Writing About Life
When you think about it, most writing is in some way about life. Even if you are writing about rocks and stones, it is your own living observations that you are making about these inanimate objects. Life has many facets and many angles and there is no limit to the different material you can use in any written piece.
Just about anything you do in your life can be the subject for writing. Getting up in the morning, walking your dog, taking care of your family. You don’t need anything earth-shattering to have a good piece of writing. How you handle your material makes all the difference. If you can draw people into your experience and make them see the world through your eyes, you have done your job as a writer.
When you are describing some event from life, you will want to include as many concrete details as you can without bogging down your story. The color of flowers, the details of the river, the clothes people wear. Work these details in to your narrative and you will have a more impressive work.
When writing about life it is impossible to separate the thoughts and feelings of the narrator from the world described in the work. State your feelings clearly and be succinct. Include reasons for your reactions such as past experience. If you need to digress, lead into your alternate story smoothly.
Any event in your life can be worked up into a story. Try not to embarrass or slander people in your work. If you have to, change names. We all experience little stories and dramas each day throughout our lives. With a little time and effort we can mine this experience for material to write about. If you work in fiction, you do not have to follow events as they actually happened. Your story does have to make sense. Pay attention to detail and anything you write will be worth reading.
Good post. When all else fails and it appears writer’s block has set in, it’s always helpful to go back to basics & really look at the world around you. Really see that blooming tree or budding rose. Sit down and picture it as you write, describing it. Just writing about what happens around you, no matter how small and insignificant it may seem, will open the floodgates eventually. Because the writer is stepping outside their own tortured mind, and taking in new stimuli.
I appreciate the tips you have posted. Since about a year ago, I’ve written a column for a small newspaper and, as of this week, I am brand-new to blogging. It’s amazing to me how much more observant I’ve become as I have realized that anything (everything) is food for thought for the next month’s column or next day’s blog. Writing stimulates my brain even better than my daily crossword and sudoku puzzle. I love the challenge of recalling the details of certain events and situations and I am working hard on maintaining clarity and brevity without sacrificing creativity and reader interest, just in case somebody actually reads my stuff. You’ve provided some great guidelines by which I can gauge my efforts.