Short Stories: 10 Tips for Creative Writers Advice for Students: 10 Steps Toward Better Writing Writing well is easily one of the most sought-after and useful skills in the business world. Ironically, it is one of the rarest and most undervalued skills among students, and few professors have the time, resources, or skills to teach writing skills effectively. What follows are a handful of tips and general principles to help you develop your writing skills, which will not only improve your grades (the most worthless indicator of academic progress) but will help develop your ability to think and explain the most difficult topics. Although directed at students, most of this advice applies equally well to any sort of writing; in the end, good writing is not limited to one context or another. Pace yourself. The best way to improve your writing is to write, as much as you can. Read full content
Business Writing – The Art of Bullet Lists It’s easy to go wrong with bullet lists. Should it have a period at the end? Should it start with a capital letter? Here are some guidelines to make things simple. Bullet Lists v Number Lists When do you use bullets instead of numbers? Use number lists to: Identify a sequence of actions to be taken.Show the reader which steps to follow.If there are a specific number of items you want to highlight, e.g. Use bullet lists to: Outline a set of instructions, e.g. pack the following before traveling. Capitalize Bullet Lists When to capitalize the first letter in a bulleted item. Start each bulleted item with a capital letter. Capitalize proper nouns and the first word of a complete sentence. Bullet Lists Periods, Full stops and Punctuation When should you use periods (full stops) and have bulleted items end without punctuation? Use periods after independent clauses, dependent clauses, or long phrases that are displayed on separate lines in a list. For example: Criminal Activities. Violent history.
Creative Writing For Dummies Cheat Sheet Rewriting and editing helps to tighten up your work. But it can be difficult – what to chop and when to stop may not be clear, and you may change your mind more than once during the process. Ask yourself whether you need to take out: Unnecessary information and explanation. You may need to add or expand: Something you know but have forgotten to tell the reader; perhaps the age of the main character. You may need to move: Dramatic sections to make a stronger opening. In your final edit: Check for grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes. LEO Strategies for Reducing Wordiness Wordiness results from many sources. Many of us have learned to pad our writing with all sorts of empty phrases to reach length requirements for academic writing. Wordiness also tends to occur when we're struggling to clarify our ideas or when we're tired and not thinking clearly. Strategies for Eliminating Wordiness You can eliminate wordiness in your writing if . . . you mark sections of your writing that you struggled to produce. Patterns of Wordiness As you read the following list, consider which patterns are typical of your writing: Omit the filler phrases "it is," "there is," and "there are" at the beginning of sentences; these often delay the sentence's true subject and verb.WordyIt is expensive to upgrade computer systems.ConciseUpgrading computer systems is expensive.Omit "this" from the beginning of a sentence by joining it to the preceding sentence with a comma.WordyChlorofluorocarbons have been banned from aerosols.
Vegetable beings? Love and other uncertainities? I curate several Scoop-its. One is Home and Garden. While checking the recommendations for garden sites, I saw this post. The flowers were pretty, but the content - well, you read it and see what you think. The flowers and their characteristics What's the most beautiful and significant than a flower? Note: If I thought this was written by a sincere person, I would not make fun of it. Novel Writing – Strategies for Fiction Writers | Writing and Illustrating We have talked about Donald Maass and his Writing the Breakout Novel and the workbook that goes with it, but seeing Agent and Author John Cusick reading and using both during his down time last week at the Ocean Writer’s Retreat reminded me how much it can help all of us develop our craft. Then, I noticed Writer’s Digest University has an eight week online workshop that just started on September 27th. You might be able to still get in. Even if you can’t, you can buy the book and the workbook to follow along with the planned schedule. I know I am pulling out both and going to give it a try. Gloria Kempton is the instructor for this class. The workshop will consist of eight one-week sessions. Course Outline Session One: Premise Reconciling plausibility and originality The importance of inherent conflict Emotional appeal Writing Assignment (Fundamentals): Do exercise on creating a breakout premise, culminating in a 300-word opening paragraph. Click here to read more on Writer’s Digest Kathy
Improving Style: Using Transitions Transitional words and phrases can create powerful links between ideas in your paper and can help your reader understand the logic of your paper. However, these words all have different meanings, nuances, and connotations. Before using a particular transitional word in your paper, be sure you understand its meaning and usage completely and be sure that it's the right match for the logic in your paper. Addition furthermore moreover too also in the second place again in addition even more next further last, lastly finally besides and, or, nor first second, secondly, etc. Time while immediately never after later, earlier always when soon whenever meanwhile sometimes in the meantime during afterwards now, until now next following once then at length simultaneously so far this time subsequently Place here there nearby beyond wherever opposite to adjacent to neighboring on above, below Exemplification or Illustration Comparison Contrast Clarification Cause because since on account of for that reason
15 Frequently Confused Pairs of Adjectives by Mark Nichol Some of these similar-looking words do have, among various meanings, the same sense, but their primary definitions are quite different. Know these distinctions: 1. ambiguous/ambivalent: To be ambiguous is be able to be understood in more than one way (or, less commonly, of uncertain identity); to be ambivalent is to express uncertainty or contradictory opinions. 2. alternate/alternative: To be alternate is to occur by turns or in a pattern that skips from one side to the other, or to provide another possibility; to be alternative is to offer a choice, or to be a variation from a norm. 3. abstruse/obtuse: Something abstruse is, because of complexity, something not easily comprehended; something obtuse is unclear because or careless or imprecise information. 4. arrant/errant: Arrant means “immoderate” or “extreme”; errant means “traveling” or “being aimless, or “straying” or “misbehaving.” 6. climatic/climactic: Climatic refers to climate; climactic applies to a climax.
