everything I know about how to write...

I learned from other writers and from writing for hundreds of hours. Here are 10 tips that have helped me become a better writer.

I don't know what I think until I write it down. — Joan Didion

When I first read those words I finally understood why I write. It gives me pause. I need to be a witness to my life, my feelings and my processes. Unlike some, who move through life with a continuous external monologue, I internalise everything and have to allow it to move through my body, to my mind and then out of my fingers to make sense of it.

At first, I only ever wrote for myself. Notebooks of blank pages that became illustrated by the stories, musings, heartbreaks, growth and challenges of my life.

When I started travelling in my early 20s, before social media, I had a Hotmail email account and would collect email addresses from the people I connected with, sharing musings through the lens of my perspective in a group email to all my contacts every month.

It was like the original Substack or newsletter.

One day a man I had met on one of my trips to India who read those emails told me I should start a blog, an idea I resisted, at first, but then embraced. It was 2012 and what else was there to do on the internet?!

At first, those articles were rough broad strokes of bland writing but with experimentation and practice, I slowly started to find a way to tell my stories.

Here are 10 tips I have learned from prolific writers about writing.

1. When you write, write to ONE person. Remember that on the other side of every screen, article, email, social media post or book, is just ONE person. Decide who they are, and write to them. I like to imagine I am writing to a close friend. Someone who knows me, that I can trust, and feel safe to be vulnerable and honest with. Because that’s what I want that ONE person on the other side of my writing to feel. That person is YOU.

2. Be as micro-oriented and detailed as possible. Notice the difference between: ‘It is raining.’ and ‘The soggy smell of fresh rain on a warm summer evening is drifting up into the second-story window as I lay on my bed typing these words.’

3. Brevity is beautiful. This means say as much as you can with the least amount of words and keep sentences radically simple. I often go back through my writing before I press send or publish and take out as much as I can, simplify as much as I can, with my focus on the message being potent and emotive.

4. Start at the beginning, write what happened, what it looked like, how it felt, and keep going until you get to the end. Then go back and edit it for flow and fluency.

5. Remember that the entire world hinges on storytelling. Don’t tell people what they should or shouldn’t do. Don’t explain your points. Tell your stories and allow those stories to speak for themselves. Your reader will take exactly what they need from that.

6. Write often and write in various formats. I write every day. I journal for myself. I write business emails. I write poems. I write single-sentence prose saved in the notes app on my phone. I write idea lists. I write articles. I write stories. I write newsletters. Writing lends itself to more writing. If you want to write, write.

7. Read. Read whatever you feel drawn to. Read whatever you enjoy reading. Not only will it expand your vocabulary and grammar but it will give you different perspectives on how to write. Some of my favourite examples of very different styles of writing that inspire me are ‘Circe’ by Madeleine Miller, ‘The Chronology of Water’ by Lidia Yuknavitch, and ‘Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World’ by Tyson Yunkaporta.

8. Your life, your experiences and your unique perspective are fascinating. Don’t withhold that from the world. If there is something inside you that compels you to write, please, write. For all of us. Even if we never get to read it. Having your words drift into the ether of our cosmic universe is a gift in itself.

9. There are no rules. You get to write in the way, the length, the prose, the rhythm and the style that feels most you, to you. That’s what is going to bring your gifts out of you. Just write in the way that it pours through you.

10. You will not always love your writing. Keep writing anyway.

Here are some of my best reading recommendations:

— 5 fiction books that changed me

— my summer 2021 ‘best of’ reading list

— 9 books I read (+ loved) during lockdown

— 8 ridiculously awesome + useful books + resources you will love

— 5 latest books that have made me feel empowered, alive and vibrant

Enjoy!

Vienda