I’m a lazy writer. Sometime in the last year, I don’t when, I decided I didn’t need to work at writing anymore. I had a few publications under my belt, heck, I’d won a competition. My work was good, I was good, everything was good.

And so I got complacent.

I stopped getting as much feedback, I stopped reading about writing, I stopped practicing!

In the last few months I’ve started breaking out of this delusion. A writer never stops learning, never stops growing and practice is a big part of that. Writing complete short stories are, of course, a form of practice themselves, but they aren’t the only method. It’s almost like trying to build a bookshelf before assembling the necessary equipment.

I’ve have a lot of buzzing ideas for how I want to practice (while simultaneously working on complete stories). One that I’ve started already is writing from life; observing the real world, people, places, dogs, and jotting down thoughts and descriptions. Another is analysing other stories. I really struggle with plot and structure so I want to look at that in particular.

I’m going back to the days of writing exercises and experimentation (That I never should have left) and I’m really excited about it. We get so caught up in be productive, dare I say, prolific. But what’s the point of producing constantly if it isn’t getting better and what’s the point of writing if it isn’t at least a little bit fun.

Practise is really just play after all. One playful activity I’m going to start right now is 100 Words to Describe Noses. I thought it up while at work. Does what it says on the box, I’m going to write down 100 words to describe noses. If you want to see what I come up with, let me know, I’m curious to find out myself.

Happy writing!