any writers?

[TheBlueMonster]

A fantastic tool for improving your writing is a creative writing class. I suggest signing up for one of those. However, don't do a creative writing class if your ego is easily bruised or you can't handle criticism. Those things can be brutal.

[Tony_P]

[ QUOTE ]
Not really sure about the feedback. I've written things over the years but never seem to finish them. I like writing better than reading.

Did you know that you can publish any book you write, though?

My mom has written two books and published them via "xlibris.com" I believe. She's written a book called Norwegian Wood which is (blatant plug) a fictional account of real events that took place in Norway during WWII. I think it cost her ~$500 to get it published. It's print-on-demand publishing, though. So you won't find it in stores. But if you go to Barnes & Noble or whatever, you can request it and they'll print order it in about 2 weeks.

Thought you might like to know, in case you ever finish one worthy of binding! I'd love to some day, but right now, poker is my clock-killer! Good luck.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm still not decided on whether cheap self-publishing is the best or worst thing to happen to the literary world. On the one hand, I think it's wonderful in a case where someone has written a technical volume that would have a niche market. On the other hand, it allows any rube with a PC and $300 to publish their crappy psuedo-pornographic harlequin-rejected romance novel.

I also worry that the ease of self-publishing could lead writters with publication-worthy work to shy away from taking the time to submit to publishers. The result would be a work that could possibly be a best-seller being stuck with triple digit sales because the author thought it would just be easier to use iUniverse. Self-published books are very rarely stocked in bookstores because they are almost always Print-On-Demand and the bookseller is forced to take on the full risk of stocking the book, since it will not be returnable.

[KaneKungFu123]

i was apart of chuck's website for awhile. then it went to a pay site. i have printed out all the articles he wrote about writing initially, i think in 2004.

good site.

[diebitter]

I've been writing as a hobby all my life, done a little reading about writing (there was quite a good one by Stephen King called 'on writing', is the only one I can remember clearly)
and here is the cliff notes I've picked up about it:


1) Do lots of writing!

I agree completely with Dominic. To be a good writer, you need to write! Lots! Every day. Stephen King, whenever he writes about writing in forewords etc, always stresses that to be good at it, you have to do it, constantly. and I agree completely with this.


2) Rules of clear writing

The only rules I keep in mind are two I picked up from somewhere:

1. Remove unnecessary words
2. Simplify

'simplify' to me means replace many words with 1 if it has the same meaning, but also replace 1 word with many, if that works better (eg you use a word a lot of people wouldn't know - best replace it!)



3) As you advance, try different formats of writing:
Recently I've tried screenplays, and the art of screenplay is very useful. Where prose is just 'writing it down' as you go (to me at least), a screenplay requires thinking about each scene, and what your trying to say implicitly and explicitly in that scene. I spend much more time constructing/deconstructing each scene.

To me, this is a new way of writing, and quite satisfying, and the first time I've actually done solid work to understand writing (I got several books on screenplay writing). I now believe if you spend time on each form of writing, you become a better overall writer (but have no proof/experience of this)!


prose - just writing
poetry - gives you an understanding of how specific words are better than others with similar meaning, and can build up to a more beautiful pattern of words. Also the rhythm of words becomes more important (consider the drive of 'The Raven' say - the rhythm is more important than the words, maybe!)
Screenplays - deconstruction of motivation + characters to align with the dialogue (and less key, action)
plays - as screenplays, but typically even more character-focused and leisurely to get to the point

4) Learn to self-edit
Creative courses can help you develop this, but also develop the habit of putting down the work for a period, and then going back to it as a very stern editor. Cut the crap out, clean up the okay, and be proud of the good. However, NOTHING is sacred.



I don't know if any of this is right or wrong... it's just how I think of it all at the moment.

[spamuell]

[ QUOTE ]
you use a word a lot of people wouldn't know - best replace it!

[/ QUOTE ]

What? Why?

Obviously you don't want your writing to be incomprehensible but that doesn't mean it always has to be incredibly simple. There are lots of words that lots of people that certainly shouldn't be omitted/replaced just because of people's ignorance. I mean, even very intelligent people learn new words from books, in fact, reading is the way that most people with a wide vocabulary got one. If writers start dumbing down their books, learning through the pleasure of reading will no longer be possible.

[diebitter]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
you use a word a lot of people wouldn't know - best replace it!

[/ QUOTE ]

What? Why?

Obviously you don't want your writing to be incomprehensible but that doesn't mean it always has to be incredibly simple. There are lots of words that lots of people that certainly shouldn't be omitted/replaced just because of people's ignorance. I mean, even very intelligent people learn new words from books, in fact, reading is the way that most people with a wide vocabulary got one. If writers start dumbing down their books, learning through the pleasure of reading will no longer be possible.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you want to write to educate (or show off) rather than entertain and engage without interruption, or if you're writing a technical work, then ignore first advice.

Some of the most simple works ever written are the most beautiful or most striking.

Examples:
Silas Marner
Old Man and the Sea
Lord of the Flies

Using a vocabulary that requires a dictionary to be on hand does not necessarily make a book 'less dumb'. Please don't equate simplicity of language with 'dumbing down'.

PS. The odd word is fine. More than 1 every 20 pages (in fictional works), you're reading a book by a show-off.


Clockwork orange, 1984 and books using their own created words are obvious exceptions.

[spamuell]

Looks like we agree. Lord of the Flies definitely does use some fairly difficult words, I remember it has vicissitudes in it (dunno why I remember that, probably I didn't know the word before then) and some others.

[diebitter]

[ QUOTE ]
Looks like we agree. Lord of the Flies definitely does use some fairly difficult words, I remember it has vicissitudes in it (dunno why I remember that, probably I didn't know the word before then) and some others.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cool [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Let's go bowling!

[ScottyP431]

Censored,

I write a fair amount and have a membership on The Cult. Let me know when you post something there/here and I will give you feedback if you like. Or maybe we could make a writing forum on here?

[Ben Young]

I write a decent amount of poetry, and would be glad to help you with peer review. You can see my stuff at benyoungmedia.com