Martina Boone

writingbox:

Read Your Weaknesses

Every writer needs to be a reader, to learn from those who have come before. But don’t just stick to your comfort zone; read out of your genre, read out of your age group, read out of your country.

But most importantly, read your weaknesses.

• If you struggle with writing male characters, read books with male protagonists.
• If you struggle writing love scenes, read romance.
• If you struggle with writing dialogue, read play scripts.
• If you struggle with writing description, read poetry.
• If you struggle with revealing backstory, read historical novels.
• If you struggle to write tension, read mysteries and crime novels.
• If you struggle writing the dark side of human nature, read horror.

See how people have done it before. See how they’ve done it right, and see how they’ve done it wrong. And then learn from it. And practice. Practice, practice, practice.