Writing Tips from the Hillfire Team: Where to start?
You’re a writer-to-be, you have a blank page in front of you, you have your pen if this is in real life or your functioning keyboard if this happens electronically… now what?
Hillfire poet Hanna-Maria Vester says to write for yourself. You can’t really go wrong if you enjoy what you’re doing. “Write to make your brain feel less sweaty. Edit and make sure to wear deodorant while you do. And remember that not all tips work for you. It's a wild ride, you can try 'em and discard them as you like. You've got this.”
I (Julia Guillermina) might add the opposite: if you’re not feeling well, you can also write to try and feel better. I know that I never write with more enthusiasm than when I hate a situation. Putting my bad feelings in the paper makes them less scary, and I’ve won a 5 page piece of writing.
Hillfire writer M.H. Monica says to read other people’s work (including their thoughts about writing) — “either similar genre or just anything”. “It will inspire you and make you think creatively about your own piece. Doing research about people/places and just looking up crazy history facts are a great way to get inspiration too.”
Don’t hesitate to have a notebook when you read, and even to stop reading to start writing. Feel free to underline, rewrite or copy some sentences, making them your own by changing a word here or there. In the end, if you publish it, you can thank the authors in the acknowledgements. I’m not saying plagiarise their work. I’m saying take their words, taste them, use them or discard them, acknowledge them. This tip comes from reading a French author, Pierre Lemaitre, who does this and is a recognised writer of our time.
Past Hillfire contributor Lauren Thurman adds: “Outline, outline, outline. There is nothing more intimidating than a blank page. If I come to that page without a goal or a plan, it usually gets the better of me. I will give up and watch a YouTube video. But if I sit down with some tangible sense of where I want a scene or a segment to go — even if it's the vaguest idea like ‘Kelly and Justin have a fight’ — then the prospect of filling that blank page with words becomes instantly more manageable. I can wander, I can dawdle, but I know where I'm going. I can get there.”
Of course, you can fancy yourself a pantser, a compass writer. Maybe you know what you are. Maybe you’d like to know what you are but you don’t feel confident enough to decide. Maybe you feel that the two categories are pointless. There are as many ways of writing as there are writers. Try whatever you feel like trying and then, do you.
Writing Tips from the Hillfire Team is a three post series, compiled and edited by Hillfire Team member Julia Guillermina. When you’re stuck in the middle of writing, come back for Tips for Writing — I started, what now? (coming later this week!).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Julia Guillermina is struggling with writing pieces, which makes her the perfect option for writing these blog posts. On top of that, she’s a teacher. She has a huge culture on literature and will always give you references from this or that French or Spanish writer. She’s the financial advisor for Hillfire and has published “Wild Wind” (From Arthur’s Seat, Volume V), “The Flatmate Chronicles” (Together Anthology), “Vale of Tears” and “The front row” (Hillfire volumes 1 and 2).
