25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer. When George Plimpton asked Ernest Hemingway what the best training for an aspiring writer would be in a 1954 interview, Hem replied, “Let’s say that he should go out and hang himself because he finds that writing well is impossibly difficult. Then he should be cut down without mercy and forced by his own self to write as well as he can for the rest of his life. At least he will have the story of the hanging to commence with.”
Today, writing well is more important than ever. Far from being the province of a select few as it was in Hemingway’s day, writing is a daily occupation for all of us — in email, on blogs, and through social media. It is also a primary means for documenting, communicating, and refining our ideas. So what can we do to improve our writing short of hanging ourselves? 1. Don’t just plan to write—write. 2. [The] Resistance knows that the longer we noodle around “getting ready,” the more time and opportunity we’ll have to sabotage ourselves. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method.
Write Every Day. Surviving 30 days of noveling. Setting out to write a novel is a daunting task: you have to come up with characters, plots, settings, themes. And then there’s the ultimate obstacle of actually sitting down and writing it. Yet for the last several years, come every November 1st, thousands of people have not only given it a shot, they've tried to do it in a single month. That’s National Novel Writing Month in a crazy-sounding nutshell. The premise is simple enough: write 50,000 words of a novel between November 1st and November 30th. While you may not be able to produce The Great American Novel, Part II in just thirty days, that’s not really the point of NaNoWriMo.
As November 1st draws closer, I thought I’d offer some of the hard-earned knowledge my experience as a NaNoWriMo’er—three times a winner (which in NaNoWriMo-land nets you a snazzy PDF certificate you can print out)—has brought me. Make a schedule and stick with it. Find your place. Music, maestro? Keep it simple. There’s no voodoo to it. Paper Writing Guidelines. 1.
A quick primer of some concrete guidelines for composition return to top Layout of a Good Paper The most important thing is to pick a thesis and stick to it. Make sure every sentence in every paragraph you write is relevant to your thesis. Make sure your reader knows what the connection is. a. Introduction: Make it informative. B. Don't use quotes to replace your own writing, but to enhance it. C. Know the name of the author and the title of the book or article you are discussing. D. Type your paper in 12 point readable type with reasonable margins (about 1 inch all around). 2. Usually, questions on philosophy exams or papers ask for you to give reasons or an argument. A philosophical question such as: ``why would someone believe there is a self? " 3. 4. What not to do in giving an argument: a. ``Buddha said so therefore it must be correct. " I don't know your mother and maybe I don't agree with the Buddha. b.
C. This is not an argument. D. E. F. ``I don't know the answer. " 5. A. B. The 10 Types of Writers' Block (and How to Overcome Them) The chaos theory of evolution - life - 18 October 2010. Evolution is chaotic (Image: Yehrin Tong) 2 more images Forget finding the laws of evolution. The history of life is just one damn thing after another IN 1856, geologist Charles Lyell wrote to Charles Darwin with a question about fossils. Puzzled by types of mollusc that abruptly disappeared from the British fossil record, apparently in response to a glaciation, only to reappear 2 million years later completely unchanged, he asked of Darwin: "Be so good as to explain all this in your next letter.
" To this day Lyell's question has never received an adequate answer. That is not to say that evolution is random - far from it. Darwin's argument was two-fold: First, life evolves from common ancestors. Adaptationism certainly appears to hold true in microevolution - small-scale evolutionary change within species, such as changes in beak shape in Galapagos finches in response to available food sources. This is a long-running debate. To answer that question we look to the fossil record. Die hard. 100 Most Inspirational Quotes Of All Time.
The Ultimate Guide to Modern Writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy. - DRB SF epic release - Link - by Avi Abrams Click here to launch in a new window: "The Ultimate Guide to Modern Writers of Science Fiction & Fantasy: 1990-Now" -> Making sense out of the current boom in fantastic literature NOTE:Only MODERN AND NEW writers are included! (writers who started in 1990 or were active in the field and writing since 1990) The rest are covered in detail in our classic SF Writer's Directory at DRB SF Site It is no secret that we live in the Golden Age of Fantastic Literature. With more books published in the genre than ever, plus an ever-increasing availability of obscure titles on the internet, a dedicated fan of science fiction and fantasy literature might think he died and went to heaven. (art courtesy Christophe Vacher) Do you ever feel lost and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of noteworthy authors bursting onto the scene in the past decade?
