5 writing tips I would give to my younger self

by Harley Bell

Advice from an old poet

If you could go back in time, what writing advice would you give to your younger self?

I used to be a whippersnapper. I desperately wanted to be a writer but didn’t take enough tangible action to become one.
I was dead set on trying to prove the depths of my soul against the blank page.

I wrote some truly awful poetry. If anyone pointed this out to me, I would take it personally. I would fret over it for weeks. And that’s okay. Caring deeply comes naturally to youth. It's a good thing. But I wish it hadn’t stopped me from writing.

If I could, I would tell my younger self to hold onto his sincerity for as long as possible.

I used to write poems with words like Infinite. Mystical. Soul. Then I went to university. Wherein, they shamed all that shit out of me.

No more magic words. Use concrete details. Show don’t tell.

But here’s the thing, in trying to please my peers and elders, I lost something essential: my truth.

What I needed at that age was actual mentors to show me what’s what. Not a room full of people that workshop anything real to death.

This is the secret sauce about writing schools: it can take years to unlearn all that education. It is a long road getting back to sincere art.

I want things to be different for you.

Here we go.

5 writing tips I would give to my younger self.

Write as often as you can

Produce as much as you can. Don’t fret if it’s bad. In fact, make more bad art.

Give yourself permission to write an imperfect first draft.

Write some bad poems. Write embarrassing poems. Write short poems. Just write.

Don’t get locked onto perfection. Trying to chase the perfect piece of writing will only frustrate you.

Focus on consistency. It’s how everyone gets good.

Sheer volume is the best way to explore poetic potential.

Allow your writing to ferment

Be excessively patient. Writing takes time. It will often take far longer than you think. You can try to rush the process all you want. But it won’t do any good. There is a fine line between writing with fury and forcing the work.

Sometimes a piece needs to be put away before it can be improved.

It is easy to waste so much time rewriting and rewriting and trying to make something better.

But what it really needed was time. Time to ferment.

Learn how to listen to the deep voice inside yourself that knows when it should be put into a drawer and forgotten about.
Work on something else in the meantime.

Distance and time are everything. Let them weave their magic. When enough time has passed, be brave and pull the writing back out.

How much time is needed? It could be a day, a week, it is personal to each occasion.

Then be prepared to commit time and energy to editing and revision.
Editing is a crucial step and it is so tempting to skip it.

When you reopen your drawer, consider questions like:

Could you more concise?
Is the order of your lines the best way to tell the story?
Should this line end here
or here?

Experimentation

Try something new. Fail at it. Try something else. Imitate. Steal ideas. Don’t get stuck in one style.
Try some prompts. Try writing about your dreams. Try writing in the shower.
If you feel inspired, swing for it. If you don’t, keep experimenting till you do.

There are no limits except the ones you place upon yourself.

Constantly experimenting will also help identify areas where you need to improve.
You will stumble upon techniques and ideas that you’ll want to learn more about it.

Keep on learning.

Create with constraints

There will come a time when you need to reign in the wild-thinking, free form experimentation. When you feel ready to pursue a single idea. Or a series of ideas.

Give yourself permission to colour within the lines. It gives boundaries and defines the borders of a project. It will help you find the edges of the canvas. Having limits gives you a much better chance of controlling the chaos. If you have control over your creativity, you can craft it.

Constraints also force the ruthlessness that writing needs. Place constraints upon your time too.

Deadlines are a wonderful type of evil. They create a necessary sense of urgency.

The more you deliver on your deadlines, the more you will believe that you can hit the next one and the one after that.

This momentum makes all the difference.

Feeling seen and heard

Writing serves the reader. We’ve all heard this advice. But do not forget that the process of writing those words belongs to you and you alone.

I’ve found this process to be more fulfilling and fun when held with a certain amount of reverence.

This is a technique that I discovered while writing in the woods. It helps me with the desire to release something as soon as I’ve finished the first draft. It helps me with the need to have my words seen and heard.

I take myself somewhere that I can be alone. Preferably somewhere in nature. A garden, a park, a forest. I bring my writing with me.

I find a particularly nice tree, with good leaves.

Sometimes, this takes a bit of bush bashing to be absolutely certain that I am alone.

Then I whisper my poem to the leaves.

Is that weird? Probably but the beauty of being old is that I no longer care. If it helps, it helps.

Sometimes, I will dig a little hole and bury the poem. This frees my mind from carrying it back with me.

This also serves to remind me that the process of writing is what matters.

But sometimes, the poem feels complete. It will want to come back with me.

I will spend time polishing it into a state where it is ready to serve the reader.

I will take more about that later, for now just keep writing.

That’s me and my process. What about you?
What writing advice would you give to your younger self?


Till next time,
Harley.