81–90 of 95 posts
I'm making a game/text editor I'm hoping to help people write more prolifically / creatively. There's a free demo on steam. If anyone gives it a try please let me know what you think.
Gene Wolfe, my favorite writer, said that the advice he gave people was to pick a short story they thought was perfect, and try to rewrite it word for word from memory. Presumably the idea is that you run into the same challenges the original author did — how to get from one scene to the next, how to direct or misdirect the reader, etc. — and by solving those challenges you understand the mechanics of storytelling at…
PS: I'm more of a fan of Zelazny, but I enjoyed quite a lot The Book of the New Sun
Reading good writing is the first step towards improving your written output. Observe the techniques that resonate with you and incorporate them into your style. It will feel clunky at first, like any new exercise, but over time will become more fluid and seamless. Reading also builds a large vocabulary, which is essential to achieve fluid prose. Read the best authors for the intended style, be it story-writing, crit…
> Reading good writing is the first step towards improving your written output. Observe the techniques that resonate with you and incorporate them into your style. Do you have specific authors whose writing really resonated with you? How have they changed your writing?
Gene Wolfe, my favorite writer, said that the advice he gave people was to pick a short story they thought was perfect, and try to rewrite it word for word from memory. Presumably the idea is that you run into the same challenges the original author did — how to get from one scene to the next, how to direct or misdirect the reader, etc. — and by solving those challenges you understand the mechanics of storytelling at…
It's in _The Best of Gene Wolfe_, and is copied verbatim here in case anyone is curious: https://raymondwriteswrongs.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/writing... PS: I'm more of a fan of Zelazny, but I enjoyed quite a lot The Book of the New Sun
Zelazny was my first love. :)
"Have something to say". Everything else is secondary.
- take the structure of great sentences that already exists and using it as the bones for a new sentence. - Use Asana as a dumping ground for ideas, great writing; in no particular order. - Work on compression: create the most potent form of an idea in the fewest words possible.
Example of creating useful templates from other good writing: "A key point in the first chapter of Atomic Habits is, ‘You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems’.
That’s actually a play off of a quote from the Greek philosopher Archilochus—‘We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.’ I just took the rough structure of what he said, and played around with plugging words into it to see how I could make it fit with what I was trying to write. "
- Utilize some of the ideas from whatever you're reading. "When I read, I put brackets around the sections I like, and mark them with an asterisk. - Later, transcribe all those sections and put them into your notes
The article is a fantastic read, you will get some instant "Do This Now" advice which will make you a more effective writer.
https://every.to/superorganizers/how-james-clear-is-writing-...
What has really helped me is two things. 1. Condense. Much of good writing is simply signal/noise ratio! First write a draft that says all you want to say. Then go over it again and again, removing/rephrasing un-needed words and syllables. 20% compression is a decent result. 2. "Rubber ducking". Imagine showing the text to someone likely to read it. I've developed an "inner stranger" I show text or code to. He doesn'…
Gene Wolfe, my favorite writer, said that the advice he gave people was to pick a short story they thought was perfect, and try to rewrite it word for word from memory. Presumably the idea is that you run into the same challenges the original author did — how to get from one scene to the next, how to direct or misdirect the reader, etc. — and by solving those challenges you understand the mechanics of storytelling at…
Stephen Fry has talked about trying to rewrite scenes from The Great Gatsby from memory, and the renewed appreciation he got for Fitzgerald's prose after that attempt. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oSdLfPas8dw around around 10 minutes. Good stuff!