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Home  Improve Your Writing Improve Your Writing The Improve Your Writing section of WriteSpot.org contains articles, resources, tips, and advice on writing better. Writers and authors will find this section useful in improving their writing skills and apply them to writing novels, short stories, articles, reports, essays, and more.
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Written by Jean Fritz
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Wednesday, 26 December 2007 |
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Compare these two paragraphs: |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 January 2008 )
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Written by Glenda K. Fralin
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Tuesday, 03 July 2007 |
Free Write: Planting Mental Seeds of Creativity
A Free Write is a form of free association. When drafting a Free Write, some writers simply avoid thinking about a topic at all. They start writing anything that comes to mind during the process without any particular direction. Then, the author will go back, read it, and find something on which to focus.
Another style of Free Writing is not quite so free. Some authors of text books about written communication call this technique a Focused Free Write. In a Focused Free Write, one may write in much the same manner with the exception being they will totally focus on one topic. For instance, if one wanted to write something about mother for Mother’s Day, one may use the topic of mother or motherhood and write anything that comes to mind. Then go back, read it, and decide what part one wants to use.
Both forms of Free Writing are valuable exercises writers use to break out of writer’s block. They may also be used to create new ideas.
Choosing a topic and making a Free Write is one of my favorite tools. I believe this process is important to the way I write. One thing we must be careful of is to avoid seeing our Free Write as a finished product. Some Free Writes seem to be a complete story if we are focused enough to move smoothly from one part to another. It is easier for us to see on paper exactly where we are going. However, sometimes when I ask someone else to critique my work, I have been stung when their reply revealed they did not know what I was writing about. We feel it is complete because it is clear to us. We do not realize we are asking others to read our minds. When we review the Free Write and use it as a starter, we make much better progress.
It's a bit like designing a landscape. If one designs a landscape and never questions the design, the full potential of the space may be lost. If one asks other experts to critique a written piece, the concept works in a similar manner. Critiques are a resource, not a rejection. Writers are not as competitive as some may think. We like to help each other grow. If one is blind to other possibilities, the design will be lacking flow and symmetry when finished. Places to find good critiques from other writers are local writers’ groups. The Internet has forums that exist specifically for writers to share and learn. Use the online forums with caution. A key point of any Internet forum is to make sure to retain complete control of the work.
Revisions and edits help us to acquire immediate answers to the basic questions of who, what, when, where, why, and how of the setting and main character. This wonderful advice came to me from a journalist friend who critiqued a short story I was writing at the time. He felt the first paragraph of a story should answer most or all of these questions.
Free Writes are a wonderful tool. I recommend them. They can generate more than one work. They cannot, however, be a finished product. Evaluate your work as if you were a critic and allow other critics to do the same. Then, the product may be a marketable piece of writing. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 October 2007 )
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Written by Glenda K. Fralin
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Monday, 11 June 2007 |
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A free write is a form of free association. When doing a free write, some writers will simply not think at all about a topic. They like to start writing anything that comes into their mind during the process without any particular direction. Then they will go back and read it to find something in it that they wish to focus on for a poem, story, or article.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 January 2008 )
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Written by Gina Hiatt
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Tuesday, 05 June 2007 |
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Written with academics in mind, this article is equally applicable to all writers regardless of their education level. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 05 June 2007 )
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Written by Hunter Pyle
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Tuesday, 05 June 2007 |
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Do you have home office? Does your desk look like a nuclear bomb hit it, scattering paper everywhere? Is very surface covered with paper? Does the paper work spill out from your desk drawers and on to the floor? Can you even find your desk to use it? |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 05 June 2007 )
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