WRITING HELP :D

[yoursoulisinmycloset]

I'm trying to increase mah skill level in the writing area.
This involves word uses, transitions and all around style.
I was wondering what do you guys do to help you write better?
Do you just write more?
maybe read a lot?

I'm very curious :-|

 

[Seythe]

If your English teacher taught you well enough, and got enough outside writing experience, you can write anything with the proper drive.

Do you just write more?

When you're rusty. I've recently just started writing in a random notebook in my spare time and I find my writing/typing skills are more polished. :]

 

[Shahar]

If I feel rusty I tend to write mini stories, from different perspectives to try and hash out what feels, more, acceptable and workable for my own personal style.

Sometimes I will all so read various books that I enjoy normally to help inspire my artistic writing.

We used to do a writing 'study' in school where they would show you a picture and starting from the top down you had to write about EVRYTHING you saw, detail it, re-create the picture through words alone and see if someone who had never seen the picture would be able to get the imagery.

I found that helped me a lot when I first started. Gave me an idea how to move around a post.

I hope this helps some.

 

[Ilovegoatse]

Here's what many author's advise writers to do, which I think is extremely good advice.

READ EVERY BOOK YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON.

You learn from other published authors, you gain vocabulary, and you can use any book as an example of what you want in your own writing. Such as if you didn't like a quality in one book, you can try to eliminate that from your writing. Or if you liked a style, you can try something similar to it to develop your own style. You also know what's already been done before, and you can have fun while learning about writing.

Sure writing your own short stories works and all, but it doesn't even come close to reading like hell. After all, if you don't try a new recipe, will you get far on developing your own? No, you have to accept outside influences, and use it for the betterment of your writing. Sure short stories work, but I would read too.

 

[Abulurd]

Besides what's already been said, my suggestion is something really simple that causes some people's writing ability to often improve - don't ever let yourself lax on your spelling and grammar. It's a personal pride thing for me, so I do it naturally instead of having to force myself (Heil grammar Nazi), but I always try my best to spell correctly in messengers, text messages, whatever. That way you're not tempted to fuck up your syntax consciously or unconsciously when it counts.

If your sentences don't make sense sometimes, speak while you type. Even if you just mumble to yourself, you're more likely to catch a ridiculous sentence if you hear it out loud, or let your brain process it more thoroughly (mumbling) than if you're just typing. Shit that makes sense in your head doesn't always make sense on paper.

If you hear a word you've never heard before, look it up, always. Try to use it in conversation, so it feels more natural, even if it's just "I'm feeling pragmatic today."

Instead of writing short stories, try writing the first chapter for a novel. Even if it's just one chapter that's not linked to anything and never goes anywhere, making one single idea last that long really helps when you need to write descriptively later.

Yeah, that's all I can think of that hasn't been said already, though reemphasizing the 'read a lot' point is also a good idea.

 

[Nurse_K]

Practice, practice, practice, practice, and practice.

The more you write the more familiar you'll become with your style -- which is absolutely vital in becoming a good writer. You need to understand your style and your flow so that when you end up having a block (which everyone does), you know what to do to get yourself out of that block.

Write anything you feel like. If you feel like trying poetry, do it. You may find that it doesn't work for you, but at least you've stretched yourself to that possibility. Even if there are genres that you think you'd never enjoy (i.e. romance, plays, songs), still try them! You may find that they give you something you haven't found elsewhere.

=)

 

[Kratos]

I find the only way for me to get better is just to experiment a little,.. write more is a definite.. the more that one writes, the better they will get.. or at least that works in theory but writing to much can just lead to writing blocks.. which are not good to say the least.

Personally just keeping things creative works for me, and if I find someone who is better at writing when it comes to actual roleplaying.. i observe a little, and see if I can get better from it..

works in my case.. but who knows if it will work for you or not