dispensing advice

A buddy of mine (who, himself, is a pretty good wordsmith... Though generally his literary brilliance is confined to verbal storytelling... horribly impermanent) just texted me (eck!) and ask me for advice on how to become a better writer.

He told me not to tell him to "write more".

Below is my advice.

Let me know what you think...

• Read more. Figure out whose style you like and emulate them until you figure out how to mutate their style and make it your own... Then it will be your own (and let's face it, damn near every single writer is somewhat derivative of another writer).
• Build your vocab (I do this by keeping a notebook beside me when I read... When I come to a word I don't recognize, I write it down, look it up later and ad it to my lexicon.
• As you're building your vocab., create your own damn words. This will help you define your style. You can do this by mashing descriptive words together or by creating a word (often onomatopoeia) to describe something that was previously thought indescribable.
• In every situation you're in, be hyper aware. In every interaction you have, ever place you visit (both familiar and unique) take in your surroundings on more than just a base, superficial level and actively think about how you're going to write that scene, how you're going to recall the dialog you just had with another AA member, how you're going to describe your friend's rundown apartment, how you can describe your friend's messed up look (both his physical appearance and his fashion style). Which brings me to my next point...
• Carry a voice recorder with you at all times. I tend to the Sony voice recorder: ICD-UX533
• http://www.amazon.com/Sony-ICD-UX533BLK-Digital-Voice-Recorder/dp/B00BQ7WRAC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442731318&sr=8-1&keywords=sony+icd-ux533
• Use this as an exercise: take a notepad (or laptop, or tablet, or typewriter if you're a pretentious hipster douchebag... that's not fair... I use a typewriter sometimes... whatever) and go to a unique location (sewer, field in the middle of nowhere, urban prairie in a shitty part of town, etc.) and start describing it. Whenever you find yourself veering into generic territory (like using stock phrases and similes, etc.) scratch it out and keep studying that place and the impression it leaves on you until you write a description unlike any you've previous heard or read and continue doing so until you've got something utterly profound (such as William S. Burroughs's description of Interzone in Naked Lunch, or Richard Yates's description of Bellevue Mental Hospital in Disturbing the Peace or John Fante's description of the the vineyard his father loved to drink wine at in Brotherhood of the Grape).