- Joined
- Aug 23, 2007
- Messages
- 465
Let Class Begin!
ok I'm going to try posting some writing tips and strategies that people that are into writing can start using to improve their writing. Now these are only things I do and there are many more strategies out their but these should be helpful.
Lesson one:
Beginning your story
When your going to begin writing a story, plan it out beforehand. It is much easier to plan out your story in your head and write a story board than to start free writing randomly and try writing a whole story. Free writing is useful when trying to hone your skills but not when writing a whole story.
When creating a story board you should plan out the key pieces. The plot is one of the most important. Creating the plot can give you the basis of the whole story. After you have this you can begin writing out a small character board. The most important characters of the story should be placed in this, not the miscellaneous characters with small parts.
Once you've created a story board you should have a great start on writing your story.
Lesson two:
Writing tips
When your writing your story try to avoid words that are very often used. Words like there, is, them, they. If your one of those people who isn't a walking thesaurus, then you can easily grab one from a store or use the online thesaurus and dictionary. Using the thesaurus can greatly improve your writing, but a warning, make sure your vocabulary works well with the characters background. If your story's main character is a stone age warrior, his vocabulary shouldn't be extremely advanced unless you leave his background very well educated. You should have good vocabulary but only when appropriate.
When your trying to write, find an environment that suits you. If you need to concentrate to let your ideas flow don't sit in a room with the tv on or with music blaring. If need be, go outside or find a quite, calming space where you can sit and think very easily. You'll find that you can come up with good ideas when you take the time to think.
When you want to write a story, don't force it. You should let the ideas come to you. When you try to force yourself to write, your story can come out very poorly written. A lot of writers write about personal experiences and write fictional stories from them, while others can have strange dreams and write stories based off these ideas. Stories like Frankenstein were written from dreams the author had.
Lesson three:
Revising and editing.
When you are finished with your writing make sure to revise and edit your work to make it the best it can be. Take your piece and have a friend or two read through it and correct possible mistakes and give advice on your writing. And very importantly, read it over yourself. Once silently and once or twice out loud. When you read out loud you'll be surprised at how many mistakes you missed on your own. Remember it's ok that you have mistakes, and it's very rare to write a piece that is flawless the first time. Another good way to get help with your work is to post it on a writing forum or right here on the hive.
Heres a helpful program when trying to make your story sound better. Thesaurus
Lesson four:
Research and setting:
When you are writing your story, no matter what it is your writing, one of the most important aspects is the setting. Where your story takes place can have a drastic effect on your story judging on the theme and the location. For example, if your story is a mystery story and you want to have very descriptive pieces for your plot, you'll need to know of a good setting to fit in for your story. It's always fun to write a story based in your home town that way when your going around town you can imagine the scenes in your story playing out in your head. You do not however need to use a real location for your setting. When I write a story and create my own setting I like to draw out a map. By doing this I can play out parts of the story in my head and imagine what the location would look like. You'll notice in some books on the inside cover their will be a map of the setting or world. This is there to assist the reader in understanding what the area looks like and how it is laid out. If your writing your story and the layout makes no sense the story may not make sense, therefore when creating a setting you will need to take in real world aspects unless your story is an abstract setting.
Now, when you use a real world setting as your story setting, you may want to do research. Research is as important as the setting. By doing research you can get a picture of the setting in your head and imagine out scenes in the pictures or maps your viewing. A good way to observe a location is by googleing or searching for pictures on another search site. The pictures will help you more than you may think.
Now research doesn't just include the setting. It also includes looking up help for creating names with different meanings, certain subjects yours not fully educated on, or any other tidbits you may need to know for your story. I'm writing a story that doves into the world of demons. Now my story isn't going to based around the real world demons =in different religious beliefs, BUT I was able to get ideas for the demons powers or even names that could resemble the names of the mythical creatures. Research can help beef your story up making it more interesting and help it make more sense to the reader.
Lesson five:
When to write:
Now a lot of my friends that are into writing ask me when to write. They always wonder if they should push themselves to write a story or if they should force themselves to write on a certain topic. The only time you should force yourself to write is for school work or for other work. When you want to write a story you should start out with outlining. Ease into the story with the easy part and work your way into the thick of writing the story. "But what if I get writers block and can't continue but I want to?" I've had this problem plenty of times. You want to write so bad but just can't get the writing to sound good or can't get ideas. Now again, do not force yourself. By forcing yourself you'll end up with a very bad read. On my current story I'm working on I haven't even completed the first chapter even though I've written seven different whole chapters. I didn't like them so I've stopped for the time being to re plan out the whole chapter so the writing will be easier. I've written out what events will be key parts and must be included. Now when I feel I can I'll go to writing it and add in filling pieces between the key parts. This will help me keep my writing to the point where I wanted to write it and make it to the best of my ability.
