Do you want to Write well?

OR

Do you Want to  Make Money on Xomba?

By Les Porter.

Tips
1. Read.
2. Write.
 
Tools:
  a. Thesaurus
  b. Dictionary.

And finally: Real Good Help!

TIP # 1.  Read!  Read! Read!  And then, “Imitate.” Then Read some more.

Why “imitate” someone else?  This is not saying “copy,”  but “imitate” and “emulate.”

This “Read and Imitate” tip is a suggestion that, in fact, has a solid foundation in behavioral science. Behavioral knowledge extends to teaching – and assuming you were educated in a school – you were exposed to many good behaviors and bad behaviors or approaches to learning and socialization.  Without even trying you were expected to imitate or emulate.  Or decide not to.  There is no doubt after exposure you modified your behavior.  Even if you do not know it, you did it. Writing is no different.  But you must read to broaden your inventory of writing skills to find what is worthy of imitation and emulation.

Scientists in the arena of “behavior” are actively studying the role of “imitation.”  They want to see how new behaviors that arise are transferred to others through imitation.  They have discerned that new useful behaviors are transmitted through imitation.  And they can prove it!

Humorously, this field is called “Imitation Science,” and student’s of this field take a lot of “ribbing” that what they are doing is not “real science,” but only an “imitation” of  “real” science.

But, as a writing “tip,” keep this in your mind: Read, and if you like it, then consider means to “imitate” it.

If you do not like it, don’t imitate it.  There must be “something distinctive” that you recognize you want to imitate – and others would see it too.  The key is to communicate in words that evoke images in the mind of the reader.  Clear writing is not always literature – so you must also decide if you are trying to write artistically or trying to effectively communicate without elevating the effort to an art form.

Never write down to an audience, unless you place such activity into the activities one of your flawed characters, one you are using as a development  for your story.   Be sure the reader is treated as you expect to be treated when you decide to read an article, or a story.  It takes the hook.  So you must interest the reader.
   
Tip 2.
Write, Write, and Write

Besides reading, you must write, write, and write some more – preparing while you learn the craft that you might need to throw away a million words you have written that aren’t worth reading.  If you write enough and carefully do it, you can improve some of those million words, and maybe improve or correct them to perhaps resurrect them. ( I apologize for the rhyme.) Rite, Right, Write. (Know the difference)
                       
Then Re-write

Writing requires revision, and even Abraham Lincoln revised the Gettysburg Address – and in fact – worked on it after he delivered it – trying to improve it in the copies he gave to people.  That is how we know about his post-delivery revisions!  He thought he could improve that work!  If you want to practice revisions that could be a quick learning experience.  Could you destroy or improve it by changes to the words?

Think about revising the U. S. Constitution, and the messes that have been made out of much of it by Corporations and Banks, with those people they have purchased.  If you choose to submit an amendment to it, even if you have a really good idea –  you might not ever be able to get it published.  But take the time to revise, and re-write your work. 

Someone sent me this proposal: And I think it needs minor revision.  What do you think?
------
    Amendment 28

Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United
States that does not apply equally to the Senators or Representatives,
and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators or
Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the
United States.

The above makes a kind of sense.  It probably needs to be re-written into senselessness to have a chance of passage..
----------
           
Even the poet, Robert Frost went through the effort to re-write or revise his poetry, usually before publication.  But his revisions to the poems before publication are valuable in themselves because they show the evolution of concepts as the trail of thought in reaching their final form.
   
A Couple of Necessary Tools.

Thesaurus 

The handy book of old, was a paper or hardback book.  It was limited, and there are a few included in editor software you can purchase, or as add ons to your word processor.  They are a quick way to find words that can reduce redundancy in your writing.  Especially if you need a fresh word, for one you have just about worn the reader out with by seeing it so much.

Dictionary

Maybe you are thinking spell-checker, yes that too.  But you might want a good dictionary that lists all the multiple contextual meanings of words.  For example:   “run”

There are more than 50 meanings to the word Run in any good dictionary.  But you can use other words to replace run. [dashed, raced, sped, course, etc.]  But not too many of them to keep from an economy of meaning.

  
       
REAL HELP!

Read about writing!

Think of a subscription!  Not an internet subscription, but one to Writer’s Digest.

Fact: There are more well enunciated “tips” in a single issue of the 8-issue-per-year-magazine than you will likely find at any single website or collection of them on the internet.

Don’t be bashful, here is the link: www.writersdigest.com/GeneralMenu/

Right now, though it is last months edition (and I already have in my hands the current edition, (Nov/Dec.)) There are many, many, many  worthwhile articles in WD, and here is one that is appearing on the October website (Oct. 9) that appeared in the September, 2009 issue.

www.writersdigest.com/article/publishing-contracts-101/

Have you examined your contract with Nick Veneris,  your Publisher?

If you want to more quickly learn about writing you may have to spend some money and get a subscription to Writer’s Digest.  Over the years, I have been an “on and off” subscriber to WD, but I am not ever “off” for long.  My biggest difficulty is making and taking the time, making and taking the effort to read ALL the great information in each issue.

If it is a good set of “writing tips,” you are putting together, and different from the little bit of insight I am highlighting here,  why not see if Writer’s Digest would think it worthy of putting it on their website or even better – in their slick paper media?  Could you do both? 

Here are some writers you could read and choose to imitate:

Nobelists in Literature come to mind, but many writers could and should be read and imitated.

Here are several Nobelists in Literature I admire, and one of their works referenced that you might think of  imitating.  You might like them too, and you cannot go wrong effectively imitating some of the greatest writers.  If a critic says “You write like Hemingway” you are doing fine.

Gabriel García Márquez , One Hundred Years of Solitude [English Translation, by Gregory Rabassa]  The translation to English by Rabassa, –  Márquez considered to be a work superior to his original.

John Steinbeck. Of Mice and Men, In the Heart of the Great Depression, 1937.  One of the easiest to read stories with simple vocabulary and simple words explaining some of our deeper dreams and motivations.  Simple words can well explain complex ideas in the capable writer’s capable hands. This classic is well worth reviewing.

Earnest Hemingway,  The Old Man and the Sea,  much reserved and implied with simple words and actions the reader can grasp, fill out himself, and understand.  Most powerful is his active voice which leads to an on-the-run-reflection while the action of life he describes occurs.  You participate in filling in the fine details yourself, but he points you to places you can see those details, knowing them as powerful undercurrents.

John Paul Sartre, The Wall.  If you were not at some point in time “forced to read this short story,” you should read it now for what it might help you learn of Sartre’s Existentialism, and writing from a perspective point of view.  The ironies in The Wall suddenly arise at the end.  From his “Being and Nothingness:  An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology,” p. 246 “We need to experience death consciousness so as to wake up ourselves as to what is really important; the authentic in our lives which is life experience, not knowledge.”  I disagree with Sartre philosophically, but admire his writings for their stark and powerful clarity.  For example, Sartre thinks you must die and reincarnate yourself while still alive to be uniquely worthwhile and valuable intrinsically, on you own.  And nothing else can be so valuable of itself without that transcendent experience.

And Finally a non-nobelist I admired – a writer mostly of Fantasy.

Image: wikipedia.  The wraparound art work for F&SF A Rose for Ecclesiastes, by Roger Zelazny,  1963. Note the 40 Cents news stand price.  I think I still have my copy buried in one of my storage places..

One of my favorite writers was Roger Zelazny, who appeared in the very first issue of  Fantasy and Science Fiction (November 1963) I received as part of my “paid subscription,” with the 1964 Hugo nominated story A Rose for Ecclesiastes, a fantasy about Mars.  Roger Zelazny’s “Amber” series were a favorite of many, but in  For A Breath I Tarry . . .” where mighty machine Frost sits at the north pole for ten thousand years, aware of every snowflake that falls and rules the North . . . is a powerful and thoughtful narrative style, with a fine insight into man and man's machine and this still offers a poignant view with a  tour de force recovery from an apocalyptic vision. 

If you can imitate any of these writers sufficiently well, you can write your own ticket. If you can do the learning by imitation, you can possibly take the next step and flesh-out your own unique “voice,” a part of your singular one-of-a-kind point of view.

Do you Want to  Make Money on Xomba?

I recommend you search Xomba about that.

I surmise, at this stage that good writing and money on xomba are almost incompatible, not that they can't be compatible, but you almost have to write adcopy for a specific product and then get accused of inapproriate posting, as though it is spam.  Yah, that is a little harsh, but how much GOOD WRITING here on Xomba is making money.   I have some ideas about this, but it will take a new approach and that is difficult.  I suggest you read all of the articles de dom has posted, as well as those with the highest number of hits since the new version 3 of xomba began.

We will see, won’t we?