Creative Writing Tips

    • Characterization - Give Your Character Drive

    • Every character should have a motive for their actions. People don't act in an isolated state and so, you shouldn't let your characters fall into this rut. Be sure as you write that YOU understand your characters rationale and desires or else their actions won't make sense to the readers.
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    • Poetry - Cut the Articles

    • In poetry, the articles (the, a) often just slow the piece down and distract from the real visuals. Try removing the articles from your poetry whenever possible.
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    • Elmore Leonard - Don't Write What People Don't Read

    • Elmore Leonard said "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip." This is an important lesson. Think about stories you read. Are there any parts you simply skip over? Identify what causes this and avoid doing it in your own writing.
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    • Revision: Proofread Regularly

    • Proofreading a piece isn't just a simple read through of the piece you're working on. It's important to proofread your writing on several occassions with different goals in mind. Doing so will enable you to catch different mistakes and to look at your writing with different perspectives.
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    • Try Out National Novel Writing Month

    • The non-profit organization, National Novel Writing Month, known as NaNoWriMo can be found at http://www.nanowrimo.org/. The organization is for writers and works to get people writing. The objective is to get a novel written in a month, from November 1st to November 30th. Having these deadlines will help keep you focused and get you working hard to get your writing out there.
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