Writing is surrounded by myths. Some people consider it a gift, some think it can only be developed in childhood, that’s why I decided to write this article with simple writing tips that will overcome these myths.
Writing changed the course of my career.
When we talk about creative writing within the job market, we immediately associate its use with marketing or advertising professionals. However, it can and should be used in any segment.
Lawyers who want to escape legal terms, psychologists who want to make people aware of a certain subject, restaurant owners who want to create attractive menus, and even accountants who need to send technical e-mails to their clients.
And speaking of e-mails, every day I receive an absurd amount of lifeless e-mails.
Messages that seem to have been written by robots. Quote requests, commercial proposals, job applications, or professional advice, no matter what the subject; my eyes hurt to see the lack of creativity of these professionals who have lost their inner child.
The sleeping child in each one of us
Despite the tone, I don’t blame the professionals mentioned above for the lack of creativity. At some point between late adolescence and early adulthood we begin to be pruned.
The ENEM essay, the resume submissions, the ABNT standards. Boxes. Standards. This is when our creativity slowly fades away. Not that it is completely gone, but it is dormant inside each one of us for lack of stimulus.
With children it is different. They can be whoever they want. No wonder they are so creative. They see the world with a different eye, the eye of someone who hasn’t seen everything yet. They are not boring adults like us. Everything is possible in their little heads.
Children are creative because their imagination is free. They are not enclosed in boxes or patterns. This prevents them from experiencing creative blocks.
That’s why when I hear someone say that “they are not creative” or “they have no inspiration”, I tell them to rescue their inner child, let their mind free and play with ideas, think of all the possibilities. These stimuli will certainly take you out of your box and make you question your standards.
But how to rescue our sleeping children? I have listed 4 super simple writing tips to help you with that.
3 writing tips to unlock your writing side
1 – Read. Read a lot
There is no writing without reading. The writer needs to read. A lot.
It is through reading that you get used to the language in written form and increase your vocabulary. Set aside some time in your schedule to read every day. It can be half an hour, fifteen or ten minutes. But read something.
A great way to unlock your inner child through reading is with travel books. Besides having a more fluid language, this type of literature frees our imagination.
Check out this list with 15 travel books for you to get inspired.
2 – Turn writing into a habit
The logic is the same as with reading. The writer needs to set aside some time in his/her schedule to write daily.
A good exercise is to write in a notebook every morning the first things that come to mind. Two pages, three pages. You decide — but write!
Keep in mind that ideas are the raw material of the writer. So whenever you have an idea for a text, no matter how silly it seems, write it down. It may come in handy in the future.
3 – Hemingway’s writing tips: let the text sleep
Hemingway advocated the idea of “letting the text sleep” in order to always have a starting point when he sat down to write.
Besides this benefit, the practice can be great for improving your writing when you are not writing. What do I mean by this?
Who has never had a great idea while taking a bath? That’s right. While your text is asleep you can make synapses that you didn’t make while you were writing.
Did you like these writing tips?
With an emphasis on non-fiction and a methodology aimed at developing the creative process and breaking mental blocks, my online Creative Writing course uses techniques from storytelling, advertising, journalism, rhetoric, and literary creation so that anyone interested in writing, professionally or as a hobby, can create creative and authentic texts on any platform.
