Sometimes the best advice comes to you by 'Accident.' ⠀ To make some of my book coaching tidbits available to more authors, I've decided to begin sharing tips weekly on social media. ⠀ ⠀ To kick off #WritingTipWednesday, here are 5 Writing Tips that I found by 'Accident.' ⠀ ⠀ 1️⃣ The Sand Which Is There! ⠀ Inside every natural pearl is a grain of sand. Once inside the oyster, it irritated them, so they lapped pearl around it - to stop the torture. ⠀ If you have an idea, torturing you to come out, wrapping pearls of words around it is how most books start. They could string together into a novel. ⠀ ⠀ 2️⃣ Broken Watch. ⠀ Enter scenes late, leave early. Your readers know what time it is, and they won’t hang around until you figure out what the scene will be about or what it was about. ⠀ ⠀ 3️⃣ Flying By Your Butt! ⠀ Seat-of-the-pants writing is a ‘natural’ art that, unfortunately, not every writer can sustain over an entire manuscript—no shame in that. ⠀ But, if you crash on ‘Pantster’ Air, just go over to the other side; as far as you’ve got, start to outline; it may save the whole trip. ⠀ ⠀ 4️⃣ Shhhhh! Keep It In Your Pants. ⠀ The first draft is not for any other human to read, except you. ⠀ Once you see the whole story, go back, and clean it up for visitors. ⠀ ⠀ 5️⃣ Self-Praise Stinks! ⠀ One of the two things you can do with one hand, which no one else gets anything out of – patting yourself on the back. ⠀ Instead, invite people who don’t love you to read your ready-for-the-world draft, hear what they say, and, as importantly, how they said it! If you master ‘beta’ readers, you're on your way to mastering your craft. ⠀ ⠀ Follow me @tomavitabile for more writing tidbits, or check out my ebook, 'Intentional Thoughts from the Accidental Author' for more in depth tips, tricks, and advice that I gained on my author's journey - Link in bio (at New York City, N.Y.) https://www.instagram.com/p/CY7bSYvrYpk/?utm_medium=tumblr
