Today June 23 is National Writing Day!… IF you live in the UK. I found this out because at work they said that was a cute little holiday and we should do something to celebrate it. When I googled it I come to find out it’s just for the Uk today, and each country has their own date.
However, I continued to write this blog posts on ways that you can participate in national writing day and have fun. I decided to write this because when I tell people I like writing they seem surprised and even are like “Really? I hate writing papers.” That sometimes shocks me because, personally, I LOVE writing papers. Writing in general is so fun, relaxing and even liberating.
I don’t think people understand when you write for yourself, you write for you. You don’t have to write a certain way, you don’t have to follow rules, heck, you don’t even have it to be legible as long as you understand it because it’s FOR YOU.
You don’t have to have a prompt to write anything if bored. Although it can help, if you get stuck thinking on what to write. Which is what I hear from a lot of people who want to get into writing. But once you get into writing whether it be poetry, story writing, etc, you will love it and do it just for fun. Below I will list four of my favorite ways/things to write. (Also wanted to celebrate because I know I sometimes have readers from “across the pond” and wanted to give them a couple of ideas. :))
Poetry
This is something that I find therapeutic and helpful. When writing poems, there are some that have structure, while a lot of the time you can just freestyle and write what you think sounds good. This is good because you really say what’s on your mind, how you feel, etc. It’s a form of venting.
On the other hand, writing structured poems also helps you learn. For example, Haikus. These types of poems are structured in a 5-7-5 syllable form meaning, the first stance is 5 syllables, second stance is 7 syllables and the final stance is 5 syllables. While this may seem very simple, it can become a bit complicated when you wanna express something with a limited amount of syllables. This makes you really think what words would sound better together and make the structure work and flow how you want it. Below are a couple of Haikus, you can see even though they all have a 5-7-5 stance, the amount of words used vary. (Not mine, found them online. Personally I keep my poetry to myself. Lol)
Reviews
If you have seen my blog, you know that I have a tab for book reviews and tv show reviews. This is a great way of writing because you write about something that you like, but also something that is intresting you at the moment. Sometimes you encounter either a book or a TV show that you love and you want to recommend it to everyone. Instead of constantly talking about it to everyone, WRITE ABOUT IT! This will not only stop you from repeating yourself, but you can spread your love for the book/show by sending your online written review to anyone.
You also don’t have to ONLY do book and TV reviews. You can review ANYTHING. A video game, a product, FOOD! The choices to write reviews are endless! Don’t think “nobody even cares what I think and write.” Because somebody actually might. When I started doing blog posts I did it for fun and because I like writing. But when I saw that people from different countries and continents were not only reading my reviews but also leaving nice comments and liking my posts, it made me feel good because WOW; somebody does care what I think and write.
Research Topics
This is probably where people close the tab. LOL JK! While you may think, writing a research post for fun? No thanks. WAIT. This can be really fun if you choose a topic thats intriguing you at the moment or a topic that you think more people should know about. When doing this it’s really up to you what you wanna write about and let your readers learn.
Moreover, since this is just a post for fun, it doesn’t have to be a 12 page paper with bibliography. If you just want to inform the public on something you can always just cover the basics and most important things about the topic to just get your point across. But you can also go in depth and explain everything about it. Again, you choose how much you want to let people know wear what you think they should know.
A couple of these that I have done have been:
5 Great People with Bipolar Disorder
Femicides: The Horrifying Crimes Plaguing Mexico
Woman of the Week: Katherine Johnson
Just to name a few. 🙂 [more can be found in the blog post tab]
Journaling
This is the really therapy and venting. When you journal your don’t have to start the cliché of “Dear Diary…” (LOL) you can just start off however you’d like. I like to write at the end of the day before bed, and really reflect on what I did, how it went and what not. It helps me unwind from the day and get out something I may have not felt comfortable expressing with others. Having a journal is a great way to destress and let go, yes ;write down your problems and let them go. You’ll feel so good that you got whatever you had on your chest on paper, because now it’s not just bound to you because you finally let it out; even if it’s only on paper.
Hopefully you found some type of inspiration to go and write something. It doesn’t have to be super serious it can be anything. Just write. I hope more people find a liking to writing because yea you can explain a picture in a thousand words, but you can explain a thousand words in a million of them. Meaning (if I confused you) nothing beats the power of words.
Enjoy Writing !!!
J’s Journal 