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Articles about craft.

10 Creative Ways to Challenge and Improve Your Writing

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This post by David Eagle originally appeared as a guest post on Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen’s Quips and Tips For Successful Writers site on 7/6/13.

My writing skills improved dramatically when I freelanced for Reader’s Digest, because the editor would go over every sentence with me. She’d call me up and we’d analyze my articles – and I’d learn what Reader’s Digest readers were looking for, what editors want from writers, and even how to pitch future articles.

Most editors don’t have the time to do this – I was one lucky writer! Though it was painful at times, I have to admit.

Anyway — in this article, you’ll learn several ways to improve your writing skills. It’s written by David Eagle, on behalf of the GKBC Writing Academy.

Here’s the one very important thing I’d add to his tips: EDIT your writing. Don’t just write stuff and file it away. Find someone who writes better than you – better yet, find an editor – and get him or her to tear apart your writing.

10 Ways to Improve Your Writing

Guest Post ~ David Eagle

I work as a freelance writer, creating content for various clients. I also have a blog on my website that I’ve been writing since 2009, which allows me to experiment and develop as a writer in a more unstructured environment.

Like any skill, the more you practise at writing the better you become. I’m going to share with you ten tips that you can use to improve and challenge your writing. These are free, simple and fun things that you can start doing right away…

1. Pick a Word
Open a dictionary at random, take the first word you see and write about it. What feelings and emotions does it evoke in you? This is a great way of inspiring new and original ideas, and adding new words to your vocabulary.

2. Play a Wikipedia Game
Wikipedia has a “random article” feature in the left column of its homepage. Hit the link and let it decide your fate! Try writing about whatever subject it randomly selects. This is another a great way of stepping out of your comfort zone, writing about things you probably know very little about which also helps develop your research skills.

3. Look Around You
Observe and write about what’s going on around you. I get so many ideas just from conversations I’ve overheard in restaurants, on buses or on trains. If you are looking to write fiction then observing situations and characters around you is an excellent exercise. Just don’t get caught staring intensely at people as you write derogatory things about them in your notepad! I am not taking responsibility if you end up in hospital.

 

Click here to read the full post on Quips and Tips For Successful Writers.

 

On Plot

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This post by S. Andrew Swann originally appeared on Genrewonk.

What is a “Story?”
(SF or otherwise.)

A character with a problem.

Every story is about a character trying to deal with some sort of difficulty. Characters who have happy lives, who are content with their lot, and who have achieved their goals are not good fodder for fiction. The people we read about are people in trouble.

The central problem.

Most genre stories can be thought of as revolving around some central problem, or problems. The central problem(s) can be considered to be, in some sense, what the story is “about.” Will the mystery be solved? Will the protagonist survive? Will the rebellion succeed?

Begin with a crisis…

Whatever the length you’re dealing with, short story or novel, you want to begin with a character in crisis. The reader should find characters in difficulty within the first chapter, the first page, and ideally, the first paragraph. Structurally, it may not be possible to have the story’s main problem begin on the first page, but every story should begin with some problem, often with the first line.

…end with a resolution.

If the story is organized around a single central problem, it ends naturally when you’ve resolved that problem. If the story deals with a series or complex of problems, it ends when the last problem is dealt with, or when all the problems identified as most important are solved. A story can persist as long as there are problems to deal with.

 

What makes a Story SF?

 

Click here to view the full post, which includes a thorough analysis of not only plotting but also characterization and pacing, on Genrewonk.

 

50 Tools That Can Improve Your Writing Skills

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This post originally appeared on dumblittleman in May of 2007. a

Last year we posted a large list of tips aimed at improving your writing skills. Since then, the site that we referenced changed all of the links and our post was rendered useless.

That is until today. Rory Sullivan a reader of DLM, displayed some remarkable generosity (that he calls nerdishness). He took the time to update all 50 of the links and he asked that Dumb Little Man republish this great list. The decision was pretty simple for me because I actually use these sites as reference for my own writing.

So with that, here is the original list with the updated URLs. Before you start firing off emails to your customers or you embark on that eBook writing project, do yourself a favor and review.

