{"id":199,"date":"2019-07-03T18:48:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T18:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lanafreitas.com\/?p=199"},"modified":"2021-01-04T15:57:55","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T15:57:55","slug":"how-do-i-get-better-at-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/03\/how-do-i-get-better-at-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Writing Process Pt. 2: How Do I Get Better At Writing?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Constantly<\/em>, I find that I’m asking myself this very question all the time. As a student, I want to improve my academic writing. As a fiction writer and author, I want to advance my storytelling abilities. As a human being, I want to continue to develop my communication skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I type this question into Google or ask friends and family for advice, I get a trillion answers that all sound both completely different, and yet exactly the same:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Read this<\/em>.” “Try this<\/em>.” “Do this<\/em>.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Basically, I get a whole bunch of quick and easy answers that are incredibly specific. This never satisfies me, and it never will. However, I also don’t want someone to lecture me on everything I do wrong or overwhelm me with a hundred ways to better my writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This “problem” of having too many answers, ended up being a blessing in disguise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of getting overwhelmed with all of this advice and information, I decided to combine everything that was given to me, and form it into what what my aspirations are for writing, with some room for exploration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to my friends, family, teachers\/professors, co-workers, and even my dog, I feel like this is working out pretty well. The way to do this for yourself<\/strong>? I have some steps below!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1 Ask yourself: what it is you want to be able to do? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it’s writing a short story! Or maybe, what do you want to improve on? Is it imagery? Diction? Dialogue? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2 Once you’ve decided what this is, find a minimum of at least 3 ways to assist you in achieving this goal. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You could go on walks and practice observing the world in detail. You could learn a new word every day and practice using it in a sentence. Want to enhance your writing to be more lyrical? Maybe try poetry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#3 Don’t limit yourself to these 3 options! Step outside of your comfort zone! <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you despise research. Tell yourself to read one article about how using imagery can enhance storytelling. Or perhaps you use the same ten words to describe forests. Go find a dictionary and find maybe 5 new words to describe a forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These steps are not only simple, but they allow you to explore new realms of writing and include both traditional<\/strong> and modern<\/strong> ways of enhancing your writing. Good luck! I hope this helps!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instead of getting overwhelmed by everything everyone else told me to do, I combined all of it. Here, I outline what I do to try and help myself without being too strict or too general. … Continue readingThe Writing Process Pt. 2: How Do I Get Better At Writing?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[11,14,13,6,12],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts","category-writingprocessposts","tag-advancing","tag-better-writing","tag-goals","tag-the-writing-process","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":394,"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions\/394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lanafreitas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}