One of the most important parts about improving yourself as a writer, is to create the right environment for yourself. Think of it almost as a movie set, where just the right ambiance is constructed to enable the perfect shoot.
That's how I approach my writing.
Take the time for instance; right now, it's 3:23AM on the east coast of the United States. It's quiet, with everyone in bed and no distractions. Most of my writing is done in the dead of night as it allows me to think clearly, and gives space for my creativity to blossom (Note: as of 8AM today, I'm still working on this post and loving every minute of it! You can't get that from Chat-GPT).
I learned a long time ago that writing should never be forced. There's a period that I recognized when I'm "In The Flow." That's when conditions are ripe, and I'm firing on all cylinders, and the content just flows out like a fresh spring of water.
Often when I'm writing, I'll have a pair of noise-canceling headphones on (as I do now), with ANC enabled. This is to counteract the gunshots I'm prone to hear at night in this violent area. This is one of the ways that I shape my environment to nurture the creative process.
Yet another thing I do is to slightly dim the lights to soften the room. I also make use of aromatherapy while blogging using a cool mist diffuser, and a few drops of 100% essential oils. I absolutely swear by the calming and positive effects of both peppermint, and even more SPEARMINT, in setting the right mood to enter the flow. Try it yourself, you just might thrive in it as I do.
You Can Learn To Become A Better Writer By Studying How A Song Is Put Together
When in that flow, the writing is almost effortless. The feeling is that the content is stacking up inside my head and I've got to get it out before I lose it. Not that I'm comparing myself to them (far from it), but both Prince and Michael Jackson described songs that were almost "given" to them. MJ said that if he didn't take them, they might be handed off to other artists.
No matter what you think of the various court cases (trust me, I did a ton of research), you can't deny the talent of this man. I think its instructive to learn how he put songs together in layers, and then iterated until the results were magical.
Take a look at him pre-Thriller and pre-Moonwalk in 1979, when he was transforming himself from the Jackson 5 era music, into a smoother, funkier sound. The album 'Off The Wall' contained his first big hit as a solo artist, 'Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough':
Notice all of the elements that go into making this impactful song. Much of it isn't top of mind, but they hit us on a deeper level, making you want to get up and move. MJ knew what he was doing in putting together this masterpiece, one which still resonates with us today.
When I was 16, I started taking classes to learn how to play guitar. At some point, one of the things my instructor told me about was syncopation. See the informative video below that explains what syncopation is, and how it's used in music:
The interruption in the regular flow of the beat (I know ironic, right?), that marks syncopation, also has a similar application in writing.
If you've read my work over time, you'll discover that I often mention having to shape the writing until it "reads" right. The video above is an example of that. At the start of an article or blog post, I'll erect the matrix or scaffolding. At that point, it has a certain cadence to it (yes, writing can have a cadence), I hear this because I read each piece both in my head as I'm writing them, then out loud.
If it reads too "square" (an old word from the 50s), That's where I'll weave in more literary syncopation in order to stir things up and make the post more readable and interesting for the reader.
I have no problem writing things over and over until I hit the right "note" before publishing. Take this paragraph from my last post: The Naturals vs The Augmented - The Brave New World of AI and Life Extension. Scroll down to the second paragraph under the heading 'Modern-Day Buggy-Whip Makers' and let's break it down. It goes like this:
I wonder how they felt watching this new interloper destroy their businesses? The wise firms had the sense to adapt to the new realities, while the Luddites perished. I saw something similar during my time as a Directory Assistance Operator.
In the first sentence, as I'm reading that in my head, the word "felt" is emphasized, and I'm "uptalking" with the last three words "destroy their businesses?"
In sentence two, the word "wise" is emphasized and dragged out a little, while the middle section is read "flat." and the last three words "while the Luddites perished." are "downtalked." The third and last sentence "I saw something similar during my time as a Directory Assistance Operator." is read flat.
In the above sample paragraph, the words have to fit not only the meaning of what I'm trying to get across, but both the cadence and tone as well. I had to swap out the synonyms for "interloper," "wise" and "Luddites" until I settled on the ones that fit and worked well for the piece.
So I don't just mash words together, it all has to fit and "read" right.
Justify Yourself
As a writer (and a reader), formatting matters. That nice, clean look will enhance the readability of what you wrote. So for the love of all that's holy; center your images and justify your text. It only takes a few seconds, but gives your post a more professional look, which is what we should be striving for on Hive.
It's also part of what goes into a high-effort post, versus a low-effort piece of trash. It's one of the things I learned during my year of lurking back in 2016/17 on Steemit. Center each fucking image, I don't care how tedious you think it is, just build it into your workflow, so that it becomes second nature.
I save all of this for the end after I've constructed and assembled all of the layers that make up a typical blog post. And no, I don't plop a credit down under each photo, unless I have a ton of them. This can interfere with your SEO if your blog post starts out with "Image Credit..." instead of your first line or paragraph. You've seen them from time to time on Hive and LeoFinance.
When I first arrived here seven years ago, I saw the two styles, and admired the cleaner look of listing credits at the bottom, and I like the professional way it looks. I use numbers, with 1 being the first image, and so on. Everything's located in the same place in each article, making it easy for someone to find and click through to something they like. In short, it just works.
Don't Be Afraid To Step Back And RELAX
I write in sections. That last post took three days. If I'm not feeling it, I'll go watch a gore video to relax (just kidding), or fire up a casual game on Steam. I may work on just one paragraph until I have it right and then just call it quits until later.
I have a thumb drive with hundreds of interesting sentence fragments, incomplete paragraphs, and many, many titles that I'm considering. I call this my 'Word Bank' and I keep them, and you'd be surprised at how useful they can be in just the right post.
But the important thing to know is that writing should be fun, it should never feel like work. The moment that starts happening, I'm off to something else and will return when the well of creativity is replenished.
But the really rewarding part is when you've merged into "The Flow" allowing that creativity to pour out of you. It's good for the soul when those words come together into a beautiful literary song. So let's keep creating on Hive and 'Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough.' :)