Seven Creative Writing Tips
To Boost Your Fiction Finesse

Anyone who writes fiction needs creative writing tips to help them find ideas, build a better plot, and keep them going to the last page.

For some, creativity seems to be second nature. For others, it's more like beating their heads against a blank monitor. Writers block may squash creativity. Others have issues overcoming procrastination . While the lucky ones just blithely type on without a care in the world.

If you have trouble keeping the muse amused, here are seven tips to tickle "her" fancy.


1. The Power of Little Daily Rituals

One of the best creative writing tips I know is to use a ritual to get your mind in its "writing state". By this I mean figure out what helps you think most clearly and creatively, and use that process to prepare yourself to write for the day.

For instance, if you have a time of day that your brain is widest awake, that is the time to write. Your ritual is to make sure you have at least half-hour during your peak brain-power time to sit down and write.

Maybe you need to pique your curiosity a bit to jumpstart your muse. Pick one topic you're curious about and give yourself five minutes to find out one or two facts about that topic. Then write.

Other good creative fiction writing tips might be to drink a glass of orange juice to bump up your energy right before you start. Or to take a ten minute, brisk walk so your blood is flowing freely.

Like to stand on your head? Fine. If that helps, stand on your head for five minutes so all the ideas drain that way, then get up and write down those ideas!

It doesn't matter how weird your personal ritual sounds, if it works, it works. Use it.


2. Music to Your Mind's Ears

I have what might be considered a ritual before I write. I listen to music. It's one of my most-used creative writing tips.

My fantasy novels involve a music guild, and are heavily inspired by various songs I hear and play. Listening to a few of these before I start puts me into my "world", and off I go on the continuing journey.

For me, this is one of the best tips for writing fiction novels I could ever use.

Do you have music that makes you feel happy? Makes you feel like you've been transported to another time or place? Another world?

Great! Use it to put your mind into creative mode. It's bound to help you figure out how to write fiction when you want to be writing fiction!

You may find certain types of music playing in the background will help you continue writing, too. If so, feel free. That's what all of these creative writing tips are for: inspiration and motivation.

One caveat, at least for me: don't play music that has lyrics while you write. It may make you (read "me") want to sing, instead of write. Especially if it's by one of your favorite heartthrob singers! (No, I won't name names.)


3. Storm The Mountain

Another of the creative writing tips I use when I'm stuck is to brainstorm. I learned this trick many years ago, I think from a book on how to write novels .

To brainstorm, first you need a quiet place where you won't be disturbed for up to half-hour. Next, you need a paper and pen (or a laptop or desktop computer, if that's your preferred mode of keeping notes. It's mine, otherwise I can't read them again!)

Sit comfortably and think about the challenge you're facing. Is it coming up with an idea? Knowing where your plot goes next? Naming your hero or heroine with a name that doesn't sound lame?

Doesn't matter what your particular problem of the moment is. Write it down. Then start letting your brain run wild with ideas to solve this problem. Jot down every idea, no matter how ridiculous it seems at the time. You're brainstorming, not creating a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Don't stop until you've been scribbling for ten minutes, at least. Or until the idea flow stops. Then look through the ideas. Many of them will seem ludicrous. That's okay. You can throw them out (or keep them for fiction humor books later!).

You'll also have found a few gems, I bet. Keep those in a file for later use, and choose the one that seems the best solution for your current dilemma. For creative fiction tips, I find this one works well when I'm stuck. Try it yourself and see if it works as well for you.


4. No Hazing Allowed

Not all of my creative writing tips involve something you should do. Some of them are things you should not do. This is one of the latter, and one of the most important creative writing tips I know.

Do you have any friends who like to party? Do they think they're the life of the party, all clever and cute when they've been drinking or doing drugs?

Odds are, they just seem drunk or buzzed to you.

If you follow only one of my writing tips, follow this one: Don't drink to excess or do drugs thinking it will boost your creativity. It will do the opposite.

Alcohol and drugs change things in your brain, that's certain. But not in a good way. If you write in this state, you'll write drivel (even if you think it's brilliant at the time).

So if you're looking for help with novel writing tips , heed this one!


5. Don't Drain Your Brain

Another of the creative writing tips that's a don't, not a do... Don't watch excessive TV.

You might think watching TV will help you learn how to write a story . Get smart! Is there anything really good to watch on TV? Rarely.

Yes, there are times this is a rule to be broken. If a classic is on in movie form (say Gone With The Wind, or Casablanca), then watch it, and see if you can pick up any writing tips for fiction writers.

Classics always have some worth, even as visual media.

But a better bet would be to read said classic. You'll pick up a lot more great tips by dissecting the actual book than dissecting the transformed product on TV.

And as for regular programming? Do you want to watch your brain leak out your ears?

Seriously, several studies have been done about how most TV watching turns your brain to mush.

So, stay away from that remote!


6. Soak Up Some Atmosphere

Ah, we've come to one of my favorite creative writing tips of all time!

Reading!

Yup. Reading.

Read books in your areas of interest. Read books not in your area of interest. Read how to write a book . Read everything you can get your hands on about everything you can possibly imagine learning about.

Why? Because when you absorb all that information, it creates connections with other information you already know. Sooner than you think, those connections are going to connect to that novel you want to write and BAM! Ideas explode from your fingertips!

Don't believe me? I read a book of tips on writing fiction that gave me a new twist to a plot line in a book I'd begun three months before and gotten stuck in the middle of. It wasn't fiction I was reading, it was non-fiction. And it did exactly what I needed to get me past my roadblock.

So read until your eyes cross, and you'll have all the ideas you ever need.


7. Exercise Your Mind (And Body)

Last, but certainly not least on this list of creative writing tips, I urge you to exercise your mind. (It doesn't hurt to exercise your body, either. Sound body, sound mind, you know?)

See the tip above about reading, for starters. Educating yourself exercises those brain cells. If you don't, they get "flabby", just like your muscles. Then when you need them in a pinch, they wobble, they stagger and they fail.

If you want to improve your writing , try to write every day. Even if it's only a journal entry about how your day went. (I keep a "gratitude" journal, with daily notes about what I'm grateful for each day. It has boosted both my mood and my success, by focusing on the positive.)

Try word games, like crossword puzzles, anacrostics and other ways to stretch your mind's abilities. In keeping with the sound body analogy, a flexible mind will find solutions to your problems much faster than one you've let go lazy.

Know some intelligent people (besides yourself)? Start a conversation with one (or two or three). Start an argument with one and see if you can make him or her see your point of view. That'll take some thinking!

And that will improve your writing and creativity.

I hope this has helped you feel more creative. I'll leave you with one more bonus fiction writing tip:

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! If you do, you can do anything!

P.S. You can find more creative writing tips on my creative writing idea pages and my fiction writing pages. Go forth and be creative!