I know that some of you are writers (or other content creators), and since I haven't done a blog post in a while I figured I'd post some general thoughts and advice. At least, these are some things I try to stick to when I'm coming up with a story, or trying to get something down.
First, proofread. This doesn't mean just skimming through it quickly for spelling and grammar mistakes, although it's good to fix those. Read it carefully, and make sure that it flows. Then read it again. See if you can reword something so it's more concise, more detailed, or less repetitive. Sometimes you'll find a great way to express something, but it doesn't quite fit that part of the story. Read slowly and carefully. Reading it to someone else is good too, but if you don't want to or don't have anyone nearby reading it aloud to yourself is also good. That will help you spot things that sound fine in your head, but may not to someone else.
Next, always be writing. Maybe not always, and maybe not writing, but remember that inspiration comes in a lot of ways. When you come up with something that seems promising, write it down. It may not be a full story, and it may not even go anywhere by itself, but it could come in handy later. I've got more than a few Word documents floating around with ideas like that. Sometimes you end up with a lot of them, and sometimes none of them work into anything interesting. Sometimes they do.
As far as what to write, what do you want to read, and what do you want to read more of? There are a lot of people, here and elsewhere, to take inspiration from. Consider what you can learn from them (both what to do, and what not to do), and what you can contribute. Try to stay fresh, both in the context of what is already out there and of what you've already done. This is actually something I struggle with sometimes, as I've thought of quite a few new ideas that seem a little repetitive to me. But then again, if you write these kinds of ideas down as suggested in the previous point, they might help later.
Now, a pet peeve of mine. This actually goes along with the first point, but I'll give it its own paragraph: pay attention to tense. I occasionally read a story that will start one paragraph like this: "Bob walked home and took a shower." Then, the next paragraph might be something like this: "Bob pulls the covers back and crawls into bed." This doesn't mean there's never a time to mix tense. If you have a narrator, it might make sense to have he/she explain something in the present tense, and then go and recount something in the past tense. But if there's no structure like that, it doesn't sound right.
Finally, another pet peeve. Be careful of perspective. I sometimes see things like this for one paragraph: "I walked down the trail, but stopped when I heard something growling behind me." And then it might switch to: "The bear lunges at you and eats you whole." Again, you might have a narrator explaining something, perhaps recounting a situation of walking through the woods and hearing a growl, and then describing what could happen to a hypothetical person in that situation. But without that the story doesn't flow. Both this point and the previous one is part of the reason proofreading is important.
I'm not trying to put myself on a pedestal with this, but these are good to keep in mind. You don't always put something great down right away, but if you keep at it and refine it you'll get something eventually. Whatever you do, make sure you enjoy it, and someone else probably will too.
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