Every so often, I have days in which I leave my keyboard much happier than when I had sat down to it. On such days, I ask myself: what did I do differently from other days that allowed me to write well?
    Today was such a day. My writing task was a new chapter of my book; I completed about 1300 words (no large amount by any standards.) In my opinion, I did a good job showing and not telling, and was able to discreetly reveal large events to the reader through small details. Thus, I wished to write down what I did beforehand and during my writing, so that, in the future, I may have a day of equal quality.
    I returned home from school at around 3:00; before that, I had to stay for a few yearbook photos, then planted bulbs for the Journalism department. Once home, I played around with a cell phone and searched around for a new keyboard. At about 5:20, I began to write.
    While writing, I did not say to myself: “I need to show and not tell here! I should include better detail here!” I don’t find that to be an especially beneficial style; when I try to force my writing, it comes out dull and lacks quality detail. Instead, I feel, it is much better to start off on a good note and carry on that success.
    Thus, my tips for myself:
    -Start off well. Before you write, perhaps even a day before, think about an interesting detail that you can begin with. This will help avoid discouragement (which I have a large problem with,) and may very well start a series of good writing.
    -Include lots of detail. It’s hard to write well when large, broad themes are covered in short amounts of space; instead, it’s much easier to find opportunities to show, not tell and include personification/extended simile when the writing has a slow pace that takes time to include lots of info.