Last week I was driving along when “You May Be Right” by Billy Joel came on the radio. I still have a soft spot for this song — Glass Houses, the album it is from, is the first rock album I ever bought. It got me thinking for the hundredth time in almost 30 years what the album title meant…
Of course I’d heard the adage “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” But I couldn’t figure out why he would name an album that.
It dawned on my on this particular day how different it was from his previous albums. Billy Joel was stating with his choice in album name that he was consciously tearing down all he had done creatively to start in a new direction. If you want to start fresh, why not throw stones at our glass houses?
Personally, I think it is too easy to get into a rut. I know that in my own work, after writing the “About Us” page for two dozen clients, the 25th one starts to feel routine. This is good in a way, because it saves time. But it can also lead to stale language. I realized that I needed to shake it up a bit — not just with About Us pages but with all my writing.
Here are a few of the stones I’ve thrown over the years to help keep my writing fresh and allowed me to push my creative boundaries. And let me know yours as well by leaving a comment below!
I May Be Crazy
You might call this one “writing like a lunatic”. Sometimes if I’m trying to get a particular page of marketing copy just right or if I feel I’m exploring new ground, I’ll put aside all the research, let it simmer for a while, and then just riff on some ideas on the page. It may be little snippets or slogans, a sentence or two, or even a whole paragraph.
It rarely makes any sense or fits together in any coherent fashion — yet. The point is to turn of the internal editor, free-flow ideas, and get some words down. I find that new ideas come along I never would have “consciously” thought of, and take me in some new directions.
Once I’ve explored some ideas, I start looking for common threads and connections, and start putting it together so it flows logically. It may take a few passes and extra polishing, but the results tend to be fresher and more original.
Lonely For a Man
e e cummings, that is. I took a creative writing course in university, and the best writing exercise I ever did was trying to write an e e cummings poem. If you’ve never heard of him, he’s a pioneer of unconventional poetic style — a style he made his own. Rather than try to describe it, just check out some of his poems here. As with the method I described above, it seems very disjointed and illogical. But read a little deeper, and you “feel” the logic behind it.
I’m not suggesting that this is the type of writing I deliver to my clients. But I find writing some free-association poetry helps stretch the creative muscles, ultimately (I hope) making me a better writer.
Enjoy Some Madness for A While
One of the best ways I find to expand my literary horizons is to read — and read with intent. That means finding the “best of the best” writers, and not just read but study their books and short stories. I try to discover why I like a particular passage or turn of phrase and compare it with my own style to see where I can improve. I also find reviewing snippets of their work every once in a while to be a great help.
For me, Fitzgerald is that writer (though I’ve heard some good things too about that Hemingway fellow). But as long as it is someone whose writing you admire, you can only benefit from sponging up their words.
Some people have also talked about reading crap, just to see what not to do. I don’t actually recommend this. The idea is to get yourself in a strong creative mindset, and that means reading the positive influences, not the negative. Besides, we come across enough crap in our day-to-day lives that studying it surely would be of no benefit!
(During the time I was writing this post, I read Jesse’s post at Robust Writing “The Easiest Way to Become a Writer“. He elaborates on this topic a bit more; it’s well worth the read…)
Only Having Fun
As many of us have learned already, a blog is a great way to improve your writing skills. It has an immediacy that most other forms of corporate writing do not. I’ve used this blog as an opportunity to find new ways to reach people through my writing, learning what people react to and what they do not. Although there is perhaps no direct correlation between blog writing and other forms, it is another tool I use to improve my craft.
Even Rode My Motorcycle in the Rain
Just as reading can expand your horizons, so too can trying new things. It helps you see the world differently, and these new layers of experience can only help your writing. Travel is one of my favourite things (though I don’t indulge as much as I used to — perhaps when the kids are grown and gone I’ll hit the trail again…) But it could be as easy as going to a park in your hometown that you’ve never been to, or taking up scuba.
On that note, having other creative outlets helps too. For example, I like to get out with the old camera and take photos. I don’t think this directly impacts my writing, but I think it does help the creative process because it forces my creativity in a different direction.
It’s All Because of You
The purpose of all of this of course is to improve yourself as a writer, and to break out of any creative ruts you find yourself in (or perhaps more urgently, haven’t found yourself in yet!)
What tips do you have? Don’t be afraid to share!
~Graham
Like this post? Tell the world!
As some of you may remember, I wrote a post about my love affair with Find and Replace, which is the most useful tool in Word next to CTRL-Z.
How much time do you spend writing your blog? Do you put other things aside (i.e. paying projects) because you feel the need to “catch up” with your blogging?
Who are you talking to? Who is your reader?