 

 

Click here to view the full, linked list of 50 writing tip articles on dumblittleman.

 

How to Write 2000 Words a Day

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This post originally appeared on the WriteAnon blog on 3/14/11.

The last few weeks, I’ve been trying to write 2000 words or more each day. I’ve found there are a few things that have helped me be successful.

 

1. Don’t sit down to write 2000 words at once.

I’ve found a lot more success when I focus on writing a scene or much smaller goal, like 100 words. I can write 100 words in 3-5 minutes. At that pace, it will take 1-2 hours to write 2000 words. However, blocking aside 1-2 hours seems hard, while blocking a few 30-minute chunks makes it a lot easier. With 30 minutes at lunch, 30 minutes before dinner, and 30 minutes before bed, there are one-and-a-half hours right there. I can usually find the extra time somewhere else (generally a little longer at night).

 

2. Focus on scenes, not word counts

Each of my scenes tends to run from 1000-3000 words. By focusing on completing a scene, I take the pressure off just filling out my word counts, and can focus on completing scenes. The word counts tend to flow after that.

That being said, if I’m stuck, I’ll fall back to just trying to write 100 words. Small goals are easy to achieve.

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes four more specific strategies, on WriteAnon.

 

Start Writing Your Novel Now

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This post by Lovelyn Bettison originally appeared on her blog on 12/6/13.

It’s come to my attention that a lot of people want to write a novel. It seems like most people think they’ve got a book in them, but for some reason they just haven’t gotten around to writing it.

There are a lot of excuses for not sitting down and actually getting to that novel you’ve always dreamed of writing, but this post isn’t about excuses. I don’t want to hear any of those. Many writers have gotten up a few hours earlier than usual to write in the morning before heading out for work. Many have burned the midnight oil after work to write the book they always dreamed of writing.

Walter Mosely wrote his novel, Devil in a Blue Dress, whilst working full time. I heard an interview with Toni Morrison in which she described handwriting The Bluest Eyes on a legal pad with her baby in her arms. If you really want to write a book you will find a way to make it happen. If it is important to you you’ll make time for it.

Here are some tips to get you started.

Make a commitment to write everyday. Writers write. You can’t call yourself a writer if you don’t. Give yourself an allotted amount of time, whatever you feel like you can set aside: an hour, thirty minutes. Whatever you feel like you can do is fine. Sit in front of your computer, with the internet off preferably, and write something. Write anything at first. This is just to get you used to writing.

Even if you only come up with a couple of sentences that’s fine.

 

Click here to read the full post on Lovelyn Bettison’s blog.

 

Be Afraid

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This post by Andrew E. Kaufman originally appeared on The Crime Fiction Collective blog on 1/22/14.

Being a writer is like climbing the tallest peak in the world. We barely get to enjoy the victory, when someone straps us down, tears our shirts open, and tells the vultures to bring it on. Let’s face it: to be an artist is to be vulnerable. And perhaps a little unstable. We pour our souls onto the pages. We sweat. We cry. We scream a lot. We drink ridiculous quantities of coffee, but never enough to combat our emotional and physical exhaustion.

Not to mention, the brutal criticism, and really, there is no way to combat that. We read it, we cringe, and we may (possibly) throw some things (at least, I hear). After that, we pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off, taking what we can use, and throwing away the rest…that is, between the hysterical sobs, and guttural groans (also, of course, not a first hand experience). Other sides of our artistry are a bit less brutal and far more enjoyable. If we do it right, we get to create worlds and characters from nothing other than our hungry imaginations, then watch them flourish into amazing stories. Also if we do it right, we relish in the knowledge that our readers are enjoying them, and more importantly, feeling them. Of course, getting to that point is easier said than done.

In reaching that goal, my approach can be at times… a bit unconventional. Possibly insane. For me, writing a novel means feeling my way through the darkness and through my pages, essentially with no idea what the outcome will be. I don’t plan before I launch into my work. I write on instinct. As I do this, one persistent and nagging question pokes at me: Will this work?

 

Click here to read the full post on The Crime Fiction Collective blog.

 

How to Write a Killer Scene

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This post by Jean Oram originally appeared on The Helpful Writer on 1/30/13.