By stopping and waiting you may actually help your story even if you don't get it finished as fast as you would like to. Now writers block is definitely hard to deal with for some people. If you have any other thoughts on way to get rid of it or if you need more help feel free to post.
Lesson six:
Types of Writing
There are different types of writing. By types I'm referring to the, type of career writing I suppose. Meaning novel, journalism, non-fiction book writing or any other type you can think of. These are all different types of writing, yes, but the different types have many similar writing styles and tips that can help you.
When writing novels you should follow the tips and steps I've given above but when writing as a journalist you should write from a different point of view or perspective. When your writing as a journalist, depending on who is taking your writing, you must adjust your style and point of view accordingly. If your writing on news or events that occur you should write as someone who is only reporting what happened, giving only the hard facts. This means not giving an opinion in the writing. If you like to be very opinionated then you should write either for certain papers who accept these types of articles or as a blogger.
There are also books with very specific writing requirements for journalists. Now between Journalism and novel writing there's also non-fiction. For non-fiction writing you are to write the exact facts. I'm not extremely skilled in non-fiction though so if you are really into this you should probably look it up somewhere else sorry =)
Lesson seven:
Your writing and what to do with it
I'm sure a lot of people write just random things every now and then, and most likely they throw it away thinking it's useless. Well it's not! If you write say ideas or just small stories you should save them! If you ever get into writing in the future you can look back at all your old writing you have saved and maybe get inspiration or even more ideas from your old pieces. You'd be surprised at how helpful your old writing can be.
Now if you write on free paper that's not in a notebook you my want to get a filing cabinet or a binder to put your writing into. If you like to be a little more organized you could make a writing journal. Get a notebook that is specifically for writing and just write, anything and everything. Write about events that happen in you life. Write small stories. You can always get ideas by looking back at any of these things. Very very useful.
Helpful links for the aspiring writer.
Writing forums: A very helpful community of writers. Good place to get reviews and opinions as well.
Critique Circle: A great place for reviews and opinions. Great writers to help you. Probably the best reviewing you can find.
Writing Prompts: For those times you can't think of anything to write, this is the place to go.
Happy Writing!
and remember Practice makes Perfect!
ok I'm going to try posting some writing tips and strategies that people that are into writing can start using to improve their writing. Now these are only things I do and there are many more strategies out their but these should be helpful.
Lesson one:
Beginning your story
When your going to begin writing a story, plan it out beforehand. It is much easier to plan out your story in your head and write a story board than to start free writing randomly and try writing a whole story. Free writing is useful when trying to hone your skills but not when writing a whole story.
When creating a story board you should plan out the key pieces. The plot is one of the most important. Creating the plot can give you the basis of the whole story. After you have this you can begin writing out a small character board. The most important characters of the story should be placed in this, not the miscellaneous characters with small parts.
Once you've created a story board you should have a great start on writing your story.
Lesson two:
Writing tips
When your writing your story try to avoid words that are very often used. Words like there, is, them, they. If your one of those people who isn't a walking thesaurus, then you can easily grab one from a store or use the online thesaurus and dictionary. Using the thesaurus can greatly improve your writing, but a warning, make sure your vocabulary works well with the characters background. If your story's main character is a stone age warrior, his vocabulary shouldn't be extremely advanced unless you leave his background very well educated. You should have good vocabulary but only when appropriate.
When your trying to write, find an environment that suits you. If you need to concentrate to let your ideas flow don't sit in a room with the tv on or with music blaring. If need be, go outside or find a quite, calming space where you can sit and think very easily. You'll find that you can come up with good ideas when you take the time to think.
When you want to write a story, don't force it. You should let the ideas come to you. When you try to force yourself to write, your story can come out very poorly written. A lot of writers write about personal experiences and write fictional stories from them, while others can have strange dreams and write stories based off these ideas. Stories like Frankenstein were written from dreams the author had.
Lesson three:
Revising and editing.
When you are finished with your writing make sure to revise and edit your work to make it the best it can be. Take your piece and have a friend or two read through it and correct possible mistakes and give advice on your writing. And very importantly, read it over yourself. Once silently and once or twice out loud. When you read out loud you'll be surprised at how many mistakes you missed on your own. Remember it's ok that you have mistakes, and it's very rare to write a piece that is flawless the first time. Another good way to get help with your work is to post it on a writing forum or right here on the hive.
