I recently went to a Creative Writing workshop called the Talkshop and learned a few helpful things when it comes to writing. I'd just like to recount to you some of the more important lessons along with a few insights of my own. They helped me a lot, and I hope they can help you as well.

1. Your Writing:

  Your writing should be your voice on paper. It should be something familiar to your readers, like your parents' voices are familiar to you. Your writing should be familiar to you and your readers. It has to be natural. It has to be you.

  Our teacher said that when a piece was difficult and painful for you to write, it's going to be painful for your readers as well. But when I say pain, I don't mean the angsty kind of pain. I mean the pain that you come across when you have to write a long essay for the class you hate the most. Something like that. Likewise, if you enjoyed writing your piece, your readers would enjoy it as well.

  So, cherish it, enjoy it, and we will enjoy it as well. (Or if you're cruel, enjoy writing heart-wrenching stories that we'll enjoy wrenching our hearts to.)

2. Your Story:

  Now, the story is all up to you. It has to be from you. After all, isn't that the reason why you're writing in the first place? So you can share a story?

  Draw from your own emotions to prevent your characters from failing miserably at portraying people.

  There's this tip that even my high school teacher gave us (though she gave it when we were supposed to be preparing for research papers): SHE. Significant Human Experience. Use it. If it matters to you, it's probably going to matter to someone else. If it doesn't, scrap it. It's useless to you and to everyone else. No one wants it.

  Also, when you write your story is there point to it? Our teacher said it this way: When you write, you want to inspire, educate or motivate. If not, then go to sleep. Don't waste time. 

  Even if your story's main genre is angst, and you crush their hearts to little tiny pieces then pour acid all over it, as long as you give them something worth reading, they'll surrender their hearts to you for better or for worse.

3. Your Enemy:

  Every writer who has ever written anything worth writing down will face this enemy: the dreaded Writer's block. Remember: anything worth anything will be challenged. Something will always try to keep you from growing, from blooming into the writer you want to be.

  However, don't despair. Just like any other obstacle, it can be overcome. Her advise for us is to imagine it as an ice block. Melt it. If it won't melt, move it. If it won't budge, go around it. The power of the mind is amazing. 

  Then, when you've finished imagining that, get a piece of paper and pick a random topic and write about it. Don't mind if it's crappy like hell. Just write. Write down the words just to get rid of the block, break yourself in. Once that's done, you'll find that the block is pretty much gone. The only question left is, do you still remember the plot to the story you were writing pre-block? XD

4. Your Habit:

  This is the last important thing. This one actually helps stave off the writing block: make writing a habit.

  Write everyday. Write on your journal, write a drabble piece, write about your life. Whatever. It doesn't matter. Just write something everyday. Make writing a habit.  Most professional writers write for a living, so they really do very much have to write everyday. But as amateur/non-professional writers, we have to do this too.

  When writing is a part of your oh-so-important daily routine, you're going to be forced to churn something out. Otherwise, you might not be able to sleep.  By doing this everyday, one day when you look back at your old compositions, you're going to see the gradual change of your writing. It's probably going to start off from something crappy and cringe-worthy to something nice and jaw-dropping. One day. Soon. Or not so soon. But one day. For sure.

  Also by doing this, you'll recognize the voice you use when you write. Why? Because it's become second-nature, just like speaking.

  Did you know that long, long ago, the human race was pretty much incapable of speech? All of the parts of our body used for speech were once like those of other primates, even our brains! Pre-language, we could memorize things off the bat, much like chimps and other primates. But because our brains had to be rewired to make room for language, we lost that ability to memorize things in split seconds. But hey. We got something better didn't we? We got language! Wootwoot! 

  Yeah, anyway. So there. I have presented to you guys the fundamentals that I learned at the workshop. (I know it seems meager, but the classes I took were pretty much something akin to a crash-course 'cause it only lasted roughly three hours. I'd say that's a lot for three hours.)

  By the way, did you know that your 'voice' in writing could be used to solve cases? There's this branch in this little-known field called Linguistics called Forensic Linguistics. Here, Linguists can help catch the bad guys by studying your writing.

  There's this one time, the murderer tried to fake a suicide note (cause he and the murdered person were close, but he got jealous and all so he killed him). But a Linguist, given a certified writing sample of the victim, was able to verify that the note was not written by the victim but by the murderer. (Did I mention that the note was typed into the computer so that handwriting was not a factor? No? Well, now I've mentioned it.)

  How? By studying the writing pattern of the victim through his written work. There were inconsistencies between the way the note was written and the way the other samples were written. Amazing, no?

  Now, ask yourself. If I was brutally killed by someone, and that someone tried to pretend that I wrote a suicide note, would a specialist be able to tell the difference? Does my voice resound well enough that it would be different from a forged one? (Okay, so this is a bit too morbid. If you don't have the guts to ask this to yourself, ask yourself: Does this sound like me?)

  Now, go. Shoo. Try it out for yourself. :) I'm sure going to try it out with my next fic.

  All the best!