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Posts by Carly Sandifer

Jun 21

4 Comments

Read well to write well

You’ve probably heard it before. To write well, you must read. Reading excellent literature will inspire you (even if the style or genre is different than what you write). It’s part of the magic of writing. Somehow, something you read sparks a connection in your subconscious.

Reading critically helps you analyze other writers’ techniques and see how you might apply them in your own unique way. If you recognize meaning and nuance in other writing, you’ll be more aware of how to create those moments in your own.

These tips will help you make the most of your “reading practice.”
1. Adopt an analytical mindset. Go into your reading session with a different frame of mind than when you sit down to read for pleasure — not that this type of reading isn’t pleasurable. I find reading even more rewarding when I make a new connection or experience a flash of discovery.
Read more

Jun 16

2 Comments

Are you a writer in waiting?

Are you someone who wants to be writing but can’t really call yourself a writer because you aren’t really writing anything? It’s easy to let life get in the way. But if writing is important to you, you must pursue it regularly despite what life flings your way. Whether you write three sentences, 100 words or 1,000, it all adds up. The days have a way of slipping by, and you don’t want to wake up someday and regret what you didn’t do.

Be conscious of your time and how you’re spending it. Have you designed your life to fit your desire to write? Are you spending your hours on your most important priorities? Most writers — published and unpublished — have many commitments to juggle, not to mention day jobs. But they still fit writing in. Read more

Jun 15

5 Comments

Four ways to revise scenes

So much of writing is actually revising. Whether you’re writing a poem, science fiction novel, essay, memoir or short story, writing and rewriting is where you fully discover your story and add emotional meaning and depth to your work. Revision is where you have epiphanies about your characters, see new themes, find ways to add symbolism and more. Author Anne Lamott illustrated this idea when she said:

“When I was a young writer, I was talking to an old painter one day about how he came to paint his canvases. He said that he never knew what the completed picture would look like, but he could usually see one quadrant. So he’d make a stab at capturing what he saw on the canvas of his mind, and when it turned out not to be even remotely what he’d imagined, he’d paint it over with white. And each time he figured out what the painting wasn’t, he was one step closer to finding out what it was.”

Whether you plot and plan out your book before you type the first word or just dive right in, you’ll find rewriting a necessary part of the writing process as you figure out what your “completed picture” looks like. The elements below can serve as a mini checklist or starting point as you work through scene revisions. Read more

Jun 10

Page99test

Use the page 99 test to see how your book rates

“Open the book to page 99, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you,” Ford Madox Ford

You can’t always judge a book by its cover, but you might consider judging a book by its page 99.  While you probably know how important first lines are in grabbing the reader’s attention, Ford Madox Ford believed that page 99 was the true test. Read more

Jun 7

2 Comments

Stuck on what to write about? Consider these big ideas

I’ve urged many friends to write. I know they have talent, I know they have a story to tell. But some of them are stalled. They tell me they want to write, but they just don’t know what to write about.

If this describes you, ask yourself these questions:

  • What do I want to understand?
  • What makes me nervous or afraid?
  • What do I believe in? Read more

Jun 3

4 Comments

Seven tips for how to write like a 5-year-old

If you read my post about writing like a 5-year-old, you may be asking yourself, “But, HOW do I do that? Here’s how to prime yourself to write in your child-like zone.

Practice. Every craft requires practice. In music you practice playing scales, you practice playing songs. To write like a 5-year-old, know that you’ll need to practice this carefree frame of mind so that it becomes natural to you. As a reminder, stick a Post-it note on your monitor that says: “Write like a 5-year-old.” Then do it. Here’s how:

  1. Talk to yourself: Before you start a writing session, recite this sentence aloud several times: “Now I’m going to write like a 5-year old.”
  2. Act as if no one is reading what you write. To do this, pretend you are someone else and make up a writing identity and name that you will write as during your 5-year-old writing sessions. Suggestions: Pippy, Skippy, Chipper, or Aurora. Read more

Jun 2

3 Comments

Write like a 5-year-old

Last week, I pulled out a draft of a children’s story I wrote years ago — actually one of the first stories I’d ever written. I realized that the most striking thing about the story was my frame of mind while I was writing it. At that point in my life, it didn’t occur to me that I had any limitations. I didn’t sit and stew about how to get into the story, or if it was good, or what anyone would think about it, or if anyone would want to read it or publish it. When I wrote the story, I was writing like a 5-year-old plays. Being a little messy, running around (on the page), and just being in the moment.

I was writing because I had an idea, I thought it would be fun, and I wanted to share it. At the time I wrote the story, I’d never gone to a writer’s workshop or read many books on writing. Now, after studying writing and going to seminars, I’ve figured out some of its flaws. Read more

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