People don’t talk about this writing tip enough…

If you’ve been a writer for any amount of time and you’ve looked up YouTube videos and articles on your writing interests, you’ll know that there is a vast ocean of writing tips for free everywhere you turn. From dialogue, to outlining, to world-building, to deciding whether it should be “than” or “then”, everyone has their own opinions, advice, and knowledge to share.

There’s one specific writing tip I’ve been thinking about recently, however, that I don’t feel gets enough time under the spotlight. Yes, you’ve probably heard it one place or the other, but when people highlight this tip they always brush over it quickly like it’s a given. I’d like to spend just a minute truly addressing this writing tip and giving it the time it deserves.

What’s this oh-so-amazing tip that Caleb seems to want to share so badly and is now hyping up by avoiding just saying it outright? Okay, sorry, I’ll cut to the chase. 😜

This tip is…to live more.

What? How stupid is that? Obviously, if I’m reading this I’m alive. How can I live more?

Okay, well, I don’t mean to breathe in the air deeper or drink more water (though you very well may need to do more of those two things!) What I’m trying to say is to experience more. Observe more. Try more. Help more.

Yes, it’s true that we’re all living. But as writers, we tend to be more indoors sort of people, who enjoy good warm food, a quiet house, and a cup of tea close at hand. And that’s perfectly fine! In fact, a quiet house and plenty of alone time to focus on our stories are very important factors to writing. The problem arises when that’s…well, the only thing that we do.

We as writers must also experience the world in new, different ways. We must experience situations that will broaden our perspective and give us new ideas on how to portray different characters or scenes. We need to observe many different kinds of people, so that we have a library of information on the human mind and how intricate and different each one is, while still being so similar.

Writing is a very difficult task. When you write a fiction novel, you’re basically attempting to capture the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the world all by yourself–and not only that, you’re trying to do it through the minds of dozens of made-up characters who all need to feel realistic and 3-D!

Writing off of experiences you’ve already had is great–and simply being human and living out life will give you 98% of the experience you need in order to write incredible stories. But if we wish to elevate our craft just a little more…gather a few more ingredients to spice up what we already know and observe the world by stepping out our door and going on that hike, or meeting that new person, we will have an even greater sense of life and even more experience in our library to draw from. So I would encourage you today to be a little more intentional to be willing to say yes to something new. Go to that event or conference. Order something new at a restaurant. Explore the new nature park by your house. Observe a conversation between two people and take notes on how they interact and how you can use that new knowledge to write humans a little better.

Hopefully this made sense and hopefully you got something out of it! What’s a new thing you recently experienced, or a memory from the past that helped you write your story better? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to chat! 🙂

Until then,

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