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There Is No Handbook for Being a Writer

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Re: There Is No Handbook for Being a Writer

#31

Post by rewrew »

m52go wrote: post #9

But there is a game! It's called Write On Par. It teaches concise writing, playfully. Because no writer has the patience to sit through a grammar class...and no reader wants to read wordy, confusing writing no matter what the topic. http://writeonpar.com /shameless plug Beautiful article though. I've met a couple recently-turned full-time authors and have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for the author/a…

Writing is a craft, and it's a freaking hard one that takes combining a lot of skills plus a lot of discipline and hard work. If you don't have the patience to sit through something as simple as as a semester-long grammar class at your local community college as one aspect of learning the fundamentals you need to succeed, then most likely writing isn't the career path for you.

Re: There Is No Handbook for Being a Writer

#32

Post by JackFr »

update wrote: post #11

it's pretty funny that the author takes so long to get to their point :P, given the title Anyone want to post a tldr? as a paid author, given the title, i was hoping for an article that touched on drinking, lallygagging, and partying --- then getting all your work done in one day at the end of the month.

...the author takes so long to get to her point.

Re: There Is No Handbook for Being a Writer

#33

Post by maxerickson »

rewrew wrote: post #31
m52go wrote: post #9

But there is a game! It's called Write On Par. It teaches concise writing, playfully. Because no writer has the patience to sit through a grammar class...and no reader wants to read wordy, confusing writing no matter what the topic. http://writeonpar.com /shameless plug Beautiful article though. I've met a couple recently-turned full-time authors and have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for the author/a…

Writing is a craft, and it's a freaking hard one that takes combining a lot of skills plus a lot of discipline and hard work. If you don't have the patience to sit through something as simple as as a semester-long grammar class at your local community college as one aspect of learning the fundamentals you need to succeed, then most likely writing isn't the career path for you.

Reading a lot is probably more useful than taking a class on grammar (for one thing, grammar is pretty easy to fix without altering a work).

Re: There Is No Handbook for Being a Writer

#34

Post by gnaritas »

Mendenhall wrote: post #30

Him sitting next to author reminded me how I always think you are a writer when you pay your bills through writing, same with art etc. I find so many that say they are an "artist" yet thats not how they pay their bills. Sure you may make fantastic art but you are not an artist. You never here someone say I am a basketball player just because they play basketball as a hobby. Doing something that pays your bills is tot…

Not everyone defines themselves by what pays the bills, plenty of artists do menial jobs to make ends meet. How they pay their bills is a bad measure of who/what they are, you shouldn't reject someone's self definition because you want to judge them by how they make money. You are not your job.

Re: There Is No Handbook for Being a Writer

#35

Post by m52go »

microcolonel wrote: post #25
m52go wrote: post #9

But there is a game! It's called Write On Par. It teaches concise writing, playfully. Because no writer has the patience to sit through a grammar class...and no reader wants to read wordy, confusing writing no matter what the topic. http://writeonpar.com /shameless plug Beautiful article though. I've met a couple recently-turned full-time authors and have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for the author/a…

Cool site, I sent in a minor issue. I can tighten the prose further, but the tool then says it's incomplete; though, perfect being the enemy of good, I am glad you released it.

Thanks! It's far from perfect...I'm constantly working to refine it.

Re: There Is No Handbook for Being a Writer

#36

Post by m52go »

rewrew wrote: post #31
m52go wrote: post #9

But there is a game! It's called Write On Par. It teaches concise writing, playfully. Because no writer has the patience to sit through a grammar class...and no reader wants to read wordy, confusing writing no matter what the topic. http://writeonpar.com /shameless plug Beautiful article though. I've met a couple recently-turned full-time authors and have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for the author/a…

Writing is a craft, and it's a freaking hard one that takes combining a lot of skills plus a lot of discipline and hard work. If you don't have the patience to sit through something as simple as as a semester-long grammar class at your local community college as one aspect of learning the fundamentals you need to succeed, then most likely writing isn't the career path for you.

Very true. But from another perspective: even someone with the patience to sit through a grammar course will only learn about the colon in theory.

This tool allows a player to see a colon being used, wonder why, learn why (explanatory videos coming soon), and then use the colon in practice.

Learning by doing is much more effective than learning theory, in my opinion.

Re: There Is No Handbook for Being a Writer

#37

Post by m52go »

maxerickson wrote: post #33
rewrew wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing is a craft, and it's a freaking hard one that takes combining a lot of skills plus a lot of discipline and hard work. If you don't have the patience to sit through something as simple as as a semester-long grammar class at your local community college as one aspect of learning the fundamentals you need to succeed, then most likely writing isn't the career path for you.

Reading a lot is probably more useful than taking a class on grammar (for one thing, grammar is pretty easy to fix without altering a work).

Right. Plus, grammar is only one component of concise writing. Many of the original writing samples in the game are grammatically correct but still terribly lousy.

Re: There Is No Handbook for Being a Writer

#38

Post by AndreyErmakov »

It's interesting that the author pursued a degree in literature and that's what ultimately pushed her away from that career path. It seems to be a common theme where a formal education in creative arts makes people want to do something else in life, anything else.

I've had acquaintances with a musical background and eventually they went to do something else, including IT. From what an old buddy told me once, most graduates of a musical school learn to hate music and quit that vocation past graduation.

In the opposite fashion, I've never had a literary education and I'm feeling more and more drawn to this line of work. I'm not sure if I want to make a complete switch though, software engineering and startups are just too exciting to give it all up. Somehow it feels I can accomplish more and make a better contribution to the society with my honed programming skills than with words, but I might be wrong about it. For now, I'm just writing essays every now and then, publishing them on my blog and that seems to be enough.

One word of advice in relation to all of this. Don't shy away from reading foreign literature. I know that for many native English speakers other languages simply don't exist in their world, but you're missing out on an incredible body of thoughts and ideas that might expand your vision borders. Don't be stuck in your English silo, learn some foreign language and go exploring. And no, a translation is not the same, it's devoid of the original energy. That's why people are often unimpressed by what before a translation was a profound piece of work. You can't translation energy.

Re: There Is No Handbook for Being a Writer

#39

Post by dredmorbius »

methehack wrote: post #28

I know folks are trying to be helpful by listing all the handbooks on the mechanics of writing, or on the creative process (closer), but it's off topic. The author is talking about 'being a writer', as in the title. As in: "What do you do?" "Oh, I'm a writer" Not like: "Should one _ever_ begin a sentence with 'but'?" "No, you should _never_ do that. I'm a prig!" It seems that sitting down to write every day and telli…

Rather. Grasp on that seems lacking here.

By comparison, there are many schools which teach (or claim to teach) programming, but few which cover the details of being a programmer: addressing employment contracts, valuing stock or equity options, non-competes, project management, vendor management, operating as an independent contractor, client (or boss) management, etc., etc.

There are similar observations made of the medical profession, law, engineering (particularly where independent / small firm work is common), etc. The nuts-and-bolts of the business.

Much of what's discussed (in the context of startups) on HN, for example.

That said: there are some guides, several mentioned below. The Writers' Handbook is the long-time classic. I'm looking at a few of these now based on their mentions here.

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