If you want to be clear, if you want to be quoted, using effective language must be your top priority.In today's business and politics this is hardly ever the case. In many instances, imprecise language is used intentionally to avoid taking a stance. This is hardly a recent problem, and as George Orwell wrote in his 1946 essay, Politics and the English Language, the condition is curable. By following Orwell's five rules for writing, you'll distinguish yourself from competitors and clearly communicate your ideas:
This last effort of the mind cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness generally. But one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I thinkthe following rules will cover most cases:
Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable. One could keep all of them and still write bad English, but one could not write the kind of stuff that I quoted in those five specimens at the beginning of this article.
I hope you find these rules a good start. If you enjoyed this brief journal entry, be sure to read Orwell's original essay. It has many helpful examples and is a joy to read.
Hey all — a few tips, for blog writing in particular, but I thought they'd be applicable to writing of all kinds — here you go!
Blogging can bring your business exposure, credibility, and whole lot more revenue - so it's in your best interest to deliver a steady stream of powerful writing. But for a lot of us, that's a tall order. If you're finding your creative juices running a little dry, this list of quick and easy tips is sure to get them flowing again.
Every author I know gets asked the same question: How do you write a book? Scott provides simple, basic information about writing and book and links to more practical advice.
It's a simple question, but it causes unexpected problems. On the one hand, it's nice to have people interested in something I do. If I told people I fixed toasters for a living, I doubt I'd get many inquires. People are curious about writing and that's cool and flattering. Rock on.
But on the other hand, the hand involving people who ask because they have an inkling to do it themselves, is that writing books it's a topic so old and so well tread by so many famous people that anyone who asks me, with the seriousintent of discovering secret advice from my small brain and limited writing experience, is hard to take seriously.
Here's the short honest truth: 20% of the people who ask me are hoping to hear this - Anyone can write a book. They want permission. Truth is you don't need any. There is no license required. No test to take. Writing, as opposed to publishing, requires almost no financial or physical resources. A pen, a paper and effort are all that has been required for hundreds of years. If Voltaire and Marquis de Sade could write in prison, then you can do it in suburbia, at lunch at work, or after your kids go to sleep.
Scott is an author, public speaker and consultant. He worked as a manager at Microsoft from 1994-2003, on projects including (v1-5) of Internet Explorer, Windows and MSN. His blog is pretty solid.
He's an excellent speaker for hire, and frequently performs interactive talks, workshops, and courses for organizations, conferences and the occasional living room couch.
Here's a fantastic selection of tools for writers of any style. This is a list of tips aimed at improving your writing skills that I cribbed from another site here. Before you start firing off submissions to publishers or you embark on that eBook writing project, do yourself a favor and review.
All of these tools come various sections of Poynter Online which is a rich resource for journalists. If for some reason you want to see last year's post (for the comments perhaps), you can do so here.
Self-publication of a neatly produced, high quality (the paper is never less than 100 gram, preferably 120 gram) booklet with a smart Photoshop cover professionally folded and stapled makes a great gift, or maybe a summary of a good year at the writing group, a fundraiser for a school, or a memorial for a special person.
Why bother to go through all the heartache and hassle of fighting to get your precious memories or thoughts into mainstream publication? Your own PC, printer and digital camera are waiting to make someone's day. If you really want to go big and produce a novel, there's the internet or print on demand (no surplus stock there!).
Getting published by a mainstream company is great, but in all honesty, how many of us can reallyafford to give up the day job, even when we've signed that contract? Such a long, heartbreaking haul for what? The joy of writing should be just that - the writing.
Define your audience and publish yourself. Get your books and anthologies into the hands of people who really want to hear from you - whether it's one copy, or a couple of dozen through print on demand.
Check out the rest of the article here. An interesting perspective, nonetheless. Could it be that the joy of writing is fuel that drives the desire to write? It's this joy that sustains a writer's identity rather than the promise of being published?
I'd like to think so, but from the volume of submissions Jesse and I receive, it's likely not!
I've pretty much not had internet access the last couple of weeks. Obviously I haven't posted much, though there seems to be interesting things happening.
I am still here though, and following goings-on as best I can. In some ways I'm really enjoying being unplugged for a couple of weeks.
I'm taking a little vacation right now, in the last six months, I've started a job, resigned, been unemployed, started another job, moved into a new apartment and managed to stick with my weekly review deadline.
Regardless, I know that my output hasn't dropped off because I haven't had time to write. I've been able to write just fine. I'm still making time to write. I'm finding time to write, but I haven't been writing too much fiction. For quite some time now.
On Monday night, I went to a book launch. One of the members of my group, published her second book of short stories. Short fiction is a tough market to get into because it's so small.
