How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word
Find a Subject You Care About Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. I am not urging you to write a novel, by the way — although I would not be sorry if you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about something.
There's a Word for That: 25 Expressions You Should Have in Your Vocabulary
Recently I came across this amazing little Tumblr named ‘OtherWordly‘ – itself a play on words. It consists of a collection of strange and lovely words from different languages through different times. What I like most about this selection of consonants and vowels – little meaning-carrying packages of vibration – is that they all try to point to the unspeakable, the transient or the neglected. That which we forget in the busyness of our daily grind. Words have the power to remind us – and therefore we should choose our words carefully so we are reminded of the things that nourish our souls.
Data Mining Novels Reveals the Six Basic Emotional Arcs of Storytelling
Back in 1995, Kurt Vonnegut gave a lecture in which he described his theory about the shapes of stories. In the process, he plotted several examples on a blackboard. “There is no reason why the simple shapes of stories can’t be fed into computers,” he said.
How To Deflate Those Inflated Phrases - Writers Write
Don’t use complicated, cluttered phrases when concise writing will do. Simplicity is the magical ingredient in communicating. We receive many emails every day. We are bombarded with adverts, proposals, requests and reports. Why do we respond to some and ignore others? I ignore messages that are full of meaningless rambling words and phrases.
Kids explain how banned and challenged books helped them and even saved their lives / Boing Boing
By Joan Bertin and Millie Davis Banned Books Week has come and gone but we can be sure of one thing: the coming year will be marked by challenges to the same kinds of books that were controversial this year, and in years past. report this ad Controversies over what books are taught in class or shelved in the school library typically start when an adult—usually a parent or community member—feels that a book selected by teachers and librarians is inappropriate, offensive or objectionable.
How to Punctuate Quotations in Statements
To write proper English, you need to follow all the punctuation rules, even the illogical ones. Punctuation with quotations gives many people problems. Here you look at the proper punctuation for statements in quotations with and without speaker tags. Quotations with speaker tags Dumb rule 1: When the speaker tag comes first, put a comma after the speaker tag.
10 books that will make you a better writer (and why)
Last week, I wrote about 25 habits that will make you a better writer. This week, I thought — let’s dive into books. After twenty-plus years writing, I’ve collected some resources that I absolutely couldn’t do with out. I love borrowing books. But there are some books that a writer really should have in their own personal for-keeps libraries.
Rules for Comma Usage
Use a comma to separate the elements in a series (three or more things), including the last two. "He hit the ball, dropped the bat, and ran to first base." You may have learned that the comma before the "and" is unnecessary, which is fine if you're in control of things. However, there are situations in which, if you don't use this comma (especially when the list is complex or lengthy), these last two items in the list will try to glom together (like macaroni and cheese). Using a comma between all the items in a series, including the last two, avoids this problem.
Iraqi Refugee Empowers Youth To Share Their Stories With 'Narratio'
When Ahmed Badr was 8 years old, his family fled Baghdad in the midst of the Iraq War. Writing helped him process his experience, so he started the website Narratio to give other young people the same opportunity. Ariel Edelman hide caption
How to Punctuate Dialogue
December 8, 2010 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill last modified April 18, 2016 The PDF Punctuation in Dialogue ($0.99) and The Magic of Fiction (available in paperback and PDF) both contain expanded and updated versions of this material. Dialogue h as its own rules for punctuation. Commas go in particular places, as do terminal marks such as periods and question marks.
The Craft of Character Development
Aimie K. Runyan As an author of historical fiction, my work must—almost by definition—begin with a concept.
Ep 88: How to Develop Your Own Self-Study Writing Course - Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:00 — 4.6MB) | Embed Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS As you go about the work of writing, and the business of writing, don’t forget to study the craft of writing.
6 Easy Steps to Unforgettable Characters
By Laurence MacNaughton, @LMacNaughton Part of the How They Do It Series (Contributing Author) Readers will pick up your book because of the concept, but they’ll keep reading because of the characters. No matter what genre you write in, interesting characters are absolutely essential to a well-told story. So what's the easiest way to create them?
Thinking Through Our Fingers
A picture is worth a thousand words. We’re all familiar with that idiom. As writers, our goal is to use way fewer than a thousand words to paint that perfect picture.
