Secrets to Great Writing

A great photo is said to be worth a thousand words but sometimes the photo doesn't tell the whole story. The author Flannery O'Connor said, "If nothing happens, it's not a story." Storytelling on our scrapbook pages doesn't have to resemble the world's greatest novel, but with a few writing secrets to help you remember, your pages will tell it all.

Secret #1:

Read in the genre you want to write. What you read is what you will write. Study the scrapbook pages of others who really know how to tell their stories. Ask yourself how that author keeps your interest in her story. What does she do that makes you want to keep reading? Why does the story seem to flow off the page and into your heart? What can you imitate without copying the personal story?

Secret #2:

Write what you know. Tell real stories. People have already lived this story so don't make it up. Use the facts and share the emotion. If you need to present some unknown facts, do some research and include in your story information that is true and relevant. A few sentences with more specific detail about the history of the Kentucky Derby can really enhance your story of time spent there.

Secret #3:

Write something daily. Practice. Practice. Practice. In your daily writing you will record the details that you want to remember but often forget. From Technique Tuesdays to Inspiration Fridays, writing prompts abound. You can subscribe online to several of these types of prompts and even a Word A Day can arrive in your inbox and stimulate your vocabulary usage. As you write every day your mind gets filled with different ways to tell your story. Eventually, you find the perfect way to say it.

Secret #4:

Be aware of your reader. Have a conversation with him or her as you write. Do you write to yourself or do you write to someone in particular? Keep that person in mind as the words begin to flow. Answer questions that you are likely to be asked as you share your story. Ask questions for which you don't have answers. Engage your reader so that they will want to know and keep reading or do further research on their own.

Secret #5:

Keep telling your stories. Never stop. Write in spite of feeling that you know nothing about writing. One day we will all be silenced and only our stories will live on. What do you want people to know? Someone somewhere needs to know your story, even if for now, it is only you who needs to get it down on patterned paper, surrounded by a photo or two.

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