Point of View in Creative Nonfiction | AndiLit.com
I read a lot of novels, and poetry, and even the occasional screenplay/drama. I enjoy them; I learn from them; I find them delicate, and robust, and powerful, and skillful and all the things that make good writing. BUT when I want to really understand something, when I want to feel it in the center of my chest, when I want my cheeks to be rasped with the reality of life, I turn to creative nonfiction. I’ve been trying to articulate the difference in connection I feel between fiction and nonfiction ever since my friend @karriehiggins were talking about it on Twitter the other night. For me, creative nonfiction makes me more readily willing to identify with the narrator. Perhaps that’s why when people like James Frey misrepresent their work as nonfiction when really much of it is fiction, I feel offended and disappointed and a little angry – because they have betrayed me. What do you think? *That’s not to say writers in other genres aren’t profoundly honest and risky and vulnerable.
10 More Websites That Help Cure Writer’s Block With Writing Prompts
From jumping into the shower to using voice recognition software, these famous authors (some Booker Prize awardees) have their own idiosyncrasies. But all of them seem to agree on one hurdle: the dread of writer’s block. Most of us are nowhere near those heights, but we do our own form of writing, like blog posts or simple journaling. Creative Writing Prompts We start off with a popular site for writing prompts. Writing Fix WritingFix.com is an educator’s resource for writing lessons and language skills. Plinky A prompt each day should help you light the spark of creativity. Fifteen Minutes of Fiction The writer’s site allows you to break the stranglehold of dullness with aids like Grab Brag ““ the randomly generated writing prompt that authors can use to get started on writing an essay, story or poem. The Story Starter How about 1,108,918,470 creative prompts to make you perk up and start to write? Daydreaming on Paper The site says that it can inspire you with its random prompts. Storybase
Creative Writing Courses and Ideas: An Online Resource for Writers
5 editor’s secrets to help you write like a pro
I do a lot of copyediting, both of books and advertising collateral. I’ll let you in on a secret that still surprises me, although I’ve seen it hundreds of times now. If you looked at the raw work of most professional writers, you’d be pretty underwhelmed. Professional writers get work because they hit their deadlines, they stay on message, and they don’t throw too many tantrums. Professional writers rely on editors to fix their clunks. Editing, like writing, takes time to learn. 1. Have you ever heard a four-year-old run out of breath before she can finish her thought? Sentences are building blocks, not bungee cords; they’re not meant to be stretched to the limit. 2. A paragraph supports a single idea. 3. Nouns ending in -ing are fine. (If for some insane reason you want to get all geeky about this, you can read the Wikipedia article on gerunds and present participles. 4. I know we all heard this in high school, but we weren’t listening. 5. Bonus: Use spell-check
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do.
Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about. Procrastination is an alluring siren taunting you to google the country where Balki from Perfect Strangers was from, and to arrange sticky notes on your dog in the shape of hilarious dog shorts. The blank white page. Mark Twain once said, “Show, don’t tell.” Finding a really good muse these days isn’t easy, so plan on going through quite a few before landing on a winner. There are two things more difficult than writing. It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer.
How to Finish What You Start: A Five-Step Plan for Writers
How to finish what you start Do you have a bunch of first chapters tucked away in a drawer – for seven different novels? Is there a folder full of abandoned short stories on your computer? Have you left a trail of abandoned blogs around the internet? Did your ebook fizzle out after a few pages? Most writers have been there … again, and again, and again. Maybe it’s the same for you. No-one’s going to buy a half-written novel. Here’s how: Step #1: Stop Starting New Projects Believe me, I know how tempting it is to grab that new idea and run with it. Do it: Decide, right now, that you won’t start anything new until you’ve finished something off. Step #2: Assess Your Current Projects Take a long, hard look at all your current works-in-progress. Is there anything that’s just not worth completing? Rather than keeping old projects hanging around, ditch any that have died on you: As with all dead things, holding onto it won’t keep it alive or change the fact that it’s useful time has come and gone.
The Writers Survival Kit Dramatica
Writers are in danger! Professionals struggle to make a living and amateurs struggle to express themselves. To make it, every writer needs an edge, and that’s why Storymind.com created the Writer’s Survival Kit. Use the menu to the left to access all your bonus items including complete downloadable books on writing from Storymind Press, hundreds of articles on all aspects of story structure and storytelling, hours of streaming video programs , downloadable audio programs in mp3, charts and reference guides, accessories, and software utilities to enhance your writing endeavors. Please feel free to share this web site with your friends. We’ve been doing this for more than twenty years for 15,000 customers and with more than a quarter million web site visitors each year. At Storymind.com we create some of the most useful tools for creativity and productivity.
Never Be Blocked: Keep a Writer's Notebook
When I was 11, I was given a little five-year diary with a lock and key. I wrote the usual pre-pubescent stuff in it, a few lines a day, most days. At 14, I began using steno notebooks, and over the next couple of decades I filled dozens with my tormented longings and occasional excited high points. Since I became a professional—and computerized—writer, I've been keeping a writer's notebook. Even as irregular as I am about the process, it's proven priceless for my creative output. To free your creative self, suggests Janet Burroway in her popular textbook Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft , you must give yourself permission to fail. Such a notebook may include observations, ideas, notes about projects, emotions, overheard dialogue, dreams, "what-I-did-today" accounts, notes kept during a trip or to record a particular harrowing experience such as a home renovation. Then there are the meta-notebook entries. W. My own notebook habit is more catch-as-catch-can.
13 Vital Reminders For Writers
Writing is tough work. If I may be so bold as to attempt a simile, I’d say that it’s like walking through a dark forest, but with your legs tied together. So in actuality you’re not really walking at all. To battle this devil, here are 13 punchy quotes that will help you remain focused as you hop through that dark forest.
