don’t always even agree with each other.
The important thing here is that you have to feel confident in what you want the story to be and you MUST do your best to tell it as such without worrying about others’ opinions, just tell your story the best way it can be told and that’s all you can do.
# 3 Write the Story the Best You Can. Write the Story the way it NEEDS to Be Written.
At the end of the day, just do your best to write the story you see. You know the story and you’re the only one that knows the story (unless you are co-authoring of course.)
Envision each moment in your imagination and do your best to put the words out so that your reader will be able to enjoy the adventure, the mystery, the suspense, the way you saw it and felt it.
Make them feel what your characters are feeling, the pain, the joy, the surprise. Make your reader see what you see so that you are just passing along the story to someone else so that they could tell it next.
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# 4 Fix It, But Remember that Perfection is Like Chasing the Horizon.
Perfection is an impossible task.
As aspiring writers, we can’t fall into the trap of editing over and over and over and never being satisfied with what it turns out to be.
At some point, it is like a child. You have to let it go make noise of its own and see how it does out on its own.
If we wait until it’s perfect we’ll never let it go and it will become nothing.
# 5 Put it aside. Read It Later Pretending As You’ve Never Read It Before.
I love this advice and I couldn’t express more how important it is in the writing process for aspiring writers. As a copywriter and blogger, I have made this a priority in my work and do it with almost every piece I write.
You’d be shocked at the things you see differently a day later or even a couple of hours later.
I am very much of the opinion that we as aspiring writers should write it all out first without editing almost anything.
Writing involves creating whereas editing involves more deep thinking. They are a little different in terms of work and energy so it seems to be a better workflow to do them separately. (Of course, you’ll end up doing some writing and editing simultaneously, but for the most part, try to make them different sessions in your workflow.)
As aspiring writers at some point, you’ll get very good and won’t feel like you need to edit much, but at first, you want to do your best to save your editing for after the entire document exists in its first draft.
Minor edits are okay but don’t get lost in the paralyzing habit of editing over and over and over again and not moving forward.
The best way for aspiring writers to keep moving forward is to just keep writing and come back to edit once the entire first draft is done.
I hope these writing tips help you as much as they have helped other aspiring writers!
If you’re aspiring writers or know aspiring writers and haven’t checked out Neil Gaimen’s Masterclass and love to write and learn I can’t recommend it more.
It’s easier to resonate with main characters that are written as not perfect because we ourselves know we aren’t perfect.
We want a hero that is good for the most part but “breaks the rules” sometimes to get the bad guys in the end. Or breaks the rules to help out others.
Audiences are tired of being hurt by “the rules” and seeing their loved ones hurt by the system so when the protagonist helps someone this way it makes the audience see them as gray and not “uptight.” (None of this is meant to be real-life advice, this is just creative writing ideas for fictional stories.)
For example: Venom, Daredevil, Vampires, Harry Potter, etc.
There are many now that could be named and a plethora to draw inspiration from.
And you might as well because right now audiences are loving it.
And why not? Many are bored with the same old knight in shining armor stories and are looking for entertaining stories outside of that box.
So you might as well write your protagonist in gray and make your antagonist gray as well.
Why not write stories where it is hard to tell who is the “bad guy?” And who is the “good guy?”
Keep your audience guessing all the way through in order to create great curiosity and suspense as to what might happen next.
Write your protagonist doing something Morally questionable when we first meet them.
This could be the case or later on, you could show that what they were doing was totally fine, it just looked questionable the way you wrote it.
Play around with this idea. The sky’s the limit.
Have your protagonist break the law to catch some bad guys. Have them blackmail someone, or even kill someone or injure them in order to make them talk.
How to Write your Antagonist Grayer
Make your antagonist a Doctor, or a person of good reputation. Someone that volunteers a lot, that is very charming and that everyone likes.
Show their home life to be nice and kind and polite. Make their wife or husband adore them and make them very kind to their children.
And then several chapters in surprise the audience with some heinous act they are committing.
Do your best to paint the antagonist in the best light before revealing that they are the antagonist.
Another way to write your antagonist gray is to write them a victim. They could be a victim of the home they’ve been raised in or a victim of society be it a community school.
Show in-depth their suffering before they snap and do something truly evil and your audience will feel conflicted about whether they are indeed evil or not, making them ultimately gray in your audience’s eyes.
To make your antagonist grayer find ways to make your audience root for them to win or succeed in their mission or goal.
Why Not Write Two Characters that are Equally Good and Evil?
Why not make your protagonist and antagonist equally good and evil and keep your audience guessing?
Make them run into each other and in order for one to solve their problem, the other cannot and choose which one you want to succeed and what the consequences will be for the other.
In order for one to win the other must lose, and keep the stakes high.
Or you can make it that in the end they team up and are able to accomplish both of their goals, but in order to do so something of consequence must happen. Either they are both evil or both good. Or the “good” one could help the “evil” one and in the end, this leaves the audience feeling the curiosity of which character was bad or good.
There are many possibilities with this scenario and it’s not done often.
Let us know how it goes!
Did this post inspire you on a story idea?
Did you agree or disagree with the ideas in this post?
5 Tips For Being a Better Storyteller that Hollywood No Longer Cares About (Apparently)
To be honest, in the recent making of movies and books there has been a push toward moving away from good dynamic storytelling to “trying to be different” and being “politically correct.” To have an agenda beyond telling an amazing story to viewers and readers.
What happened to the good ole’ days when you wrote or told a story so that the audience enjoyed it and it was good?
What happened to just being a good storyteller?
It would be one thing if they added in a few beliefs that add to the story or make it better, but when they blatantly add this type of propaganda and material at the expense of the story being told well and executed well it can be quite disappointing.
And let me state very clearly, I have absolutely no problem with beliefs and moral being in stories, BUT only if it makes sense and makes the story better. The problem I’m seeing heavily these days is when the writer cares more about their worldview and message than the story itself. This makes for poor writing and poor storytelling.
If you are going to be a storyteller and in the storytelling business, be it movies, TV, Books, etc. You should really take a hard look at why you are telling a story and if you like it yourself.
One of the keys to knowing you are headed in the right direction is to like what you are creating so much that it makes you curious to see where it will end up and you enjoy people reading or watching it.
If you are telling a story and you yourself aren’t entertained by it, why would anyone else be and we as creators that want to excel should be asking ourselves, “will anyone else enjoy this?”
It’s a hard question, to be honest with ourselves, but if we are going to make stories that readers enjoy we have to put ourselves in their shoes.
Is my story compelling?
Does it have a good flow?
How does the ending make my readers feel? Resolved and appreciative or unresolved?
If we aspire to be great storytellers we must appreciate and take note of the fact that our readers are “investing” their time to read what we write.
They take a “chance” on us of whether or not at the end of the time they have given to us, will they feel like it was worth their time?
Asking yourself good questions like this on a regular basis as a writer can help keep you on the right track for why you are a storyteller at all and how you can make the future of storytelling excellent compared to where it has ended up today with certain over-glorified “critics?”
In a world with story saturation, too many writers just trying to be different, and not keeping their main priority on telling a compelling story, can we do better?
I think yes, we can! 🙂
All that to say, you can use certain storytelling tricks that have been around for ages but have been neglected as of late in Hollywood and other major storytelling productions.
These tips and tricks are not so “secret” as one might think, but if you didn’t know them from studying the art and foundations of storytelling they might appear new to you.
So let’s dive in!
Keep these in mind the next time you are writing and you will do yourself and your readers a huge service:
Plot Must Move Characters And Characters Must move Plot
Create Good Plot Questions but Leave None Unanswered
Great Stories Have Characters That Change Respectively With Time And Experiences
A Boring Story Shouldn’t Be Written As An Excuse To Write One Exciting Scene
A “Secret” Message Behind The Story Shouldn’t Dictate Or Override The Direction the Story Takes
# 1 Plot Must Move Characters And Characters Must Move Plot
In reality, we have coined a little phrase. You may have heard it in a science class before. It is “cause and effect.”
To be a great storyteller we must think of cause and effect when writing.
In a great story, the author has done an amazing job of using cause and effect between characters and plot in such a way that you as the consumer didn’t think much about it. You just accepted it because well IT MADE SENSE.
This is huge in good storytelling. If what’s happening in your plot doesn’t motivate your characters or your characters don’t motivate the plot in a natural cause and effect sort of way, you will have many readers stopping mid-sentence questioning why or how something important happened in your story instead of accepting it without question.
Here’s a good example of using cause and effect.
For example: Polly loves chocolate chip cookies, but Polly’s mom said “No sweets on Tuesdays.”
So it came to pass that on one Tuesday afternoon poor Polly waited till mommy dearest went to the grocery store. On her way out, mommy said, “Remember, no cookies today Polly, so stay away from the cookie jar.”
Polly said “Yes, mommy dearest!” and out the door, mommy went.
Polly watched through the window as mommy pulled out of the driveway and down the street until she was completely out of sight.
The coast was clear, Polly sprinted to the cookie jar and looked inside. The Chocolate Chip cookies looked more golden brown and more crispy than normal. Polly loved when they were more crispy with a little bit of chewy in the middle.
Something inside Polly told her that she should listen to mommy and she gave her word that she wouldn’t eat them, after all, it reasoned we can have them guilt free tomorrow. That’s not so long to wait, is it?
Something else inside Polly pulled and tugged relentlessly without words the urge to eat them all in one sitting!
Polly listened to the latter and she reached for the lid and lifted it.
Just then she heard a terrifying growl behind her!
She dropped the lid and turned around to see a terrifying giant hairy monster towering above her.
“Get away from the cookie jar!” it roared.
Polly screamed and ran into the other room.
Now at this point, if I’ve done a good job of using the plot to motivate the character and the character to motivate the plot, a good cause and effect relationship if you will, then you won’t be questioning the plot or Polly’s actions based on what you know and are learning about her.
If I’ve done a really good job as a storyteller, then you might even be curious about what’s going to happen to poor Polly next.
If a writer is doing their job well than readers will almost always be wondering, “what happens next?”
This silly little story will hopefully help you see how you can make your characters move and motivate the plot and how your plot can motivate them.
By saying that Polly loves chocolate chip cookies we give the audience motive as to why Polly would have an internal battle about taking the cookies when she knows she shouldn’t.
This also takes liberty to assume that most readers understand the conflict of knowing they should obey parents and authority figures but also knowing the inner struggle of wanting to do something their authority has told them they can’t do (I didn’t explain that in the story because it is what we call an “assumed law” or “natural law.”)
As far as plot goes we set it up that the plot is Polly isn’t allowed to have her favorite treats on Tuesdays. By declaring that the protagonist loves something but can’t have it sets up a problem for the protagonist that makes the reader intrigued as to how they will resolve that problem. So we used the plot to motivate Polly to lie and then disobey and we used Polly to carry the plot along from her first problem to her second even bigger problem (the big hairy monster appearing behind her.)
If you’re doing your job well as a storyteller you will find unique and clever ways to use what you reveal to readers about the plot and about the characters to affect each other in a delightful give and take, cause and effect game.
