Writing Tips - 6 Questions / 6 Rules

From Gotham Writers' Workshop Inc. comes some of George Orwell's writing tips from his essay Politics and the English Language.

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, Orwell will ask himself at least four questions:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And, he will probably ask himself two more:

1. Could I put it more shortly?
2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. Orwell thinks the following rules will cover most cases:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Relationships

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about Relationships. How do you achieve independence in your relationships? Do you find it difficult to remain true to your heart as you grow closer to others? Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?

Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Were you able to find and write about your own relationships and remain true to your heart? Were you able to define how you can remain independent while growing closer to others?

Why or Why Not?

Writing Tips - 5 Essentials for the Betterment of a Story

From Gotham Writers' Workshop Inc. comes the following advice from Edgar Allan Poe for bettering a story. *

1. Employ an unreliable narrator, preferably one who doesn't know he is insane and has no recollection of such events as digging into a grave to rip out the teeth of his recently departed lover.

2. Include a beautiful woman with raven locks and porcelain skin, preferably quite young, and let her die tragically of some unknown ailment.

3. Use grandiloquent words, such as heretofore, forthwith, and nevermore. A little Latin will also enhance the text.

4. Do not shy away from such grotesqueries as inebriation, imprisonment, insanity, and men costumed as orangutans being burned to death.

5. When in doubt, bury someone alive.

* Poe didn't really compose this advice, but, as he was fond of a good hoax, he should be pleased by this affectionate charade.

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Independence

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about Independence. Are you an independent person? How do you define independence? How does it relate to your writing? Does being independent make life more or less difficult? Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?

Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Were you able to find and write about your own independence? Were you able to define how being independent and how it relates to your writing style?

Why or Why Not?

Writing Tips - 11 Composition Principles

From Gotham Writers' Workshop Inc. comes 11 Composition Principles from the authors of The Elements of Style from which comes the wisdom of the Elementary Principles of Composition.

1. Choose a suitable design and stick to it.

2. Make the paragraph the unit of composition.

3. Use the active voice.

4. Put statements in positive form.

5. Use definite, specific, concrete language.

6. Omit needless words.

7. Avoid a succession of loose sentences.

8. Express coordinate ideas in similar form.

9. Keep related words together.

10. In summaries, keep to one tense.

11. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.

An excellent source of writing tips. We'll visit this tiny book again.