"Ultimate Guide to Modern Writers of Fantastic Literature: 1990-Now" -> Click here to launch the Guide in a new window 1. Untitled. The Sound is WOR-FM 98.7 A reproduction of the poster for WOR Radio, the first in the style...more Dylan Reproduction, 2008 This poster is an authorized reproduction of the well-known poster...more Big Nude (White) Big Nude, originally used for an exhibition at the School of Visual...more news Theatre for a New Audience The studio designed the signage and dimensional graphics for Theatre...more. 25 Things Every Writer Should Know. An alternate title for this post might be, “Things I Think About Writing,” which is to say, these are random snidbits (snippets + tidbits) of beliefs I hold about what it takes to be a writer.
I hesitate to say that any of this is exactly Zen (oh how often we as a culture misuse the term “Zen” — like, “Whoa, that tapestry is so cool, it’s really Zen“), but it certainly favors a sharper, shorter style than the blathering wordsplosions I tend to rely on in my day-to-day writing posts. Anyway. Peruse these. Absorb them into your body.
Let your colonic flora digest them and feed them through your bloodstream to the little goblin-man that pilots you. Feel free to disagree with any of these; these are not immutable laws. Buckle up. 1. The Internet is 55% porn, and 45% writers. 2. A lot of writers try to skip over the basics and leap fully-formed out of their own head-wombs. 3. 4. I have been writing professionally for a lucky-despite-the-number 13 years. 5. Luck matters. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Why Fiction is So Hard to Write. I’ve been blogging for a little over three years. I’ve been writing fiction since … well, pretty much since I could write. My blog posts are read by thousands of people. Only 1% of the fiction I’ve ever written has been published.
Fiction is incredibly hard to do well. Lots of people can write decent non-fiction. I’m going to say this, despite being an advocate of great writing: Non-fiction doesn’t have to be especially well-written. Of course, it needs to be competent. Fiction is very, very different. Why do you read novels? I believe we read fiction to escape the world for a little while – to escape the limits of our own experience, our own perspective, our own consciousness.
That’s why fiction writers have it so tough. When I’m writing a blog post, I don’t have too much to worry about. When I’m writing a single scene in a novel, I have a heck of a lot to do. And all those scenes need to tie together. With fiction, it’s impossible to get it right on the first pass through. Really hard. But… Self Publish a Book - Lulu.com.
5 Authors More Badass Than The Badass Character They Created. The Character: Sherlock Holmes is probably best described as "Sherlock motherfucking Holmes," a man capable of making incredible deductions from the smallest of details with the power of logic alone. Also, he's an expert with all sorts of weapons; from guns and swords, to singlestick cane fighting, to beating your ass with a riding crop.
If for some reason none of those things are around, Holmes is a formidable boxer and a proficient student of Bartitsu, a martial art which he used to simultaneously kill his arch nemesis Moriarty and save himself from death. Hold on: incredible powers of deduction, badass fighting abilities, general unkillability--where have we heard this before? The Writer: Arthur Conan Doyle seems to have spent every waking moment either writing or being awesome. When the Boer War broke out he promptly enlisted as a medical officer and spent months in Africa patching up bullet holes and battling hundreds of cases of typhoid fever.
The man was pure mustache. 6 Writers Who Accidentally Crapped Out Masterpieces. So what does it feel like to write something that will inspire audiences for generations? Apparently it feels like another day at the office, as it turns out some of the greatest works of all time weren't intended to be classics... and often were just dashed off for the hell of it. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas It changed a generation. It was supposed to be a report on a motorcycle race. The Impact: When Hunter S. It is the tale of two barely fictionalized versions of Thompson and prominent civil rights attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta (you can see him here in a yellow fishnet t-shirt) who leave a swath of destruction and crumpled plastic baggies across the desert.
Really? Some of you may be more familiar with Terry Gilliam's film version of the novel, the poster of which is immediately recognizable to anyone who has ever spent more than five minutes inside a college bookstore. While there, you'll also find comics starring the character based heavily on Thompson, Spider Jerusalem. The lesson? A Guide to Freelance Writing as a Career. Writing is an essential job skill. Businesses nowadays require writers in a variety of capacities, which has expanded the freelance writing field.
