This was a class exercise where we were required to write sensory details. I got a little off topic about shrimp. I'm standing on top of a bridge, on an asphalt path. I've got my foot hooked in the railing, even though I'm not sure why. It creates pressure in my other foot, and in a couple of seconds I'll have to shift to the other one. The process will repeat. The water under the bridge is murky and brown. It's not usually so high, but it rained for almost three days straight, and now it's almost high enough to be considered a river. It'll go down in a few days, though. Back into a trickle. There are birds in the trees. None of them sound quite the same. When I was younger I used to try and whistle at them, but I've never been very good at copying sounds, so it just sounded like plain old whistling. Sometimes I think the birds responded back, though I'm not sure if that wasn't just my imagination. The sky is a high, cloudless blu...
One of the most important things about writing is figuring out how to write. This may sound obvious. Of course you have to figure out how to write, you're not just a Shakespeare the moment you start. Writing is like anything: it takes practice. What I mean is that you have to figure out how you write. There could be a million posts talking about 'putting time aside to write every day' or 'mapping your story out before you even start', but they're useless if they don't resonate with you. For example, being a 'pantser' versus a 'planner'. In writing, a pantser is a person who doesn't need to plan their novel out at all. They just start writing until they come out the other side with a fully fledged novel. A planner is someone who maps out the plot in detail before it happens. (This is actually a bit more of a spectrum, as some people plan out the big plot points but then leave everything else to interpretation.) For years I thought th...