Four Basic Principles of Writing You Can Use in Your Daily Life
Writing begins long before you place the letters on the page. It includes processes such as critical thinking, communication, and creativity. Even if you feel like you’re pulling your teeth out to write, you can apply the principles of writing to many aspects of your daily life. Here’s how.
Show, don’t tell
Good writers use techniques such as description and dialogue to show the reader what the characters are thinking and feeling. For example, instead of telling the reader, “Jim was sad,” the writer might describe how “Jenny saw Jim cry in the bathroom” or “Jim walked with his hunches and head bowed.” (Sidebar: I’m clearly not a professional novelist) …
Likewise, when you plan to share an idea, thought, or feeling with someone, think about how you can show it to them . For example, if you are going to thank someone, show them your gratitude by writing a letter or a postcard, or expressing yourself with a gift, in addition to saying, “Thank you.”
If you’re trying to convince someone of something, even if you can’t complete the entire task to express yourself, do a little work to get started to make a stronger impression on them. People will take your message more seriously when the evidence is right in front of them.
Simplicity is better than flowery
Remove the thesaurus. Stop looking for synonyms in a text editor. Contrary to what you might think, longer words won’t make you sound or look smarter. Author Stephen King, in his memoir On the Letter, writes :
One of the really bad things you can do with your writing is to build up your vocabulary by looking for long words because you might be a little ashamed of your short ones. It’s like dressing your pet up in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed, and the person committing this act of deliberate likability should be even more embarrassed.
You’ve probably read someone’s essays before in which you cringed or frowned due to their excessive vocabulary. No matter how well you think you are integrating your fancy words into your essays or emails, other people will have a similar reaction when you dive into the thesaurus.
Remember this as you move through life. You will be able to communicate your ideas more effectively by communicating them clearly one at a time – even for those that seem more complex, such as relationship questions, interview questions, or something else. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel by approaching every problem.
Read a lot, learn from everything
You can learn something from everyone and everything. Sometimes this is something that should n’t be done (and, unfortunately, sometimes you learn these lessons from yourself). Writer and Nobel laureate William Faulkner suggests:
Read read read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and learns from a master. Read! You will absorb it.
Read and study all types of media to clarify your point of view. This broader spectrum of ideas also opens up your brain, the connecting machine, to new nodes and types of information . You will become more creative.
You can take this advice both literally and figuratively as it goes beyond books. Reading is primarily about getting information, but you don’t get information just from books and written works. You can get information from the events unfolding in front of you, from conversations, from podcasts, and from many other sources. So read them carefully. Don’t avoid small talk and light banter. Talk to as many different people as you want. Invest your time and money to see the world .
Before, I only read funny books and watched funny TV shows and movies. I didn’t think it made sense to spend hours of my life on media that would make me feel gloomy. However, sadness, anger and anxiety are all part of the human experience. Events that trigger these feelings can happen in your real life at any time. Experiencing these emotions is critical to better understanding joy, peace, and excitement.
Focus on knowing what not to do
Most of the writing involves learning about what not to say or what to delete instead of what to include. Trying to do everything is useless. Instead, you should learn which parts of your life are important and which parts you don’t need to spend as much time or energy on. When you say yes to something, you are also indirectly saying no to something else, either in the present or in the future. Make sure what you give up is worth it. Writer and filmmaker Susan Sontag writes in one of her diaries:
There is a lot that must be either discarded or discarded if you are going to succeed in writing.
This tip also applies to individual productivity levels – give up other tasks and focus on one. Writer Henry Miller understood the importance of single-tasking and encouraged writers to “work on one thing at a time until you finish.”
The thought of your team or office reading your work can paralyze you when composing an important email or memo. You are a busy person. Break your doubts by channeling your inner Kurt Vonnegut, who advises: “Write to please only one person. If you open the window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. ” In the context of your writing, pretend you are writing to your best friend at work (but remember to cut out anything too honest when editing).
Show others your ideas to make a stronger impression. Avoid dressing up in your language and write as you would speak. Learn from everything and broaden your horizons. Most importantly, buckle up and focus on more important things.