There's something satisfying about seeing a project go from conception to published book, to hear the drafts, and to make suggestions, however small, along the way. That's one thing I like about creative writing groups-hearing someone suggest something and seeing the possibilities. I also like the support that we give each other. There's a lot to be said for a group where everyone works cooperatively rather in competition, which can happen too. Cooperation leads to everyone celebrating each other's success.
I'm always circumspect about celebrating too early, because my first story accepted never saw the light of publication. The story, about 1500 words long, was accepted, and I was offered $320, much more than I've had for any similar-length story I've soldsince. Then, a month later, the journal folded and that was that. I wasn't able to place it anywhere else. Sometimes, I think I should rewrite it and send it out again, but it's so old now that I look at it and cringe.
Well, I beleive I am suffering from writer's block. And that has resulted in very little posting online, or any desire to post to my weblog. Nothing interesting to post. While it lasts at least, when I am on the Internet, I'm catching up on my favorite weblogs. So I imagine it isn't time wasted anyway.
So, summer is here! The last few days around here have been amazing. Sunday it was like 65! I'm so happy to be finally be able to throw open the shutters and let breeze roll through!
Anyway - I was checking out stuff online. Grammar Girl (her podcast was the first one I put on me old iPod! offers the following tips for those suffering from Writer's block:
If you're going to procrastinate, force yourself to do something productive. Your choices are folding laundry or writing, not playing solitaire or writing.
Don't get too hung up on writing the first sentence or paragraph. If you have a great quote or a great plot point, and it falls in the middle of your story, write that first and come back to the beginning later. That's how I wrote this transcript. I wrote the tips about generating freelance story ideas first, and then I jotted down a few things about overcoming writer's block. Then I went back to the beginning. I jump around a lot, and I find it helps me to keep writing when I feel stuck.
Free writing. When I was in college, I had a professor who forced us to do free-writing exercises. We had to sit at our desks and write without stopping for 30 minutes. It didn't matter what we wrote. She just watched to make sure that we were constantly putting pen to paper. I found it a very useful exercise, so you might give it a try if you are having a creative block. And a bonus is that it can also be a good way to come up with story ideas.
But nothing focuses my mind like a deadline. So set yourself a deadline and try to make it as real as possible. Line up friends to read your story and tell them you'll deliver it at a certain time. Plan a date, but let yourself go out only if you finish your story. Maybe you're not like this, but I don't take a deadline seriously unless I know that something bad is going to happen if I don't finish on time. All you listeners are now my "something bad" because I know you'll be unhappy if I release my show late.
Anyway, I came across the above and thought they were pretty good tips. I haven't put any into action yet, though. Maybe later today.
When marathoner Roger Bannister (now knighted!) crossed an Oxford finish line on a windy day in 1954, he was certain he had achieved a four-minute mile.
The rest of the world, however, was amazed. The previous record had stood for nine years and writers of the time had created a myth around the four-minute mile. They had made their readership believe it was an unreachable and possibly even dangerous goal.
So what does this have to do with my writing? Just as the media in the fifties had influenced people to believe that a mile could not be completed in four minutes, we have persuaded ourselves that we can't write quickly.
Of course, I've had poor creative days too-days when writing five hundred words all day would have seemed like an insurmountable task. You can't write when you are tired or not in the mood - and quickly at that!.
But if you have a topic you're reasonably familiar with (and really dig), there's no good reason why you can'tspeed through it. Writing can be good-even if it comes quickly.
Actually, I have discovered that my fast creations are often better slow and laborious writings. Presently. I often time myself when I write-an egg timer is perfect for this.
But even more important, I keep a list of accomplishments, writing down the date, # of words, how long it took. The reason behind of recording your results is that you will track your development-much as a marathoner might record their speed. Thus, you will also likely find out that you can write fast-and well.
I have a confession to make. When I am planning to submit a story for publication, I always submit to five publications at a time. I could tell you again and again how slowly some magazines respond, so I ignore (sorry editors!) the request to avoid multiple submissions. When an editor holds and then later rejects, a submission after 3 years, one learns quickly that one must look out for themselves. I have been told that they are lost, won't be retuned (after keeping my SASE), that they've been lost in the mail.
So is it unethical to do multiple submissions? No more unethical than holding a submission for a ridiculous amount of time.
I have never had a aubmission accepted by two magazines at the same time. It rarely, if ever, happens because it is quite difficult to get published in a lot of the journals to which I submit. If it does happen, I guess I'll have to suck it up and send a letter saying that I have to withdraw the story from consideration - maybe burninga bridge in at the same time, but hopefully not.
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