Writing advice for creatives

So far I think you might have realized that I love writing. I’ve always been the kind of person who keeps a dear diary, who journals quite a lot and who enjoys going to a coffee shop just to document the experience. It’s pretty much like reading: ever since I learned how to I could not stop.

I’ve never really thought about writing as something I would like to do for a living yet I’ve always flirted with the idea of writing a book one day (psst: it’s cooking, good looking!). Anyways, with time I could come to the conclusion that writing is a major part of my life and an essential tool for my projects. Without writing, I’d have never been able to put together anything in my life.

Today I want to talk about this love for writing and encourage you to write more.

Why should you write?

I’ve already mentioned some benefits of writing here in my Journaling post, however, let me refresh your memory:

-Mind exercise: writing does to the mind what exercising does to the body: according to this study, we could say that writing “ can enhance the brain’s intake, processing, retaining, and retrieving of information… It promotes the brain’s attentive focus … boosts long-term memory, illuminates patterns, gives the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brain’s highest cognition.” Word friend.

-Improve your communication skills: writing is about getting your thoughts together, organizing them and communicating them in a way that makes sense. You’ll find more words to use in each sentence, describe feelings, situations or thoughts in a clearer way and improve your speech! 

-Makes you happier: Writing means time to reflect, a form of meditation, time off to review what’s been going on in your life, with your body, with your thoughts, with your surroundings. Writing your story, telling it to yourself actually makes you (according to this article) shift your perspective. Find a new meaning to every situation you’ve experienced by writing! Using it as a form of expressing thoughts, emotions of craft stories will, indeed, make you happier.

Writing advice for creatives

Now let’s touch on my advice for you to start writing more.

-Create a ritual to prime you to write. Big old fan of rituals here, they set the mood and create an environment and enthusiasm for the actual writing act.

-Write something, anything, every day. Anything will work in order to get you started and build the habit; with time it’ll get easier. 

-Incorporate writing into your projects. Whenever you include writing in a project you’re working on, you can have a clear, tangible idea of what you want to do.

-Get pen and paper. Writing by hand has a calming effect on your mind and body, among many, many other things. Particularly, I’ve been using this specific brand of notebooks and have been writing with this pen

-Read more than you write, live more than you read. That’s Junot Diaz’s advice, I just borrowed it for this post.

Closing this post with a quote of one of my favourite writers to encourage you to start:

[…] That thing you had to force yourself to do- the actual act of writing- turns out to be the best part.

[…] The act of writing turns out to be its own reward.

Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

What do you think? Leave a comment!