Creative Writing: Creative Discipline

Creative writing is a discipline. That sounds harsh. It should be about flowing ideas, inspiring flashes and deep, poignant insights.

But any practicing writer will tell you that, whilst those moments are nice, they are few and far between. Writing is predominantly about discipline. Getting up each day, actively looking for something to write about and shoehorning it into words.

However, it need not be as painful as it sounds. If you are really passionate about words and creating things with words, getting into the discipline of doing so can be deeply satisfying and rewarding, but not without challenges. Many new writers will focus on their novel, writing avidly until they get to the end before reflecting, only to find it full of continuity errors, or passages of writing they don't like. A manuscript can quickly end up on the bonfire creating curls of smoke from the writer's aspirations. Or worse, the writer might not reflect fully at all, and end up smothered by publishers' rejection letters.

The reason? As a new writer it is easy to think of writing as just an art, whilst is actually also a craft. Whilst artistic inspiration alone can fuel the act of writing, it also needs to be learnt through a constant process of practicing and reflecting until you have full command of all of the skills necessary to produce a fantastic, full-length piece of writing.

Whatever style or genre of writing you want to explore, there are three key tips to remember:

• Practice
• Reflect
• Practice

Sounds simple? But how do you practice? How can you reflect constructively?

1. Start by exercising your writing muscles every day
   Find something to stimulate you, and write about it. Describe an emotion, an object, a sound, a taste – anything! Some of these descriptions may be useful in your novel, others may always remain just a bit of fun. Play with language each day to see what it (and you) can do!
2. Read back and write down your observations
   Look back over your writing and explain what you were thinking, what choices you made, what you think works well and what needs more thought. Writing this thought process down as a stream of consciousness often helps to clarify what is not right and work through the problems. Being aware of your processes may also help you to identify times and places that are not suitable for writing, for you.
3. Return to your practice work
   The distance of a little time can help you get perspective on your writing. You might come back to an exercise and see exactly how to re-write it into a really useful piece of text. Alternatively, you might want to try the same exercise again from scratch and see how much better you can write it.

This whole process need only take an hour, but performed regularly will help you to explore the craft of writing, build a constructive discipline that helps you to write productively and grow as a real writer.