Online_Creative_Writing_Courses_Offered_Free_by_Top_Universities_and_Educational_Websites. Getting Educated for Free 1. Introductory Courses Introduction to Creative Writing - University of Utah Course Creative Writing 101 - Eight Lesson Suite101 Course Intro to Creative Writing - Eight Week Course from the Crafty Writer Creative Writing Workshop - Four Lesson Suite 101 Course Writing What You Know - Introductory Course from the UK's Open University 2.
Fiction Writing Introduction to Fiction - Undergraduate Course from MIT Start Writing Fiction - Introductory Course from the UK's Open University Introduction to Screenwriting - Steve Barnes' Nine Week UCLA Writing Course Approaching Prose Fiction - Intermediate Course from the UK's Open University Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy - Quick Launch or In-Depth Courses for Writers of All Ages 3. 4. 5. 6. Utilizing Your Creative Writing Knowledge Writers do not necessarily need a degree to be successful. You can be published online, in magazines, newspapers, trade publications and in books. Salary Potential. FundsforWriters - StumbleUpon. The Periodic Table of Storytelling. Latin Words and Expressions: All You Need to Know. By Daniel Scocco Even though Latin is considered a dead language (no country officially speaks it), its influence upon other languages makes it still important.
Latin words and expressions are present in virtually all the languages around the world, as well as on different scientific and academic fields. Below you will find a list with the most used and important Latin words and expressions, enjoy! Common Latin Words alibi: elsewhere alter: another bellum: war bonus: good borealis: northern corpus: body derma: skin dies: day domus: home/house ego: I/me erectus: upright gens: family homo: human malus: bad magnus: great nemo: nobody omnis: everything pax: peace primus: first qui: who rex: king sapiens: wise terra: earth tempus: time virtus: virtue vivo: live vox: voice Latin/Greek Numeral Prefixes semi: half uni: one duo, bi: two tri, tris: three quadri, tetra: four penta: five hexa: six hepta: seven octo: eight ennea: nine deca: ten Other Latin/Greek Prefixes General Latin Expressions Q.E.D. Famous Latin quotations, translations, phrases, latin to english, quotes, sayings, US Armed Forces mottos. 36 Writing Essays by Chuck Palahniuk. 1: Establishing Your Authority Chuck teaches two principal methods for building a narrative voice your readers will believe in.
Discover the Heart Method and the Head Method and how to employ each to greatest effect. 2: Developing a Theme At the core of Minimalism is focusing any piece of writing to support one or two major themes. 3: Using “On-The-Body” Physical Sensation Great writing must reach both the mind and the heart of your reader, but to effectively suspend reality in favor of the fictional world, you must communicate on a physical level, as well. 4: Submerging the “I” First-person narration, for all its immediacy and power, becomes a liability if your reader can't identify with your narrator. 5: Nuts and Bolts: Hiding a Gun Sometimes called "plants and payoffs" in the language of screenwriters, Hiding a Gun is an essential skill to the writer's arsenal that university writing courses almost never touch upon. 6: Nuts and Bolts: “Thought” Verbs 8: Nuts and Bolts: Using Choruses.
Where do you write from: the head, the heart, or the mouth? Jimmy Chen created this fun venn diagram for HTMLGiant, saying: I think of all writing being from the head (pros: cerebral, conceptual; cons: didactic, dry), the mouth (pros: language, poetics; cons: empty banter, pure form), and the heart (pros: empathic, intimate; cons: sentimental, emotional) . My favorite writers, those in the white dashed center, are able to write from all three places. [And yes, he apologizes for the lack of contemporary and women writers.]
So, do you agree with his assessment of these authors, or how he’s divided them by temperament? If you had to put yourself on this diagram, where would you fall? Let us know in the comments section below. Where to Find Beta Readers. By Starzyia via Flickr When I published my first book, I made the horrible mistake of not getting any beta readers. Instead I focused on editing and reviews which nearly drove me mad. I honestly think a beta reader would have put me at ease a little bit, but you know, hindsight is always 20/20. Depending on your goals, beta readers can be fans of a particular genre, or even a fellow author. The ultimate goal is to get feedback you can use to strengthen your work. Should you Edit First, then Find a Beat Reader? Many authors edit before giving a beta reader their book but there are those who use beta readers as an editing filter so they don’t have to pay so much on editing later on.
Don’t Troll for Beta Readers Keep in mind, a beta reader is not a reviewer and authors shouldn’t confuse the two. *Rant* And while we’re at it, I don’t think authors should hit up reviewers on Amazon. What to Look for in a Beta Reader Different Types of Arrangements Be Mentally Prepared to Hear Their Opinion. Index: How to Write Superhero Stories. Author Fun: Random Title Generators. Have you ever stared at your manuscript, or your outline, while making a face like this: Gollum plays the riddle game with Bilbo via The Hobbit If the answer is yes, then welcome to the club! The other day I was emailing with an author who joking said, “I wish they had book title generators” and I thought, “I’ll bet they do!” So off I hopped to google and – Guess what! – they do! Fiction Alley generator: For this one you need to input words and it will rearrange them into several titles. Warpcore SF generator: this one gives you both a title and a series name, but you only get one. Random title generator: This one gives you six at a time, and actually came up with some pretty compelling titles.
Fantastic Random title Generator: This one also has six titles at a time, as well as links to a Romantic Title Generator and a Sci-Fi/Fantasy title generator. I had a lot of fun generating random titles, and even made notes of a few of them. Please share this with others: Like this: Like Loading... 100 jump-starters to cure your writer's block.
Copywriting: Eliminate "Writer's Block" Forever. Okay here's a tip from a professional. The real stuff. I've been writing professionally since I was 15. I'm now 40. That's a LOT of writing. Including books (fiction and non-fiction), articles (I was a syndicated health columnist and I wrote articles in various styles for many different magazines), sales letters online and offline, ads, reports, information products etc etc etc. And at the risk of being immodest the quality of my writing is very, very high. These 2 secrets may surprise or even shock you but I guarantee 100% that they work and they work for everyone - even the lousiest writer in the world with the worst case of writer's block in history.
Secret 1 to writing: This will sound bad I know but stick with me here... Take the attitude you're going to write ANY OLD CRAP on the subject that you can come up with. Whatever you think of - just write it down. Any old nonsense - GREAT. A pile of steaming crap no one would ever read? Not your problem - just write it anyway. Easy. P.S. P.P.S. Neil Gaiman: 'I don't think I'm mainstream. I'm lots of different cults'
In one of the earlier stories in Neil Gaiman's hugely popular Sandman graphic novel series, a writer is keeping the muse Calliope imprisoned – "demeaned, abused, and hurt" – to fulfil his need for ideas. She is rescued by Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, who visits a curse of "ideas in abundance" upon the writer. He ends up grovelling on the street, clawing out his stories in blood: "a man who falls in love with a paper doll … two old women taking a weasel on holiday … a rose bush, a nightingale, and a black rubber dog collar … make them stop. " It's hard not to wonder if Gaiman himself ever feels the same way. Already this year, he has published the children's book Chu's Day, about a panda with a big sneeze, and his first adult novel since 2005's Anansi Boys, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
Gaiman, chatty and warm despite a hectic schedule on a trip to the UK from his Minneapolis home, admits he "will die with books unwritten". "I wasn't thinking of it particularly in terms of publication. 6 Essential Books for Fiction Authors. In November 2012, I started the transition from writing non-fiction exclusively to learning to write fiction stories. This was a scary transition for me as the process is very different for each. However, in my extensive research, I have found 6 essential books for fiction authors that I recommend.
I have read all of these books and several will be used as reference books for years to come. #1: The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi When I first started writing fiction, one of my author friends recommended this book to me. What it includes: 1) Common writing problems (introductory text) 2) Writing tips through out the book (usually after each emotion) 2) List of 75 different emotions 3) For each emotion they give you: the definition, physical signals, internal sensations, mental responses, cues of acute or long-term use of the emotion, other emotions it may escalate to, cues of suppressing that emotion How you can use this resource: #2: The Negative Trait Thesaurus. Canada Writes - Dueling protagonists. What Does Your Handwriting Say About You? What Does Your Handwriting Say About You? Graphology Graphology is the study of handwriting, especially when employed as a means of analyzing a writer's character, personality, abilities, etc.
How you write can indicate more than 5,000 different personality traits. In the medical field, it can be used to refer to the study of handwriting as an aid in diagnosis and tracking diseases. size large letters You are out-going, people oriented, outspoken & love attention. Small letters You are shy or withdrawn, studious, concentrated and meticulous. average You are well-adjusted and adaptable spacing between words wide spacing You enjoy your freedom and don't like to be overwhelmed or crowded narrow spacing You can't stand to be alone. Slanting No Slant You don't let your emotions get the best of you. Slants to the right You are open to new experiences & enjoy meeting new people. Slants to the left You tend to keep to yourself and generally like to work behind the scenes. Shape of the letters Rounded letters Open. » 10 Things To Do To Become a Better Writer in 10 Days.
7 Habits of Serious Writers. Image credit: aless&ro With thanks to Michael Pollock for the article suggestion and title. I’ve been writing, on and off, since my early teens – but it’s only in the last three years that I’ve really taken my writing seriously. It’s made a dramatic difference. I write far, far more.
I write better. I finish things – something which, at one point in my writing life, was pretty much unheard of. In the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to work alongside all sorts of great writers, during my MA in Creative Writing, and in my freelancing. Habit #1: Writing To be a serious writer, you have to write. Yes, that’s obvious. Maybe you’re one of them. Unfortunately, you won’t get any better at writing unless you actually write. I know it’s tough. You can do it.
Writing “regularly” is key here. Get Serious Write. Habit #2: Focus Maybe you’ve planned to write for two hours on a Saturday morning. Writing is hard work – and you’ll come up with all sorts of distractions to keep you from it. Canada Writes - Avoid self-indulgence but take naps. Being edited forced author Camilla Gibb to grow up and get professional. Editor Martha Sharpe has to sink into the muck and feel for unseen shapes before she can comment on a manuscript.
