Classical Guitar — The online resource for classical guitarists. LINKEDIN. Download Scores - Sheet Music for Piano, Guitar, Choir and much more. Midi tunes - with PDF and Powertabs - mostly jazz standards. IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music. Blues MIDI Page 1 - 0# - D - Jack's "MIDI Music" English 50 Exercises for Story Writers. English 50 – Intro to Creative Writing: Exercises for Story Writers Basic Theory: What is a short story? As soon as someone delivers a definition, some good writer will write a story that proves the theory wrong.
About the only thing we can say for sure is that short stories are short and that they are written in what we call prose. Short stories have a narrator; that is, someone tells the story; have at least one character in them; have some action occur (or perhaps fails to occur); take place somewhere; that is, there is a setting for the action; and someone either learns something or fails to learn something (theme).With these five characteristics in mind, we can create an almost endless supply of exercises to help sharpen our techniques of story telling. Narrative Voice Twenty or so years ago, voice was the "rite of passage" into a successful writing career.
NOTE: It is quite common for writers in the early stages of their careers to imitate the writers they are reading or admire most. Creative Writing Games. Writing Exercises Meredith Sue Willis Author and Teacher. More Free Writing Exercises below and here : Exercises 1- 20 Exercises 21- 40 Exercises 41 - 60 Exercises 61-80 Exercises 81-100 Exercises 101 - 120 Exercises 121 - 140 Exercises 141 - 160 Exercises 161 - 180 Exercises 181 - 200 Exercises 201 - 240 Exercises 241 - 260 Point-of-View Characters Whose Gender Is Not Yours We had a discussion in my Advanced Novel Writing Class at NYU about the difficulty of capturing a character who is of a different gender from yourself.
Writing about people unlike yourself– by race, ethnic group, age, and certainly gender or sexual preference– is always a big challenge, but also of great interest to a creative writer. One class member spoke of an excellent contemporary novel written by a woman and narrated by a man. The class member said he admired the book but that it was only about 98% believable as a male narrator. That is, of course, pretty darn good. Exercise #261 Exercise #262 Exercise #263 Exercise #264 Exercise #265 Exercise #266 Exercise #267. The Seven Basic Plots: Christopher Booker Examines Common Narratives in Storytelling.
According to the British journalist and author Christopher Booker, there are only seven ‘storylines’ in the world. In his book, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, a work that took over forty years to write, Booker surveys world literature, outlining commonalities and showing that, although there are a multitude of tales and endless variety in the telling, all narratives are really variations of the basic seven. Booker’s work is detailed, interesting, and very long—over 700 pages—but his message is simple. Whether they represent the deep psychological structures of human experience or whether they are merely constructs of tradition, no matter what the story, you’ll find one or more of these basic plotlines: Rags to Riches Someone who has seemed to the world quite commonplace is shown to have been hiding a second, more exceptional self within.
Although it may seem reductive to restrict all narrative to these seven basic plots, it is actually quite instructive. Characters. Second Person Point of View — The Writer’s Craft. Enrollment Limited Sherry Wilson's step-by-step method helped me organize my thoughts and transform a simple idea into a full-fledged plot. Without her help and guidance, I'd still be walking around with just another "great idea for a story. " Thanks to Sherry, though, I've published three novels and know there are more on the way!
~ Debi Faulkner, Summoning, LilyPad Princess and Murphy's Law "Sherry is extremely professional and knowledgeable in this field. As well as being technically proficient in many styles, she also possesses a rich imagination, offering suggestions and alternatives in a way that doesn't impose on the writer's own style. Her observations are honest and valuable, beyond what many others can give. A. "WOW! I really appreciate the work you've done so far. --Lena Jones "Sherry Wilson has a deep understanding of the craft of writing and a natural gift for the art of writing. Being an editor myself, there are not too many people I would trust with my own work. All Your Characters Talk The Same — And They're Not A Hivemind! One Of Your Crucial Characters Isn't Working. What Do You Do?
TAKING A CHANCE ON PATHOS. By EVA HOFFMAN; Eva Hoffman is an editor of The Book Review. Her memoir ''Lost in Translation,'' about living in a new culture and language, will be published in January.Published: November 6, 1988 SELECTED STORIES By Andre Dubus. 476 pp. Boston: David R. Godine. $22.50. Emotional veracity is surely one of the most elusive elements in fiction.
Mr. We are accustomed, in today's fiction, to characters who are wretched, or disconnected, or down and out. It is in these usually hidden lives that Mr. But the immediate interest of these short stories and novellas resides not so much in the explosive premises and the detonating endings as in the concrete, sensuous detail, in the patient stitching of modest observation.
Lacking stylishness or skepticism, or sharp wit, Mr. Especially toward love. 100 classic riffs in one take. Michael Winslow - Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin (Senkveld med Thomas og Harald) Eric Clapton - While my guitar gently weeps (HQ)(Concert for George) Hendrix. JIMI. Sites Jimi Hendrix. Articles Jimi Hendrix.
