I expect there’s more writing rules and pieces of writing advice out there in the world than there are writers. So, figuring out what works for you can be a bit of a trial-and-error process. As someone who spends most of my day in the business writing space, I’m still trying to figure out how I can more seamlessly switch gears from my process-focussed work to the creative practice of writing.

One piece of advice that I have found useful, and I return to often, is to write yourself into the story. I’m not talking here about writing yourself as a character, though if you are writing your life story that is exactly what you might be doing; I’m talking about putting pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard – and writing whatever comes to mind until at some point your mind clicks over into gear and an idea develops which you can then run with.

This doesn’t just work for writing fiction – I’ve seen many columnists begin a piece with something along the lines of ‘I had no idea where this piece was going when I sat down to write’. Of course, bloggers who are on day 24 of a ‘post something everyday for the month of February’ challenge and whose deadline for the day is quickly approaching might also resort to such measures to get something written up to post. 😉

I hope you’ve had a more creative afternoon than I have. See you here tomorrow!