How did I cope with the shift from academic writing to fiction writing

My longstanding habit of writing essays did not help with writing fiction. I was frustrated with complicated jargon and the constant need to cite references inhibiting my creativity, and my remote attempt to channel the “O” of O.Henry. So I decided to do something about it and stayed up all night reading articles for tips and tricks. Some of the things I did helped me at least get on the road to shaking off the academic bugs off my writing sweater.

• Write anything that comes to your mind. Every day, I woke up early, took out my journal, and just wrote. You could say that it is a derivative of the “stream of consciousness” technique that we associate with James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. It was a cathartic exercise that I did every day and helped me to literally visualize what I thought, on paper. It helped me start using more casual, spoken language in writing as opposed to restricting it only to speech.
• LISTEN. Record everything you hear. The most difficult part of writing is writing dialogue. It can really make or break your story. Carry a recorder everywhere and record at least one conversation per day. It will help you put down how people speak on paper, which in turn will lend your dialogue authenticity instead of an artificialness. Turn to films for advice and watch as many plays as you can for…