Make Writing Fun by Victoria Boulton (guest post) #ChaBooChaLite

Make Writing Fun

I’m sure you’re all hard at work on your stories, so I’ll keep this brief (but I’m also sure you’ll be happy for a short distraction)!

I’m an editor by trade, but I’m also a writer. I know how easy it is for writing to become work, especially if you’re doing a lot of it. What starts out as a creative frenzy can quickly become a second day-job.

Don’t make writing a second day-job. Make writing fun.

Write the scenes you most want to write

Sometimes we get bogged down in the technicalities of what we’re writing. It can pay to skip ahead to the parts of the story you’re really passionate about. Forget that plot integral breakfast scene or the boring sections of travel. Write the fun bits. Write villain battles and first dates and the dog biting the evil teacher on the bum. Write the scenes you first imagined when you came up with the story. Write what excites you.

Play with your characters

Epic character moments are guaranteed fun. Don’t be afraid to subject your character to extreme lows – or let them climb to extreme highs. Let them grate against each other and the plot. Try things out with them – things you didn’t plan, but just seem right. As your characters develop, so will your love of writing.

Stray from the path

Your first draft is the perfect opportunity to try things out. You’re going to edit later, when things all have to make perfect sense, but right now you can let creativity rule. Take your characters to new settings, introduce characters you never planned, and write the scenes where everything goes a bit mad. If it goes wrong, you can always cut it later, but first drafts are your creative flint and steel. Strike your ideas together and see what makes sparks – maybe you’ll hit on something that takes your story from candlelight to raging fire!

Reward yourself

You have taken on a creative challenge, and I will certainly applaud you for that, but sometimes you want something a little more tangible. I always find that buying some special chocolaty writing rewards really makes writing enjoyable, but go for whatever you like. Celebrate every day you write, and every session, and you’ll find that writing looks a lot less like work and a lot more like fun.

Writing won’t always be fun, and it’s okay for it to be hard. But as much as possible, I hope you will keep the joy alive.

Anyway, I don’t want to keep you from your stories. I wish you all a fantastic ChaBooChaLite and a month of FUN!

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Victoria Boulton is a freelance editor at www.storyfox.co.uk, specialising in children’s and YA fiction. She’s a Ravenclaw, weirdly emotional about Avatar: The Last Airbender and adores her stupid, chubby, wonderful cat. You can follow her on twitter at www.twitter.com/vicorva. She’d love to hear from you!

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There is a special offer from Storyfox Editing Services for ChaBooCha Lite members. Storyfox is offering a 20% discount on its services for ChaBooCha Lite members. Some of you may not know that our mascot, the badger, is named Nabu after the Assyrian and Babylonian god of wisdom and writing. In honor of this, Storyfox has given you a coupon code of Naboo (spelled differently in order to use up the number of letters needed for the code).  The coupon is valid through the end of October, so if you complete your story during this challenge in September, you have time to get it ready for a proper editing service to have a look at it.

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To top this off, I am offering one person who comments on this post (and is signed up to the challenge) a book cover, created by me or my talented husband, for their story. If you are wondering why you would want a mock book cover, it's because a book cover, even a temporary one, can sometimes give you an additional impetus to keep writing. It gives you an idea of how your book might look when it's published. My book covers are limited by what I have in terms of stock photos and ability, but I still manage to come up with some decent book covers. The book covers showing "The Fae World Anthology" series are examples of the book covers for a series of anthologies that Melusine Muse Press is taking submissions for; the book covers were created by me, so it gives you examples of what I can do. (They are mock covers in the sense that I will be making subtle changes to them before the anthologies are published.)

Winner will be selected through a random number generator and announced on September 15th.