Post: #1

I'd like to know and learn how to write better..I want to write a book but my habilities are not very glamorous..

Any suggestion about useful books and sites to get some info?

Greetings!

Post: #2

Don't bother with writing help books. Pick an author you admire and read a lot of his or her books. Then practice.

Post: #3

Every morning, get up an hour before you have to. As you take your morning shit, read a book by your favorite writer. I recommend Charles Bukowski.

Then sit down, every day, and just make your fingers move on the keyboard. Just write the first shit that comes into your head. Don't worry about structure or getting jokes in there or expressing any particular idea. Write this material with the idea that NO ONE is EVER going to read it. You will have a voice in your head chiming in constantly saying OMIGOD THIS FUCKING SUCKS! YOU HAVE NO TALENT! IF ANYONE EVER SAW THIS IT'D BE LIKE EVERY GIRL IN JUNIOR HIGH SEEING YOUR NAKED DICK AFTER YOU WERE SWIMMING IN ICE WATER! You will need to get past this voice. It takes about a year.

Talk about EVERYTHING. The shit you took, what you jerked off to, the millimeter of bumpy brown nipple you saw in the cashier girl's blouse when she bent over to bag your eighty five per cent lean ground beef, how that was the highlight of your day. Everything. Your job, your mother, your porn, your stupid Xbox games. Whatever is on your mind naturally. Force nothing.

If you are being honest, you will find yourself confessing a lot of stuff. Writing a lot of horribly self-deprecating things. At first writing may simply compound your self-hatred and make you more miserable, dwelling on it so much. Doesn't matter. This is the gold, but you don't know it at first.

The trick is: shit that is painful while you're writing it is fucking hilarious a few days later. I can't believe I was that hung up on my job, my mother, my porn, my stupid Xbox games. I can't believe seeing half the fucking bag girl's tit was the best part of my fucking day. Shit that you thought was a confession you would take to the grave suddenly doesn't seem so bad, and in fact would make a fucking funny blog entry. The more it hurts when it's happening the funnier it is later.

Eventually you get used to this, and writing becomes a therapeutic tool to get you over shit. Things don't feel real until you write them down. Then they don't feel real until you share them with your audience. You will have a sense of control over the world. If something shitty happens, part of you is thinking: fuck yeah, material. Some Steven Seagal shit, turning your pain's momentum against it.

You will worry that your words aren't any good. They will get better, and come to you easier. You will worry that no one gives a shit about your banal life. Well, most people lead banal lives, and reading someone's similar story makes them feel less alone in the world. Plus the fucking bugs eating chicken bones in my trash can are engaged in epic life and death struggles to eat, fuck, and live another day. Stories are everywhere and nothing is too small. Just stay honest. Say exactly what you think and to hell with what anybody else thinks.

Also, I find it helps when you say "fuck" a lot.

Post: #4

http://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/hu...tegood.cfm
"How to Write Good"

The first set of rules was written by Frank L. Visco and originally published in the June 1986 issue of Writers' digest.
The second set of rules is derived from William Safire's Rules for Writers.



Avoid Alliteration. Always.
Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
Employ the vernacular.
Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
Contractions aren’t necessary.
Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
One should never generalize.
Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
Profanity sucks.
Be more or less specific.
Understatement is always best.
Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
One word sentences? Eliminate.
Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
The passive voice is to be avoided.
Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
Who needs rhetorical questions?



Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.
It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.
Avoid archaeic spellings too.
Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
Don't use commas, that, are not, necessary.
Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.
Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.
Subject and verb always has to agree.
Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.
Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch typograhpical errers.
Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
Don't never use no double negatives.
Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
Eschew obfuscation.
No sentence fragments.
Don't indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.
A writer must not shift your point of view.
Don't overuse exclamation marks!!
Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
Always pick on the correct idiom.
The adverb always follows the verb.
Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
And always be sure to finish what

Post: #5

(04-14-2013 04:39 PM)Kristian Wrote:  I'd like to know and learn how to write better..I want to write a book but my habilities are not very glamorous..

Any suggestion about useful books and sites to get some info?

Greetings!

You will need to put in about 10 000 hours worth of writing time in before your writing is of a really high standard. Accept that most of what you write until you hit that mark will be crap. (Go read DC Bachelor, Roosh's old blog, and compare it to his latest stuff.)

Don't read good books. Read poorly written crap. You will learn more about how to write from reading bad writing than from reading good writing. Once you are able to recognise why bad writing is bad, you can then go back to reading 'good' books. It's not enough to say, 'This book is bad,' you have to be able to break down why it's bad on a technical level.

The book that taught me the most about writing is Brian Herbert's 'The Race for God.' It has so many technical flaws in plotting, characterisation, editing and development that it really opened my eyes to these issues in my own writings.

Post: #6

Whether youread his books or not, On Writing by Stephen King is excellent.

Post: #7

I took a poetry writing class once that was the idea mix of fun and instructional. The excersises were useful, but the real value was in critiquing and receiving critique of each others work.

Writing is said to be a solitary craft, however in groups there is even more potential for improvement.

Post: #8

@delicious tacos- good way to reframe bad experiences. I had an experiment in college to try and push every social drunken interaction to my idiotic amusement. What I learned was that I enjoyed goofing off a lot, and honestly girls thought it was funny too.

Nobody gives a f-ck. This point needs to be echoed home. Life goes on. What is embarasssing today will be forgotten tomorrow.

The flipside is that you need to step away from that mentality. Its a bit self-destructive. You chase the story, the amusement, the adrenaline instead of what you "know", at least logically, to be the best variation.

Post: #9

Strunk and White's The Elements of Style is a good book. Other than that I echo the other posters about reading more and writing more. (I'm sure there are other good books on writing, but none are going to help you more than just reading and writing more, so start there.)

Post: #10

On Writing Well by Zinsser is great too.

Just reading authors you like and trying to emulate them won't necessarily give you a better understanding of the craft.

Elements of Style, On Writing Well, and reading/writing every single day will help substantially.

Post: #11

Google "common grammar mistakes."
Most people have no problem coming up with the content but they end up fucking it all up by using poor grammar and sentence structure.

Post: #12

Just post on the forum a lot. It has made me a better writer. That annoying little red line doesn't come up under words as much.

Post: #13

(04-14-2013 06:10 PM)delicioustacos Wrote:  Every morning, get up an hour before you have to. As you take your morning shit, read a book by your favorite writer. I recommend Charles Bukowski.

Then sit down, every day, and just make your fingers move on the keyboard. Just write the first shit that comes into your head. Don't worry about structure or getting jokes in there or expressing any particular idea. Write this material with the idea that NO ONE is EVER going to read it. You will have a voice in your head chiming in constantly saying OMIGOD THIS FUCKING SUCKS! YOU HAVE NO TALENT! IF ANYONE EVER SAW THIS IT'D BE LIKE EVERY GIRL IN JUNIOR HIGH SEEING YOUR NAKED DICK AFTER YOU WERE SWIMMING IN ICE WATER! You will need to get past this voice. It takes about a year.

Talk about EVERYTHING. The shit you took, what you jerked off to, the millimeter of bumpy brown nipple you saw in the cashier girl's blouse when she bent over to bag your eighty five per cent lean ground beef, how that was the highlight of your day. Everything. Your job, your mother, your porn, your stupid Xbox games. Whatever is on your mind naturally. Force nothing.

If you are being honest, you will find yourself confessing a lot of stuff. Writing a lot of horribly self-deprecating things. At first writing may simply compound your self-hatred and make you more miserable, dwelling on it so much. Doesn't matter. This is the gold, but you don't know it at first.

The trick is: shit that is painful while you're writing it is fucking hilarious a few days later. I can't believe I was that hung up on my job, my mother, my porn, my stupid Xbox games. I can't believe seeing half the fucking bag girl's tit was the best part of my fucking day. Shit that you thought was a confession you would take to the grave suddenly doesn't seem so bad, and in fact would make a fucking funny blog entry. The more it hurts when it's happening the funnier it is later.

Eventually you get used to this, and writing becomes a therapeutic tool to get you over shit. Things don't feel real until you write them down. Then they don't feel real until you share them with your audience. You will have a sense of control over the world. If something shitty happens, part of you is thinking: fuck yeah, material. Some Steven Seagal shit, turning your pain's momentum against it.

You will worry that your words aren't any good. They will get better, and come to you easier. You will worry that no one gives a shit about your banal life. Well, most people lead banal lives, and reading someone's similar story makes them feel less alone in the world. Plus the fucking bugs eating chicken bones in my trash can are engaged in epic life and death struggles to eat, fuck, and live another day. Stories are everywhere and nothing is too small. Just stay honest. Say exactly what you think and to hell with what anybody else thinks.

Also, I find it helps when you say "fuck" a lot.

Tragedy + Time = Comedy

Post: #14

Get a good co-author/editor... Write your shyte and have them correct and improve it.

