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How's your writing week going? I've made a bit more progress with my NaNoWriMo novel (I've not yet counted how many words I've clocked up so far in November, but it's definitely a long way off 50,000).
This morning, I was volunteering with the Year 1 class (5 and 6 year olds) at my kids' school. They're a lovely bunch of kids, and it was great fun to help with their maths and writing work.
Those 5 and 6 year olds are at the stage where just forming letters correctly can be a challenge (we had a lot of backwards "d"s and "p"s), and spelling non-phonetic words can be particularly tricky. Yet I know that in a few years' time, their work will be just as good as that of the Year 6s who I've heard reading out their stories in assembly.
So if you ever feel that you're not yet close to where you want to be with your writing, or if it seems really hard to improve, think back to when you were 5 or 6 years old. I bet you've come a really long way since then!
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Four Simple Ways to Get (More) Experience Writing Fiction
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Last week, we looked at some ways to get more experience if you're a freelancer, or if you simply want to try out some non-fiction writing and gain confidence.
What if you want to write fiction, though? Of course, you can gain experience simply by sitting down and writing a story or a novel – but chances are, you don't want to do that without some sort of end goal or eventual readership in mind.
Here, then, are four ways you can easily get some experience (and feedback) writing fiction.
#1: Take a Class or Course
If you're a bit stuck and not sure how to go forward, a good writing class or course can be a great way to get some structure around your writing. Most will involve exercises during class time, or (if the classes are relatively short), homework that you can do during your own time. You might find that your local university offers adult education courses, for instance, or there might be writing tutors in your area who run regular
workshops or classes.
#2: Write Fanfiction
For the uninitiated: fanfiction is fiction (varying in length from flash fiction to multi-volume novels) written by and for fans of a particular TV show, movie, novel, etc. For a glimpse at the dizzying array of fandoms that people write in, take a look at fanfiction.net or archiveofourown.org. You can't (legally!) profit from fanfiction, but it can be a great way to write stories with a ready-made audience. Some writers also find that writing about characters they already know and love is helpful. Fanfiction is normally serialised, which means you can get feedback (and hopefully, nice reviews) as your work progresses chapter by chapter.
#3: Enter Competitions
If you're a short story writer, there are lots of competitions out there for you. These will have a deadline and, often, a particular theme or prompt for your story – which can help a lot if you find it hard to settle on an idea, or if you never seem to get anything done without a firm date to finish it by. Most competitions will also have a specific word count requirement – which is a great practice for pruning your work down to
size (or for fleshing it out into a longer, more complex piece).
#4: Join a Writing Group
Ask at your library, or in any local Facebook groups, to find out if a writing group already exists near you (not all will be openly advertising, especially if they're fairly happy with how many members they have). If you don't have a writing group locally, or if the groups near you are full / unwelcoming, why not start your own? There are lots of different ways you could potentially run your group: for more thoughts on this, check
out my post Why You Should Join – Or Start – a Local Writers' Group.
When you're looking at writing a novel, or even putting together a collection of short stories, it's very easy to think that you need to learn exactly how to do it first – probably by reading all the books and blog posts you can get your hands on. But at some point, you need to stop reading and start writing! Good luck. 🙂
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Don't forget to check out Monday's blog post, if you missed it earlier this week:
Happy writing,
Ali
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