This game goes back and forth until you decide it’s time to resolve all the big questions and problems that lead to a resolution. Also use the plot to reveal more about your character and use your character to reveal more plot points, major and minor.
# 2 Create Good Plot Questions but Leave None UnansweredStoryteller
A personal pet peeve of mine in stories I watch or read is loose ends or unanswered questions. Actually both my wife and I will sit and talk about a show after we watch it and talk about whether there were holes in the plot.
Sometimes the storytellers bring up these really great questions that pique your curiosity and then they do absolutely nothing with it. This is a HUGE letdown. I can’t tell you how many times my wife and I have watched what seemed like it was going to be a great show only to be let down by unanswered questions and plot holes.
Either they switched writers in the middle or the writer was trying to get away with something by making you curious to get your attention but then being too lazy to really have a good answer for that question. <—don’t do this to your readers.
Creating curiosity for your readers is a great service to them and a tool for making your writing more interesting, but only if you are going to give them the joy of answering the question you made at some point in the story.
As a storyteller, it is like making a promise to a friend. Any time you purposely create a question for your audience you are making a silent promise to them that you are going to answer that question later on. They are counting on it.
If you create a question with no intent to answer it just to keep them reading you are cheating your audience and they will lose interest in your work because there is no pay off in the investment that they have made by buying it and reading it.
Creating Curiosity in your Story and Why
Everything in your story must move the plot or the characters forward. If you create a question that leads your readers forward your answer to that question also needs to push the plot forward, help create character depth, and be enjoyable.
If you are going to create curiosity in your reader, make sure the payoff is good and clever. Give them what they are looking for, THE ANSWERS to their curiosity 🙂
# 3 Great Stories Have Characters That Change Respectively With Time And Experiences
This one is more of a personal opinion than writing code, but if you want to make your characters more realistic and more interesting, they are going to develop and change slightly as your time with them goes. Not all of them should change. Some should be static and not change, but some should also change with time and experience.
There are many factors that come into play with character change.
How much time are we spending with the character?
What type of trauma are they going through?
How old are they and what have they gone through in their past?
How do other characters react to their change?
Is it dramatic or subtle?
These are just a few important factors but there are definitely more.
Unless your character is very old and we are only with them a day or two they should change in some ways as we go because real people change as they live.
Some things about them don’t change and some things do.
Is it a growing-up story?
Do they cut their hair and start wearing make-up?
Is it more dior?
Do they start drinking and smoking heavily?
It is a complicated task but worth thinking about and including in your writing as an up and coming storyteller.
For example, in Lord of the Rings. Gandalf does not change much and this is appropriate for his character, but Frodo and Samwise do go through a deep maturing and change.
# 4 A Boring Story Shouldn’t Be Written As An Excuse To Write One Exciting Scene or Idea
This seems like a no brainer, but it should be said. A good story isn’t made from a motive of putting certain ideas into it. In recent films and writing you can tell that a good story isn’t always the motive of why something shows up in a story, sometimes the writer wants to share a political message or write a pretty looking scene. Things like this should not be motivations for writing a story or adding them in.
And all annoying political messages aside, some writers want to write about an amazing battle or a dramatic conversation, or an intergalactic space race. By all means, write what you want to, but we should watch out for writing entire novels around wanting to write out one battle.
There is nothing wrong with writing neat ideas that come up, but some of these ideas should go through a writing process.
They should be written as a short story first so that way you can enjoy writing and write what you want and get it out on the page, but give it time to marinate and look to expand it through a process that makes sense. Be wary of looking to write a big long book, just to make one specific scene come to life. You might find that the rest of the book is a letdown.
And at the same time, don’t be afraid to start with an idea and see where it ends up.
There are always two sides to a coin. I know for a fact that many wonderful stories started with a small idea and grew from that so definitely write any ideas you have down. I don’t mean not to write your ideas down and create many short stories along the way.
What I mean here is if you are going to create a beautiful scene or share a message or create an amazing battle don’t be lazy about making the story the best it can be and putting it in seamlessly and cleverly.
Be a storyteller, not just a writer.
In my opinion, I think that great stories should be written from the motive of writing an amazing story. That’s usually when the story turns out good. It is that simple.
It used to be that companies had to make good stories to be seen and heard. Now companies are so huge that they continue to make content with other motives.
I would love to see new writers and storytellers rise up that are interested in telling a story because it’s good and enjoyable and they want to serve their audience.
# 5 A “Secret” Message Behind The Story Shouldn’t Dictate The Direction the Story Goes
Some would say that the meaning behind your story is more important than the story itself. I would disagree.
That would mean that adding a scene or changing the ending to send the message instead of creating a well-made story is more important.
That is a horrible idea. Have you ever been reading an amazing story only to be let down by the ending and realize that the whole point was some political world message?
Disappointing isn’t it?
I mean think about it from a reader’s point of view. When you go into the book store and start browsing, what are you thinking?
“I’m looking for an enjoyable read. Something that will entertain me in the genre that is my favorite. I would love to find something that’s so good that I can’t wait to tell my friends and family about it.”
When have you ever walked into the romance section thinking, “I hope I find a romance with a secret message hidden in it about being respectful to the President no matter whether I agree with them or not?”
No, no one has ever looked for that. If someone is entertained by politics they look for books on politics and so on.
So be a better writer than these “secret message” writers that trick their readers into reading their message when really the reader is looking to be entertained.
If you are going to put an important message into your story, be sure that it makes sense and makes the story better. Make sure that it adds to the story and doesn’t destroy it in the end.
What are your thoughts about amazing storytelling?
Do you agree or disagree that Hollywood cares more about a message than telling a good story?
What is a tip you would add to tell better stories?
What advice would you give other storytellers?
Do you think the storytellers of Hollywood are doing a good job?
What is your favorite genre as a storyteller? Do you feel like that genre is being treated fairly by the storytellers that are influential right now?
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Do You Want Your Story Characters To Be Original? Consider These 5 Traits.
Do you want your story characters to be original, not boring, and also likable?
What are you willing to do to help your story characters to be original?
What have you done to help your story characters to be original?
Do you have ideas for how to make your story characters to be original?
Then there are some things you’ll want to consider while you are writing your characters. Unique and original characters in our writing don’t just happen by mistake or accident. It takes time, planning, and clever storyboarding to really make our readers dig in.
It is surprising how many beginning authors leave these simple writing tricks out and don’t consider them. Not well known or famous or well-practiced authors. Time tested and practiced authors know that in order to make characters interesting there are certain human traits to consider and add but in a very strategic and specific manner.
These aren’t just tricks of the trade, they are important pieces of every character’s story and every short story or novel writer at least needs to consider them.
These are not listed in an order of importance, just listed in a way that you can see them and use them for your benefit in any of your writing to make your story characters to be original.
5 Things to consider when writing to get your story characters to be original :
If you want your story characters to be original, traits that make your character odd to any “normal” person are very fun to think about. Anything that makes them feel more and more human and less like some strange creature from a perfect place is ideal. You don’t have to go overboard with this. Just think of a few unique traits that’ll make your character stand out among your other characters. Giving them each different personality can make your story characters to be original.
What are some easy ways to show off these Character Oddities?
Talking style:
How does your character talk? The way each character in your story talks is a big deal for how your readers will see and interpret how they act on a normal daily basis.
For this, the best thing to do is to think about people you know in your immediate sphere and use the way they talk to help make your characters seem more real to life. Use their speech patterns and also let your readers know if they have an accent or not. Do they slur? Do they have a funny shaped mouth that makes words sound different? Write that stuff in there. Let the reader know if they say the word “going” funny or normal. Do they “going,” “goin,” or “gon?” Let your reader know.
Do they use distinct hand motions when they are talking? Do they shift back and forth? What are their eyes doing? Do they look around or make direct eye contact? All these traits make a character more believable and more relatable.
Which brings us to the next point. What is their body language saying?
Body Language:
To do body language well and to your advantage, you might have to do some research just to make it really good.
Do they cross their arms a lot? Do they have a hard time standing still? Do they fidget? What do they fidget with? Do they bite their nails? Do they cross their legs? When they think do they lookup? Do they look down?
For body language, think about your own body language and what you do when you’re feeling a certain way. Also, go to a public place and watch peoples’ body language and what people do naturally when they aren’t thinking with their arms and legs and heads and eyes and eyebrows. The more detailed you can be, the more fun you can make the character by making them come to life in your reader’s imagination. Don’t take 5 paragraphs to explain mannerisms just add a little here and a little there and you will really make your character distinct and your readers will naturally come to know them the way you do.
If we want our story characters to be original we should make sure they have some defining imperfections.
Even though we are scared by nature to write imperfections into our characters, this is actually what makes them human. Readers can’t resonate with a character if they never see how they are indeed imperfect in some way. It’s just unbelievable if they are too perfect. It makes the reader disinterested if the character has no problems. It’s not real to life and it can become boring.
It makes sense that we want everyone to like our characters and we’re afraid if they don’t that they won’t like our story, but that’s actually just the opposite.
A good way to get over this fear is to realize that people don’t have to like your characters like they like people in real life. It’s actually the opposite. Depending on who the reader is they may your secondary character more than your main or your villain more than your hero, but as long as the story is good they will keep reading. Obviously there is more to it than just that, but just don’t worry if they don’t want to be “best friends” with your main character. That’s not the point of a good story.
Things that make for good imperfections can be psychological problems. ADD, ADHD, Schizophrenia, trauma, etc. Whether or not the character has a psychological problem can be interesting for many reasons. WARNING: if you choose one of these, do your homework. Don’t just guess or watch a movie. If you get something wrong, you’ll quickly lose readers. Know what the disorder is really like in real life and write appropriately.
You’ll also want to add Personality imperfections. Are they a horrible listener? Do they lie a lot? Do they brag too much? Use things you know to be common problems with people to help you write the character’s personality.
What problems do they face physically? Are they overweight? A smoker? An Addict? Do they have one hand? Are they blind? Deaf? Out of shape? How does this affect what they are trying to accomplish? Are they handicapped in any way? Is there any way they can use this to their advantage?
Have you read a story where the protagonist is a paraplegic? That could make for interesting writing since it doesn’t happen often.
If we want our story characters to be original we should give them unique “likes.”
These are not massively important to the plot, but you can use them in clever ways.
Say your character likes to ice skate. Have her and friends go ice skating one night and while they are there some boys holler at them and treat them disrespectfully. They think nothing of it, but later on, in the story, their friend goes missing and you find out the last person she was with was one of those boys from the ice skating rink.
You can also use likes to show character traits. Is your character OCD about working out? Do they run everyday?
Do they have hobbies like sewing? Did they rip their jeans while running away from gang members? Were they able to sit down and sew them together themselves?
Do they have certain clothing they like to wear? Can you tie in their clothing choices to add to their character traits? Do they dress sloppy and comfortable? Or do they want to appear professional all the time so much so that they wouldn’t even consider wearing sweats out of the house?
Can you use future goals they have to resonate with your audience? Is your character a detective that’s really good at their job but dreams about retirement?
Is your character a slob that dreams about cleaning up their life, but always says tomorrow?
Very similar to “likes” characters have to have “dislikes.”
