Kurt Dinan writing tips

Insider Writing Tips From

Kurt Dinan

Library Foundation Writer-in-Residence

Kurt Dinan is the Library Foundation’s

Writer-in-Residence for 2016-2017.

In between teaching sophomore English and

creative writing at William Mason High School and

being the father of four, he penned his first book

Don’t Get Caught.

Dinan has a passion for writing and telling

stories. Here are his tips for writers.

BE WHO YOU ARE

Write what you know. I’m a high school

teacher and I wrote a book about high

school students because that’s the world

I’m familiar with.

FIND A PROCESS THAT

WORKS FOR YOU

Eliminate distractions and daydreams. Find a place to write without foot traffic,

noise pollution and, if possible, away from the Internet.

Every writer writes differently.

Find what works for you and do it.

ALLOW YOURSELF A

LOUSY FIRST DRAFT.

WRITE IT, THEN RIGHT IT.

Writing well takes patience and persistence. And that only comes if you

give yourself permission to be bad at first.

Don’t give up when frustration hits.

SURROUND YOURSELF

WITH BRILLIANCE

Read people who are better than you’ll ever

be. Listen to podcasts by people who are

smarter than you. Engage with people who

intellectually intimidate you.

UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR

WORDS ARE NOT HOLY TEXT

Just because you wrote those words, that

paragraph, those pages, doesn’t mean they’re

good. Be willing to cut and revise what

doesn’t work

SET A WORD COUNT

AND STICK TO IT

Give yourself a daily word goal.

If you give yourself a time goal, say an hour, you’ll

write for two minutes then just screw around on

your computer for the next 58 minutes.

Trust me on this.

FINISH THE THING

Most first drafts are bad.

But you have to have something to

revise in order to find the real piece.

For beginning writers, having the success of

finishing a novel is vital. Now that you know

you can do it, you can do it again.

RAISE ALL BOATS!

It’s easy to get jealous of other writers and the

successes that inevitably come to them.

Writing isn’t a competition, and all writers

benefit from books sales. Support your peers!

SAVE EVERYTHING!

You never know when an old idea will have new

life breathed into it. Also it’s a good measuring

stick for how you’ve grown as a writer.

FOR MORE ABOUT THE WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE, VISIT

CincinnatiLibrary.org/WriterinResidence