Albums (spotify inside) Chansons (spotify inside) Autour d'Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix. Guitar lessons and licks. Jimi Hendrix Licks. METRONOME ONLINE - free! Incredibly Fast Eric Johnson Style Arpeggios Guitar Lesson - Rock - Blues - Metal - Fender Strat. Jimi Hendrix Licks. Classical Guitar Tablature. EduBasica. Citing Sources - BHS Library. How to Cite a Quotation | BHS English Department.
Introducing Your Quotation A quotation should never be a sentence by itself. Some options for introducing your quotation: 1. Tell the reader who is saying/writing the quotation. Atticus asks, “‘Do you really think so?’” Lee writes, “There was a murmur among the group of men, made more ominous when Atticus moved back to the bottom front step and the men drew nearer to him” (195). 2. While Scout and Jem watch their father guard the jailhouse door, “Shadows became substance as lights revealed solid shapes moving toward the jail door” (202).
When Scout charges into the group of men, she “discovered that these men were strangers. Citing Your Quotation Cite a quotation with the page number in parentheses after the quotation. The author writes, “Quotation” (78). If a quotation ends with ? Someone asks, “Question?” Use single quotes for dialogue within your quotation. Lee writes, “Jem and I went to the front door, but Atticus called, ‘Go back in the house’” (193). Use . . . to leave out words Original: Citing Web Sources MLA Style. This article describes 2009 MLA Web citation style (MLA Handbook, 7th ed.). The new seventh edition, released in March 2009 has instituted several significant changes over previous editions. Among the changes are these: Instant Help: If you arrived at this page from the "How to cite this page" link at the bottom of one of the VirtualSalt articles, follow this model for citing: Optional, with URL (Uniform Resource Locator = the Web address) if required for the assignment: More information on APA citation here. .
Like to bake? In-text Citation For its citation style, the Modern Language Association uses an in-text reference which directs the reader to a list of Works Cited at the end of the paper. A spa chemistry expert recommends adding spa shock after using the spa "in order to help assure a sanitizer level in the water" (Schuster). Alan Schuster recommends adding spa shock "in order to help assure a sanitizer level" in your spa. Works Cited 1.
Examples of Typical Web Sites General: Doe, John. MLA Formatting and Style Guide. Summary: MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page. Contributors:Tony Russell, Allen Brizee, Elizabeth Angeli, Russell Keck, Joshua M. Paiz, Purdue OWL StaffLast Edited: 2014-03-06 11:05:00 Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered in chapter 6 of the MLA Handbook and in chapter 7 of the MLA Style Manual. Basic in-text citation rules In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what is known as parenthetical citation.
General Guidelines The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1.) upon the source medium (e.g. Glossary of Usage. Bob and Jack's Writing Blog › Armored Prose. Lesson Two: Armored Prose–The Polysyllabic Prison©2010 An Essay by Jack Remick and Robert Ray Armored prose is a metaphor for bad writing when you think you’re doing good writing. Armored prose comes from the intention of being proper on the page. Being proper and sounding educated, wise, smart, nice, non-threatening, safe, regular, normal (not crazy), even-tempered, and politically correct. Armored Prose smoothes things over. It contains, it crushes, it does not bend or twist. Armored prose is the bane, the death pill of poetry. Poetry is not just language broken into stanzas. Poetry keeps us alive.
Here’s the recipe for writing armored prose– Mix abstract nouns (administration, consideration, and interdiction) with weak verbs: to be considered (infinitive)had been considered (passive voice)should have thought to have been considered (passive voice infinitival interior)might have been considered (passive voice subjunctive) Mark Twain hated Armored Prose. All that beauty dead. Bob and Jack's Writing Blog › Word Pictures from Nouns & Verbs. ©2010 by Robert J Ray and Jack Remick When I teach style in a writing workshop, I have the writers circle nouns and verbs. Concrete nouns and strong verbs build word-pictures. A good example is the opening to A Farewell to Arms (1929), where a stationary narrator checks out the terrain of story: “In the late summer of that year, we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains.”
There are two abstract nouns in this opening sentence – summer and year – and five concrete nouns: house, village, river, plain, mountains. The ratio of concrete nouns to abstract is 5:2, enough concrete nouns to paint a picture that locks down the opening of the novel. The view in this Hemingway opening is panoramic, like a wide-angle photograph or a landscape painting. In that distant war, the Italians fought on the Allied side, “allied” with England and France and, near the end of the war, America. Style: Kill Those Adverbs The verbs are distant, soft, weak, coy. Bob and Jack's Writing Blog › Syntactic Flex. ©2010 by Robert J Ray and Jack Remick The discipline of writing sometimes means you have to let go of what you know before you can discover the depth of the writing you seek.