Do they not like onions? Do they get mad in traffic? Do they hate waiting in lines? What type of pizza toppings do they not like?
Whining, complaining, and getting mad are great ways to help your reader get sucked in and even chuckle at the simple life things that frustrate us as humans every day.
Your reader will either be like “What?! How can you not like pepperoni?” Or they’ll be like “yeah traffic is the worst. It makes me so mad too.”
Use these to make your characters more realistic, but don’t take a ton of time detailing them.
Think of likes and dislikes as icing on the cake you’re presenting. They mostly make it look pretty, but it’s not the cake.
And definitely try to use some clever ways to tie it to the plot.
Choices are easier ways to show character traits that directly or indirectly affect the plot and move things along.
For instance, let’s say we have a character named Gabriella. Gabriella is a very time-sensitive person. She is always calculated and never late. She takes the Southbound highway every day, but unlike her coworkers, she takes exit 21 because she has mapped out the fastest route which takes her through downtown. The rest of her coworkers that take the same highway always just stay on and take exit 22 because it’s easier but it’s 2 minutes slower.
Gabriella is more concerned about the extra 2 minutes she’d be “wasting on the highway” as she would put it.
On a normal day in broad daylight, Gabriella was ripped out her car going through downtown at 7:45 am on her way to work off of exit 21. No one has heard from her since and it’s been at least 2 days.
Now, from this example above you can see that Gabriella has an underlining temperament of not wasting any time, especially not for convenience. She’d rather drive through downtown to save 2 minutes than “lose” 2 minutes and stay on the highway. You can make a character like Gabriella make many choices based on time efficiency in an example like this, but the example shows how we’ve displayed a key part of her character, how it affects her choices, and how her choices then affect the plot.
I think the choices a character makes and why are some of the easiest writing tips to show character traits and tie them into the plot seamlessly and without much effort.
One of the best ways to develop your characters and reveal who they REALLY are deep down to your readers is to put them into specific situations and then allow your readers to see who they are without just telling them boringly.
Case and point: Instead of saying he is mean and arrogant, you write that “he yelled at his sister for leaving the roast in too long and he bragged to everyone, he got the chance to, about making varsity this year and took up the whole conversation talking about his football throw and how far and accurate he could throw. He wasn’t interested in hearing anything about them at all. In fact, any time they would try to chime in, he would interrupt them or zone out until he could say something else about himself.”
By writing a scene and dialogue that shows who your character is, you never have to actually talk about their personality at all.
Your readers will be able to see it. Your readers will love you for this and they won’t even know you’re doing it. It gets amusing figuring out how to write their actions or inactions into scenes that show what you are desiring to tell.
Just a Tip before getting started: Take a few minutes, sit down, and write out specifically what you want to reveal about your character through these scenes. For example: arrogant, funny, secretive, aloof, gruff. You can use these scenes on your protagonist, antagonist, secondary characters, villains, pedestrians, temporary characters, any character you can think of.
Now on with it.
# 1 Write The Action Scene
The action scene is an easy setup and an easy way to reveal character quickly.
The key secret to a well set up action scene that reveals character is putting the character against a problem where they must take action or decide not to take action but either way their action or inaction reveals who they are deep down as a character.
Important note: It’s not only the action they take that defines to the reader what their true nature is as a character.
It’s also the actions they don’t take.
Not only that, but you can also reveal character by how they make the decision as you write.
Are they meticulous and plan everything out?
Or are they quick to action and don’t plan anything out?
Does this lead to further problems by taking too long to plan things out?
Or by acting to rashly to quickly do they create self-destructive problems?
Does the character learn as they go and approach problems differently based on past events you took them through?
Or do they keep making the same mistakes?
Are they cowardly and take no action at all by running or leaving the problem for others to solve?
Writing task: Take a few minutes to develop a problem and write out how the character works their way through the problem or problems and be sure to write character traits you want to portray to your reader by showing how the character would or wouldn’t take action.
# 2 Write The 1-2-3 Punch Scene
The 1-2-3 Punch scene is called “the 1-2-3 Punch Scene,” because it happens REAL fast. If you blink you might miss it. (So don’t blink…Okay, do blink)
Your reader won’t know that you’ve done it but all within one paragraph usually you’ll have divulged very specific character traits that run down through your character’s core in a matter of a minute or two.
Let’s use the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy” as an example, and we’ll use Ronin the antagonist.
It happens really fast but in the first few moments, we see Ronin as he is going through ritualistic ceremonies.
You can tell they happen daily.
In an instant, we see that he is dedicated, determined, no-nonsense, and disciplined down to his core. And then immediately following we see him harshly judge a man and execute him with his own hammer. We watch his victim’s blood flow into his bathing chamber.
We see his cruelty and how he judges an individual based on his ancestor’s actions without any thought to see how the person is individual.
We see that he’s determined, extremely cruel, and prone to violence, and desires genocide. In a matter of minutes, we know this character.We know that he is cruel and that he will stop at nothing to carry out his cause of vengeance.
This is, in essence, the 1-2-3 Punch. In as quick as a paragraph you can have your character carry out 1-2 or 3 quick actions that display who that character is down to their core and it all happens as quick as a punch and your audience suddenly has a large sense of who that character is. To execute this type of scene well you need to decide a couple of character traits you want your character to have.
Let’s make an example: I have a Protagonist named Jim. I want to portray that Jim is kind, caring, and charitable.
Let’s say Jim’s widowed Aunt stays with him and his son.
She comes home one day and realizes she forgot the butter. Jim hears her exclaim her disappointment and he quickly jumps up and says “Don’t worry about it Auntie, I’ll run out and get your butter for you so that you don’t have to run back in town.” He says it with a big smile of course and a great attitude about the whole thing whistling as he’s off on his way to the store.
While waiting in line to buy the butter the person in front of him is a dollar or two short. Jim quickly says “Oh, let me get that for you” and smiles at the distraught stranger while digging in his pocket for two dollars.
In a short paragraph, we have seen that Jim is kind, caring, and charitable. We didn’t have to SAY “Jim is kind, caring, and charitable.” We used a scene to let the reader see it for themselves.
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# 3 Write The Vulnerability Scene
Have you ever been reading a short story or novel and you start to notice that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the main character or their antagonist?
If you notice, you’ll see that you start to lose interest and resonate less and less with the “perfect” character. This is because, in real life, we know there no such thing as a perfect person. And if their life was perfect, it would be boring. This is why it’s important to have the Vulnerability Scene.
This scene is exactly how it sounds. You have to make your character a little vulnerable in some way. You can go as far as you want with it, but you have to show that the character isn’t perfect and that they have consequences just like people in the real world. Most often it doesn’t have to be some big unheard-of thing. In actuality, this can work best if it is some quick notice of something that could be considered “normal” or small.
For example: Our Sheriff drinks most nights when he’s off duty (and sometimes on duty.) The mailman sometimes reads our letters before delivering them. The DMV worker has an expired license but drives anyway. It could be anything and it could be small or a big deal, but if your characters are going to be believable you have to show some vulnerability so that readers can relate to them a little.
Another way to write a scene that shows who the character is is to put your character through loss. The loss doesn’t have to be a big deal to you, but whatever it is that they lost, it MUST be a big deal to them. The more strange the loss is and how much it hurts the character you write emotionally the more readers can see what is actually important to the character and see what they are like as you write.
If you write your character losing a family member and is only a little sad, but they lose an animal and sob for weeks we can see what is important to this person. Another good example you can write would be a character losing their job and not caring, but their car gets a scratch on it and you write them going into an unforeseeable rage. As we see what the character doesn’t care about and what they care most about in their heart we can see their heart and the core beliefs of the character as we write.
Like I said the loss doesn’t have to always be something that most people would see as a big deal. It could be something you write that you don’t consider to be a big deal, but the fact that it is a big deal to them helps the reader see more and more of who this person is at their core self.
On the flip side, you can use the BIG loss scene in reverse. Write them through a scenario where they experience a loss that most of society would consider a big deal but the fact that you write the character doesn’t, shows who they are as a person and a key part of their character and maybe even an important part of your plot. Make them lose a father, mother, brother, or sister and make them not care and your readers will be lead to curiosity why they don’t care.
Play with the big loss scenario and use it both ways to show what is and isn’t important to your character.
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Writing Tips that you MUST Use From the Writers of Stranger Things!
If you love writing and Stranger Things then you will love reading this post.
No Spoilers! Don’t worry, but by now you’ve DEFINITELY binged the entire thing 😉
What writing tips can we gather from the screenwriter’s of Stranger Things without giving any spoilers away?
They bend Time to their will.
They use Conflict to keep your Brain Hooked.
They Keep You Guessing with the Mysteries of the Universe.
Did you Notice How the Dialogue made you Feel?
They Manipulate you with Character Relationships.
They Make You Hate the Right People and Love the Wrong People.
They Don’t Promise That Characters You Love Will Survive.
Every year, I for one look forward to what the writers of Stranger Things are going to give to me.
Honestly, this year I was a bit disappointed that they decided to wait till summer to give us another nail-biting story, but hopefully, it’ll be worth the wait.
While I watch things I look for writing tips and tricks. Hopefully, you get writing inspiration from these and are able to make great use of them in your own writing!
#1. They BEND TIME to Their Will.
Have you ever noticed that in suspenseful stories the writer uses time to their benefit?
Stranger Things is no different.
I took a Class from Dan Brown and in that class, he revealed a writing technique for suspense that is genius and that I found so helpful!
Bend time to your will.
Stranger Things, Dan Brown, and other great suspense writers all use this same writing technique in one way or another to help their writing be more suspenseful.
How do we as writers bend time to our will and use it to keep our readers at the edge of their seats turning page after page after page without thinking about it????
We create a “ticking time bomb.”
This can be a literal time bomb, but that’s not what we mean here.
You can and need to create a time sensitive event that if the main protagonist doesn’t accomplish in time then “THE WORLD WILL END!”
Haha! The world ending doesn’t always have to be the big bad ending if they don’t make it in time.
It could be a loved one dying.
It could be a world ending. (usually the case in Stranger Things and Marvel)
The main character dies.
The town dies.
Half the Universe disappears 😉 Thanks, Thanos…
The house explodes.
Mom and Dad find out the kids are up to no good if they don’t hide the mess in time.
A monster is hunting them.
An alien race is chasing them.
I think you get the idea.
It could be a massive consequence or a “smaller” consequence depending on how old your audience is and how big you want to make the stakes of this one dire event, but it is up to you how you want to use this tool and how much you want to use it.
You can make it one big thing that the protagonists are trying to accomplish the entire journey or a series of little time-sensitive events along the journey to one big one. Build up and misdirection are always good tools.
Either way, if you want to turn up the heat this summer with extra suspense in your writing you need to create time-sensitive events that if not done something about…BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN!
2 things to keep in mind:
It has to be believable. Don’t go overboard.
Don’t use it so much that the reader gets sick of this technique without thinking about it. (He keeps defeating the bad guy, but then a bigger worse bad guy comes along too quickly, and oh look, he wants to blow up the world too…boring.)
#2 They Use CONFLICT to Keep Your Brain Hooked.
The writers of Stranger Things use conflict to keep you hooked.
As a writer of stories when you create a conflict your readers become curious about how the conflict will be resolved.
Conflict doesn’t work all by itself. You have to care about the characters in order to care about the conflict they face and whether or not it will be resolved.
The writers of Stranger Things know that you care about the characters and they use the conflict they put the children into to keep your brain hooked from start to finish. They also do a great job of first making us like the kids and characters they create before they create problems and danger for them to go through.
Create characters and help your readers like them. Make them like them for many reasons. Make them vulnerable, cute, admirable, funny, misunderstood, or likable and then create danger for them and some sort of conflict and your readers will be instantly hooked and keep reading out of curiosity as to how they’ll make it out alive.
#3 They Keep You Guessing with the Mysteries of the Universe.
The writers of Stranger Things have done an amazing job of creating their own universe.
It carries original ideas and original monsters. That leaves us curious for more. Such questions boil over in our minds. What are the demi dogs? Why do they hunt people? What is the underground really? What is the Mind Flare and what does it want? Are there creatures more powerful than the Mind Flare?
By creating this universe and creating it well they have given us all kinds of mysteries to keep us guessing and intrigued.
If you can create curiosity and intrigue for your readers than you can create something interesting for them. When you create something that keeps your readers guessing in a good way (not because they are confused) you have done them a service of keeping them entertained and intrigued.
The writers of Stranger Things do this time and time again, season after season by slowly introducing more characters, more creatures, and more problems.
Make your universe full of intrigue and wonder, and make sure, if you create a question for your characters to solve make sure that you answer it at some point. Give them a question and then give them resolution. By doing this the right way, you keep them interested and intrigued and then satisfied when you answer the question for them.
Create a good universe and create good questions and problems for your characters and you’ll be taking tips from the writers of Stranger Things.
#4 Did You Notice How The Dialogue Made You Feel?
Have you ever analyzed the dialogue in Stranger Things?
The writers do an AMAZING job of making you feel certain emotions they want you to feel through the dialogue.
When the boys are playing D&D you feel like a little kid again by what they say, how they say it, and the emotions they are feeling while they talk and play.
Dialogue planned well carries the story along, but mostly reveals to you who the characters are. When you see who they are through how they act and talk you feel certain things about them whether you relate or not.
Notice the dialogue between Nancy and her couple of relationships. Depending on where they are at with their relationship the dialogue changes and as it changes we feel differently about them, their relationships and ourselves. We can feel happy for them, mad at them, sad, jealous, angry, worried, concerned. The dialogue between Nancy and her relationships makes us feel this way depending on where we are at in our relationships and life.
To take these Stranger Things writing tips to the pen and paper, learn how to use dialogue the way they do.
Use dialogue to:
Reveal character
Show character vulnerability
Show character growth
Show character immaturity/ maturity
Reveal character relations to other characters
Carry the story along
Make sure you know what types of emotions your readers will be feeling through your dialogue.
That brings us to the next Stranger Things writing tip.
#5 They Manipulate You With Character Relationships.
Take it from the writers of Stranger Things, if you have the ability to write relationship conflicts into your stories, DO IT.
We as readers and watchers eat up relationship intrigue and conflict. We are relational creatures so any type of relational conflict we can watch and be a part of is extremely fascinating to us.
Think about how you feel when the kids are getting into arguments. You feel bad, you don’t want them to fight or dislike each other. If you care about their friendship you want to see it resolved. Or at least you want to see if it resolves at all.
Do the same thing with your stories.
Think about your different characters and how you can create bonds in their relationships and how you can create conflict in their relationships.
Whatever you do, don’t make everything rainbows and roses all the time. It’s not real life and it’s not really interesting either.
The writers of Stranger Things know how to put our heartstrings by creating character relationships and by creating conflict between them.
#6 They Make You Hate the Right People and Love the Wrong People.
Think about your characters in your stories. Do you make them likable? How? Do you make them disposable?
Think about ways you can make your characters likable and hateable. Use the traits and dialogues you can think of to give your readers twists and turns with the characters you create.
Start off making your villains likable and don’t tell them it’s a villain. Give them a twist and inner turmoil when they realize the charming cute guy they like is a sinister evil man up to no good. Likewise, you can make your good characters do stupid things that make them despicable at first until they grow up a little.
Take it from the writers of Stranger Things, keep your readers guessing and interested by not revealing everything at first but making them read to get the answers.
#7 They Don’t Promise That Characters You Love Will Survive.
It’s hard to do and it can be hard on your audience, but it’s true to life. If all your characters always survived everything with no consequences eventually your readers will lose interest because they know nothing bad will happen to the characters in your stories.
Pick characters that you will eventually kill and do what you can to make their deaths worth it.
Make a death worth it by either killing a character they love and will miss or by killing a character they hate.
Don’t just kill random characters they have no emotional feelings towards.
The writers of Stranger Things have shown us from the start that characters we like might not make it to the end of the story.
They’ve done this many times with both characters we love and characters we love to hate. You may think that by killing off a character we like that you will lose the audience. This is true in fewer cases than you might think. Most times the audience feels the sadness but is even more curious to see how things turn out because it’s not easy to guess anymore. When death is a possible scenario, no character is safe. That means more curiosity and intrigue for your readers.
Do your readers and viewers a service and include these Stranger Things writing tips into your stories.
What did you notice that you can add to your writing from Stranger Things?
Did you binge watch it the 3rd season? How many days did it take you? I watched it in 3 days.
Have you gotten creative writing tips from other shows?
What would you recommend watching to get great writing tips?
What should I ask myself when I’m wondering, “what should I write about?”
It is that fateful moment again.
You have gotten out of bed. Brushed your teeth and showered.
The aroma of coffee (or tea, I’m drinking more tea these days personally) fills your kitchen. You pour that beautiful hot steamy comforting liquid into your #1 Boss Mug that you unashamedly bought for yourself since you work from home.
You make your way to your favorite nook to write and you get into your brain stimulating position.
You stare at your computer screen and here it comes…”What should I write about?”
You sit for a moment staring at the screen. Then out the window. And think again, “What should I write about today?”
You wait and wait for inspiration to WOOSH through your door and slap your brain and the words to start flowing masterfully and…nothing.
The dreaded question we ask ourselves every morning doesn’t seem to help much when we are stuck in the vaccuum of our own head. But not you.
If you are reading this you are one of the smart ones that knows in order to get the words flowing ideas must come from elsewhere and you are here to find them.
I hope that this post helps you find that spark to get started today and many days from here on out 🙂
22 Things to help you think through the question, “What should I write about?”
What you can look forward to in this post:
Start with simple writing prompts: What are you passionate about?
What do you already know a lot about?
What relevant events are going on?
What do you have strong opinions about?
Is there a controversial topic that’s ‘hot’ right now?
What do you want readers to take away from your writing?
What do you want readers to do with your writing?
Do you want to write fiction?
Look at your other posts to see if you can go into details about something you previously covered broadly
If you already have a following, have you asked them what they want to hear about?
Have you used Quora?
Have you checked Twitter?
Have you written about a time you failed?
Take one of your popular posts and write about it from a different angle.
Check the comment sections of other bloggers and influencers in your niche.
Can you write about a mentor and how they helped your business succeed?
Have you written an income report to let your readers in on what’s really working and what’s not for your business?
Have you written about your readers’ problems and how to solve them?
Have you shared with your readers your writing routine and detailed the different aspects of how you work through a blog post from start to finish?
Have you written about a problem you are in the middle of discovering for yourself?
Have you shared about a negative comment you received and how you turned it into a good thing?
Have you shared with your readers a recent time you were personally refreshed by a blog post you recently read?
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What Should I Write About: 22 Writing Prompts to Give You BIG IDEAS
1. Start Simple. What are you passionate about?
When you are asking yourself the question, “What should I write about?” the easiest writing prompts to write about is to share about things that you are most passionate about.
Something that you are either very knowledgeable because of experience is easier to write about than something you have to spend hours and hours researching.
On the flip side, you can choose a topic or subject that you know little about but may find interesting to write about and do the research knowing that you are going to enjoy it compared to looking into a subject you care little about.
Another convenience of writing about what you are passionate about is that it’s easier to write about things you care a lot about and have enjoyed thinking about.
Try this little writing exercise:
Focus on: describing your passion.
Try to write this: I love [your passion]. I love doing this because [talk about what excites you and what you find rewarding about it]. Or I love thinking about [your passion] because [talk about why you like it.]
Example: I love writing because the English language and the art of storytelling is fascinating.
Now go deeper.
Google: [your passion]
Read an article or 3 that pop out to you.
As you are reading pause and write down facts, opinions, quotes, etc, that stick out to you as things that will be important to others as you read them.
If you do just this one exercise you will have enough information and inspiration to write a blog, journal, essay, project, etc.
Just this one writing exercise can take you far if you use it well when you are wondering, “What should I write about?”
2. What should I write about: What do you already know a lot about?
Going back to the first point, it’s easiest to start with something you already know a lot about. Choosing a topic that you already have a great knowledge base on is simpler to share than something you have to go out of your way to find out about. So, when you are having trouble knowing what to write about start with topics you already have a large base knowledge with.
It will take less time, to begin with. You won’t have to take long research breaks and you’ll enjoy writing about something you know very well and have put a good amount of personal time into.
When you’re thinking, “what should I write about?” try this simple exercise:
What do I know about already that I have spent hours learning how to do?
Make a list:
Exercise
Health
Fitness
Music
Art
Your profession
Supplements
Finance
Tech
Gluten free
writing
Research
At home recipes
How to get your kids to sleep
How to get your kids to eat strange foods
How to get more readers to your blog
How to potty train your pet
How to get stains out of shirts
Etc
You can see in this list that nothing is off limits when it comes to knowing a lot about something.
No matter who you are, you may know something more than someone else about a given subject
How to get my little brother to stop sneaking in my room
How to get my kids to get along on a car ride
What movies are family friendly
What are star constelation names
What are some ways I can save money grocery shopping
How can I save time grocery shopping
How do I relieve back pain
If you have done something and figured out how to do it its worth writing about because someone else is going to be looking to do that same thing eventually.
How do I level up faster in this game
How do I get my boss to treat me with respect
How do I make friends
How can I get my brother in law to think I’m cool
How do I learn to type faster
How do I sleep better
I hope the point 🙂
Any topic is up for grabs and you might just be surprised to find out what you know how to do very well that others are looking to read about 🙂
So the next time you are thinking, “what should I write about?” think about anything in your life that you know how to do or know a lot about. And write as if you were telling someone else how to do that thing.
3. What relevant events are going on?
Another great thing that can be very interesting to write about depending on the day would be an event that is relevant.
This could be carried out in three ways.
You can write about a worldwide event that everyone is thinking about and talking about.
2. The other path to carrying this out is to find a relevant event in your specific niche.
Maybe you want to write about fashion and it’s fashion week.
Maybe you want to write about marine life and it’s shark week.
Whatever your niche may be there are almost always big events going on that have to do with your main ideas or relevant ideas.