Heres a helpful program when trying to make your story sound better. Thesaurus
Lesson four:
Research and setting:
When you are writing your story, no matter what it is your writing, one of the most important aspects is the setting. Where your story takes place can have a drastic effect on your story judging on the theme and the location. For example, if your story is a mystery story and you want to have very descriptive pieces for your plot, you'll need to know of a good setting to fit in for your story. It's always fun to write a story based in your home town that way when your going around town you can imagine the scenes in your story playing out in your head. You do not however need to use a real location for your setting. When I write a story and create my own setting I like to draw out a map. By doing this I can play out parts of the story in my head and imagine what the location would look like. You'll notice in some books on the inside cover their will be a map of the setting or world. This is there to assist the reader in understanding what the area looks like and how it is laid out. If your writing your story and the layout makes no sense the story may not make sense, therefore when creating a setting you will need to take in real world aspects unless your story is an abstract setting.
Now, when you use a real world setting as your story setting, you may want to do research. Research is as important as the setting. By doing research you can get a picture of the setting in your head and imagine out scenes in the pictures or maps your viewing. A good way to observe a location is by googleing or searching for pictures on another search site. The pictures will help you more than you may think.
Now research doesn't just include the setting. It also includes looking up help for creating names with different meanings, certain subjects yours not fully educated on, or any other tidbits you may need to know for your story. I'm writing a story that doves into the world of demons. Now my story isn't going to based around the real world demons =in different religious beliefs, BUT I was able to get ideas for the demons powers or even names that could resemble the names of the mythical creatures. Research can help beef your story up making it more interesting and help it make more sense to the reader.
Lesson five:
When to write:
Now a lot of my friends that are into writing ask me when to write. They always wonder if they should push themselves to write a story or if they should force themselves to write on a certain topic. The only time you should force yourself to write is for school work or for other work. When you want to write a story you should start out with outlining. Ease into the story with the easy part and work your way into the thick of writing the story. "But what if I get writers block and can't continue but I want to?" I've had this problem plenty of times. You want to write so bad but just can't get the writing to sound good or can't get ideas. Now again, do not force yourself. By forcing yourself you'll end up with a very bad read. On my current story I'm working on I haven't even completed the first chapter even though I've written seven different whole chapters. I didn't like them so I've stopped for the time being to re plan out the whole chapter so the writing will be easier. I've written out what events will be key parts and must be included. Now when I feel I can I'll go to writing it and add in filling pieces between the key parts. This will help me keep my writing to the point where I wanted to write it and make it to the best of my ability.
By stopping and waiting you may actually help your story even if you don't get it finished as fast as you would like to. Now writers block is definitely hard to deal with for some people. If you have any other thoughts on way to get rid of it or if you need more help feel free to post.
Lesson six:
Types of Writing
There are different types of writing. By types I'm referring to the, type of career writing I suppose. Meaning novel, journalism, non-fiction book writing or any other type you can think of. These are all different types of writing, yes, but the different types have many similar writing styles and tips that can help you.
When writing novels you should follow the tips and steps I've given above but when writing as a journalist you should write from a different point of view or perspective. When your writing as a journalist, depending on who is taking your writing, you must adjust your style and point of view accordingly. If your writing on news or events that occur you should write as someone who is only reporting what happened, giving only the hard facts. This means not giving an opinion in the writing. If you like to be very opinionated then you should write either for certain papers who accept these types of articles or as a blogger.
There are also books with very specific writing requirements for journalists. Now between Journalism and novel writing there's also non-fiction. For non-fiction writing you are to write the exact facts. I'm not extremely skilled in non-fiction though so if you are really into this you should probably look it up somewhere else sorry =)
Lesson seven:
Your writing and what to do with it
I'm sure a lot of people write just random things every now and then, and most likely they throw it away thinking it's useless. Well it's not! If you write say ideas or just small stories you should save them! If you ever get into writing in the future you can look back at all your old writing you have saved and maybe get inspiration or even more ideas from your old pieces. You'd be surprised at how helpful your old writing can be.
Now if you write on free paper that's not in a notebook you my want to get a filing cabinet or a binder to put your writing into. If you like to be a little more organized you could make a writing journal. Get a notebook that is specifically for writing and just write, anything and everything. Write about events that happen in you life. Write small stories. You can always get ideas by looking back at any of these things. Very very useful.
Helpful links for the aspiring writer.
Writing forums: A very helpful community of writers. Good place to get reviews and opinions as well.
Critique Circle: A great place for reviews and opinions. Great writers to help you. Probably the best reviewing you can find.
Writing Prompts: For those times you can't think of anything to write, this is the place to go.
Happy Writing!
and remember Practice makes Perfect!
Last edited:
