Tuesday Writing Essentials

Good morning, Kimberly. Interesting question but a little too early for me.

I will answer your question as soon as my brain catches up with my body. Meanwhile have a great day.

Trust your own voice.

LMAO @ John....definitely way too early for you, I think! :)

he's sleep typing I think, reena :)

Good morning, great article. The suggested book is like a bible to me

The Artists' Way, Deborah? Have you read any of her others? I have them all but haven't read them yet.... one o' these days... when all my papers are done...!

The best advice I ever got came from Stephen King's book On Writing. Among other things, he said not to get caught up in the editing process until you've finished with the first draft. The idea is just to write and write and get it all out, then go back and edit. Otherwise, you'll nitpick so much that you won't ever finish. That advice greatly helped me get through a lot of stuff. I think it also explains why his books sometime suck. =)

Good tips flit. I read things out loud to my hubby. I usually spot the problems right away and if I dont he sure does.

Reading out loud is a great idea! I haven't thought of that since way back in the 1970's when I used to do TV commercials.....will have to get a bit nostalgic and try that exercise again!

The best advice I've ever gotten is to read and write every single day. If you love poetry, read poetry....and write it every day. It doesn't have to be perfect....just write. You can always go back and revise.

Another great piece of advice is to always keep a paper and pen with you. You never know when your muse will strike or an idea, phrase, or thought will come to your head. And try as you may to remember it later...chances are it will be gone unless you write it down.

Write from the 'heart'!

"get busy"... that's what I hear a lot. I guess I am a lazy bum. I don't want to write, I am not a writer. I just want to READ!

So I guess you get to run around and nag the rest of us - at least those of us that you want to read, Duckie.... oh! I know what I forgot to do ...thanks for the reminder!

Reading out loud is wonderful advice, and probably the best I have received, as well. I tend to write long, interwoven sentences. Reading them out loud helps me to realize when I should perhaps chop them up just a bit.

My favorite teacher told us to write like we talk and not to use a $1 word where a .25 cent word will do. I always liked that.

After years of writing quietly for myself and hoping to be published, I joined a WRITER'S WORKSHOP, formed a poetry group here in the UK where we WROTE FROM PROMPTS and really began to turn out great works.

After some difficulties in my personal life, I read Julia Cameron's THE RIGHT TO WRITE which really gave me back my confidence. Yes, I do MORNING PAGES and FREEWRITES now, several years after the experience of reading the book.

The poetry group was invited to READ OUT our own poems at a Cultural Festival, which is where I got the 'performance bug.'

More recently, I signed up for a university course on Creative Writing, a seriously great way of STUDYING HOW TO WRITE. Although it wasn't a 'literature course,' you are expected to go through a lot of reading but also a great deal of WRITING FROM PROMPTS. I took my study books to Keswick last year during the Words Across The Water LITERARY FESTIVAL where many professional writers were speaking, which is always encouraging. Andrew Motion spoke about his experience of being an author.

During a visit to the Edinburgh Festival, also last year, I performed my poetry, but also sat in front of a group of three pictures in an art gallery, making notes, which formed the nucleus of my last assignment of the course. I've written many pieces I am pleased with, some of which I shall enter into WRITING COMPETITIONS. One of the best things about the course experience for me was to CUT-CUT-CUT! I found no problems with doing draft after draft until I was happy with the piece as well as being within the word count. (Aaron Lazar on gather had some really good advice about cutting. Eventually, he suggested, you begin to write more concisely!)

PROMPTS can come from anywhere; overheard conversations in a cafe, a photograph, a group of randomly chosen words, a memory of a building or a person and so on. One of the most fascinating, yet mysterious, groups of pictures I saw in Sheffield, Yorkshire, was done by GREGORY CREWDSON. I suggest to any writer that they will see a story in each picture, but it will be YOUR OWN STORY!

Next month, I'm off to the YORK LITERARY FESTIVAL for some poetry performance, as well as encouraging talks and information from many published authors.

Never look back and mourn what you haven't done! Do it today! KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON!

My favorite writing advice actually came from a quote by Spencer Tracy (perhaps the greatest actor of all time).

He once said, "When you think about acting, don't."

In other words, keep it real.

The read it aloud advice, I give that to everyone. It's invaluable, and something my 10th grade Creative Writing class teacher taught me.

Use spell check....and often....LOL

Wow, jerome... think that could have been a whole feature article... excellent ideas... thanks to all of you

Edward Nudelman has written a beautiful poem about our earth. It is well worth reading.

Edit....cut. Don't be trite ...or too dramatic...i'm working on all o' that!

I am still laughing at the Kimberly, lol

Trish wrote an article about developing characters some time ago that I found useful. I'll see if I can find it.

Here it is. It's called One Way to Flesh Out Characters.

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977095583&nav=Namespace

I think you need to figure out what motivates you. For some people, it's a deadline. For others, it's the story (and if you re-read what you have started, that might jumpstart you). Other people need a purpose or topic. Others need encouragement. Try to figure out what motivates you and put yourself there. If a writers group helps, do that. For me, money is my motivator, and short things, so I write short articles to sell to places or post here.