3. You could write about a specific event in your life that is relevant to your subject.
If you write about fashion you can write about what got you started in your love of fashion.
Or you could write about a controversial situation that happened to you and your fashion. Maybe your friend said your outfit was ugly behind your back and you found out about it?
If you are going to write about an event try to include these tips:
Make the title short and powerful
2 title examples:
Bad- This week is fashion week and we are so excited to see all the different colorful items that the designers will be showing us.
Good- 7 Outfits From Fashion Week That You Will 100% Regret Not Seeing
Or
9 Outfits From Fashion Week that Will Shock Your Socks Off
A little over the top, but it tends to work and I think you can see the difference.
Give tasty info at the start but don’t give away everything
If you are going to write about the event give a few exciting details away at the start but don’t give away the entire cake in the first 3 paragraphs.
Give them something enjoyable to latch onto but save something delicious for the end.
Stick to the facts Jack
Make sure to give your reader really good information and facts not JUST opinions.
We can most certainly include our opinions about the event but make it in small fun doses that give extra personality to your writing.
Name drop
If you can drop important famous heavy hitting names into the writing, don’t be afraid to do so and if it happens to have fun information about the person feel free to add that as well. Personally I would say stick to the facts and don’t let it turn into gossip or slander.
You most certainly don’t have to use all these tips, but use the ones that you think are relevant to the type of event you are writing about.
If you are trying to figure out, “what should I write about?” a great angle to go from would be to consider what relevant events are occurring.
4. What do you have strong opinions about?
If you are still wondering, “what should I write about?” it is easy to find many words when you think of ideas you have strong opinions about.
Sometimes it is easy to punch out a quick article when you have a strong opinion compared to trying to write about things you have no opinion about or haven’t thought about at all.
The stronger your opinion the better and if it is about controversial topics, that’s okay!
It’s okay to have a strong opinion about something and share that opinion knowing that in the comment section you might have people agreeing and disagreeing with you.
The fact that it’s controversial might make your writing have more reaction.
Here’s an exercise to try:
Make a list of topics you would rant about with a close friend or at the dinner table
Religion
Politics
Healthcare
Equality and inequality
Things at work
Things at home
Dating habits and practices
Movies
TV Shows
I’m sure that even in this list you may have seen a topic that you feel like it would be easy to rant and rave about.
Go ahead and write about it in your journal. On your blog. Maybe you have a story you could share with your readers about any of these topics.
If you are looking for something to write about today consider writing about a topic that you have strong opinions about.
5. Is there a controversial topic that’s ‘hot’ right now?
If you are wondering, “what should I write about?” controversy is great for storytelling and marketing.
If you have an opinion about a topic that is a hot button for a lot of people, write about it.
If you have a blog, make a post. It’ll be a great way to get some good comments and conversations rolling.
If you have an essay due and you think that something controversial going on in the world today could be an interesting topic for you to dive into then write about it.
Don’t wait for inspiration to come smack you upside the head if you are thinking, “what should I write about?” go find that inspiration and write about it.
6. What do you want readers to take away from your writing?
When you’re thinking, “what should I write about?” a great and effective tool is to put yourself in your potential reader’s shoes for a moment.
How often do you ask yourself questions like these before writing:,
What do I want my readers to learn from this?
What do I want my audience to run away with?
Did I do a good job of delivering great information that helps them?
What will they say to others about what I wrote for them?
Writing is a great way to give back to people. If you have figured something out or had some great success with a particular field, a good place to share with people how they can better their lives is in your writing.
Did you write a personal note to someone to say thank you?
Will your professor appreciate what you put into your writing?
Will your blog readers really enjoy the way you put together your post?
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” think about the end person who will be reading it?
7. What do you want readers to do with your writing?
When you are pondering, “what should I write about?” thinking about what you want your reader to do (if anything) will really help start you writing on the right track.
Figuring out what you want to say in your writing is paramount, but figuring out what you want your readers ‘to do’ is a key piece of the puzzle.
If on another hand you want your friend to mention your wedding card you sent them, be sure to include a meaningful quote and some personal thoughtful sentiments in it.
Depending on what your medium is will determine how you go about getting the person reading to action.
When the question pops up, “what should I write about?” decide on what you want your reader to do when they are done reading.
8. Do you want to write fiction?
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” it’s important to note what style of writing you are doing.
It is good to know if you want fiction or nonfiction. Do you want your writing to be about inspiring poems? Or do you want it to be factual information?
Do you like teaching? Or do you like creating?
If you enjoy teaching than it might be a good idea to write blog postsabout stuff you’re learning and enjoying yourself, whereas if you like creating characters and a story you might enjoy creating a blog that is a bunch of riveting short stories or poems or whatever writing style you’re passionate about.
If you are thinking, “what should I write about?” know what your writing style is that you are getting into.
9. Look at your other writing to see if you can go into specific detail about something you previously covered broadly.
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” you can sometimes look no further than your own writing.
You can find a good amount of writing prompts directly in posts you have already written.
If you have a blog or social presence you can even look in your comments to see if commentators have left you details you can write about. Whether it is in the comment section where you have answered some questions that could be turned into blogs or you can scan your major points of a broader post topic to see if there is a major point that you can write another 600 to 1,000 words on.
If you are thinking, “what should I write about?” look at your past writing and see if inspiration has been staring you right in the face.
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If you enjoy What Should I Write About: 22 Writing Prompts to Give You BIG IDEAS, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
10. If you already have a following, have you asked them what they want to hear about?
When you’re thinking, “what should I write about?” have you ever considered straight asking your followers, “Hey! What should I write about?”
Have you made your readers feel comfortable enough that they know they can ask questions and receive answers from you?
Have you asked them directly in the posts or in the comments what your followers are interested in hearing about next?
When you are thinking, “what should I write about?” look no further than your peeps.
11. Have you used Quora?
Thinking, “what should I write about?” consider looking at the questions people are asking on Quora and how many answers they’ve received.
Quora is a great site to be a part of the conversation.
What makes Quora great about getting superb writing prompts is that people are literally just asking questions there.
They go to this site to find answers. So make sure you are there and ready to help out and answer their questions.
All you have to do is just browse through the most popular questions related to your niche and presto! You’ve got great material that you know people all over the world are interested in.
When you are thinking, “what should I write about?” download the Quora app and start scrolling not trolling.
12. Have you checked Twitter?
“What should I write about?”
“Have you checked twitter?”
Check out the most popular tweets going on in your subject matter and run with it.
For any social site these things ebb and flow in popularity, so be sure to stay up to date and take advantage of when certain topics are going viral.
If you are trying to promote your blog, do your best to get into the conversation and be helpful and relevant so that when the right time comes you can drop your post into the conversation naturally to get more viewers on your page.
Thinking, “what should I write about?” a little birdie told me to check Twitter.
13. Have you written about a time you failed?
People love a great story.
And if you’re still thinking, “what should I write about?” they love a great comeback story.
We as humans eat that stuff up because we all fail and we all want to know that it is possible to succeed even though we fail. We resonate with each other and learn through others’ failures and successes.
Don’t be shy to write about a time you biffed it majorly and then how that turned into a reason for you to get back up, try again, and crush it the next time around.
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” try writing about a failure in your life.
14. Take one of your writings and write about it from a different angle.
Wondering, “what should I write about?” try writing about something you already wrote about but from a different angle.
If you have a blog and one of your posts went viral or maybe just one that is very popular on your blog, take a moment to think about if you can write this post or story from another angle.
Seeing it from a fresh perspective might resonate with more of your followers and it might help you see things from a new light as well.
“What should I write about?” try thinking outside your own box.
15. Check the comment sections of other bloggers and influencers in your niche.
When you are concerned, “what should I write about?” check other bloggers comment sections.
You can tell if its going to be a good topic if you see it repeated by many commentators or if it’s a topic that is highly debated.
Have you perused comments to see if there may be a great comment to expound upon?
Did someone ask a great question that you can answer in a post? Or did they add some advice that makes you think about another topic you can go into even further?
An easy way to see this is to look for comments that got lots of conversation going. Find a comment that went on a little bit of a buzz or maybe started a good discussion and use that to create another amazing post.
“What should I write about?” look at the comments and reviews.
16. Can you write about a mentor?
“What should I write about?” what mentors have you had?
Maybe you took an online course that shared some information with you that really helped you succeed whereas before you were failing.
Perhaps your mentor has an affiliate program and you can add some good reviews about the product because you have used it and learned from the person and have good insight to give.
See if you can help your readers by posting a clear and concise review of the product.
Maybe you had a teacher or professor that inspired you?
Fitness instructor?
Parent?
Pastor?
Older sibling?
It could even be a book they wrote.
When you are concerned, “what should I write about?” think about people in your life that have inspired you and what that lead you to.
17. If you have a blog have you written an income report to let your readers in on what’s really working and what’s not for your business?
If you have a blog and are wondering, “what should I write about?” consider starting a monthly blogging income report.
Many bloggers feel comfortable sharing the income they are making through their blogs.
They share what they are making through sponsored links, through freelancing, and through affiliate links.
I have seen this work very well for them and their blogging business as it can be used as social proof for them for affiliate products they write about.
Can you share a report and how can you make that information benefit your readers?
“What should I write about?” consider starting a monthly blogging income report.
18. Have you written about your readers’ problems and how to solve them?
A lot of internet searching comes down to some simple user facts.
I have a problem and I am searching for an answer.
Think about how many times you’ve done that this week.
“Hey Siri, where’s a good place to eat near me?”
“Alexa, what time is it in London?”
“Hey Google, do I strain the noodles before I add the salt in?”
You may not have asked any of these exact questions, but think about the ones you did ask and think about your exact wording.
It is very common that as consumers we ask very similar questions.
Use Google’s keyword planner to see how many people are looking up what you’re wanting to write about.
So since we know people are looking up answers to their problems it should be an easy writing prompt for you to think of a common problem many consumers need help with that you have already solved for yourself.
That makes for a great writing opportunity and now you have plenty to write about since you’ve already gone through the problem yourself and came out the other side with a solution.
“What should I write about?” Solve your reader’s problems.
19. Have you shared about a negative comment you received and how you turned it into a good thing?
If you have a social presence or blog and you’re thinking “What should I write about?” consider writing about a negative thing someone commented about your post.
As humans, we love reading about a good controversy. I mentioned this before.
This is why it could be easy to take a negative comment you receive and turn it into a good thing for your writing career.
One of my email mentors does this frequently on his email list.
Someone will reply to his email negatively and say horrible things about his style, marketing tactics, and character at times.
He will almost always write about the negative feedback and spin it into a good thing he can teach his email list.
Now you could take this and retaliate and say all kinds of firey things back to this person, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
I would instead take the opportunity to thank the person and explain how they are missing out on great information or how a comment like that is completely justified and that they have valid points.
But you have to decide how you would deal with negative comments on your blog or social presence.
“What should I write about?” Write about a negative comment.
20. Have you shared with your readers your writing routine and detailed the different aspects of how you work through a writing project from start to finish?
If you’re wondering, “what should I write about?” it might be inspiring and helpful for your audience to see into how and why you write the way you do, especially if you are in the writing, freelance writing, and blogging niche.
