My Writing Process.

One of the funniest things to have happened lately is people asking me about how I write. I guess that I’m kinda’-sorta’ qualified to be giving people my advice about this. I’m not going to lie, it makes me very happy that people think I’m the right person to come to with all of these questions.

In the last few days, a bunch of people have reached out to me and asked me to give them a run-down on my writing process, as a whole, and I have found myself at a loss for words because I didn’t really think about whether there was a certain ‘process’ to my writing. I have never given it much thought, to be honest. I don’t even know if I have a writing process that isn’t sitting in front of my laptop and whining for a good three hours or so before I end up with something to write about. Nevertheless, I’ll give you all a run-down of how I do this and try to help you the best I can.

THINGS YOU NEED KNOW:

• You don’t have to know what exactly your writing page is going to be about. Sorting out your writing into categories is fairly easy. It gives you a lot of space to explore your writing until you can settle on one particular niche.
• Do not try too hard with your writing. It needs to be as natural as possible because your writing should reflect you and who you are as a person. Not implementing fancy words in your writing is not the end of the world. Your writing is still just as good.
• It’s okay to deviate from the widely accepted vocabulary sometimes and add internet slangs if you want to do so. Not only does it make writing more fun, it also makes things more relatable for your readers.

CHOOSING A TOPIC:

I started my blog as a journal of sorts. So, most of my work is just me putting my thoughts out there in the hopes that people that can take something away from it. A lot of things can fuel your writing. Depending upon what you choose to talk about in your posts, you either stick to a single topic overall or keep switching between things to keep it interesting. I put my poetry out there, every once in a while, in between my other pieces of writing.

I alternate between writing open letters, poetry, journal entries and my usual pieces of writing. I recently also started publishing drafts that I would have, otherwise, deleted because I didn’t see them going anywhere. Keep in mind that these are topics that I have expanded my writing to over a span of around 4 years. You can always explore yourself as a writer, the more you continue to do so.

FREQUENCY:

In the beginning, I wasn’t very regular with my writing. I would write no more than two or three posts in an entire month. Following NaPoWriMo 2019, once I wrote for 30 days straight, I continued writing on a daily basis and I have now been writing for 520 days straight! It gets a little too much at times, but switching between topics keeps things going a lot more easily.

That being said, as important as it is to be consistent with your writing, you do not need to stick to a daily posting schedule like me. Whether you do it bi-weekly or weekly is up to you, but I would suggest that you try to stay consistent with your posting schedules.

(Always remember to put your health above everything. So, in case you feel like you need a break from writing for a while, please make sure that you give yourself the space you need.)

HOW LONG IT TAKES:

I am usually comfortable with working on the go, so I write a lot of my work on Google Docs and then add the post to my site. Depending upon the length and type of my posts, it takes me anywhere between half an hour to around 3 hours for each post, and that is not counting the time I spend deciding on a topic to write about.

LENGTH OF MY POSTS:

This, once again, depends on what kind of post it’s going to be. If I’m writing a poem, it’s around 180- 300 words long. In case I’m writing an open letter, I make it a little lengthy and it goes to around 800- 1500 words. Most of my casually written posts are about 400-1500 words long.  Then again, I have seen people post their Haikus, short stories and short poems on their blogs, so the word limit really shouldn’t be your concern, unless you’re focusing on SEO.

EDITING:

I usually just write about my personal experiences and publish poems that I have written already, so the edits I have to make are minimal. In case it helps, install Grammarly on your device and it will point out all the edits that you need to make on your posts as you write. Everything else that comes with it, such as the gifs I add on my more elaborate and fun posts, is added after I am done writing the actual post because it’s easier to find more relatable images once I have written the whole thing. Then again, how you do that and what images/ gifs you want to add to your posts is totally up to you.

And that’s all I have for you guys! I hope that helped you, even if it was just a little bit. If you have any more questions, please feel free to reach out to me on my social media platforms. And if there need be, I will write a part 2 to this post, as well!

Happy writing!
Hugs,
The Shubhster. Xx

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Hey guys! I hope you liked this post. Let me know in the comments below or share with someone you might wanna show this to! You can also reach out to me and say ‘Hi’ on Twitter and Instagram. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,
The Shubhster.

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Featured Image by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash