Read this on galpod.com.
If you've been anywhere NEAR productivity blogs, books, or gurus, you know that deliberate practice is all the rage lately. Deliberate practice consists of picking a skill and working on it, deliberately, consistently, with feedback. A couple of months back, I made a list of skills that writers should have. I've put it on the bottom of this post as well :)
To improve my writing skills, I want to work on each of these skills. But, I can't work on all of them at the same time. So, I decided that this summer, I'll pick one skill per week and work on it, in addition to the regular stuff I do. The regular stuff I'm working on are:
Vocabulary - I make sure I look up any new words while I'm reading, and I do the "word of the day" exercise, where I'll tweet the Merriam-Webster's word of the day and use it in a sentence. Sometimes my sentences suck, and I hope you'll let me know when they do :).
Communication through writing - this here blog is where I do that. As always, please feel free to send feedback whenever you have any so that I can learn and improve.
Learning new things (covers both flexibility and challenging myself) - I'm currently learning Spanish via DuoLingo and how to play the piano via JoyTunes. I do my best to practice every day.
Ideas generation - I'm doing 10 Ideas a day, which is fun.
So, this week's skill is descriptions. I'll be working on colouring my descriptions based on the character's mood, previous experience, education, etc. I read about this skill in Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and loved it. I want to be able to do that on purpose. So I'll do things like describe a place or a person from several points of view, or from the same character's point of view but in different moods. I might even post some of them here, but I can't promise anything because it's summer.
Last week's skill, by the way, was time management and goal setting, in case you were wondering :)
Here's to learning and improving every day.
Craft Skills
Controlling Language: vocabulary, grammar, knowing which words to use when;
Story Sense: the ability to tell a story;
Thoroughness: being diligent about research and details;
Technical topics: descriptions, genre, medium (length of the story), etc.
Observation Skills
Curiosity about people;
Understanding what others are trying to say;
Listening;
Management Skills
Time management;
Project management (setting goals and sticking to them);
Organisation (what goes where, keeping ideas organised)
Problem solving and adaptability;
Personal Skills
Determination;
Discipline and work ethics;
Patience;
Perseverance;
Artistic Skills
Passion and finding the joy in creation;
Fearlessness;
Imagination;
Wanting to learn and challenge yourself;
Communication and Reach
Being able to communicate through writing;
Marketing;
Networking.
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