Writers' Hacks and Tips

WRITERS' HACKS & TIPS With Sandra Nadege.

1. BECOMING A WRITER

" There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you" - Maya Angelou

Signs that you are a writer

• You feel a need to express your feelings through writing more than speaking your thoughts out loud.

• You have an affinity for written pieces like books, magazines, poems and the likes.

How to be a writer

• You can find an inspiration in your environment

• Deduce your reason to write. Ie: Healing, advocacy, entertainment, educational purposes.

• Start small, scribble down your thoughts

• Be creative, go beyond your horizons.

• Don't force it, let it come naturally

• Share your writings with people around you.

2. IMPROVING AND SHOWCASING YOURSELF

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all else, reading and writing." - Stephen King.

Practice makes perfect, is a phrase we all use often and until you apply it, it will always be just another motivational speech line.

 Here's how to do improve:

• Write and read at every opportunity you get.

• Be consistent in your writing. Consistent, not dull and uncreative. In fact, surprise your audience.

• Submit to literary magazines and blogs

• Connect with readers and writers. 

Showcasing yourself:

• Branding is essential everywhere, have your signature style, pen name/stage name for your audience to recognize you among other writers.

• Have a blog/ website that contains your writing, so that you can have a handy link for anyone who wants to see your work.

• Have useful apps that can help you to showcase your writing.

3. RESOURCES AND TIPS

Resources:

It is important that we understand the resources that can help us through our writing, now that we are blessed to be in a digital era not struggling with the typewriters.

Handy tools: 

• Google Suite( Doc, Drive, Slide, Meet, etc) it is important that we learn how to use those tools from google for with just your email you have access to them along with free space to keep your pieces safe. And available everywhere you are.

• Notesnook and Color note: Keep these for they are much easier to navigate on phone than google Doc and they can be synced to your Google drive.

• Grammarly: it will be your editor and thesaurus for it suggests synonyms as you write, this can help you to grow your vocabulary easily.

• Apps: Have Inshot, Canva and Kinemaster. Canva is a great source of designs and Inshot helps to write on images and make videos just like Kinemaster.

Tips: 

• It is awesome to read and write but to avoid plagiarism, using other people's works without crediting them is punishable by the laws when that person's content is copyrighted.

• Same goes with the images and (music for spoken word poems) . Copyrighted images can land you in trouble using royalty free and free images. Free sources: Unsplash, Pexels, Shutterstock, Pinterest. (For music: Bensounds and many more)

• Collect and follow constructive feedback from readers and other writers.

• Submit and persist. You might get rejected a couple of times as you submit but it helps you evolve and evaluate your level of writing.

• Collaborate. Writers are the people who should always stick together, learn from each other. Build professional relationships that matter.

• Take breaks; don't be engrossed in writing and forget yourself. Take some time off, I call it "Retreat, Recharge and strike." Your time away all of it helps you to renew your inspiration.  

 You can download this here