Always Wanted To Write A Novel? How You – Yes You! – Can Come Up With Something Great

Happy Saturday! Good timing to pick up this piece, given that it's NaNoWriMo. To those out there killing it, keep going! This post was written for the Life According to Steph audience

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Writing is an art that has been around forever. Taking your own imagination and placing it down on some paper for others to indulge in? Awesome. It’s a strange thing, but it’s wonderful. The idea of being able to paint a picture in someone else’s head using only your vocabulary seems like something that shouldn’t be real. It is, however, and it’s something that will continue to happen for eternity. 

Have you always wanted to do a little writing project? Have you ever seen some of the amazing and awe-inspiring fiction and thought, ‘I’d love to create my own.’ You probably have done because everyone has pictured fantasies and stories in their heads before. 

Wanna know something amazing? You can do it. Yes, you certainly can. Those at the top of the game appear to be superhuman with their ability to conjure up stories and show immense amounts of creativity. The truth is, however, that they’re just humans like you, and all they did was work on what they enjoyed! If you’d ever like to give it a go, then here are a few things you can do: 

Write Down Literally Everything That Comes Into Your Mind 

Your brain is a lot more creative and brilliant than you might think. Because of the society we’re in, we kind of keep things bottled up. It probably stems from school days where you’d be judged for every little thing you said that was different or imaginative. Even if it sounds a little silly, write it down. You could stumble upon something amazing. 

Try To Create A World First

Before coming up with a narrative or a specific storyline, you might want to create an entire fantasy world – or an instance in this world we’re in now. Creating a story out of nothing is pretty difficult. If you have a world already, then it becomes infinitely easier. A lot of the hard work will have been sorted – the foundation would have been laid. All you’d have to do is pick and choose from this new world. 

Get Inspiration From Others

If you’re interested in this kind of thing, then you’ve probably been reading a lot since you were little. You should probably do a little more of it if you’re looking to be creative. Obviously, you should plagiarize, but a lot of inspiration can be taken from other stories. You can take certain styles from certain writers and form your own way of doing things. You can also look online at places like a Name Generator if you want some ideas for characters and place names! There are a host of funny services online that can get you what you want. 

Practice, Practice, Practice

This goes without saying. Nobody gets anywhere without trying and failing first. Nobody ever completed a difficult task on their first go. They sat and practiced for hours while nobody was watching. If you have the patience to do that, then you’ll look good while everyone has their eyes on you. 

Don’t Doubt What You’re Doing 

We sort of mentioned this earlier, but literally ignore all the doubts in your mind about what you might be conjuring up. The worries of it being bad are just in your head. If it’s a completely new idea and people aren’t too sure about it, then that doesn’t matter. Most innovative things are scoffed at, to begin with!

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