Tag Archives: writing tips

Writers Horoscope for November 6: Stories abound today.

Give your own imagination its due.

dream-imagination

 

And feed it as well.

books-imagination

 

But if you need a jump start from real life,

here is a very good start for a 500-word warmup.

 

Writers Horoscope for November 5: Wisdom abounds today.

If somehow JK Rowling’s rules of writing weren’t enough, or didn’t quite address your writing life, here is even more wisdom.

In his lithub.com post, Joe Fassler provides seven of the most common writing tips, based on his conversations with 150 authors.

The list includes:

  • Neglect everything else.
  • Beginnings matter.
  • Sound it out.
  • It’s supposed to be difficult.

Read the rest of the article for the other three, as well as his expansion on each tip.

I am a writer.
Jeff Goins would approve of this clickable photo. ;->

 

 

Web Gems: A quick look at openculture.com

 

I’m sharing three highlights from openculture.com, a leading provider of open educational resources. More to come in the future.

1. http://www.openculture.com/ Scroll to Writing Tips in the inner right column. Guidance from the list of fair-to-middlin’ writers [;->] below is available.

  • Ernest Hemingway
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Stephen King
  • Ray Bradbury
  • William Zinsser
  • Kurt Vonnegut
  • Toni Morrison
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Margaret Atwood
  • David Ogilvy
  • John Steinbeck
  • Billy Wilder

2. http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
There is a section on journalism and writing, including this iTunes-based creative writing master class. I figure even if you drop in at your leisure, mug of coffee in hand…

  • No turning heads and ensuing glares from students or teacher. [Even your inevitable coffee spills will go unnoticed.]
  • Tons to learn in convenient time chunks.

3. http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks
Ebooks from Neil Gaiman, Phillip Dick, David Foster Wallace, and John Muir, as well as some struggling amateurs ;-> like Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Shakespeare. Also, consider scrolling down to the bottom to the ‘Assorted Texts’ section.

22 Storytelling Tips by Emma Coats

This list, which I believe originated from a set of Tweets by Pixar storyboard artist Emma Coats in 2012, is a go-to resource/set of reminders for me as I work on my fiction.

Multiple iterations are spread across the Internet.

Here is one:  22 Storytelling Tips by Emma Coats