Writing Disciplines Needed To Become a Novelist

A career in literature can be rewarding and fulfilling.  Authors spend their whole lives improving their craft, building an audience, and pushing their limits.  Artists are free to reach their goals on their own terms but adhere to certain disciplines to remain productive.

Writing prose has a different set of disciplines compared to poetry.  One might say writing a novel is more difficult because of the length of the long writing process and of sustaining that creativity.  If you’re planning on becoming a novelist, here are some writing disciplines you need in order to succeed.

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Create your own flow

Authors like Stephen King and J.M. Coetzee have daily routines like spending at least an hour a day writing.  An author can be distracted from writing due to other responsibilities such as editing and research.  Creating your own workflow that requires you to spend time to write is a great way to stay productive.

Carry something you can write on

Ideas can come out of nowhere as an author ponders on his or her thoughts.  Having a notebook or a digital notepad on your smartphone or tablet can help you record your ideas for later use.

Understand your weak areas

Novelists must be able to discern his or her weakness in the craft.  If they feel like they’re slow to start or spend too much time doing research, they must adjust to these flaws and be more conscious of deterrents to their work.

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My name is Jeff Mohlman and I was born and raised in Ohio. True to my roots, I decided to not leave my state and study English Lit at the University of Ohio. Right now most of my courses are about art, communications, and literature. Read more about my hobbies in this blog.

Why Parents Should Encourage Children To Read Books

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We live in an age of incredible dependence on technology. Enter a coffee shop and you’ll see people either talking to one another or fiddling with their phones or on their laptops. Most of the people you see by themselves are engaged in whatever electronic device they have on hand. Even at home, at the dinner table, children are glued to their mobile devices. During their free time, they’re either playing games or streaming a video, hypnotized by what they’re seeing.

This is why it is more important than ever to encourage kids to read books. Electronic devices have a way of robbing children of their creativity. Studies show that an increasing number of children are being drawn into and eventually addicted, to streaming videos of other kids unboxing toys or playing video games. Children are slowly stopping to think for themselves.

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Reading books helps children regain that creativity. After all, books are worlds in themselves. Through words and descriptions, children imagine a different reality in their minds, with creatures of all shapes and sizes. Books don’t spoon-feed images but rather they draw out the images from the minds of their readers.

Encouraging children to read books is one of the best thing parents can do for their kids. Children will adopt this habit and learn that one’s imagination is worth more than all the streaming videos on the internet combined.

Hi, my name is Jeff Mohlman, an English Lit student at the University of Ohio. Learn more about me and the stuff I love by checking out this blog.