Kurt Vonnegut was a great writer. He was an author with a unique voice, and he once published some of his insight with a short piece that I now want to share, titled How to write with style. He published fourteen novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five non-fiction books throughout his career. After…
Tag: Writing Advice
Who are you writing for?
There’s only one answer to the question ‘Who you are writing for?’ and that’s yourself. You write in a language and style that you know, and you create something that you would love to read. You write what you know, and you write for yourself. So why all the writing advice? What’s that all about?…
How to write realistic dialogue: an introduction.
There’s a lot of good, easy-to-follow advice on ‘how to write realistic dialogue,’ and I will soon share my ideas on that here, but this first post on the subject will cover when and why I choose to use dialogue. Every writer should have this conversation with themselves before refining the dialogue that’s already on…
How to Write Poetry: A Step-by-Step Guide.
Writing poetry is a great way to express yourself through language, imagery and emotion. While there are many different forms of poetry, each with its own unique rules and guidelines, there are also common principles that all poets should learn to write compelling poetry. This article will provide readers with step-by-step instructions on how to…
On Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet.
Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry is notoriously difficult to translate. For non-German speakers, Rilke’s writing in Letters to a Young Poet is the closest we can get to the poet. It doesn’t only bring us closer to his writing style, but also the man and the general nature of poetry and writing. In Letters to a…
How to Edit Well: 14 Micro Editing Tips.
Here’s an editing cheat sheet. I’ve used it for almost ten years since the most influential teacher of my life handed it to me. In ‘The best writing advice anyone has given me‘ and ‘Should writers worry about offending readers,’ I shared advice from Carl Tighe and Moy McCrory. But it was Adrian Buckner, another…
Be Succinct in your Writing.
Your writing is more cluttered than you realise. Mine, too. I know because I see it every time I read through and edit. When working through our first and second drafts, be on the lookout for everything that doesn’t need to be there. Be succinct in your writing, focus on one flower instead of the entire…
Kill Your Darlings.
For some, it’s a fundamental and obvious piece of writing advice that they’ve practiced for years. To others, it sounds so odd that following it would be detrimental to your writing. Because why would you want to kill your darlings? Aren’t they supposed to be cherished and nurtured? This post will show what the phrase…
Does writing advice work?
Through my studies, work experience, and social exchanges with writers (online and real-life), I can confidently say that we are all quite different from one another. I recognize our differences, but I also see what connects us, and nothing highlights this better than how we respond to the question, ‘Does writing advice work?’ Writing advice…
F—k Writer’s Block!
‘Writer’s Block’ is a huge topic. Since graduating from university in 2012, I’ve spent most of my time writing in isolation, and writing a lot. I only realised that writer’s block was affecting a lot of writers out there when I joined the online writing communities when I launched the About Writing blog last year….