I’m going to give you a secret on to how to write a killer scene. Are you ready for a very easy and very effective scene writing tip?

 

Come in Late, Leave Early

Wait… what?

Jean, what does “come in late, leave early” mean? And what does that have to do with writing a killer scene?

Let me explain.

 

Come in Late

When writing a good scene, you want to come in late. In other words, once the action is underway. There always has to be some movement or the reader gets bored. For example, I just cut a scene last week where I was not coming in late by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, my character was sitting with her grandmother DISCUSSING what action she should take and her gran suggested some ideas.

Borrrr-ring.

So I came in late. I scratched that scene and opened the next scene of Champagne and Lemon Drops with Beth already taking the action.

The benefit? The reader has to play catch up. Not so much that they feel as though they missed something huge and give up, but enough that they are curious. What is Beth doing? What is her plan? Who is she going to see? They know there is action because they are in it. And not having it all laid out beforehand I’ve created a hook that draws them in.

 

Click here to read the full post on The Helpful Writer.

 

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

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This post originally appeared on the Daily Writing Tips site.

The Yiddish language is a wonderful source of rich expressions, especially terms of endearment (and of course, complaints and insults). This article is a follow up on Ten Yiddish Expressions You Should Know. Jewish scriptwriters introduced many Yiddish words into popular culture, which often changed the original meanings drastically. You might be surprised to learn how much Yiddish you already speak, but also, how many familiar words actually mean something different in real Yiddish.

There is no universally accepted transliteration or spelling; the standard YIVO version is based on the Eastern European Klal Yiddish dialect, while many Yiddish words found in English came from Southern Yiddish dialects. In the 1930s, Yiddish was spoken by more than 10 million people, but by 1945, 75% of them were gone. Today, Yiddish is the language of over 100 newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasts, and websites.

1. baleboste
A good homemaker, a woman who’s in charge of her home and will make sure you remember it.

2. bissel
Or bisl – a little bit.

3. bubbe
Or bobe. It means Grandmother, and bobeshi is the more affectionate form. Bubele is a similarly affectionate word, though it isn’t in Yiddish dictionaries.

4. bupkes
Not a word for polite company. Bubkes or bobkes may be related to the Polish word for “beans”, but it really means “goat droppings” or “horse droppings.” It’s often used by American Jews for “trivial, worthless, useless, a ridiculously small amount” – less than nothing, so to speak. “After all the work I did, I got bupkes!”

5. chutzpah
Or khutspe. Nerve, extreme arrogance, brazen presumption. In English, chutzpah often connotes courage or confidence, but among Yiddish speakers, it is not a compliment.

 

Click here to read the full post on Daily Writing Tips.

 

How Writers Can Stay Productive Even During Sick Days

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This post by Jennifer Mattern originally appeared on the All Indie Writers site on 1/13/14.

So far this year, I’ve had one normal work day. One. Just a day after returning to work from my holiday break, I needed a sick day. That turned into a “sick week.” And it’s now going on week two.

Surprisingly though, those sick days have still been productive days. I launched several new features here on this site. I published several blog posts on various sites I own. I installed and customized a new theme on my business site. And I completed plenty of other smaller projects in a fairly long to-do list.

The key? I stayed away from business emails, and I was officially off in terms of working with clients.

Why was this key? It meant my schedule in no way revolved around anyone else. If I wanted to work for ten minutes, I could. If I wanted to work on something for hours and I felt up to it, I did. And if I wanted to say “to Hell with it” and climb back in bed for the day, I could do that too. It also meant I wasn’t putting out client work when I was far from 100%. That wouldn’t have been good for anyone involved.

By all means, if you feel too sick to do anything, take off completely. Your health should be your top priority. But if you have even a little bit of energy, there are many things you can do to make sure you stay productive, or at least don’t fall too far behind, when you take sick time as a writer.

Here are some specific ideas for work you can do, even when you’re not feeling well.

 

Catch up on some reading.

Read blogs. Read books. Read magazines you plan to query. As a writer, you can never read too much. And this is something you can do even if you’re confined to bed while you recover.

 

Click here to read the full post on All Indie Writers.

