Write Real

One of the strangest oddities about being a writer stems from our strange propensity to write about life rather than live it. Rationally, writing is how we process the world. It's our little hole through which we view things. It alters the light through which we showcase our thoughts and emotions.

But what about REAL life? Not just the life we write about. Certainly the life we write about is altered and effected by real life. But in order to KEEP writing about life, we have to keep living it. Go outside, sit on a park bench, go to a restaurant, go shopping or take a hike. GET OUT. Live real life. Take note of the little details of everyday life so that you can better describe it in your stories.

One of the things I like to do is carry around a small notebook with me - one that snaps or ties closed. Every time I experience some noteworthy moment - even something as odd as feeling perturbed over the person sitting in the pew behind me poking me with their foot because the put their feet up to rest on my pew. Things like that. Jot down the exact feeling you get when your crush waves at you at school. Write down all those moments! They'll help you add something real to your writing.

When real emotions and experiences are littered throughout your writing, your reader will pause when their read it and smile because they KNOW that feeling you wrote about. they experience it in their own lives.

Write Real. Write something that isn't so far fetched.