For me, one of my key secrets is outlining.
Outlining sounds awful and boring and to be honest it is!
But once you get the hang of it and you are doing most of the foundation work in your head it becomes second nature and is extremely useful. (Thanks, Mrs. Louden! My English teacher.)
I used to think it was useless as a kid, and it was because my essay had all of 3 points, so pretty pointless as it would be hard to forget three points, but in a post like this with 22 points, it is EASY to forget where you are, where you came from, and where you’re headed next in the point.
“What should I write about?” Share your writing process with you readers.
21. Have you written about a problem you are in the middle of discovering for yourself?
We already discussed writing about a problem and solution you have already found, but are you brave enough to write about a problem you are in the middle of and the fact that you haven’t found a solution yet?
Could you create a post while you’re in the midst of the problem and write the post live and update it as you solve your own problem?
There are several ways you could take this, let me know if anyone does as it sounds like an interesting writing experiment!
22. Have you shared with your readers a recent time you were personally refreshed by a blog post you just read?
Considering the question, “what should I write about?” What have you been reading lately that inspired you?
Don’t back away from paying it forward and sharing about a recent post that you read on someone else’s blog that really inspired you or helped you get out of a rough spot.
Do you have a blogging mentor of sorts?
Reach out to them and see if they don’t mind you reviewing a post that you personally found helpful.
You can even let them know about it and see if they’d like to link to your review.
Especially if you give them social proof of high praise they might be likely to send some of their readers to it so they can see how the mentor’s writing helped someone in the real world on a completely different blog.
You never know how much helping someone else out will help you.
Don’t be afraid to invite others along with you on your path to success as a writer.
Did you enjoy this post?
Did you find a prompt that helped you?
What did you end up writing about from reading the post: What Should I Write About?
If you found your prompt here, feel free to share a link to your post in the comments.
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If you enjoy What Should I Write About: 22 Writing Prompts to Give You BIG IDEAS, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
You are definitely wondering how to use affiliate marketing to make more money online.
It may sound confusing, but it is actually very very simple.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is promoting a product, service, or company with a web link and getting paid for clicks, sign-ups, and purchases from the link they give you.
It really is as simple as that. I promise.
All you have to do is find a company that has an affiliate program, and apply to their program.
They provide the link (most of the time, Amazon actually has you pick a product and then makes the link for you) and usually have a place for you to sign in and check out how your link is working.
How Do I Actually Make Money with Affiliate Marketing?
That’s a good question.
There are many ways to go about it.
You can make your own Blog and use what you write to promote affiliate products.
You can promote on your social media such as Pinterest, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. (There are rules and restrictions to posting affiliate links on certain social channels so be sure to check with each one before posting anything they would deem against their rules.)
You can build an email list of happy subscribers and tell them about products you like to use with affiliate links.
You can write a blog post today and contact a well-known blogger and ask them to feature your blog post on their site.
Any way you can think of getting your link in front of the eyes of internet readers and users is a way to make money with affiliate links (you have to follow the affiliate program’s rules.)
Why Would a Company Want to Use me as an Affiliate Marketer?
A lot of companies love using affiliates for marketing their products these days.
Back in the day before blogging and social media they had to pay BIG ADVERTISING FEES and weren’t guaranteed any return on their investment.
Whereas with you promoting a product, they don’t have to pay out the commission fee to you unless the product actually sells or they get an actual lead from your promotion. So it’s a win-win situation for them and you 🙂
Side note: Something I personally love about affiliate marketing compared to making and selling your own products is you don’t have to deal with returns or customer service.
You get to make some extra cash while you’re sleeping and not worry about the customer complaints or returned items.
If you enjoy How to Make Money Blogging with Affiliate Marketing, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
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Is Affiliate Marketing All Fun and Games?
Of course not!
There are ups and downs to all kinds of work.
Example: I had a friend that got paid by his company to go to theme parks regularly. I’m talking weekly getting paid to go to Busch Gardens and Scuba Diving in Florida.
I thought, “Dude! That’s amazing! What a sweet gig!”
He said, “Well yeah it would be except that I’m always going as the liaison or glorified tour guide for the company so I’m always there with people I don’t know or am working for.”
I can think of many worse ways to get paid, but the point is there are ups and downs to every job.
So in the same way, affiliate marketing can be tough and it is hard to get started, but once you wake up to check your account, or you get done watching netflix and see that you made a few bucks while you were doing it, and realize how many ways you can scale this, it can be a great side hustle or even make a living from.
For me, it’s being around friends and family more and working from my couch while watching a movie with my wife. Or quitting work at 12 pm because my friend invited me to a movie and in the back of my mind knowing that I’m making a living for my family while spending time with my friends.
Of course there are days where you feel ZERO motivation.
That happens to everyone.
You can either push yourself on days like that or say, “Hey, I’m gonna go outside and get some exercise throwing a ball with my dog and if I feel like making some post later this evening, great, no worries.”
It’s days like that I can’t believe I get to do what I am doing and I feel so grateful.
What Companies Offer Affiliate Marketing?
There are LOTS.
You have but to only do a google search:
“(product/service) affiliate program” and you will see many of great choices.
Make sure that you check out the programs for legitimacy.
And be sure to understand the program’s terms and rules so that you don’t lose your account with them prematurely.
What is the Best Way to Make the Most of Affiliate Links?
Choose products that you are personally interested in. It’ll be easier to write about and it’ll be more natural. Trust me, your readers will be able to tell.
Find the right products for you and your readers. Do online research. Most companies that have affiliate programs are looking for more affiliates. The cost of advertising through affiliates is low for them.
Be relevant for your readership: this seems like a no-brainer, but it’s laughable the amount of weird stuff you can find blogs trying to products that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with what they are writing about.
Be up to date: take time every so often to edit and revise your older posts.
MOST IMPORTANT: I feel like this doesn’t need to be said, but bloggers everywhere prove me wrong all the time. Write about and promote what your readers want! For affiliate marketing, if you want to make money and get clicks, promote and write about things that your audience is interested in. Take time to figure this out and make it a regular priority for you.
Focus on quality over quantity. Products that usually end up working out badly for others will cause your readers a bad time too and they won’t trust you for other products. So pick products that are good quality and give whoever tries them a good experience and they’ll come back to you for more and be grateful for your input.
Focus on products that will be interesting to your audience, not products that just sell in general.
Don’t be afraid to find products that are similar and review, compare, and contrast.
Find affiliate networks and look at the resources they offer to affiliates to help them get more sales and clicks.
Use services like Hubspot and Google Analytics to see what’s going on in your market. Facts about what your audience is looking up and reading about are more beneficial than what you imagine they want to hear.
Research, research, research. Do your homework.
Compare commission rates and talk to your affiliate managers about upping your rates when you’re doing well.
Talk to your affiliate managers about doing sales exclusively for your readership.
Keep an eye out for discount codes to share with your followers.
Make the best use of the available affiliate networks. Through the networks, many programs and products are available to promote. Make sure you look through these and take advantage of what they have to offer. Searching through Affiliate Networks will help give you ideas you may never have thought of.
If you enjoy How to Make Money Blogging with Affiliate Marketing, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
Update Bonus: 21 Shocking Writing Prompts to start writing your next book or short story optimized Quick Pinterest Pin at the bottom of the Page.
6+ Easy Practical Steps to Becoming a Better Writer in 30 Days or Less
Follow these strategies below and you will most assuredly be a better writer than when you started.
Whether you want to become a technical writer, a ghostwriter, a TV writer, a travel writer, or just learn how to write your essays better, these tips should prove helpful.
Becoming a better writer isn’t difficult, but it absolutely takes a solid discipline.
As with most things the more hardcore you go with these strategies, the more you’ll get out of it.
6+ Easy Practical Steps to Becoming a Better Writer in 30 Days or Less:
There are plenty of good sites to start blogging today for free, wordpress.org being one of them and they allow you to use free plugins as well compared to wordpress.com.
Disclaimer: You can always start a “free” blog, but the terms of use for free sites is that they can shut it down for any reason (at ANY TIME). So it’s possible to randomly lose all your hard work on a free blog. Be careful.
So just a fair warning, you can use free blogging, but I haven’t had much success with it personally. I started many free blogs and none of them stuck. This is the only one I’ve paid for and I’m glad I did. And it is the only one that I continue working with.
If you want to start a legitimate blog or if you think you might try to monetize it one day you are eventually going to need a hosting site.
I personally use Bluehost. They made getting my blog started EXTREMELY easy and their ‘one-click’ WordPress.org setup was ridiculously smooth.
Bluehost is one of the top web hosting companies in 2020. You can start your own blog with them for as low as $3.95 a month (on the page you’ll see that they say it is normally $7.99, but I’ve never seen them try to get anyone to start for that.) The $3.95 sale price only comes with their 36-month plan. I use them and that’s what I did and I’m happy about it. ( I did the 36-month plan and so far we are still happy with it 🙂 )
Sign up them and you can also get your domain free if you purchase a 12 month or longer hosting plan (that’s worth $15). As I said, we did the 36-month plan because it was the best deal but you can choose any plan. If you’re not planning on monetizing your blog it might be a good idea to start with a free blog.
I can tell you from personal experience that a free blog won’t motivate you to write as much as paying for a blog, but it’s up to you to decide what works best for your unique situation. If you really love blogging you never know when you might decide to monetize and at that moment you’ll be happy you decided to host with Bluehost and owning your domain.
Having your own site looks more professional to affiliate programs and readers. You will be able to have a better following, no one can shut you down for no reason (like on a free blog) and at any moment you will be able to monetize through ads and affiliate programs.
Some of my blogging mentors had their blogs going for years before they decided to monetize. You just never know.
At the same time, you can always start a free blog to test things out and buy a domain name and hosting later, but there is no guarantee the price will still be as good and no guarantee that the domain name you love will still be available.
Do what’s best for you and your specific situation 🙂
For me personally, I started with Bluehost and WordPress.org right from the start because I enjoy work from home and being my own boss. As far as online jobs and work, blogging is one way to pay yourself and work when you want.
If you want to reasons why it’s a good idea to start a blog, you can check out this post here:Why Start a Blog
If you are interested in more details on how to make a great blog from scratch you can see this post: How to Become a Blogger in 2019
2. Read about writing every day
Good writers all have certain traits in common. One of them is that they read A LOT.
Most of them read every day. Now I won’t say that I’m a good writer that’s up to others to decide, but I do read mostly every day.
You might be thinking “but you probably grew up reading as a kid and loved it.” Not true! I personally couldn’t stand reading and writing growing up. Hated reading with a passion actually.
It actually wasn’t until I got into college that I really started to read and then probably a couple of years into it that I started to enjoy it.
So you don’t have to be some kind of savant to get started in writing. You just have to have drive and discipline.
But this type of reading isn’t just reading at first. It is specifically looking to read about writing (I know, it sounds boring and it can be tedious but the foundational knowledge will help in the long run). During your becoming a better writer in just 30 days, you will want to be keen to read and learn about writing, especially if you want to do writing online or freelance writing.
