Posts under ‘Advice on writing’

Most of the techniques we learned are very helpful, but this one just doesn’t intrigue me, both as a reader and writer. I want to figure out if this is simply a matter of personal preference, or if Im not thinking about it correctly.
This opposition came to me last class when we were discussing Rose’s essay on the passing of her grandmother. Almost [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot about writing lately and the different styles that writers use, and how some of them make their writing so easy and smooth for us, and what I realized is that in order to make a good writing we need to have a lot of vocabulary; some words appear a lot [...]

I wanted to share this with everyone because I love to read about other artist talking about their craft and lives.   
SOME THOUGHTS ON WRITING
Elizabeth Gilbert
Sometimes people ask me for help or suggestions about how to write, or how to get published. Keeping in mind that this is all very ephemeral and personal, I will [...]

I just randomly came across this quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes. I think it pretty much says it all on the power of word choice in our writing. We can consider it good advice from a good writer
“A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin [...]

After class yesterday, I was thinking about the class reading and how nervous that makes me feel. Despite the open atmosphere we’ve established in our class, it can be pretty uncomfortable having to read your work outloud, especially since most of our meditations are pretty personal. Like Professor Smith said, we’re sharing our stories… stories that [...]

Framing/ defamiliarization
A story of a now prominent writer when he was a college student. He wrote in one of his English compositions, “The girl stumbled down the stairs and lay prostitute at the bottom.”
In the margin, the teacher wrote, “My dear sir, you must learn to distinguish between a fallen woman and one who has [...]

For Meditation 3, I tried to write humor. I found it to be much more challenging than I expected. I also read the humor chapter in the Zinsser book(unfortunately I did this after writing and submitting my paper, but at least it will help for revision). I think that chapter is a good starting point [...]

One piece of advice that many writers and authors have shared with me is to have someoneles read your paper or at least a couple of other people because it gives you great feedback on your piece as a whole.

As always I find myself hesitant to call anything my “favorite” but in the case of David B. Coe and Frank Herbert I’ll make an exception.  Praises and accolades aside David B. Coe and Frank Herbert are without a doubt the fathers of my love for writing.  Coe lured me with his intricate paintings of [...]

In class we briefly discussed the idea of “sense of place.” It made me realize that much of what I write about revolves around place. The spirit of where I am has a direct impact on my feelings, and of course, my writing. Similarly, I am especially drawn to writers who can capture this sense [...]