Stephen L. Thompson's Random Writing Tips

Stephen L. Thompson’s Random Writing Tips


Many years ago, I realized I had a few writing tips that I could share with the writing community. So I did a few Random Writing Tip blogs whenever I thought of any. Then other stuff came up and I stopped for a couple of years. But then I wanted to start writing more blogs, so I figured not only would I bring back the Random Writing Tips, but I would do them monthly. That hasn’t always worked out. And one day I thought It would be nice to just have a list of all the tips I’ve given over the years. So I made a list.





2025

08/12/25 - Shameless Self Promotion - Marketing your books is such a pain.

07/09/25 - Blog lists - The reason this page exists.

06/17/25 - Maybe write bad stories - Why are bad stories more memorable?

05/15/25 - Repost your stories - Why spend hours writing a story that gets lost on some random website?

04/10/25 - Some quick tips - This is pretty straight forward.

03/12/25 - DEI - There are all kinds of people in the world, so they should also be in your writing.

02/12/25 - Flubs - Not everything has to be perfect.

01/14/25 - Rewriting the same story - The same story idea can go in many directions.

2024

12/18/24 - Using common words for weird things - Sometimes, it’s better to just make up a word.

11/19/24 - You’re allowed “sick” days - Pretty self-explanatory.

05/21/24 - Accept the numbers game - Sadly, so much of writing is marketing.

03/19/24 - You need to write - Well duh.

02/20/24 - Prewrite your bio - A little tip to save some time.

01/16/24 - Am I just writing gibberish? - Editing while tired.

2023

11/21/23 - Try new things - Sometimes, dead ends are opportunities.

06/20/23 - Chill on the weird words - You can be too inventive when it comes to words.

02/21/23 - Have a fun project - It can be nice to have a fun project.

01/17/23 - Cliché timing - Things are rarely that well timed in reality.

2022

12/20/22 - Take a challenge - Stretch your writing muscles by trying new things.

05/17/22 - Mystery for mystery sake - A not great way to give exposition.

04/19/22 - Necessary distractions - We can’t spend all of our time writing.

02/15/22 - Broken incentives - Trying to incentivizes myself to write more.

01/18/22 - Beware Frankenstein characters - Are your characters “real” or just random characters stitched together?

2021

12/21/21 - Know your limitations - If you have trouble writing X, maybe don’t make X a key part of your story.

11/16/21 - Love is weird - Love can be a thousand little things, so how do you convey that in a story?

10/19/21 - Social experiments - Trying to make the most out of social media.

09/21/21 - Finding a balance - There is no perfect writing/life balance.

06/15/21 - Social commentary - Social commentary is best as just a seasoning.

05/18/21 - The Memory Sock - A way to jolt your memory.

04/20/21 - Blog mining - Find ways to reuse blog post.

02/16/21 - An interesting use for libraries/Twitter - This was a good idea, until Twitter died.

01/19/21 - Schedules - Trying to make a schedule for blog posts.

Before 2021

03/01/18 - Using colorful language - Is it blue, or a fancy shade of blue?

02/01/18 - Beware soapboxes - There’s a difference between writing a story and lecturing people on your opinions.

01/04/18 - A deeper meaning - No matter what deeper meaning you write into your stories, people will find others.

11/14/17 - A dream writing challenge - If you can write the strange world of dreams, you can write about strange worlds in stories.

06/16/17 - Villains don’t need to just be dicks - Pretty self-explanatory.

05/30/17 - Sleep on that idea - The shininess of newness disguises many “bad” ideas.

04/27/17 - That’s not how the world works - Unrealistic depictions of reality should be minor in stories meant to be taken seriously.

12/20/16 - Finding character names - Two good ideas, one of which is still good.

12/19/16 - Introduction - Pretty self-explanatory.




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