Episode 120
Giving Your Writing Momentum Tip #1: Continual Learning
Join hosts Christopher and Gena Maselli of Writing Momentum as they kick off a new series dedicated to helping writers grow in their craft. In this episode, they emphasize the importance of continual learning in writing, highlighting techniques for improving quality through structured education. Discover how understanding story structure, keeping up with standards, and seeking continual professional development can give your writing the momentum it needs.
- 00:00 Introduction to Writing Momentum
- 01:14 The Importance of Continual Learning
- 02:48 Understanding Story Structure
- 06:30 Practical Tips for Writing Articles
- 09:59 Resources for Continued Learning
- 13:32 Conclusion and Encouragement
LINKS:
- Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
- Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
- Write with us! Join Chris, Gena, and Rene each Wednesday at noon Central and let's get our writing DONE! https://www.writingmoments.com
Transcript
How do you become a better writer?
Speaker:We can help with that.
Speaker:Hello and welcome to Writing Momentum.
Speaker:I'm Christopher Maselli, here with my wife, Gena.
Speaker:Gena.
Speaker:Oh, did you think I forgot your name?
Speaker:I, well no, last time we recorded he left it as this dramatic
Speaker:pause, and so this time I thought I was going to just jump in.
Speaker:She's like, I know what my name is.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:Well hey, this week we're going to start a series on how to have writing momentum.
Speaker:I don't know if you know this, but that's the name of our business.
Speaker:And what do we mean by that?
Speaker:Writing momentum.
Speaker:We're talking to people who are wanting to grow in their writing.
Speaker:They're wanting to grow in their publishing, their writing,
Speaker:their marketing, just everything in their author branding.
Speaker:Those are all really core to who we are and who, what our company is about.
Speaker:And so we wanted to do a series on how to give your writing momentum.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So this isn't about writing faster necessarily.
Speaker:It's about writing better, right?
Speaker:How to give your writing real momentum in what, as you're putting your pen to paper
Speaker:or your fingers to keyboard as it were.
Speaker:Really it's about the quality getting the quality out there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So let's talk about that Chris.
Speaker:What do we mean?
Speaker:Today, we're talking about continual learning, this is our tip
Speaker:number one is continual learning.
Speaker:Continual learning?
Speaker:What do we mean by that?
Speaker:Well, so it's pretty much yeah, similar were to say, keep learning about writing
Speaker:so so many of us have had the experience of having been through high school and
Speaker:college and had English classes and you know that sort of thing or we may have a
Speaker:kind of a proclivity towards writing and we do a pretty good job when we write but
Speaker:it's very easy not to keep your finger on the pulse of how to write today, right?
Speaker:And, and, and how to write different kinds of items.
Speaker:And to just think, and we already know we're, we're good enough at that.
Speaker:And I think if there's something that we have learned out of our decades of
Speaker:writing, it's that we're still learning.
Speaker:There's still a lot to learn.
Speaker:Everything you write, there may be something you can learn about that.
Speaker:And so going through continued education with your writing
Speaker:will make you a better writer.
Speaker:It will give you writing momentum.
Speaker:And here's the thing is that you can hear someone talk about
Speaker:writing and you can hear it at, at year one, you're just brand new.
Speaker:You're going to take one thing away.
Speaker:At year two, you're going to take something else away.
Speaker:By year three, you can hear the same message, and take something
Speaker:completely different away.
Speaker:By year 10, you may finally feel like I could teach this, but
Speaker:it's only because you have such a broader understanding of what it is
Speaker:that the person is trying to say.
Speaker:Writing is so much more than just grammar.
Speaker:You know, I hear a lot of people and they think, well, I can write, I can write
Speaker:a sentence, I can write a paragraph.
Speaker:But when we're talking about writing, we're talking about story structure.
Speaker:We're talking about if you're writing blogs, it's talking about the the
Speaker:flow of a blog in and by the way story structure works in nonfiction and in
Speaker:fiction, you use it in both places.
Speaker:If you're talking about writing a magazine article, different
Speaker:types of magazine articles will have different structures to them.
Speaker:So there really is, there's a lot in the structure of it that is a
Speaker:necessary part of, of learning.
Speaker:This was something I learned early on is that if you can find the structure of
Speaker:a piece, the standard accepted formula to that people use, you will be doing
Speaker:better than probably 75 percent of the writers out there before you ever
Speaker:actually start writing the piece, right?
Speaker:Because there are certain standards that everything needs to have.
Speaker:And if you will meet those standards before you start
Speaker:putting yourself into it, right?
Speaker:And, and making it your own, you are going to rise to the top because most people
Speaker:don't even know what the standards are.
Speaker:They don't know what the rules are, and so when they start to break the
Speaker:rules, it just looks like a mess.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think one of the most frustrating things for me when I'm working with
Speaker:someone who's a new writer is when they're not open to learning those standards.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:When I see somebody who has a great story idea or they have a
Speaker:great idea for a nonfiction book or they have something that they're
Speaker:wanting to do, a children's book.
