Practicing

Writing is like anything else that you do. If you want to do it well, you have to practice. Some people write stories to practice their craft. They do endless writing exercises and that works for them. Sometimes it works for me, but there are times when the writing exercise does nothing for me. I use my journal to practice my writing. I sit down at my computer every morning and write for thirty minutes. I use a timer so that I know just how long I have been doing my writing. It helps keep me on track for the session. I have the session and then I save my work. I go back over it to correct any typos or misspellings that the word processor finds. I also correct sentence structure. So it takes a few minutes more than thirty to do my daily journal entry, but that’s ok. It’s practice. Practicing your writing technique is good.

You don’t expect to take up basketball and be any good at it from the get go, the same is true for writing – or anything else you want to do. It takes practice and it is true that practice makes perfect. Or as perfect as a mere human can get. Raw talent is good, but it needs to be exercised and that’s what practicing does. It exercises and builds on the talent underneath. Talent is a base, a foundation on which your writing sits. I won’t say that if you don’t have talent you can’t write, because you could. I’m not sure if it would sell, but you can write. The mechanics are not that hard. If there is a creative spark in you, practice will help bring it out. Write your story. Rewrite it. Embellish it. Take stuff out, put stuff back in. It’s all practice. Once you get into the habit of practicing your writing, you will see it mature into something better than it was.

Practicing writing is not like practicing scales for music. You don’t write the same thing over and over, although that might help some people with punctuation. It’s not something that you can learn by rote. You learn writing by doing. Practice writing and you will learn how to do it. Stick to the grammar rules until you know what they are and then you can break them, because you will know how to break them effectively. That’s what practicing is all about. So grab a keyboard and computer, or pen and paper, and practice your writing. It’s good for you.

About pebblepup

I am not one who is comfortable talking about myself but here goes. I enjoy writing, family history, and reading. I decided to do this blog because I wanted to try something new. I decided to make it a weekly blog because I wasn't sure that I could keep up with a daily one, and monthly seemed like I was writing a magazine. I think I did ok with my choices. You'll notice that there are not a lot of graphics on my site. That's because there are graphics plastered everywhere on the Internet and those sites sometimes take forever to load. This blog is a place where you can kick back, relax and be ready to be amused. At least I hope I willbamuse you. This blog is on a variety of subjects from my ficitional cat agency, the FFL, which is monthly, to instructional blogs to editorials, which are my opinions only. I admit that I don't know everything and could be wrong -- I frequently am. Now, stop reading about me and read what I have to say!