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Sara's 10 Basic Writing Tips

Quakespeare

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  • Learn the weak verbs and avoid them when you can: look, see, have, get, go, start, begin, try, make, play, take, wonder, seem, appear, and the ever-popular is/was/were. A great verb totally makes a sentence.

Excellent! But I'd say that a great verb totally completes a sentence. ;)

Entering late and leaving early also really resonated.
 

travelgal

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Just my two cents; someone said to eavesdrop. I do that all the time, except I live in a country where I can't speak or understand most of the lingo, plus have difficulties in processing when I do, hence I listen to inflections and volume instead. When I write dialogue, I try to hear the character's voice.
 

SoulofaWriter

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Enter the scene late and leave early... Oooohhh, I think I get it now.
 

CarlUpshon

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Getting word of the day. Great advice, just signed up for a few. I look up lots of words but when I'm reading so much and know so little I barely remember the words that I am looking up. This can hopefully drip feed them in to my locker.
 

indianroads

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When I ride my motorcycle or visit different locals I mentally describe where I am to myself. What does it look like, fell like, smell like.. what's the temperature, how does my body feel in that environment.

Just a mental exercise I do. People think I'm crazy because I mutter to myself a lot when I'm out in public... you know, they're probably right.
 

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Reading everything related to the title is an absolute necessity. If you spend too much time on read, read, read... When will you get time for writing.....LOL.
 

vhilal

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When I ride my motorcycle or visit different locals I mentally describe where I am to myself. What does it look like, fell like, smell like.. what's the temperature, how does my body feel in that environment.

Just a mental exercise I do. People think I'm crazy because I mutter to myself a lot when I'm out in public... you know, they're probably right.

I do this too! I also take notes on my phone, so I don't lose my mutterings :)
 

Inti1996

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Very good tips.Something that helps me write ideas down is a walk at a park or campus.
 

Jason

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I'll add my own two in here:

1. Don't be afraid to start something even if you don't know where it's going...
2. Avoid writing while performing another task (like at work, at the gym, etc.) - make a note, record a memo, whatever, and come back to it, but getting caught up in trying to multitask means you're not doing either task with the attention it deserves
 

AJakeR

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But . . . But . . . none of these tips are actually to write . . .
 

Zoey141

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It's writing. It's always writing. You sit down and write. Nothing else. Write and rewrite what you do. It'll happen. You'll come out with something great.
 

lpetrich

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If you are good at searching the Internet, it's remarkable what you can find. I quickly found pictures of ancient Roman mosaics depicting chariots, for instance. One can often find big collections of pictures at sites like Flickr. You can even find video on just about anything on YouTube, Vimeo, etc. Like people who do premodern technologies as a hobby. I quickly found lots of stuff on YouTube on horse riding and blacksmithing and weaving, for instance.

University sites are sometimes good collections of historical material and introductions in the form of class notes. You can also find professional research in sites like scholar.google.com -- but be careful: much of it is paywalled, one can easily get lots in the forest of an overall picture amidst the trees of details, and it often includes lots of technical jargon. But it should be easy to look up jargon words online.
 

Paul Lamb

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I wanted to add that you should not force yourself to write if you're not "in the zone," but those times when it happens to me, and I do force myself to put some words on the page, I tend to be productive after all. And I think, at least for me, that sometimes what I think as a bad writing day is merely laziness.
 

skylessbird2218

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I am new at writing and don't think I have a particular writing style. I think it varies on whatever I read at the time. any advice on how to recognize my style? I've recently been keeping a journal and writing in it for half an hour or so after waking up. nothing concrete, just whatever I can write without taking the time to think about it. it's something I learned from a TED video on youtube. does it work? is there anything else I can try?
 

Bufty

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I am new at writing and don't think I have a particular writing style. I think it varies on whatever I read at the time. any advice on how to recognize my style? I've recently been keeping a journal and writing in it for half an hour or so after waking up. nothing concrete, just whatever I can write without taking the time to think about it. it's something I learned from a TED video on youtube. does it work? is there anything else I can try?

You probably won't recognise your style- it's something other folk notice but it takes time for one's style to develop and settle. Forget about 'style'.
 

indianroads

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I am new at writing and don't think I have a particular writing style. I think it varies on whatever I read at the time. any advice on how to recognize my style? I've recently been keeping a journal and writing in it for half an hour or so after waking up. nothing concrete, just whatever I can write without taking the time to think about it. it's something I learned from a TED video on youtube. does it work? is there anything else I can try?

When I was in college I read a lot of Vonnegut and tried to emulate his irreverence, then later I read a lot of Stephen King and tried to match is type of narrative. In the end, I've sort of settled on something somewhere between those two. Actually not... that was a joke. I think ALL the authors we read influence us, and therefore it's wise to read across a broad spectrum of genres and a variety of authors.

Journal, as you already are, and possibly write short stories for a blog or whatever. Anything that gets words down on paper.

As wise Buffy stated, it takes time to find your voice (style) - it's actually already there, you just have to open yourself up enough that you can hear it.
 

SwallowFeather

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It also doesn't hurt to experiment with imitating different authors' styles just for fun. You may get a feel for what comes naturally and what doesn't.
 

kayellbee

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Great advice, Sara and Maryn! I've been reading some good books lately from people like J.R.R. Tolkien and Stephen King, but seeking out and reading bad books too sounds like a great idea. It's just like watching a good movie vs. a bad movie, where the seams and rough parts in a bad movie are obvious.
 

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When you're in the writing groove, leave yourself love notes for the next day, things like, "James is going to kill his brother in the next scene. Be sure to leave the knife on the buffett," or “John wants to kiss Ellen. Make sure they get some alone time.” As Hemingway says, don’t let your well run dry.

Beautiful suggestion.
It makes me change my point of view a lot.
I put it into practice immediately.
 

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Thank you for this, it is so spot on. Also, don't be afraid to get up and take a break if you need to. When you return, you might just have that fresh new perspective that you were looking for! :helpfulhat: :mccardey: