Improving Your Writing Skills..While Depending on Yourself

We all can turn to writing guides and experts to improve our writing. That is a good thing, I have done that myself. So, what if you didn't have those resources? You have to fend for yourself right? Well, I came up with some tips that can help you. First I would like to give a scenario: You have completed writing your first novel. You have done all the editing you could and you feel confident in it. You ship it off to a publishing company and they reject you. What then?

Tip #1: Don't cry.

Your first rejection isn't the end of your writing career. You get up and try again. There has got to be something that you've missed, OR, the company simple wasn't accepting your type of genre. The sadness and pain that you feel on your first rejection should be used for good. Adversity.

Tip #2: Allow yourself to accept criticism.

After you have soaked in your first rejection, let's call them boogies, you should sit down and look over your work. It may look good in your eye, but what about others. [Note: There are some people who say don't worry about what other people think, your story is good either way. I tend to stray away from that saying. I write for people to read and like, but if they don't like it, my story wasn't good.] Have your work read over by someone more experienced than you, or even some friends. Get their feedback and choose whether to take it into consideration. There are people who will give you harsh criticism, but don't wreck yourself over that. Take their criticism apart and pick out the bits that you need. We all have egos and self-esteem faults, but be open-minded.

After you have gotten some feedback, think to yourself: How can I use this? Some might have said that your punctuation was wrong, other might have said to watch your grammar. Those small little things can get you and I, myself, have been guilty of that.

Tip #3: Don't change the way you speak. Your style.

You are your own author. We all have different ways of conveying characters and presenting plots. To preserve your own soul, you must not change your tone or style. Running mainstream, or copying some other author's tone is just unnecessary. Be yourself, not Stephanie Meyer or James Patterson.

Well, I'm actually fresh out of tips. Haha, only three right? If you have any more, I would gladly add it to the list. Thanks for reading!