How To Be A Better Writer: The Creative Writing Life, #4

HOW TO BE A BETTER WRITER

IDEAS ON CREATIVE AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH FOR AUTHORS

KATE KRAKE

INKWELL & ELM

CONTENTS

Introduction

Author Mindset

Stop Calling Yourself An Aspiring Writer

Understand You Can Always Improve

Find Your Own Reasons To Write

Create Deep Value

Write Whatever You Want

Write For Yourself First

Live to Write (but don't forget to live)

Let The Difficulties of Life Happen

Consider Quitting

Forget The Tortured Artist

Harness Your Self-Doubt For Good

Focus On Your Growth

Only Focus On What You Can Control

Decide What Kind Of Writer You Want To Be

Find Your Core Values, As A Person, As A Writer

Create Your Own Permission

Call Yourself A Writer

Treat Yo Self

Recognize the Difference Between Fear and Intuition

Learn to Work With Fear

Hold Goals Loosely

Understand What Writer's Block Really is

Only Compete With Yourself

Compare Yourself to Yourself

The Writing Process

Write Regularly

Try Writing Skeleton Drafts

Ignore Publishing Advice Until You've Got Something Ready To Publish

Find Your Creative Time Zone

Ensure You've Got Good Tools

Write Messy

Finish Everything* You Start

Keep A Notebook

Keep A Journal

Let It Take As Long As It Takes

Forget ‘Pantser’ Or ‘Plotter’

Accept There is No Silver Bullet Process

Combine Process Approaches

You Have Your Own Core Process

Write Short Stories

Write Flash Fiction

Write Poetry

Embrace Your Weird

If Your Story Is Stuck, Stop Working On It

Write What Scares You

Practice Deep Work

Claim A Sacred Writing Time

Learn to Focus

Vary Your Output Tools

Balance Ideation and Routine Word Making

Write Playfully

Practice Dangling Carrot Motivation

Give Yourself A Defined Internet Time

Try A Writing Ritual

Create An Accountability System

Learning

Read A Lot (and not just in the genre you write in)

Read In The Genre You Write In

Learn From Non-Book Stories

Study Style Manuals

Study Genre Theory

Study The Tropes Of Your Genre

Read Writing You Don't Like

Forget ‘Write What You Know’

Read Non-Fiction That Has Nothing To Do With What You're Writing

Analyze One or More Chapters of Your Favorite Novel

Take In As Much Writing Advice As You Can

Learn To Ignore Writing Advice

Read Children's Picture Books

Accept AI Technology

Creativity

Practice Kaleidoscopic Creativity

Walk

Brainstorm Unusual Situations