Try to read things that help you get to where you want to go. If you want to become a blogger read about blogging tips and tricks. < (I googled it for you)
If you want to become a ghostwriter, read about how to become a ghostwriter. (Pssst! What’s a ghostwriter? A ghostwriter is a writer that gets paid to write something for someone but doesn’t own the project. For example, a person could hire you to write a novel for them, but they get to publish it as the author. They paid for it and own all the rights to it and you are just the ghostwriter.)
It’s just one way to get paid to write.
If you want to be a technical writer, read about the best practices of technical writers. As long as you are willing to read the right things you can learn to write anything 🙂 there really is nothing holding you back.
Look up blogs, articles, look at the library for books on writing. Depending on what type of writing you want to pursue will be very important to the writing that you read about.
As you get a good idea of a foundation for the type of writing you want to do, you can start to branch out studying other types of writing. You will see how understanding the why’s and what’s and styles behind them all can help you in your pursuit of becoming a better writer.
Look on Amazon for great reads on writing. I personally recommend these ones for when you need to think outside the traditional box or when you get bored of reading about writing:
These are non-traditional and will help open up your mind to more strategic possibilities for the potential of writing. Full disclosure: I didn’t read any of these yet. I took Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass, which was amazing and I highly recommend it.
In fact, I recommend Masterclass to anyone who loves learning and thinks it’s neat to learn from celebrities (such as Dan Brown, James Patterson, Samuel Jackson, Christina Agulera, and many more.
@ $15 a month, it is extremely worth it. I’ve been using it for a year and learn so much from professionals that I never would have. And the lessons always feel personal. Sometimes the teachers who are celebs even write back to your comments. Can you imagine Samuel L. Jackson responding to your comment?) about their crafts.
On Writing was recommended to me 2nd hand by a writing mentor of mine. He said that it was good if you need to get outside the traditional learning about writing books and it was interesting if you’re a fan of Stephen King novels too.
I love TED talks, I watch some when I can, so when I saw this book about public speaking from TED talks I knew it would be a winner with powerful knowledge.
If you’re wondering why I would suggest a public speaking book for learning how to be a better writer, it is simple.
When writing has been your profession for years you learn what crafts complement great writing. For instance, IF you want to be a great writer, your secret weapon is research. If you aren’t a personal professional researcher, it will be nigh impossible for you to become a great writer. Public Speaking skills go beyond just speaking and writing.
Those skills bleed into SO many professional avenues that it will not only make you a better writer. It’ll make you a better person in almost everything you do (unless you live in a hole and never interact with other humans in any way, shape, or form.)
Read some of the reviews on each one to see if they look like something you would enjoy. (And DON’T just read the 5-star reviews, read the bad reviews too. I almost always read the bad reviews, most of the time, I read the 1-star reviews first. This actually saves me time when shopping for a new product, especially tech products.)
There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.
Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.
3. Write Every Day
Now this one is the kicker. If you do nothing else from this post, do this one thing and you’ll surely become a better writer. Write every day.
Now you can:
Write at a certain time every day
Or
Write a certain amount of words every day
Or
Write a certain amount of time every day
You can mix and match these however suits you best. You try them all out and see if one is easier and sticks better for you.
Me personally, I like writing a certain amount of time and writing at a certain time of the day. This keeps me going and I don’t feel bad if I don’t come up with a certain amount of words.
I tried writing a certain amount of words every day and I couldn’t keep up with it and instead of doing it I’d skip it because I knew it would take “too long.”
You see, you are more likely to develop a habit if you start small and take smaller bites that you can handle.
If you already write every day that’s great and you can choose to write more.
If you don’t write then start small.
Start with 1-10 minutes a day. If you find that easy, do more. If you find that hard, write less. At first, start with what seems easy to you and build on that.
The last thing you want to do is start with a habit that’s too hard to do every day. If you bite off too much you might not swallow it. If you find yourself dreading it, that’s a bad sign. If you find that you easily go a week without doing it, that’s a sign you tried to do more than you should start with.
If you want to do a certain amount of words every day I recommend starting with 100 a day. If that’s easy write more. If that’s too hard write less.
I tried 500 words a day and I couldn’t keep up with it. It just became tedious and therefore unenjoyable. I’m a professional writer, so that’s why I recommend starting with less. I mostly work in email writing, so if I’m on a job I might write more or less on those days, but if I’m not writing for a client, 500 just didn’t seem appetizing.
Blogging has definitely changed that for me, that’s why I recommend Starting a Blog.
I now try to write a certain amount of time every day and usually I find that if I get started, I end up writing longer than the first little amount that I force myself to do anyway. Thus, this strategy works very well for me. I’d start with the easy goal of 1 minute. 60 seconds, if you can’t do something for 60 seconds a day, maybe you don’t really want to do it at all.
You can also benefit from writing at a certain time every day. You will know what time works best for you.
It could be first thing in the morning. Some people find that this is their most creative and profitable time.
Me personally, I don’t do so well in the morning, I prefer to write at other times. Afternoon and evening, not late evening though. If I feel my eyes start to droop, I just know that I’m not gonna get much coherent information on the page. (It can be comical though. I’ll go back and read what I was writing the night before and it can be some of the worst writing! I’ll save myself time and energy if I just get some sleep or caffeine instead of trying to push through.)
You might like to write during your lunch at work, or first thing when you get home after eating something.
It’s always a good time to be able to put something on T.V. and write while relaxing.
So you can take time and figure out when is best for you to write.
If you write even just 10 minutes a day for 30 days you will be a better writer at the end of that short 30 days, and you might find that you have developed a habit you look forward to and fully enjoy 🙂 I know I do.
Update: Since Blogging and traveling more while blogging I find that a certain amount of time a day and a certain time of the day becomes tedious and makes blogging less enjoyable for me personally. Again this may work for you, so don’t hesitate to experiment.
Now, I enjoy writing at some point during the day. I find that it doesn’t have to be strict or a certain number of anything. I sit down to write and I find that I can easily be there for hours or an interruption might come up like a family member or friend wanting to hang and I am able to get up and go without any sort of remorse. I find this to be key to my success as a writer and blogger.
4. Research Storytelling
Storytelling will benefit you no matter what writing niche you go into, except maybe academic writing. Even then I’m sure it could be a little useful.
If you look around, you’ll start to see how stories are everywhere and people love stories. We eat them up. We can’t get enough of stories.
Stories are in the movies. Stories are on the news. On blogs, web pages, profiles, social media, history, we find stories fascinating and that is why they work so well and why we should find ways to incorporate the skill of storytelling into our writing, no matter what niche we are in.
Let me give you an example:
I once knew a guy.
He had a problem.
He was about 30 years old living in America, but he didn’t know how to read or write…
Did you notice something there?
I introduced a character and a problem he had, did you notice how you instantly went into “consuming story mode.” Did all your attention get drawn into the short story that started?
If not, that’s okay. It wasn’t super dynamic, but if you did, take time to think about why that happened. Stories are a powerful tool you need to add to your writing arsenal. Study stories and storytelling to engage your audience and grab their attention when you choose.
Stories are great at helping illustrate a point. Great as an ice breaker and a great way to regain your audience’s attention if you think you are losing them.
And stories work across all mediums. Art, writing, presentation, public speaking, with a group of friends or colleagues. Storytelling is a life skill that anyone would benefit from developing, but especially writers.
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5. Read about different types of writing
After you get a good handle for your specific niche of writing, you will really benefit from studying other styles of writing and using different tips and tricks to make your style even better by borrowing from the other types.
Different Types of Writing include but not limited to:
Copywriting
Fiction
Non-fiction
Blogging
Email Writing (cold emails, drip campaigns)
Article Writing
Academic Writing
Web Page Writing (About us, Home pages, etc)
Mailers
Landing Pages
Branding
Sales Pages
Video Scripts
Sales Funnels
There are probably more. And there used to be a time not long ago where most of these genres didn’t have precedence, but these days knowing how to do any one of these well can mean good freelancing money for you or better your own business. Either way $$$.
Even looking at this list might help you think more about what you want to do or discover for yourself. You may have not been aware that some of these opportunities existed before now, but now you know and can do something about it.
6. Read, Read, Read
It should make sense at this point. One easy way to get better at writing every day is to read every day.
Having a wide array of reading will make you well rounded and increase your understanding and vocabulary.
Writing a lot is necessary but if you don’t expose yourself to all sorts of different voices and writing styles you might find that you don’t have much to write about.
I recommend have light reading along with tough to read stuff simultaneously.
By having light reading you’ll be able to enjoy reading and move along. But having tough to read material will stretch your will power and ability as a reader and writer.
Exposing yourself to writing that is better than your own will help you improve. You will also more readily observe bad writing and notice when you yourself are writing poorly.
Humans have been writing for some time now and many tricks of the trade are out there for you to see, experience, enjoy, and make a part of your own writing repertoire. So don’t skip the reading.
Bonus: Be a Critical Consumer
Being a critical consumer doesn’t mean you make a bunch of critical comments on the stuff you read and watch like your the next reality TV show judge.
Being a critical consumer is the opposite of being a mindless consumer.
We all watch and read a lot of entertainment.
When you are reading or watching your favorite stories or documentaries take mental notes.
Think about how they use dialogue. What is the main theme of the story?
How did they seamlessly carry you through each step of the story while you consumed it?
Did something not sit right with you about the character development?
Were all the important plot questions answered satisfactorily?
Updated Bonus: 21 Shocking Writing Prompts to get you started writing your next book or short story.
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So you’re thinking about starting your own blog and you want to check out Bluehost? If that’s true read on.
If you are thinking about starting a blog I think a REALLY important question to ask yourself is why.
There are many reasons to want to start a blog, but why would you personally want to start a blog now?
Ever dream of starting a blog?
What type of person wakes up and thinks, “I want to start a blog?”
Maybe you want a place to write out all your thoughts.
Maybe you want a space where you can share and teach what you’re learning.
Maybe you just want to sip margaritas during lunchtime and play on Pinterest?
It’s a dream for some, but if you read through my posts on this site about making money blogging it could be a reality for you soon.
Read on and see if you think blogging might be your thing…
To start a blog that makes actual money and grows in time is actually quite inexpensive compared to other startups.
If you have ever thought that you may want to start a blog for fun or ESPECIALLY if you are considering making some passive money on the side blogging, I recommend Bluehost to host your site. Bluehost is still one of the top web hosting companies in 2019 and you can start a blog with them for as low as $3.95 a month ( They advertise that it’s normally $7.99 a month, but if you use the link above you will see that it is as little as $3.95 a month)!
You can choose a different site to host your blog but when you use bluehost to sign up, you can get your domain free for the first year if you purchase a 12 month or longer hosting plan (this will save you at least $15 on your initial purchase). I recommend doing at least the 12-month (I’m using the 36-month to save more $) hosting plan through Bluehost even if you’re not planning on monetizing your blog because if you really love blogging you never know when you might decide to monetize and at that moment you’ll be happy you decided to host and own your domain.
Having your own site looks more professional to affiliate programs and readers. You will be able to have a better following and at any moment you will be able to decide to monetize through ads and affiliate marketing.