If you are interested in working as a freelance writer, it’s time to begin setting your rates, marketing your services and managing your projects. Writing pushes you to extend a line of thought beyond your first impression or gut response. Many enjoy writing and think they could make a career of it, but some burn out in the process. Getting in the rhythm of writing is a lot of work. This article will help you find a market for your writing, teach you how to take your initial idea to a first draft and through the editing and rewriting process, and provide you with pointers on how to improve your writing in general. Why Write? Writing enables us to share our thoughts and ideas with others, evaluate situations, challenge the truth, answer questions and understand subjects deeply.
The academic world The professional world Internet content Prioritize. Demetri Martin creates a 224-word palindrome poem :: Culture :: News. Some of the important things Martin discusses in his new stand-up show: honey bears, the differences between guts and balls and religious-strife among rats. Rodents, religion and genital activity are also showcased in Martin's poem, below, for your viewing pleasure: "Dammit I'm Mad" Dammit I’m mad. Evil is a deed as I live. God, am I reviled? I rise, my bed on a sun, I melt. To be not one man emanating is sad. Alas, it is so late. Man, it is hot. I am not a devil. Ah, say burning is, as a deified gulp, In my halo of a mired rum tin. I erase many men. Is evil in a clam? No. Rats peed on hope.
Be still if I fill its ebb. Ew, a spider… eh? We sleep. Deep, stark cuts saw it in one position. Part animal, can I live? Both, one… my names are in it. Murder? A hymn I plug, deified as a sign in ruby ash, A Goddam level I lived at. On mail let it in. Oh, sit in ample hot spots. A loss it is alas (sip). Name not one bottle minus an ode by me: “Sir, I deliver. How I Make My Living as an Online Writer (And How You Could Too) (Photo by Antonina, a fantastic London contemporary portrait photographer) The end of this month will mark three years since I left my day job.
Since then, I’ve been supporting myself through writing. It’s my dream career – and I love being able to set my own hours, work from home, and have a huge amount of flexibility and freedom. I haven’t written much here on Aliventures about how exactly I actually make money. Maybe you suspect that there’s some amazing secret skill involved, or some sort of dark art. But there really isn’t. And … if you want to … there’s no reason why you can’t do exactly the same as me. In short, I have a bunch of different revenue streams that bring in cash every month. I’ll start with the ones that were easiest to get going with, and work up to the methods that take a bit more time… #1: Paid Writing for Blogs (2008 onwards) This is how I started out, in early 2008. My family and friends find it bizarre that I can get paid to write for blogs.
Learn more: Whew! All sizes | r_brautigan. How to Publish Your Own Book. Budding authors, you don’t have to go through a big name publishing house to get your book into the hands of the public. In fact, more and more writers are realizing just how beneficial it can be to self-publish. Not only does it allow authors to have more control over the finished product, it also makes it so they can keep a larger percentage of their profits, which can be really ideal in this economy.
Today’s authors have great ideas but don’t want to lose valuable time pitching to agents and writing proposals. They need that time to put the finishing touches on their novel, autobiography or supernatural thriller. That’s why self-publishing is growing in popularity. Here are some things you can do in advance to get your manuscript ready for self-publishing: Do your research. Eliminate distractions.
Outline each chapter before writing content. Give yourself a daily word count. Write now, proof later. Self-Publishing Companies With Enticing Publishing Packages. Locus Online Features: Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of Distraction. From Locus Magazine, January 2009 We know that our readers are distracted and sometimes even overwhelmed by the myriad distractions that lie one click away on the Internet, but of course writers face the same glorious problem: the delirious world of information and communication and community that lurks behind your screen, one alt-tab away from your word-processor.
The single worst piece of writing advice I ever got was to stay away from the Internet because it would only waste my time and wouldn't help my writing. This advice was wrong creatively, professionally, artistically, and personally, but I know where the writer who doled it out was coming from. Every now and again, when I see a new website, game, or service, I sense the tug of an attention black hole: a time-sink that is just waiting to fill my every discretionary moment with distraction. But the Internet has been very good to me. Cory Doctorow is one of a dozen Locus columnists and reviewers. A Simple Novel Outline – 9 questions for 25 chapters « H.E. Roulo.
Synonym Finder » Find synonyms, antonyms & definition for (almost) any word. The downlode Etext Library.
Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you in Writing. Bodycard 0150.