Questionnaires for Writing Character Profiles - Creative Writing Help Enter your e-mail to get the e-book for FREE. We'll also keep you informed about interesting website news. "I have searched the web and used different worksheets, but none have come close to your worksheets and descriptions of (what to do and what not to do). Both courses I have taken have with Creative Writing Now have been amazing. "As usual - I already love the course on Irresistible Fiction, rewriting a lot and improving greatly even after the first lesson. “Essentials of Fiction proved that I could indeed write and I wrote every day, much to my boyfriend's dismay (waa sniff).” - Jill Gardner "I am loving the course and the peer interaction on the blog is fantastic!!!" "I'm enjoying the weekly email course, Essentials of Poetry Writing. "Thank you for all the material in this course. "I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the lessons and feel they were very helpful in introducing new ideas and perspectives to my writing. "Thanks very much for this course. "Thank you so much!!
A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices Robert A. Harris Version Date: January 19, 2013 This book contains definitions and examples of more than sixty traditional rhetorical devices, (including rhetorical tropes and rhetorical figures) all of which can still be useful today to improve the effectiveness, clarity, and enjoyment of your writing. A Preface of Quotations Whoever desires for his writings or himself, what none can reasonably condemn,the favor of mankind, must add grace to strength, and make his thoughts agreeable as well as useful. Men must be taught as if you taught them not; And things unknown propos'd as things forgot. Style in painting is the same as in writing, a power over materials, whether words or colors, by which conceptions or sentiments are conveyed. Introduction Good writing depends upon more than making a collection of statements worthy of belief, because writing is intended to be read by others, with minds different from your own. Practice these; try them out. Resources by Edward P. Rhetorical Devices
10 Steps to Finding Your Writing Voice Bonus: Need help finding your writing voice? Click here for free tips. I write only because / There is a voice within me / That will not be still. Awhile ago, I wrote an article called, “Finding Your Blog’s Unique Voice.” Photo credit: Dan Foy (Creative Commons) But here, I want to share a little bit more about how to find your overall writing voice. Spending some time deliberating over voice is worth your attention and focus. If you struggle with getting people to read your writing or with staying consistent in your craft, you need to stop chasing numbers and productivity and reboot. An exercise for finding your voice Not sure where to start? Describe yourself in three adjectives. Why do you need a writing voice? Finding your voice is the key to getting dedicated followers and fans and that it’s the only sustainable way to write. Once you’ve found your voice, make sure you continue to develop it. The bottom line is that there’s a lot of noise out there in the world.
Thirty Tools for Writers [Author’s note: Of the many things I’ve written for the Poynter website, none has been as popular as my "Twenty Tools for Writers." This list has been quoted, cited, praised, debated, and repurposed by writers, editors, teachers, and other professionals who care about the craft. That folks find these tools useful gives me courage. So I’m adding ten more to my workbench, and sharpening up several others. As you can see, I’m very impressed with myself. At times it helps to think of writing as carpentry. Below is a list of 30 writing and revising tools. Sentences and Paragraphs 1. 2. 3. 4. Language 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Effects 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Structure 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. The Writing Life 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. This list contains tools, not rules. Tags: Writing tips and techniques
How to write a scene One of the thing I admire most about Jane Espenson’s blog is that she talks very directly about the words on the page, giving names to techniques I use but never really think about. The two-percenter, for example. So one of my goals for 2007 is to get a little more granular in my advice-giving, and talk less about Screenwriting and more about screenwriting — in particular, scene writing. Spend a few years as a screenwriter, and writing a scene becomes an almost unconscious process. It’s the same with writing a scene. So here’s my attempt to introspect and describe what I’m doing that I’m not even aware I’m doing. Many screenwriting books will tell you to focus on what the characters want. The question is not, “What could happen?” Imagine the projectionist screwed up and accidentally lopped off this scene. But it’s so dramatic! Tough. Scripts are often clogged with characters who have no business being there. Most of your scenes won’t have one of these out-of-nowhere aspects.