 NEED HELP GETTING STARTED?
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Writer's Environment
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Writer's Block?
- Editing Tips
Special thanks to Susie Tromble and Kathryn Waller
for these helpful writing tips!
Writer's Environment
What's most important about a writer's environment and tools is that writers have a crystal clear understanding
of which tools and which environment are most helpful to them in the writing process.
Be Flexible.
The purpose of discovering which tools and which environment best suit us is not to provide an excuse for doing
mediocre writing in not-so-perfect situations. It is, instead, to discover how we can maximize our writing time
and energies when we have the opportunity to work in our favorite situation.
Be experimental.
If you've never tried to write with a certain kind of pen or on a certain type of paper, try new pens or papers.
Yet another essential bit of info.
It is helpful to be creative about portable tools. Writers find that ideas come at the most unexpected times and
sometimes in the least convenient places. It's tortuous to lose a great idea or a solution to a writing problem.
To avoid such torture, be prepared with what you need to write in the places you find yourself.
Writer's Block
What is Writer's Block?
Writer's block is when a writer has difficulty continuing writing because of an inability to figure out what to
write next. Writer's block can last for a few seconds, a few minutes, a few hours, or.....even longer.
Writer's Block can be overcome in the following ways:
1. Try different tools.
2. Try making adjustments in your environment.
3. Try writing in a different genre.
4. Read what you're working on to a positive friend or relative.
5. Read what you're working on out loud to yourself or into a tape recorder.
6. If you're working on a long and/or serious piece, switch gears and write a short and/or humorous piece.
7. If you're writing a long, difficult piece and you're on a difficult part, skip ahead to an easier part and
then return to the more difficult part.
8. If you're writing a story and you're not writing the most exciting part, skip ahead to an exciting part
and then return to the less exciting parts.
9. You may be experiencing writer's block because you want a polished, precise, magnificent first draft. If
that's the case, write your first draft in less than perfect form and then return to polish.
10. Sometimes it's necessary to quit writing for awhile. Take a rest. Sometimes a rest is "re-creative".
11. Visit with another writer to see how they overcome writer's block.
12. Study good examples of the kind of writing you're doing.
Editing Tips
What is Editing?
Editing is going back over what you have written and making any kinds of changes to improve what you have written.
Some effective ways to edit writing:
1. Read aloud what you've written to yourself or to a trusted friend or pet.
2. Tape record or video tape what you've written and then review.
3. Start at the end of what you've written and read it backwards. This is an especially good way to catch errors
in spelling, punctuation and grammar.
5. Circle errors as you read through and return to correct errors.
6. As you re-read what you have written, ask yourself if you have included enough information to make your
writing understandable. Have you told enough of the story?
7. Make a plan for how you will edit a piece of your writing.
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