Speaker:I've heard this from children's book authors before, where they have not
Speaker:learned the structure, the standard structure of what is acceptable
Speaker:and what, not only what publishers are looking for, but what readers
Speaker:intrinsically are looking for.
Speaker:They have, we have been trained as readers to expect certain things when
Speaker:we're reading a particular genre.
Speaker:And if it's not there, then we're, we kind of, it isn't as satisfying.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I, I like to talk about movies in this regard, right?
Speaker:Because it's easier for us to put a wrap our minds around this.
Speaker:Because if you've ever been to a movie that is, doesn't include all three
Speaker:acts, act one, act two, act three.
Speaker:It's very noticeable and you can't help but wonder why in the world did
Speaker:this movie not have a first act to it?
Speaker:Like, did the writers not know?
Speaker:You kind of need to have that to make the story work.
Speaker:Now, there are those movies that break that rule, but if they
Speaker:break it masterfully, it's okay.
Speaker:But if it's because the writers just didn't understand basic story structure,
Speaker:it makes the whole thing fall apart.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And here's the thing, as you're talking about that, because
Speaker:there are different techniques.
Speaker:So a lot of times people will, and we're using this as an
Speaker:example, but there are times when movies will lop off that act one.
Speaker:But really what they're doing is sometimes they're restructuring the movie and
Speaker:the film in order to create drama.
Speaker:But if you don't understand the fact that there are three acts, that they are
Speaker:breaking the rules for a purpose that the reason they're doing different things.
Speaker:And that's why, you know, you see movies, they'll start with the
Speaker:explosion and the crisis moment.
Speaker:And then you'll go back like 36 hours earlier, or they'll all of a sudden you
Speaker:flashback to something earlier in time.
Speaker:There are different techniques, that as writers we can learn to create
Speaker:drama or to do something better but it still starts with that three act.
Speaker:So, so how might you do this in terms of writing something like
Speaker:a blog or a magazine article?
Speaker:Like what would you say is the you know, without getting too deep into it, because
Speaker:that's not what today's podcast is about.
Speaker:But what is kind of a general structure that someone should follow if they're
Speaker:wanting to write something like that?
Speaker:Okay, so if someone is wanting to write, say, a magazine article, and
Speaker:first of all, there are different types of articles you have to know.
Speaker:If you're saying, well, I want to write magazines.
Speaker:Well, that's great.
Speaker:Do you want to write features?
Speaker:Do you want to write how to's?
Speaker:What is it that you're wanting to do?
Speaker:Are you going to do an interview with a, with a question response?
Speaker:What kind of article are you going to write?
Speaker:So first you have to know what that article is.
Speaker:But so for instance, you're wanting to write, say a how to,
Speaker:you want to do a how to article.
Speaker:I like to start, you have to first, Uh, I like to outline it, know where
Speaker:I'm going with my story, what are the points that I'm going to do,
Speaker:but I like to start with a story.
Speaker:I like to draw because that's the lead of the article and you have just seconds
Speaker:to, to get people, to get readers interested in what you have to say.
Speaker:So I like to start with some kind of story that hopefully is dramatic and interesting
Speaker:enough to get somebody interested.
Speaker:Before then, I start giving my seven points to whatever, say you're saying
Speaker:like a how to seven tips to this, the series that we're working on right
Speaker:now, how to give your writing momentum.
Speaker:It is a how to a series that we're working on in a podcast, but you can write a
Speaker:similar style to that in an article.
Speaker:But I would start with that strong story lead.
Speaker:I would then give someone a reason to care and that comes with emotion.
Speaker:And then I would promise some kind of resolution of what they can
Speaker:expect to get out of it before I start going into my point.
Speaker:And then I have to also learn how to write a conclusion which
Speaker:is one of the hardest things.
Speaker:Your lead and your conclusion are often some of the hardest things to write.
Speaker:And I would also look for evidence.
Speaker:Am I going to use interviews?
Speaker:Am I going to use statistics or studies?
Speaker:How am I going to bring this together to make it more interesting?
Speaker:Now, if you're listening to this right now and you're thinking,
Speaker:this all sounds very complicated.
Speaker:Like, I was not thinking that writing an article would be so complicated.
Speaker:Here's what I want you to know.
Speaker:This is not that bad if you can just learn what you're wanting to write yourself.
Speaker:So when I first started to write middle grade novels, the first thing I did
Speaker:is I went down to our local bookstore.
Speaker:I found some of their best selling middle grade children's novels.
Speaker:Brought them home, started reading through them, and as I read
Speaker:through them, I outlined them.
Speaker:I found out what is it that others are doing to make their novels work in terms
Speaker:of story structure, and after reading about three of them and getting some
Speaker:outlines, I was kind of ready to start to say, you know, I think I can start playing
Speaker:around with this on my own, because you see the commonalities right away.