We have developed some techniques to take you deeper. When you write, practice the discipline of “syntactic flex” using three variations: Short sentence, chaining, and long sentence release. Short sentence means—simple declarative writing. Chainingmeans you use words like links of a chain. Long Sentence Release (LSR for short) trains the writer to write with the long breath and so when you come to a place where your internal editor says put a period there if you please but instead of putting a period you keep your hand moving and to keep your hand moving you use connectives like AND and SO and WHEN and THEN and AND SO and AND THEN and BUT and AND WHEN and sometimes even BUT WHEN and lots of repetition…. Why do you we want you to do this? Rhythm is a key to strong writing. 1. 2. 3. Short sentences: He drove to the Mall. Bob and Jack's Writing Blog › Verbs.
©2010 by Jack Remick and Robert J Ray Verbs do stuff. They do action. The boy whacks the ball. The boy whacks the tree. The boy whacks the cop and goes to jail. Strong verbs give the writer control over the word-picture. Style in fiction comes from making choices. The boy runs to first base.The movie runs for three weeks.The man with one arm runs drugs.The little moron runs around the top of the cereal box.The governor of an un-named state runs for president.When she heads into the wind, her nose runs and her ears burn.Snot runs from her nose, spoiling the screen test. To find your style, you fill the verb-slot with a generic verb like runs. Strong verbs come from strong nouns. There are four kinds of weak verbs. Passive Voice.
Subjunctives. Infinitives. Verbs of the Interior. Weak verbs slow the language down. Recap Bad: Good: whack hammer trot nail drive shove. Www.uncg.edu/eng/writingcenter/handouts/STRONG_AND_WEAK_VERBS.pdf. "To Be" Verbs: List of Strong Action Verbs and Eliminating 'To Be' Verbs in Students Vocaulary and Writing. Strategies for Eliminating Be Verbs 1) Change the be verb to a strong verb: Example: Tony is afraid of notebook checks.
Tony fears notebook checks. Example: Billy is alarmed by the proximity of the shark. Billy motors away from the shark. 2) Eliminate the be verb by writing one or more showing sentence. Example: Alligators are mean. The alligator, angry at being disturbed, lurched forward and swallowed the boy's cat. 3) Combine sentences to eliminate the be verb. Example: The inefficient time manager is unfulfilled. The inefficient time manager heads to bed, unfulfilled, having checked everything off on his unprioritized to do list. 4) Eliminate the entire sentence if its omission does not change the meaning of the passage. 5) Leave the be verb if changing it alters the meaning,diminishes the passage, or makes the structure unworkable. Pump Up Your Writing: Using Strong Verbs. Writing. Neil Gaiman's 8 Rules of Writing.
By Maria Popova In the winter of 2010, inspired by Elmore Leonard’s 10 rules of writing published in The New York Times nearly a decade earlier, The Guardian reached out to some of today’s most celebrated authors and asked them to each offer his or her commandments. After Zadie Smith’s 10 rules of writing, here come 8 from the one and only Neil Gaiman: WritePut one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.Put it aside. For more timeless wisdom on writing, see Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 rules for a great story, David Ogilvy’s 10 no-bullshit tips, Henry Miller’s 11 commandments, Jack Kerouac’s 30 beliefs and techniques, John Steinbeck’s 6 pointers, and Susan Sontag’s synthesized learnings.
Image by Kimberly Butler. Nominalizations Are Zombie Nouns. Draft is a series about the art and craft of writing. Take an adjective (implacable) or a verb (calibrate) or even another noun (crony) and add a suffix like ity, tion or ism. You’ve created a new noun: implacability, calibration, cronyism. Sounds impressive, right? Nouns formed from other parts of speech are called nominalizations. Academics love them; so do lawyers, bureaucrats and business writers. The proliferation of nominalizations in a discursive formation may be an indication of a tendency toward pomposity and abstraction. The sentence above contains no fewer than seven nominalizations, each formed from a verb or an adjective.
Writers who overload their sentences with nominalizations tend to sound pompous and abstract. Only one zombie noun – the key word nominalizations – has been allowed to remain standing. At their best, nominalizations help us express complex ideas: perception, intelligence, epistemology. Elena Giavaldi Most major scientific theories rebuff common sense. Exquisite corpse. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory. Paragraphs and Topic Sentences. Paragraphs and Topic Sentences. LitWeb - The Norton Introduction to Literature: W. W. Norton & Company StudySpace. LitWeb - The Norton Introduction to Literature: W. W. Norton & Company StudySpace. Winston Churchill's Way With Words. Free Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago citation styles.
Personal Essay. Reading& writing about poetry. Writing About Literature: Explicating a Poem and Symbolism. English Language Arts: Writing Prompts/Journal Topics. Grammar. How to Use Commonly Misused Words. This Itch of Writing: But can you teach Creative Writing? What can Diane Arbus teach you about writing? Why “Show, Don’t Tell” Is the Great Lie of Writing Workshops. HOW TO WRITE GOOD. Neil Gaiman's 8 Rules of Writing. Writing.