does anyone have advice on how i can become a better writing ... common responses would be 'read more' and 'write more' although i'm wondering if there is anything else ?
writer
I am currently doing a course called 'Creative Writing'. There are a number of similar courses that you could do. Prior to doing this course, I did a course in Higher English. You could also do courses in Journalism. If you were to look at the syllabus for degrees in English, I am sure that you would find some subjects and topics more interesting than others.
I went to a lesson this evening. The teacher was saying there is a difference between 'telling and showing'.
"The night was cold and wet." Telling
"Sue shivered as the cold rain lashed against her face." Showing
In the second example, the feelings and actions of the character are explored. The reader is allowed to make his or her own mind up. On this course we are encouraged to show, rather than to tell. We are also encouraged to use 'direct action' rather than 'passive description'.
I went to a lesson this evening. The teacher was saying there is a difference between 'telling and showing'.
"The night was cold and wet." Telling
"Sue shivered as the cold rain lashed against her face." Showing
In the second example, the feelings and actions of the character are explored. The reader is allowed to make his or her own mind up. On this course we are encouraged to show, rather than to tell. We are also encouraged to use 'direct action' rather than 'passive description'.
<<The night was cold and wet.">>
Good English.
<<"Sue shivered as the cold rain lashed against her face.">>
Mush.
<<does anyone have advice on how i can become a better writing >>
Avoid Creative Writing courses.
Good English.
<<"Sue shivered as the cold rain lashed against her face.">>
Mush.
<<does anyone have advice on how i can become a better writing >>
Avoid Creative Writing courses.
i have no interest in attending courses... my idea is to just read and write until im good , but i'm looking for further factors that could benefically improve my chances of being a good writer ??
Don't listen to what they tell you in creative writing courses. Get your own style and don't listen to some failed author who had to resort to giving courses because their own writing was shit. There are no rules that you have to adhere to. You don't have to "show" instead of "tell". You can "show" or "tell" depending on a whole bunch of shit that can't be described in a course or by anything else.
By reading books, you will get to know various patterns authors employ in writing. In this sense, reading helps your creativity. Or get some books on 'mechanics of english', rhetorics, etc.
<<any authors i should study specifically ? >>
How about "Damian from Dunedin (or wherever) "
How about "Damian from Dunedin (or wherever) "
guest 123 Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:42 pm GMT:
<< does anyone have advice on how i can become a better writing ... common responses would be 'read more' and 'write more' although i'm wondering if there is anything else ? >>
If your post is intended to be serious, ...
I'm not a native speaker, so I could've got something wrong, but to my mind it's either ... become a better writer ... or ... get a better writing style ...
Somewhere on this website there's advice on how to get a better writing style quickly just by doing correct orthography and proper punctuation.
So, what kind of texts do you write? Stories, novels, newpaper articels, etc? Do you use a text processing program or just sheets of plain paper?
If you use a computer, I would recommend you LaTeX to typeset your texts. You just need a simple text editor (the more simple, the better) and install MiKTeX where LaTeX is a part of it. With LaTeX you can get professionally typesetted texts only by providing some markup concernig the intended structure of the text. LaTeX will e.g. automacically hyphenate your texts, give chapter numbers, make a table of contents and many many more. You can make comments by using the % sign or by employing the verbatim package and using comment environments.
% This is a comment
\begin{comment}
Here's the text of your comment:
Yes, there can be
lots of lines
of comment ...
\end{comment}
So you can keep older versions of sentences, passages in the source file. That's to avoid circular corrections every time you reread your text.
<< does anyone have advice on how i can become a better writing ... common responses would be 'read more' and 'write more' although i'm wondering if there is anything else ? >>
If your post is intended to be serious, ...
I'm not a native speaker, so I could've got something wrong, but to my mind it's either ... become a better writer ... or ... get a better writing style ...
Somewhere on this website there's advice on how to get a better writing style quickly just by doing correct orthography and proper punctuation.