Some of my blogging mentors had their blogs going for years before they decided to monetize. You just never know, so you might as well start off on a good foot.
Bluehost is affordable and you can save yourself a lot of money by signing up for at least 12 months. Plus, if you want an even better deal, your best value would be purchasing a 36-month plan (that’s what I did, I like the best deal.) With the 36 month plan, your monthly rate is WAY lower over the long run. So you have options. Do what’s best for you and your specific situation 🙂
For me personally, I started with Bluehost (36-month plan) and WordPress right from the start because I enjoy work from home and being my own boss. Online jobs are growing (and we just saw through the pandemic that having extra side hustles is especially helpful) and this is one way to pay yourself and work when you want. You’ll be glad you did. I’m glad I did.
1-Click WordPress Install (this saves a lot of complication)
24/7 Support
Get 36 months at $3.95 a month instead of $7.99 (That’s a saving of at least $145!)
Plus * Special intro offer and 30-day money-back guarantee (fyi, the 30-day guarantee does not include the domain name, so if you request a refund they will charge a fee. It wasn’t a problem for me, but I just wanted you to know and be aware)
This post on “Why start a blog” is really mean to help you decide and think about any reason why you personally would benefit from starting a blog business of your own.
Why Start a Blog?
Starting a blog can be fun
Start a blog and it can become passive income
As a freelance writer, I can tell you, blogging for yourself is WAY better than blogging for clients
Start a blog and you can serve people with your talents, research, and know-how
You can become a better writer (and content creator) by blogging daily or weekly
If you start a blog you can land jobs as a writer, content creator, and work from anywhere
There are many reasons to want to start a blog, but why WOULD YOU personally want to start a blog of your own?
“In the United States, there are over 31 million active bloggers posting at least once per month. And according to data from Ahrefs, people search Google for “How to start a blog” 121,000 times per month worldwide. That’s nearly 4,000 people who consider starting a blog every day.” – Growthbadger “How many Blogs are there?” – Jan 2, 2019
Sometimes when people think “blogging” they only think writing about a subject. This isn’t true anymore.
A blog is just a space on the internet you own where you can create anything and people can find you and you can share with the world what you have to offer.
If you don’t love writing like we do, that’s okay!
Top Secret: You don’t have to be a good writer to be a successful blogger.
It’s shocking to hear, I know. And it’s a well-kept secret amongst bloggers that they might not want to let you in on.
But today you can start a blog of your own and make videos, pictures, internet tools that help people, infographics, graphic design, and art.
Pretty much anything you can dream up.
You can do it for fun and you can learn how to monetize it. Because who doesn’t love to do what they find enjoyable and make some money while sharing it with the world?
A blogger I follow, Michelle Schroder, makes over $100,000 a month offering her expertise on finance.
If you happen to be passionate about finance why couldn’t you start a blog today and take even a small portion of that pie?
People are out there looking for what you have to offer, the only question is are you going to make the time investment it takes to put your passion out there and see what happens?
1. Starting a blog can be fun
One reason to consider starting a blog is because blogging about your passion is fun and enjoyable.
For me and many other bloggers, we will sincerely tell you that blogging is fun!
You get paid to write (or create) what you’re learning and what you know well. You don’t have to be a 10-year veteran or an expert, you just have to know more than your readers and BE HELPFUL!
If you start a blog to be helpful. Other people will enjoy it more, share it more, and you will find it to be satisfying too.
If you’re looking to help others, there is a big chance you will gather a following and you will enjoy what you write about every day more than if you JUST try to make money online.
And just in case you do like writing, I would venture to say that blogging is fun for most writers.
I know plenty of bloggers that decided they were going to start a blog that now make a decent side income from blogging. Some people even make a full time living from the notion to start a blog.
As I have mentioned before I really enjoy the idea of passive income because it allows you the freedom to do what you think is important in life with the precious time you have.
They generally require very little maintenance once they are running full steam. They require extremely little money or energy investment to start compared to other projects, but once you have it built and going it can continue generating money for you without taking up much of your time.
For instance, if you enjoy writing and getting paid to write you might enjoy being a freelance writer.
Getting paid as a freelance writer you can be paid very well for your time and make your own schedule, but at the end of the day, you still are trading your time and performance for money.
If you stop working the money flow stops too.
If you start a blog, you really can choose when you want to work on it, and when you don’t.
There are many reasons to want to start a blog, but why would you personally want to start a blog now?
3. As a freelance writer, I can tell you, blogging for yourself is WAY better than blogging for clients
If you’re not interested in freelance writing, you may want to skip this section 🙂
I hope I don’t rant here, but I’m pretty passionate about the subject. Writing for clients can be awesome and terrible. At the end of the project, what they think about what you did can outweigh how it performs in their market.
This phenomenon can work for you or against you in your freelance writing business.
Much like a chef if you just focus on SERVING them a fresh dish of what they want you can easily build up a good amount of good rapport and reviews for yourself, but then you run the risk of it not performing well and then they are left with a bad taste for you and other freelancers. This can be bad for everyone.
On the other hand, if you focus more on the performance of your copy and ignore the client and their requests than it might perform well, but they won’t like you which can leave you bad rapport and bad reviews even if you’re the best copywriter.
That’s what makes it hard. You have to find the magical place between where the client feels like they are getting excellent service from you, but at the same time, your piece performs well. This can make for a lot of pressure on yourself, especially if you are a perfectionist.
This is what leads me to say that blogging FOR YOURSELF is much more enjoyable because you have an avenue to be a paid writer (or paid creative), work on your own time, and not feel the pressure of performing for others.
You can use your talents and what you enjoy to help other people without them being disappointed for various reasons outside of your control.
But don’t let that stop you from being a freelance writer. I have been doing copywriting for years working with clients and you can’t beat the money and lifestyle as a copywriter for the time it takes.
I have been able to step away from the 9-5 for the past couple of years, travel more, and spend more time with family and friends by becoming a freelance writer. That’s just one of the specific “headaches” I noticed personally, but some people thrive in that type of environment so I recommend trying it and seeing what works best for you.
Many freelance writing “gurus” will say, “if you buy my course and become freelancer you will become your own boss!!!” This only partly true.
When you write for yourself on your own blog that you own, you REALLY DO BECOME YOUR OWN BOSS.
You are a paid writer. You do work from home. It is an online job. It can become passive in time. It is online work. If you don’t want to create the content (or don’t know how) you can hire freelancers. You get to see first hand the results of your writing and what’s working and what’s not working.
In fact, if you are thinking of becoming a freelance writer I highly recommend starting your own blog through Bluehost (I mentioned the benefits at the beginning of this post) so you can become a better online writer and give your clients real-life experience to help them with their online business. By figuring out how to make your own blog work, others will be much more likely to hire you to help with their blogs and online businesses. You can also promote that you’re a freelance writer using your blog. You can also make more money using your own blog that you own and control.
Blog writing is a big niche for ghostwriters, online freelance writers, and copywriters. So this would be a spectacular way to gain experience that will prove to be invaluable for you and your potential clients.
4. Start a blog and you can serve people with your talents, research, and know-how
Some of the best authors in the world, such as Neil Gaimon, Dan Brown, and James Patterson will all tell you how important research is to great writing.
I don’t care what type of writing you’re doing. I don’t care if you are a blog writer, a copywriter, an author or even a fiction writer. The amount of research and real-life experience you bring into every single piece will carry that piece further than those that do very little to no research.
So do yourself and your readers a favor and do your homework, do good research.
Since you’ll hopefully be researching something you enjoy, it will make sense to want to write it down somewhere, or record it somewhere. Why not a blog?
Take what you’re passionate about and learning and turn around and give to the world via a blog.
When you do your research focus on finding the facts so that you will be able to serve other people with what you learn.
What you looked up someone else will most likely look up too, so don’t be afraid to post what you learn. As you learn, take good notes and write.
Just by writing it down, you will become better at formulating your thoughts in writing and you will retain the knowledge that you learned better.
Focus on serving people with the things you are passionate about.
Find creative ways to share what you are learning about through blogging, making videos, writing, creating images.
There are so many mediums in which you can create using a blog, you just have to figure it out or hire someone to do it for you. And that’s not difficult through places like Upwork.
If you think you aren’t a talented writer and want to be, find out why your copy is failing and get better by blogging and researching more. Don’t accept what other people tell you about your talents as a writer as how good you’ll always be.
And again blogging has become so much more than writing these days. There are:
Recipe blogs
Fashion blogs
Brand blogs
Forum blogs
Freelance blogs
Tutorials
Guides
Info-graphics
Make up
Video
Finance
Design
Architecture
Music
Art
Any medium or topic you can think of can be turned into a successful blog that can help people.
With some good research and practice, I’ll bet you can become very good. Much better than you or anyone else thinks.
When I started copywriting, I didn’t know even what it was. My friend told me he was working as a “copywriter” and I said, “a copywriter? What’s that?”
He explained it to me, I loved the idea and the rest is history. I dove into the world of copywriting, marketing, and writing, and I love it.
So focus on using what you know and what you don’t know (Don’t be afraid to blog as you learn when it’s fresh, someone might find it helpful) to help others out with your Blog. You will get much better feedback and who knows, you might just love it!
If you want to learn something well, teach it. And you can definitely do that by teaching people through what you create on your blog.
5. You can become a better writer (and content creator) by blogging daily or weekly
Blogging is not only fun and beneficial for others, but it can also be beneficial to you as well.
If you think you are bad at writing but want to try it out, ask any professional writer, the best thing to do to get better at writing is to ……. You guessed it! Write!
What’s the best way to decide if a day of writing was successful???
Did you write today?
Yes: Success
No: Failure
So how do you really get better? Research yes, but as far as putting it to practice here are some strategies.
Choose a certain amount of words to write every day.
Choose a certain amount of time to write each day.
Choose a certain time of the day to write every day.
If you really want to dive deep check out our post on How To Become a Better Writer In Just 30 Days in the “search” box.
Same thing with any type of content creation.
If it’s video make and edit videos.
Images? Start creating images.
Design? Sales? Pictures? Etc. And on and on the creation wheel goes and where it stops only time will tell. But you can be a creator and use your blog to share your creation and help the world.
It doesn’t matter what type of information you want to share with your audience. A blog can help.
6. If you start a blog you can land jobs as a writer, content creator, and work from anywhere
Tis true.
I have heard many times how having a blog has led to the blogger being asked to write for a company or other blogger, both as a staff or contracted writer.
You might get a “test job” at first but if you do well and they like it they might ask you for more.
If you dream of being a professional writer, it’s not a bad route to go.
And since they found you and they see your writing already, you can lose the “what if they don’t like my writing,” fear. They ask you to write for them after they’ve seen your writing, they must like something about you’re doing.
If they ask you to write for them, you’re doing something right. I have heard of this happening too many times to think that it won’t happen for any good writer.
As you write your own blog you’ll find your voice and as you find your voice others will notice. It’s a win-win.
Starting a blog helps you create and learn many freelancing skills:
What should I ask myself when I’m wondering, “what should I write about?” It is that fateful moment again. You Read more
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