You don't want to write "nice"

You want to write kickass

Nice is problematic. *Nice* is up there with other gross words like ‘flannel’ and ‘moist’. Moist flannel. Bleh.

Nice is how an editor described a story of mine once:

“It’s a nice little story, but there’s no conflict.”

No conflict. No wisdom. No depth.

No reason to finish or remember it.

Nice.

You don’t want that when you’re writing. Nice is when…

• you have an anecdote, but no story.

• you write a situation, but there’s no deeper message.

• it’s a diary entry with no reason for your reader to care.

You have to give them a story. You have to make them care!

Readers don’t care about your cross-country visit with your aunty.

They don’t care about your day in the garden planting daffodils.

They don’t care about the plane trip where you were forced to sit next to the creep with the handlebar moustache who kept stealing your honey-roasted nuts when you weren’t looking. (Phew, that was a long sentence!)

But you can make them care…if you craft it right.

You can take it from a “nice” anecdote to a meaningful story.

But first you need to answer some tricky questions, like:

• What is this really about?

• What am I really trying to say?

• What did this teach me?

• What’s relatable here? What’s the struggle? Is this a struggle other people have?

That’s the theme of writing club in March—Getting to the deeper story.

We’re going to take our writing from “nice” to kickass.

Want to join in? There are a couple of spots left.

P.S. I’ll be sharing a really exciting writing bundle this week. It’s a big once a year event and I think it’s pretty great, but if you’re not interested—don’t worry, I’ll only be sending out a couple of emails for it—one on Tuesday and one other before it closes. That’s it. I promise!

Kelly xx