Welcome back, in part 2 we’ll be looking at some tips and tricks to help get your creative writing off to a good start.

Stretch your muscles – figuratively speaking. If you are struggling for ideas, go and do something else; housework, gardening, go for a walk. You might find the ideas come flooding in.

Have a notebook – and carry it everywhere. Any time an idea strikes you, write it down. Listen to what others say; you might pick up some great dialog lines!

Write when you are at your best – for some this is first thing in the morning, for others, in the evening. Experiment until you find the time that suits you and when you are at your most creative.

Don’t get hung up on getting it right – very few writers are lucky enough not to have to revise their work many times before they get it right. Write and then leave it for a day or two. Go back to it and review it. Rinse and repeat as many times as it takes to get it right.

Have some fun – creative writing is all about having fun. If you start to see it as a real chore or your story is beginning to bore you, stop. Walk away and leave it for a while. Get started on something new, something for fun. You’ll be able to get back to your book in no time and you’ll enjoy it all the more.

Online Creating Writing Sources

There are plenty of online resources that can kick-start your creative writing career; take a look at some of these and see what they can do for you.

NaNoWriMo

This is fun. Every November, thousands of would-be-writers and published authors take part in this – writing a novel in just 30 days. This is National Novel Writing Month – all you need to do is sign up by the end of October and, at a minute past midnight on 1st November, you can begin writing – you can do your planning months in advance if you like, you just can’t start writing!

Blogs and Websites for Authors

Many authors have their own websites and/or blogs and they can give you a lot of ideas. Pick a few, settle down and start taking notes. Many will offer tips and you can sign up for newsletters to help you along too.

Competitions

There are loads of competitions for writing on the internet and sometimes all you need is a deadline and a theme. A quick search on the internet will bring up thousands of competition listings so pick a few and get going.

Listen to Podcasts

Like the websites and the blogs, lots of authors have their own podcasts too. And there are others that give you plenty of tips on getting started in creative writing. Yet others will be book chapters written by the author – sometimes listening to a story can be better than reading it and you can pick up a lot of ideas.

Well, all of this should give you a good head start on your bid to become a creative writer so give it a whirl and see what happens.