So, what kind of texts do you write? Stories, novels, newpaper articels, etc? Do you use a text processing program or just sheets of plain paper?
If you use a computer, I would recommend you LaTeX to typeset your texts. You just need a simple text editor (the more simple, the better) and install MiKTeX where LaTeX is a part of it. With LaTeX you can get professionally typesetted texts only by providing some markup concernig the intended structure of the text. LaTeX will e.g. automacically hyphenate your texts, give chapter numbers, make a table of contents and many many more. You can make comments by using the % sign or by employing the verbatim package and using comment environments.
% This is a comment
\begin{comment}
Here's the text of your comment:
Yes, there can be
lots of lines
of comment ...
\end{comment}
So you can keep older versions of sentences, passages in the source file. That's to avoid circular corrections every time you reread your text.
When I read your suggestion about getting 'Latex' to typeset texts. My immediate response was: You must be joking! I thought you were referring to a type of rubber.
Most people are quite happy with Microsoft Word. Some people don't like Microsoft in which case there are a lot of free alternatives.
(Typesetting is a different thing.)
Creative Writng
Creative writing in this context; just means writing an imaginative short story. There is no need for chapters or bibliographies.
The sort of tip that we are given in class is 'show', don't tell.
The day was wet and cold. Telling
Showing
Describe in such a way that the reader can imagine how wet and cold the day is.
Showing
The people in the street hurried from shop to shop trying to avoid the driving rain. In each shop doorway there was a welcome blast of heat, which lasted a few seconds before they made their way to the next doorway.
The other thing that we are being advised to do, which I do not find particularly easy, is to 'use all your senses'. Sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch, I think that is it. So to continue with my example:
Showing with reference to smell, taste, touch, etc.
The people in the street hurried from shop to shop. In each shop doorway there was a blast of hot air that smelt of stale tobacco smoke, cheap perfume and body odour. The driving rain washed the street clean. The doorways, untouched by the rain, smelt of urine and sick. Susan pulled her jacket together to zip it up. She searched her pocket for a woollen hat. If only she had remembered her scarf!
I do not claim to be an expert.
Most people are quite happy with Microsoft Word. Some people don't like Microsoft in which case there are a lot of free alternatives.
(Typesetting is a different thing.)
Creative Writng
Creative writing in this context; just means writing an imaginative short story. There is no need for chapters or bibliographies.
The sort of tip that we are given in class is 'show', don't tell.
The day was wet and cold. Telling
Showing
Describe in such a way that the reader can imagine how wet and cold the day is.
Showing
The people in the street hurried from shop to shop trying to avoid the driving rain. In each shop doorway there was a welcome blast of heat, which lasted a few seconds before they made their way to the next doorway.
The other thing that we are being advised to do, which I do not find particularly easy, is to 'use all your senses'. Sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch, I think that is it. So to continue with my example:
Showing with reference to smell, taste, touch, etc.
The people in the street hurried from shop to shop. In each shop doorway there was a blast of hot air that smelt of stale tobacco smoke, cheap perfume and body odour. The driving rain washed the street clean. The doorways, untouched by the rain, smelt of urine and sick. Susan pulled her jacket together to zip it up. She searched her pocket for a woollen hat. If only she had remembered her scarf!
I do not claim to be an expert.
If we go back to the original comment.
<<
does anyone have advice on how i can become a better writing ... common responses would be 'read more' and 'write more' although i'm wondering if there is anything else ?
>>
By simply running this through the spell-checker / grammar checker of Microsoft Word a number of mistakes would be spotted straight away.
After the automatic corrections:
Does anyone have advice on how I can become a better writing ... common responses would be 'read more' and 'write more' although I’m wondering if there is anything else?
I know from experience that the spell/grammar checker is not perfect, but it is a start.
I have spotted a mistake.
become better at writing
or
become a better writer
ANSWER: Microsoft Word
<<
does anyone have advice on how i can become a better writing ... common responses would be 'read more' and 'write more' although i'm wondering if there is anything else ?