 

Show Versus Tell

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This post by Ksenia Anske originally appeared on her blog on 1/14/14. Note that it contains strong language.

Amazing how in the years of writing my blog, I’ve never touched on this subject. How did it get skipped? Perhaps because it’s spoken about everywhere all the time, so it became one of those obvious things everyone heard about and is therefore sick of. I dunno. Let me try a crack at it and see what you think. Of course it’s all about showing and not telling, as we have been told by teachers, writing peers, and all the other smart folk who have written awesome shit and are willing to give out advice. Well, I’ve written shit too, but not much yet, only on my 3rd novel. I can tell you that it’s not so much about show vs tell as it is about you vs your characters. WHAT THE FUCK? You say. WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO SAY THAT? I know, just a newbie writer, but bear with me. Let me explain. Okay, here goes.

It’s not you who is writing the book, it’s your characters. This was hard to realize, because it meant I had to rewrite whole passages in my current draft. What is it, you wonder? It’s life philosophies, the outlooks, the goals, the whatever you want to call it (various sources will call it various things), but basically, it’s what your characters want from life, at least from life you carved out for them in your book. It can be as primitive as getting drunk, still, it’s a valid goal, and with it comes a certain belief in certain things. Like, for example, in IRKADURA I’m describing one old drunk, a chauvinistic communist to the bone (I’ve met people like that) and a people hater, he especially hates those who are not Russian.

 

Click here to read the full post on Ksenia Anske’s blog.

 

Just The Way We Do This Now

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This post, by John E. McIntyre, originally appeared on the Baltimore Sun You Don’t Say column on 1/8/14.

When you hear someone going on about The Rules in English, you should be on your guard, just as when some personage with a clerical collar starts to say, “The Church has always taught. …” You are likely to hear, at best, a misconception, at worst, an outright whopper.

I have tried to establish the usefulness of distinguishing rules from conventions, shibboleths, superstitions, house style, and individual aesthetic preferences.

Take, for example, the eighteenth-century convention of separating subject from verb with a comma. Use it today, and your English teacher will mark it as an error.*

Or, better, take the custom of typing two spaces after a period ending a sentence. It was drilled into generations of students in typing class as a Rule, and it became a firmly established habit. Just try to explain to these people that proportional type in word processing software has made that obsolete, and you get reactions like those of gun owners convinced that black helicopters are in the air, full of jackbooted federal thugs determined to loot their arsenals.**

 

Click here to read the full post (and asterisked footnotes) on You Don’t Say.

 

25 Things A Great Character Needs

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This post, by Chuck Wendig, originally appeared on his terribleminds site on 1/13/14. Note that it may contain strong language.

1. A Personality

This seems rather obvious, sure — in a way it’s like saying, “What makes a really good tree is that it has an essential treeness” — but just the same, it bears mentioning. Because some characters read like cardboard. They’re like white crayon on white paper. Sure, the characters run around and they do shit and say shit but none of it has anything to do with character and has everything to do with plot — as if the characters are just another mechanism to get to the next action sequence, the next plot point, the next frazza wazza wuzza buzza whatever. Point is: your character needs a personality, and the rest of this list should help you get there.

 

2. Agency

The character should run an advertising agency. *is handed a note* Oh! Oh. I mean, The character should belong to the FBI and– *gets another note* JESUS CHRIST WITH THE NOTES, PEOPLE. But fine, yes, okay, I get it now. Agency means that the character is active, not passive. The character makes decisions and is attempting to control her own destiny as an independent operator within the story. She is not a leaf in the stream but rather the rock that breaks the river. *receives one more note* Oh, thank you, what a wonderful note! I do agree my beard is sexy, yes. I know! So rich! So full! So shiny. I oil it with secretions from squeezed ermine scent glands which also lends it that musky zing that sort of… crawls up your nose. *flicks beard sweat at you*

 

3. Motivation

Characters want things. They need things. They are motivated by these desires and requirements and they spend an entire story trying to fulfill them. That’s one of the base level components of a story: a character acts in service to his motivations but obstacles (frequently other characters) stand in his way. We need to know what impels a character. What are her motives? If we don’t know or cannot parse those motivations, her role in the story is alien to us.