Speaker:So find whatever it is you need to write.
Speaker:If you need to write an article that's a how to article, find some
Speaker:other how to articles, outline the way the person wrote those articles,
Speaker:right, or the people who wrote those articles, find the commonalities,
Speaker:and then use that as your structure.
Speaker:It's, I mean, you know, doing that will go a long way, and that is what we're
Speaker:talking about with continued learning.
Speaker:Sometimes you can continue learning on your own like this, and sometimes
Speaker:you need a little help, which is where you can go for other things, like you
Speaker:can find courses online, for instance.
Speaker:There's a lot of courses out there.
Speaker:In fact, we have a lot of our own courses online.
Speaker:If you like the way that we teach in that, go to writingmomentum.com.
Speaker:You'll find out we have this monthly membership.
Speaker:And in that membership for one very low price, you get access to
Speaker:every course that we've recorded.
Speaker:We used to sell these Individually for quite a bit more and we
Speaker:just said, you know what?
Speaker:Let's make it all available to everyone because Hey, then we
Speaker:can all have writing momentum.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You can also you know, you're already listening to a podcast you're listening
Speaker:to this one But there are other writing podcasts out there, find one that really
Speaker:resonates with you and continue to learn.
Speaker:And I do want to point out that today we're talking about, you know, we've
Speaker:talked a lot about structure, but there's also a lot that you can learn.
Speaker:If you're wanting to write fiction, you can learn about point of view.
Speaker:You can learn about story structure itself.
Speaker:So the structure of your novel, but also the structure of how to tell a story.
Speaker:You might want to build humor into your work.
Speaker:And so you need to learn how to write humor better.
Speaker:How to have good dialogue,
Speaker:How to have good dialogue, how to build richer characters.
Speaker:But you don't have to know all of that before you start.
Speaker:Don't get us wrong.
Speaker:We are big proponents of look.
Speaker:Just start writing, finish writing that first draft, and then as you do, and
Speaker:then you'll listen to a course, right, on character development, or listen
Speaker:to a course on, um, uh, dialogue, and you'll have then your story that you
Speaker:finished already in mind, and it's a lot easier to go back and edit the
Speaker:kind of things that you learn in there.
Speaker:Yeah, and that's what we're talking about, continual education.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:This isn't something that, oh, I'm going to get a bunch of books, I'm going to read
Speaker:them all, and then I'm going to be ready.
Speaker:And I'm never going to pick up another book.
Speaker:No, this is, writing is one of those things, the more you learn,
Speaker:or the more you do it, the more you realize you have to learn.
Speaker:And there's more things that you can try.
Speaker:More things that you, you know, it's an artistic expression here, so there's
Speaker:going to be different things you're going to want to play with and try and
Speaker:see what's it going to be like to write a, you know, something that you've
Speaker:never written before, to write in a new genre or have an unreliable narrator.
Speaker:I mean, there's all sorts of things that you can learn and that you
Speaker:can play with as you're creating.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:And kudos to you for listening to this podcast because that tells me you're
Speaker:probably already a lifetime learner because otherwise you wouldn't just
Speaker:be sitting down listening to a couple of people talking about writing.
Speaker:So kudos about that.
Speaker:Uh, the other thing we recommend, of course, you've always heard us talk
Speaker:about going to writers conferences.
Speaker:We love writers conferences because it's a way that you can go to a bunch of courses.
Speaker:You can see the publishing state of today and how to get published.
Speaker:Now, the great thing is a lot of writing conferences are now also online.
Speaker:So you can go online, you can join summits and webinars and all that sort of thing.
Speaker:Learn a lot about writing.
Speaker:We have, again, at our own website at writingmomentum.
Speaker:com, we have what we like to call a perpetual writer's conference.
Speaker:It's always on.
Speaker:We have co writing sessions together.
Speaker:We have Uh, training, a lot of training in there.
Speaker:We've got critique sessions, we've got round tables, all these kinds of things
Speaker:will help your writing and it's totally worth the investment to go to a writers
Speaker:conference or join us at writingmomentum.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:because that will help you get your writing done faster and better.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:We hope you have enjoyed this podcast today.
Speaker:If you have, we hope that you will rate it, that you will leave a
Speaker:review, that you will subscribe to it so you never miss one, and that
Speaker:you will even share it with a friend.
Speaker:If you have someone who's been thinking about writing or they've started
Speaker:something, but they've been frustrated, or maybe they've even finished something, but
Speaker:they feel like, where do I go from here?
Speaker:I want to get better.
Speaker:My first one maybe wasn't where I want it to be.
Speaker:Share this with them so that they can be encouraged that there are
Speaker:ways that you can continually learn how to be a better writer.
Speaker:And how to have writing momentum.
Speaker:That's what we talked about this week.
Speaker:That's what we're going to talk again about next week.
Speaker:You don't want to miss that one because together
Speaker:we have writing momentum.
Speaker:Bye bye.
