How To Write 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.

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How To Get Your Writing Rejected like an Idiot When novelist Helen Simonson ( Major Pettigrew's Last Stand) was asked to help winnow entries for short story contests and literary journals, it was her turn to switch from seeking approval to giving it out. Sparingly. As she puts it: Having spent many years putting hours of effort and creativity into my own work -- sending off brown envelopes filled with still-warm pages, to various editors and judges -- it is rather horrifying to discover that it takes me about a minute to know that yet another manuscript is about to be "binned" as they say. In a sort of apology, I feel the least I can do is to reveal a few of the instant signs that your writing genius will not be discovered by the judges this time around!

Reverse Dictionary <div id="needs_javascript"><center><b>Note: The new Reverse Dictionary requires JavaScript.</b><br /><img src="/img/a.gif?q=omg_a_user_without_js"> If you have disabled JavaScript in your browser, please <a href=" it for this site</a> or use the <a href="/?w=entersearchhere&loc=revfp_legacy">old version of the reverse dictionary</a> here.</p><p></center><div> 50 of the Best Websites for Writers There are tons of reference sites on the web that can help you find a job or write a poem, essay or story. Here is a list of the best 50 websites for writers. Reference Websites Merriam-Webster Online - Merriam Webster is the perfect place to look up words and find information.

How To Write a Column like a Champ Column Writing Tips Many young writers prefer to write columns rather than straight news or features. Straight news is deemed to be boring – covering press conferences and reporting who said what. Feature stories involve too much reporting and require discipline to follow a set structure. The Bookshelf Muse: The coffee on the desk is cold. The doorbell’s ringing. Your dog is making those frantic whimpers meaning ‘I want to go outside and maybe pee on something’ has escalated to ‘Another 10 seconds and you'll need a boat to get to the kitchen’. Make a Hard Cover for a Paperback Book Edit Article Edited by Lois Wade, Krystle, Sondra C, Jaydoubleyoubee™ and 17 others Perhaps you have a juicy paperback that you don't want others to know that you are reading,or you want to protect your paperback's covers from damage, or you just don't like the look of the cover artwork? Here's a way to turn that paperback into a "hardcover" using materials that you probably already have around the house. Ad

How To Write a Sick Ass Philosophy Paper Use simple prose Don't shoot for literary elegance. Use simple, straightforward prose. OWL Coming Soon: A new look for our same great content! We're working hard this summer on a redesign of the Purdue OWL. Worry not! Our navigation menu and content will remain largely the same. If you are having trouble locating a specific resource, please visit the search page or the Site Map. The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue.