Diversity is key

Okay. So, after two weeks, we know that you shouldn’t write snippets but should write as often as you can, that you should read even if you don’t feel like it, and that you should work on more than one project at a time when it comes to creativity. So what are we to talk about today? Well, it’s one of the things I think about every day, because technically, I didn’t do it—but it's still something that I think should be done. 

Diversify

What do I mean by that? I mean that if you’re a writer, you shouldn’t just be a writer. Try being something else, too. Go get a day job.

That’s the thing I never did. I got a degree in writing. I write every day. I write for a living. And I edit for a living, too. So in some ways, you might say I haven’t done anything but write, in all my life. Not that my twenty-five-and-a-half years have really been all that long at all in the first place. But you see my point.

See, we write about life, most of us. Even if we write science-fiction and fantasy, even if we’re writing about alien creatures or robots or what have you, we write about a form of life. And in writing life, it helps to live. Which people say most writers don't do... and I guess I would be one of those, since most of my daily doings involve writing, and if not writing, editing.

By diversifying, we get a better idea of what the real world is like, and might even get some great ideas for what to have our characters do, or think, or feel, about any given situation.

Having never been to a high school, I can’t honestly write about high school life.

Having never worked in an office, I can’t really say what goes on there, what people are really like in that setting.

Some of you, on the other hand, probably do. And that's a good thing!

But even if your diversifying only means branching out into editing, then edit. Do something other than writing, just to get your mind off writing for even a short amount of time. We can’t live our whole lives around writing, if you ask me. There has to be more to life than just that.

So, do something else.

Get a day job.

Find a hobby.

Do anything other than write, at least for a little while, every day.

You might find that you have a lot more ideas, when you do sit down to write. 

What do I do, you ask? Well, I'm still working on that. We're all works in progress anyway, aren't we?

[love]

{Rani Divine}