They share their experiences on writing and editing. Here's the harshest thing an editor ever said to me: "It's not the reader's job to indulge you, Camilla. " She was specifically referring to a chapter of a manuscript that I had enjoyed writing more than any other chapter. Yowza. I tended to get carried away. Apparently I wasn't as funny as I thought I was. The beginning of editing a book is exhausting. After the muck and the naps, I write a letter. 74 Books to Read if You Love the Hunger Games. If you haven't read the Hunger Games you really should! They're pretty awesome. Check them out: If you're already a fan of the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins... You should add these books to your to be read pile! (The recommendations are in no particular order.) Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie In a world where Officials pick your perfect mate, what happens when you’ve two choices? Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner A boy wakes up in a Glade with other boys knowing only his name, not how he got there, or how to escape the enclosed walls.
Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry A young boy is given the job to retain the Community’s memories and to advise them using that knowledge, but he doesn’t like what he sees when he knows the past. Books of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau A city of light amidst the darkness begins to go black and survival means finding a way out by going through the unknown. Uglies Quartet by Scott Westerfeld Selection Trilogy by Kiera Cass UPDATE: Novellas added to series: The Prince , The Guard. 50 Books That Will Make You a Better Writer. Literary genius — or at least competence — never blossoms in a vacuum. As much as many creative types like to pose as a mysterious lone wolves skulking through the fringes of society without ever becoming a cog in the machine, man, even their works have been shaped by their external experiences up to that point. Even a whole rejection of society still involves relation to it, albeit one defined by absence than presence. So despite what that "free spirit" in composition class claims, reaching out to fellow writers can still prove beneficial to those hoping to pursue the art as either a career or a hobby.
Soaking up advice through any reads available opens up new worlds and ideas and can help mold a work from just OK to just plain awesome. Generally from a technical standpoint, anyways. Obviously, one must not take this article’s title too literally. Classics The Elements of Style by William F. Composition and Rhetoric The Office of Assertion by Scott F. Genre and Medium Notable Writers. Find Writing Contests, Poetry Contests & Grants. [places for writers] - connecting writers with places to publish [places for writers] - StumbleUpon. Prada launches creative writing contest.
Prada Prada is hosting a creative writing contest. Milan-based luxury brand Prada is teaming up with Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore for a new international writing contest called Prada Journal. "What are the realities that our eyes give back to us? And how are these realities filtered through lenses? " That's the question posed by Prada as the theme of this latest artistic endeavour: an international short story competition designed to uncover and promote promising new literary talent. Judged by Prada and Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, the contest's winner or winners will receive a €5,000 prize (about $6,500) and will see their winning story published as an online e-book, with a paper version distributed in Prada boutiques.
The details of the competition are tucked away safely in the terms and conditions on the Prada Journal site. You're free to write about whatever you fancy, with a focus on "views of the world. This is far from Prada's first dip into the arts. National Novel Writing Month - StumbleUpon. Book Promotion Strategies That Actually Worked. Self Publish a Book - Lulu.com.
How to Edit Your Own Writing. How to use Pinterest to Promote Your Book by Courtney Gornder. Polly Courtney: 'Now I'm back to self-publishing, I've regained control' How to Publish an Ebook, Step by Step. Are You Publishable or Not? Reading the Tea Leaves. Book Ideas for Young Writers. 101 Book Marketing Ideas to Promote Your Book. 8 New Punctuation Marks We Desperately Need. How to use a semicolon. National Punctuation Day - StumbleUpon. 8 Formatting Tips and Shortcuts For Writers. 10 Things You Didn't Know About the Harry Potter Book Series.
English/American. DURKA DURKA. Skills. 50 Best Blogs for Creative Writing Students. 50 of the Best Websites for Writers. Web Design Schools Guide. Writing Resources. 60 Awesome Search Engines for Serious Writers. Useful references for writers - WestSuburbanWriters. 102 Resources for Fiction Writing « Here to Create. Plots. Cliche Finder. 5 Ways to Build a Detailed World Without Boring Your Readers. Ten words to cut from your writing. Guide for Writers: Latin Phrases. 4 Danger Signs To Search For, Before Sending Off Your Novel. 8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories.
Prompts. ESL Podcast Blog » Blog Archive » The Seven Plots of All Literature (Plus Two) Writing. Quotes. Interviews. About writing. Why Kafka Matters. Elmore Leonard's ten rules of writing. How To Write a Novel. Eight Secrets Which Writers Won't Tell You. Writing Tips | Writing Forward. 30 things to tell a book snob.
'Type So Hard You Bruise the Screen' Read These Seven Books, and You'll be a Better Writer. Tidbits from The Observation Deck. » 5 Creative Cures for Writer's Block - World of Psychology. Keeping a Writers' Notebook. Screenwriting. The 50 Best Short Stories of All Time.