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The world is an unlimited space for the imagination and for you to explore. A thousand stories waiting for you.

Nikita Gill, writer

We asked bestselling poet, playwright and novelist, Nikita Gill for five creative writing tips to help budding writers.

Nikita is one of the brilliant judges for the 2022 ������̳ Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University.

1. Read widely, diversely and across genres

The best piece of writing advice I ever received as a young writer was to devour books in all their forms.

To be a great writer, I was told I must read all kinds of books, from non-fiction to poetry, and across genres from fantasy to romance to sci fi to literary fiction. This advice has served me well.

A good story requires a skillset that can only be honed through reading and figuring out what you like and dislike in the way a tale is told.

A good story requires a skillset that can only be honed through reading and figuring out what you like and dislike in the way a tale is told.

2. Write outside your comfort zone

It’s easy as a writer to limit yourself into a box of things you love to write.

You read mostly sci fi, so you write mostly sci fi. You don’t read poetry and you don’t see the point of writing it. But writing outside your comfort zone can be a gift unlike any other.

For instance, a short story writer who writes a poem can learn lyricism to bring to their characters, to their descriptions that they may not have thought of before.

A poet who writes a novel for the first time can learn how to dream in prose instead of verse.

Challenge yourself and write things you never imagined writing.

A poet who writes a novel for the first time can learn how to dream in prose instead of verse.

3. Be brave with it

Courage and vulnerability are two of the biggest attributes a writer can aspire to.

The groundwork for several revolutions was laid by writers first.

Words have a distinct power, language is the way you can move and change the world. So the story inside you that you are most afraid to tell is the story that needs to be heard the most.

The more honest you are with a story, the more people will connect to it and enjoy it.

Words have a distinct power, language is the way you can move and change the world.

4. Journal in longhand everyday

One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that you have a lot of words inside you, but to get to the ones that will write the best story, you need to declutter your brain.

For that to happen, try to write two or three pages in longhand everyday before you sit down to write the story or poem you most want to write.

Think of this as a way to empty out all the thoughts and words that will get in the way of writing what you really want to write.

At the end of each month, revisit this journal. You’ll find many ideas for new stories hiding between these lines, waiting to be reworded, reworked and written.

…you have a lot of words inside you, but to get to the ones that will write the best story, you need to declutter your brain.

5. Rewrite a story you’ve already read from a different character’s perspective

Think about every story you have ever read from the past.

Whether it is a fairytale or a myth or Shakespeare. These old stories are the alchemy from which current literature comes from, tales retold in new ways. Now try to rewrite one of your favourite stories from a different point of view.

For instance, how would Red Riding Hood be told by the grandmother or better yet, the wolf? Would a Greek myth be told the same way if we told it from the perspective of a mortal or a monster?

Ask yourself questions as you read too. Ask yourself how a villainous character in a story is justifying their actions.

To be searching and constantly question is an excellent way to find inspiration.

Retelling a story you think you know will reveal a lot about how your writer’s brain thinks and engages.

Additional tip: Seek many sources of inspiration. They don’t have to be books. A song can often inspire a tale, as much as a TV show or even a walk in the woods. The world is an unlimited space for the imagination and for you to explore. A thousand stories waiting for you.

Retelling a story you think you know will reveal a lot about how your writer’s brain thinks and engages.