Dawn Colclasure's Blog

Author and poet Dawn Colclasure

Friday, September 30, 2022

You Will Always Be a Writer

 

Being a writer is funny sometimes. A writer is the kind of person who just sees the world differently. While one person is laughing about a funny situation, the writer decides to use it in their WIP. While one person is raging over something they read in the newspaper, the writer sees it as something they can write about or as an idea for an article to pitch. While one person is enjoying the beauty of a sunset, the writer is describing it in their head.

 

Then there’s the fact that our muse likes to come and go. A writer can go for years, writing nonstop, then the muse suddenly goes on an extended vacation and the writer is not able to get the words onto paper. Or there’s the time that life will get too chaotic or busy, and it’s just not possible for the writer to write as often as they used to.

 

But this will not change anything. The writer will still be a writer even if they can’t write. The writer will ALWAYS be a writer even if they can’t write. Once you flip the “writer switch” on, you really can’t turn it back off.

 

Remember that the next time you start to feel down or “like a fraud” when the subject of writing comes up. Even if you can’t write and even if life is just too crazy or scary to be able to write, you are still a writer. You will ALWAYS be a writer.

 

Being a writer is not about being published.

 

Being a writer is not about writing every single day.

 

Being a writer is not about having an active presence on social media or constantly getting published everywhere.

 

Being a writer is about you having the ability and the passion to write. Even if those things go away, they won’t stay gone forever. Because there will come the day that, after days, weeks, months and years of no writing, you will wake up one morning and start writing again.

 

That writer that you are is within you. It will always be within you. No one and nothing can destroy the writer that you have inside of you. Nothing can take it away.

 

Even if a writer is not actively writing with their hands, they’re still writing with their minds. Their creativity is taking everything they observe, do, hear, say and go through in life and using it as material for things to write later. This happens without the writer even noticing it. That “workshop in the mind” is constantly running, and even if it takes a very long time to hit you with an idea that inspires you to write, it will still have something to inspire you to write with at some point. You just need to wait it out.

 

Meanwhile, just keep doing stuff.

 

Even if you can’t write about what you’re doing, don’t worry. Just do it anyway. Live your life. Get through what you need to get through. Try new things, visit new places and expose yourself to new ideas. You don’t need to write every day to be a writer. You don’t need to be actively writing all of the time in order to be a writer.

 

Once you start on that path of being a writer, you will always be a writer. Even when you’re not writing.

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Thursday, September 29, 2022

Keep Your Ideas Where You Can Find Them

 

Most writers get lots of ideas and many of them will use those ideas right away.

 

That’s how I usually work, anyway.

 

Yes, I write the idea down if I can’t start working on it right away, but if it’s something I know I will write very soon, then I spend time thinking about it and putting it together in my head while I’m in the process of being able to write it.

 

I don’t like letting ideas sit for too long; if I get an idea for something, I want to put it to use RIGHT NOW. Whether it’s something to draw, write or create in some way, I grab hold of that idea right when it strikes and make sure it is a “thing” before the day is out. (Or, at least, in the process of becoming a thing. One short story idea I had took me weeks to write. Good thing I made an outline for it!)

 

However, sometimes, we writers just aren’t able to write the things we get ideas for, so we have to jot that idea down and save it for when we can write it later.

 

If this happens to you a lot, then I’d like to offer one piece of advice: Don’t lose whatever it is you put your idea on!

 

There’s nothing wrong with writing down or recording your ideas. The tricky part is making sure you have access to it later. That it’s somewhere you KNOW you can find it or somewhere you are easily able to get to it.

 

Just make sure you don’t jot your idea down on some random scrap of paper – because it might get lost later! (If I have no choice but to do this, I keep that scrap of paper in my pocket.)

 

 

When it comes to ideas, it’s important to keep them where you can find them. Somewhere you can easily have access to them.

 

Some writers use an idea file. This can be a folder in a filing cabinet containing all those scraps of papers of ideas. Or it can be an electronic file on your laptop or desktop computer. (Make sure you regularly save it on a flash drive!)

 

Other writers are old school, writing down every single idea in a spiral notebook. I have done this, too. I have notebooks with article ideas, outlines, random quotes I liked and chapters for books. I have even written first drafts in my writing notebook.

 

I also save ideas on my phone. My laptop is also a handy place to keep my ideas.

 

Regardless of where you choose to keep your ideas, make sure you get ALL of them down somehow. And make sure you store all of your ideas where you can easily find them later. The faster you get back to that idea for something to write, the faster you can get started writing it.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Make Your Words Count

 

One goal I had when I started this monthly writing challenge was to make all of the blog posts short. I have noticed that, with online content, shorter is better.

 

In order to bypass this demand for shorter content, a lot of companies and website owners started using this trick: Making each block of paragraphs shorter. These short paragraphs normally contained 2 or 3 sentences.

 

This visual trick enabled the content to appear “short.” A fast read.

 

Unfortunately, most of my posts ended up being longer than I wanted them to be. A lot of them were over 500 words. I guess I just had too much to say or there was a lot of information to share.

 

With blogs, you really have a lot of wiggle room with how short or long your posts can be. It’s entirely your choice.

 

Many blog writers have found, however, that shorter is usually better. Shorter gets more clicks. Shorter gets more reads. Shorter gets more shares.

 

And, in some cases, shorter is all you get.

 

With both freelance writing and content writing, I have been assigned a certain word count on assignments. Some had to be under 1000 words while others could be as long as 2000 words.

 

But in other cases, I have had to write shorter content. Some of them with as low as 300 words.

 

When you are in a situation like this, you have to make your words count. You have to be selective in your word choice.

 

Your writing must engage your reader. So if you only have a low amount of words available to use, you have to use active language. Avoid passive writing and writing that rambles. Delete the fluff. Omit irrelevant words.

 

Another thing to keep in mind for writing short content is to make sure you stick only to the facts. Don’t add opinions or suggestions. Get right to the point straight out the gate.

 

Additionally, for short content, you need to get creative with words. Instead of “a lot of” you can use “many” instead. Use “some” instead of “a handful.” Think of other, shorter ways to rephrase your writing.

 

While most readers may not have a problem with reading lengthy content, editors know what their readers want – and how long they want it. Therefore, most will assign a shorter word count to writers.

 

As far as blog posts and social media posts are concerned, the shorter, the better. Grab your readers’ attention and take them to your content, where they’ll see that a short piece awaits their reading pleasure. And for shorter content, especially for online content, it will be a pleasure for them to read.

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