Hannah's Writing Tips
Words are just thoughts that can be heard
Writing is hard. But here are my top 3 tips for writing to help you get started on your next essay, blogpost, etc.
Just write something. Your worst enemy is a blank page. You’ll panic seeing all that white or that cursor blinking and judging you. So even if the first paragraph is the worst thing you have ever written, just keep going. You can delete it later. I often find that I need “warm up” before the ideas fully coalesce and the words start flowing, so let yourself warm up.
Never delete. So you’ve written a bit, or maybe even a lot. And you hate it. You want to toss that piece of paper into the trash or highlight the whole document and erase all your trash words. DON’T DO THAT. Instead, get a new blank page or open a new document and keep writing. Oftentimes you have nuggets of good ideas or a great sentence or two hidden in the old writing. This also works for editing. I often cut-copy “bad” paragraphs to the bottom of the document for safe-keeping. Usually those paragraphs are terrible, and they’ll be deleted from the final product. But sometimes your ideas just need to marinate a bit or need pruning.
(You’ll Probably) Cut Your First Paragraph. People (definitely me) always struggle with introductions. It’s been drilled into our heads that the first sentence of our essays need to be compelling and attention-grabbing. And yes, a well-crafted introduction can be very helpful in keeping the audience interested and reading. But it’s not that important, especially if you already have a captive audience (like your friend wanting to read your blog, your professor has to read your paper). In fact, I think we try so hard with our introductions that they end up just being long-winded anecdotes or an interesting sentence that has nothing to do with the rest of the writing. In my editing, I end up oftentimes cutting the first paragraph or two of a person’s work.
Hope that helps! (Psst, if you ever want to pitch something for SOLA Network, let me know!)
As much as I am loving Taylor Swift’s new album, I am thoroughly enjoying Normani’s new single “Motivation.” Plus, her music video is so vivacious and joyful. There’s some really cool choreography with a basketball too. (If you don’t like twerking, this is not for you.)
Hope this motivates your Monday! Write to you later.