>>
By simply running this through the spell-checker / grammar checker of Microsoft Word a number of mistakes would be spotted straight away.
After the automatic corrections:
Does anyone have advice on how I can become a better writing ... common responses would be 'read more' and 'write more' although I’m wondering if there is anything else?
I know from experience that the spell/grammar checker is not perfect, but it is a start.
I have spotted a mistake.
become better at writing
or
become a better writer
ANSWER: Microsoft Word
I had a look at your links.
TeX is a typesetting system written by Donald E. Knuth, who says that it is "intended for the creation of beautiful books - and especially for books that contain a lot of mathematics".
Here are two links to LaTeX and related materials:
http://www.dante.de/
http://miktex.org/
To answer another question.
<<
Get your own style and don't listen to some failed author who had to resort to giving courses because their own writing was shit.
>>
First of all I don't think much of a writing style that uses words like 'shit'. Secondly the teacher of the creative writing course has taught at University level, got various degrees and qualifications in English, contributed to a televsion show, and written an essay on Shakespeare that is available for purchase.
Quite often aclaimed authors like James Joyce, struggle to make a living out of writing alone, and have to make a living doing other things like teaching English to foreigners.
TeX is a typesetting system written by Donald E. Knuth, who says that it is "intended for the creation of beautiful books - and especially for books that contain a lot of mathematics".
Here are two links to LaTeX and related materials:
http://www.dante.de/
http://miktex.org/
To answer another question.
<<
Get your own style and don't listen to some failed author who had to resort to giving courses because their own writing was shit.
>>
First of all I don't think much of a writing style that uses words like 'shit'. Secondly the teacher of the creative writing course has taught at University level, got various degrees and qualifications in English, contributed to a televsion show, and written an essay on Shakespeare that is available for purchase.
Quite often aclaimed authors like James Joyce, struggle to make a living out of writing alone, and have to make a living doing other things like teaching English to foreigners.
<<When I read your suggestion about getting 'Latex' to typeset texts. My immediate response was: You must be joking! I thought you were referring to a type of rubber.
Most people are quite happy with Microsoft Word. Some people don't like Microsoft in which case there are a lot of free alternatives.
(Typesetting is a different thing.)>>
It's actually LaTeX, not latex! It's a macro package from Lesly Lamport for Donald E. Knuths TeX program.
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/%7Eknuth/
I'm quite happy with the windows editor. If you additionally have LaTeX, forget about all other text editors forever! You don't need these other programs anymore. If you have Linux, there's LaTeX, too. Then you can use e.g. nedit. Typesetting is not a different thing, that's what LaTeX does. So if you're a writer, with LaTeX, you can see your text in a professionally typesetted form. You can keep comments in the source text. You can use different text sizes, different types of fonts, bold face, italics, slanted, can do math formulas, can have all kinds of justification, colour, tables and pictures in your text. If you use the approbriate package you also can do IPA characters, cyrillic, arabic, even Cirth and Tengwar. There are lots of packages! And the best of it: LaTeX is for free.
Most people are quite happy with Microsoft Word. Some people don't like Microsoft in which case there are a lot of free alternatives.
(Typesetting is a different thing.)>>
It's actually LaTeX, not latex! It's a macro package from Lesly Lamport for Donald E. Knuths TeX program.
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/%7Eknuth/
I'm quite happy with the windows editor. If you additionally have LaTeX, forget about all other text editors forever! You don't need these other programs anymore. If you have Linux, there's LaTeX, too. Then you can use e.g. nedit. Typesetting is not a different thing, that's what LaTeX does. So if you're a writer, with LaTeX, you can see your text in a professionally typesetted form. You can keep comments in the source text. You can use different text sizes, different types of fonts, bold face, italics, slanted, can do math formulas, can have all kinds of justification, colour, tables and pictures in your text. If you use the approbriate package you also can do IPA characters, cyrillic, arabic, even Cirth and Tengwar. There are lots of packages! And the best of it: LaTeX is for free.