TOP 10 SECRET TIPS
10. WRITE EVERYDAY. In the movie Finding Forrester, fictitious Pulitzer Prize winning novelist William Forrester (played by everyone’s fave James Bond, Sean Connery) gave the following advice on writing to his talented 16-year old mentee Jamal Wallace, whose secret passion was writing:
“You write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is to write, not to think. If you try to write the perfect page one, you’ll never get to page two.”
What to Write: You need to force yourself to write responses to e-mails, texts, tweets, comments to blogs and online discussions, etc. Search for every opportunity to write. Even better, create them by formally mapping out a writing project, such as the following:
• blog
• section of an article
• piece of a chapter or report
• chapter in an accreditation self-study
• portion of a speech or lecture
• jokes for an article, presentation, or stand-up gig
• scene for a play or screenplay
• scene for a TV movie of the week with geezer-like Tom Selleck
• any chunk of a manuscript
Chunking: Think about your writing in short bits, pieces, and chunks, not total papers. They’re easier to complete. What ever you commit to write should be part of your “to-do” list every day. It should be important and urgent, category A, on your list. Your writing is high priority.
Chunk writing keeps the writing juices and other fluids flowing and your brain neurons-synapses firing, unless, of course, you’re on crystal meth. The more frequently you write, the more you improve your ability to express your thoughts grammatically and mechanically, plus there’s more flowing and firing to boot. You’re honing the art and craft of your writing.
(Up Close & Personal: I’ve been writing for hundreds of years. However, one of the best exercises I have found to stimulate my creative writing bodily fluids to keep pouring out all over my PC was to commit to writing a 200–300 word blog almost every day. This August 1 will be my 1st Blogiverary. I’m aiming for 180 blogs. I really look forward to writing a blog every day, except when I can’t think of anything. Mine is a professional blog, but you can write a social blog or whatever you’re willing to write. I strongly recommend creating a series of blogs on a single topic, as I am doing on “writing.” It’s much easier than writing on a completely new topic everyday. Whatever works for you, do it. Just write.)
(Application: Writing blogs is an extremely effective method to build students’ writing skills. The blog keeps your writing fresh and forces you to stretch mentally and produce something of value for your readers. That’s a significant challenge.)
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
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