L is for Learning #AtoZChallenge

Posted April 13, 2019 in A-Z Challenge / 4 Comments

The Blogging from A-Z Challenge continues today. Throughout April I’m posting about my life as a writer, including my inspirations, frustrations and celebrations.

Do we ever stop learning? I don’t think so. The world we live in is the product of thousands of different cultures, each with their own rich and complex histories. There are new scientific and technological advances happening every day all over the world. Even if we’re not studying or researching, we’re picking up new facts and information from the things we read, see and hear every single day of our lives.

Writing is the kind of pursuit that you never truly master. Even best-selling authors are still learning new things about the craft. You will never reach a stage in your career when someone hands you a certificate and says “Congratulations! You now know absolutely everything there is to know about writing!”

For a start, there is no right or wrong way to write. There are many books and articles that will offer guidelines to help you improve your style and there are many authors who offer excellent advice. But anyone who claims there are strict ‘rules’ to be adhered to should be taken with a pinch of salt.

You can learn tips to help you with plotting, developing characters and polishing your stories. But imagination and creativity cannot really be taught. In the same way you can’t become a body builder just by reading about the process, you can’t build your writing muscles unless you exercise them regularly.

The best way to learn and grow as a writer is to keep practising as much as you can. Get feedback from writing groups and critique partners and try out new techniques to see what happens. That’s what I’m currently doing, at this very early stage in my writing career. I have already learned a lot about the whole process of writing, editing and marketing from my experience working with my fellow anthology authors and Dancing Lemur Press to promote Masquerade: Oddly Suited. But I still have so much to learn. And that’s something that I find exciting rather than daunting.

Before you go…

Do you enjoy learning new things? What have you learned recently?

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4 responses to “L is for Learning #AtoZChallenge

  1. Definitely! Recently, I’m learning to get out of my comfort (reading) zone and explore more genre that I’m not familiar with. It really helps me to open up my perspective and see something from a different point of view! 🙂

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