8 Tips for When Your Writing Seems Unoriginal

In the interest of distracting my inner editor this National Novel Writing Month, here are some tips on what to do when your writing seems unoriginal:

1. Play a creativity game with yourself. Perhaps these or the ones on this site.

2. Lock away your inner editor (possibly physically) by envisioning them as a real person/animal/thing and putting them in a dark quiet box.

3. Grab another medium of expression and put all the "unoriginal" thoughts into a visual, musical, or physical form. I would love to see an interpretive dance come out of this project.

4. Write long brilliant lists and entitle them all "Swirling Thoughts." As you know already, lists are my life.

5. Write it out, write it again, write all your ideas out in some form until the words melt into single letters that don't look like they should fit together. Also known as free-writing.

6. Seek out advice for writers, including this quote from Ira Glass. And this list. And perhaps this video, although it's not related to writing per se.

7. Listen to top 40 songs and imagine them as poems. Bleh!

8. Remember that you are forever learning how to write.

Bonus: Check out some more lessons and advice on creative ventures.

3 Ways to Follow Your Dreams (Even the Tiny Ones!)

At the end of yesterday’s post, I wrote about my dream of becoming a roller girl someday. Thus far, that dream may be one of the most daunting ones I’ve ever undertaken. It requires the patience to develop a skill that does not come naturally to me – who thought that me, the wall hugger at the skating rink, would be willing to fall on her face just to learn how to jump on skates? And so, today, I wanted to impart a sort of action plan for how I will be following that dream and how you can follow your own.