THE BORE

General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: Atramental on May 21, 2016, 03:30:54 AM

Title: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: Atramental on May 21, 2016, 03:30:54 AM: Any books, online resources, or courses you all would recommend?

This is in the context of me trying to expand my online business/presence through a blog on my own personal website.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Also, I'm ditching the YouTube channel idea for now. I keep on forgetting how robotic I sound in front of a camera. :doge
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Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: Tasty on May 21, 2016, 03:51:53 AM: What kind of writing?

All my RSS feeds are mostly tuned to screenwriting.

My general advice is to sign up on Medium and just start posting as much as possible. Practice makes perfect.
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: Tasty on May 21, 2016, 04:11:53 AM: Actually I have another piece of generic advice: read more. Or if audiobooks are your thing, listen more.
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: VomKriege on May 21, 2016, 04:39:08 AM: Be concise. Be on point and direct, no need to remind people that your opinion is just your opinion. Avoid vagueness (maybes & sometimes). Favor simplicity and use plain phrases, you are there to convey ideas not to showcase your language mastery. Write a draft and do reread it.

My understanding is that you're doing a creative graphical job ? What would the blog content be about : just a portfolio ? Your work process and principles ? Opinions and musings related to your workfield ?
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: TVC15 on May 21, 2016, 05:29:58 AM: Fuck business writing. This is the only thing you need.

http://www.amazon.com/Plot-Genie-Index-Wycliffe-Hill/dp/1503255948
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: helios on May 21, 2016, 06:05:43 AM: Write more.
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: Samson Manhug on May 21, 2016, 07:10:05 AM: Read a lot of Hemingway. When you revise your drafts make a game of seeing how many words you can omit while still being clear. (But don’t be afraid to committing to stylistic choices.)

This is an interesting tool:

http://www.hemingwayapp.com
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: Rman on May 21, 2016, 08:09:58 AM: Read a lot. Writing is extremely input based, so make sure your inputs are solid.
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: thisismyusername on May 21, 2016, 08:25:25 AM: Quote from: Rman on May 21, 2016, 08:09:58 AM
Read a lot. Writing is extremely input based, so make sure your inputs are solid.

That, and write a lot. Edit your stuff to where you start to find your "voice." Hell if you've been posting on forums as long as some of us have ( :doge ), you should already have that. It's just a matter of refining it.
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: Joe Molotov on May 21, 2016, 10:54:15 AM: Add lots of sexy parts.
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: VomKriege on May 22, 2016, 01:11:01 AM: Example of what you shouldn't do :

Quote
Thanks for the feedback. Have you read the ToS, though? Because you broke it by posting this thread. So, noting the degree of your apparent concern for the ongoing moderation standards here at NeoGAF, did you have a stopwatch running to see how long it would take for your thread to get locked by a moderator, as the ingenious secret agenda for posting this?

It's either that -- and my seams are just bursting with the sheer quantity of unwavering faith in your ingenuity, so don't take offense to any hypothetical alternatives mentioned just to cover the full spectrum of possibilities -- or, you posted an administrative metacommentary thread about how the ToS isn't being enforced as stringently as it used to be that is itself against the ToS, without the involvement of any stopwatches, in which case you're maybe not demonstrating to a suuuuuper high threshold of confidence how you came about qualifying yourself for handling the mod team's annual performance evaluations.
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: Tasty on May 22, 2016, 01:17:42 AM: Spend a day listening to recursive and Kara. You'll either come out of it writing like the Ubabomber or the next Ben Foster Wallace.
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: recursivelyenumerable on May 22, 2016, 05:10:51 AM: I'm flattered by seeing Kara lumped in with me but he's a couple tiers above me in writing ability, or at least I'm a couple tiers above him in laziness.
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: Kara on May 22, 2016, 10:51:12 AM: In a professional setting, looking like you care (e.g. moderately abiding by rules of grammar, using unambiguous language, not making careless typos, mistakes, or homophone errors) will go a long way. Bookmark this page and consult it frequently.

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

In general, and if you're an anglophone, read the King James Version and chip away at Shakespeare's oeuvre. And don't "read" in the way that term is commonly used, comprehend what you're reading.
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: Tasty on May 22, 2016, 02:07:51 PM: Quote from: Kara on May 22, 2016, 10:51:12 AM
And don't "read" in the way that term is commonly used, comprehend what you're reading.

NEWSFEED
Title: Re: I need to become a better writer.
Post by: recursivelyenumerable on May 22, 2016, 07:01:30 PM: i think that text may in fact be well adapted to the Galapagos/Total Perspective Vortex realm its author directs, so its lesson may rather be to find the equivalent at your place of work.