Never waste a good thought: get the most out of life and boost your writing ability
When you are more confident with English, you tend to write more. And when you write more, you naturally become better at it. It’s obvious: practice makes perfect. It’s like working your muscles – the more you do it, the stronger they become.
So as you write more, you start to write for fun as much as (or more than) out of necessity. And that may well lead you into writing fiction, which allows you to be as creative as you wish.
You might find that allowing your imagination to roam freely in this way is a truly liberating experience, and a great way to use your time. So use the tip below, and get the most out of life and take your creative writing to a new high!
Ideas – use life itself to help you generate them
Now there’s a thought.
Wherever you are, wherever you go and whoever you’re with, you are never far from an idea. Trust me.
It could be an idea for something completely new, a character in the book you are writing, a joke, a scene or a line or two of dialogue.
The fact is we are all surrounded by so many idea-producing things that we tend not to do anything about them. We slip into our ‘default’ mode and simply ignore the new and concentrate on the familiar.
But what happens, for example, when we focus on a friend of a friend who we are meeting for the first time? Or we taste something completely new? We think differently – because we are forced to.
What I like to do is take a moment or two just to savour the novelty. What is it about that person that makes them different? Are they funny? Are they serious? Are they talking about something which bores, fascinates or informs you? What does that person make you think?
And that’s the key, the essence of this tip: “Never waste a good thought,” as my dear, late grandfather would say.
So do what you have to in order to enrich your writing. Savour the freshness, the newness, the surprise that life has to offer – and with that will come a flood of ideas. All you have to do then is the easy bit: write them down and use them.
Of course, not all your ideas will be great or have ‘legs’ (i.e. offer longevity and/or real substance). But the more variety you experience and record, the more ideas and thoughts you will get and the proportion of good ideas will be greater.
And this can only help you as you work to improve your English and your writing.
I wish you luck!