 

4. Fear

Everybody’s afraid of something. Death. Taxes. Bees. Dogs. Love. Carnival workers. Ocelots. (I am afraid of the number 34 and the color “puce.”) Characters suffer from their own personal fears relevant to the story at hand. Characters without fear are basically robots who use their pneumatic doom-claws to puncture any sense of engagement and belief we have in the story you’ve created. The great thing about being a storyteller isn’t just giving characters fear — it’s ensuring that that their fears will arise and be present in the tale at hand. You shall be cruel. This cruelty shall be great fun and a veritable giggle-fest because storytellers are dicks.

 

Click here to read the full post on terribleminds.

Also see Chuck Wendig’s The Zero-Fuckery Guide To Kick-Ass Characters, from the same site.

 

William Saroyan International Prize for Writing

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Nominations are now being accepted for the Saroyan International Prize for Writing, which awards $5000 each to a fiction winner and nonfiction winner. Deadline for nominations is 1/31/14. From the Stanford University Libraries site:

The Stanford University Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation jointly award the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, a biennial competition for newly-published books.

The prize commemorates the life, legacy and intentions of William Saroyan – author, artist, dramatist, composer – and is intended to encourage new or emerging writers, rather than to recognize established literary figures.

Entries are now being accepted for the 2014 Prize and must be received by January 31, 2014. Please view the FAQ page for further information.

Funding sponsored in part by Stanford Associates.

 

Click here to view the Saroyan International Prize web page, where full details of the judging criteria and award process can be accessed.

 

A Writer’s Greatest Crime

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This post, by Shannon Donnelly, originally appeared on Writers In The Storm on 1/6/14.

There are a lot of crimes a writer can commit—the torture of sentences, the mangling of meaning, the wrecking of words through using the wrong one at the wrong time. However, the greatest of these is the crime of lack—to forget to put in the emotion.

Now, emotions come in lots of ways and there are lots of opportunities to layer them in, but you have to remember you’re not just putting down words. You are constructing a believable scene with what should be memorable characters (people in other words). And people come with emotions.

Let’s look at the ways to make sure you get the emotion into your scenes.

 

1. Add emotion through actions.

This goes back to the old ‘show, don’t tell’ advice. You want to show your characters in action so the reader sees who your characters are. Does a character slam a door when he’s angry, or talk softly? Does a character laugh when nervous? Or pick her nose?

Little bits of actions can say a lot about a person. The man who stops to polish his side mirror on his corvette and wipe the speck of dust from its apple-cherry paint job reveals his love of his car. The woman who is always twirling a strand of hair is a flirt. The boy who pops his gum whenever his mother is talking is showing how little he listens to her. Those actions all say something about that character—they show emotions at work.

 

2. Let emotion color descriptions.

 

Click here to read the rest of the article on Writers In The Storm.

 

The 38 Most Haunting Abandoned Places On Earth

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This largely pictorial post from Jake Heppner on Distractify can provide some instant inspiration for authors of all kinds, not just horror or thriller writers. Included among the sometimes creepy, sometimes tragic, sometimes poignant photos:

Pripyat, a city of nearly 50,000, was totally abandoned after the nearby Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Due to radiation, it has been left untouched ever since the incident and will be for many thousands of years into the future. Nature now rules the city in what resembles an apocalyptic movie.

[An] abandoned farmhouse in New York state also acts as a graveyard for many vintage cars which are now empty shells of their former selves.

The Ryugyong Hotel is a true display of North Korea’s madness. Work started on this 105 story hotel only a few years before a massive famine plagued the country. Abandoned for 16 years, work once again began in 2008, when it was coated in $150 million worth of glass. Foreign guests have reported that although the structure now looks complete on the outside, a lot of the interior is still abandoned and incomplete.

Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane was built in 1869 and closed in 1995. Housing 4000 patients at its peak, more than half of the 50,000 patients who called Willard Asylum their home died within its walls. This makes the asylums morgue (pictured above) one of the creepiest places we can imagine. By its closure, most patients were eventually integrated back into society, but in the early days “people didn’t leave unless it was in a box.”

 

Click here to view the full post on Distractify.