Post: #15

Every paragraph gets its own topic sentence. Internalize that and you're 90% there.

Topic sentence. Explanation of topic sentence.

New paragraph. Topic sentence. Etc.

Post: #16

(04-14-2013 04:39 PM)Kristian Wrote:  I'd like to know and learn how to write better..I want to write a book but my habilities are not very glamorous..

Any suggestion about useful books and sites to get some info?

Greetings!

Easy.

Whatever you want to write, fiction/non-fiction, find a group of people interested in that topic and write about it EVERYDAY for that group.

1) you'll get in practice in trying to get across your message
2) you'll get muffled feedback in terms of whether or not people like your ideas or how you turn a phrase.

WIA

Post: #17

Take a book from an author you like and instead of simply reading it, copy it word for word with a pen or pencil for 1 hour a day, daily. It sucks and nobody has the discipline to do it, but it will help program his writing style and rhythm into you at a neural level. Best to do this with at least 3 different books; each one from a different author.

I personally did this with copywriting. I took ads I liked and wrote them out.

Post: #18

i like outlines

I. I like outlines
A. Outlines are cool.
1. They make me look smart.
2. They organize thoughts in my mind.
B. Outlines are neat.
1. They organize things so you can see them as a structured element.
II. Some people might not like outlines.
A. They are gay.
1. They like men.
B. They are stupid.
1. They just don't know how.
2. Their ideas are worthless.
C. They are beta.
III. Outlines improve sexual performance.
A. Outlining gives me boners.
B. I have more stamina.
IV. Outlining is the best.
A. You suck.
B. You're most likely a repressed homosexual.

Post: #19

Short words. Use them.

http://www.economist.com/node/3262983

Also - taking out unnecesary words from a sentence works for me. It usually makes me writing sharper. Always best to use one word where two or more were before...

Post: #20

I think that it's important to read if you're going to learn how to write.

It's also important to write about things that you see, understand, or have experienced that are in themselves removed from the author so the reader has room to relate to it. That's why there's never been a good autobiography (or comedy) written by a woman, their whole worldview is very narrow and ability to make any kind of commentary is stunted. Addressing why the audience would care is a question that has to be answered while writing.

A good rule of thumb is that if what you're writing has fifty personal pronouns relating to yourself (everything on jezebel) for every thousand words of text, your reader is going to disengage and call it complete shit, because you have not engaged him.

Here's a resource that you might find useful.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Rhetoric_and_Composition

Post: #21

(04-14-2013 04:39 PM)Kristian Wrote:  I'd like to know and learn how to write better..I want to write a book but my habilities are not very glamorous..

Any suggestion about useful books and sites to get some info?

Greetings!

What kind of writing? Fiction, non-fiction? Journalism? Technical Writing (what area of technology?)

Lots of different types of writing, and they required different skills and styles

Post: #22

Get reading or start writing blogs. It will develop your creative and report writing.

Post: #23

(04-14-2013 04:39 PM)Kristian Wrote:  I'd like to know and learn how to write better..I want to write a book but my habilities are not very glamorous..

Any suggestion about useful books and sites to get some info?

Greetings!

Personally, I have no idea how to write. I'd like to learn as well. However, I do know of someone -- well, not personally -- who has written and is very successful right now. His name is David Wong. This is what he wrote about writing.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-trut...er-person/

It's a good read. This is the pertinent part that is applicable to you and pretty much everyone else on this planet:

Quote:-snip-

"But I'm not good at anything!" Well, I have good news -- throw enough hours of repetition at it and you can get sort of good at anything. I was the world's shittiest writer when I was an infant. I was only slightly better at 25. But while I was failing miserably at my career, I wrote in my spare time for eight straight years, an article a week, before I ever made real money off it. It took 13 years for me to get good enough to make the New York Times best-seller list. It took me probably 20,000 hours of practice to sand the edges off my sucking.

Don't like the prospect of pouring all of that time into a skill? Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the sheer act of practicing will help you come out of your shell -- I got through years of tedious office work because I knew that I was learning a unique skill on the side. People quit because it takes too long to see results, because they can't figure out that the process is the result.

The bad news is that you have no other choice. If you want to work here, close.

Because in my non-expert opinion, you don't hate yourself because you have low self-esteem, or because other people were mean to you. You hate yourself because you don't do anything. Not even you can just "love you for you" -- that's why you're miserable and sending me private messages asking me what I think you should do with your life.

-snip-

Post: #24

Read. Read a lot. Read anything, Read everything. Read. Keep Reading. Then Read some more.

Post: #25

Delete