TITLE: Never hurts to Review WRITING BASICS By Dr. Joe K. Reed 03/27/11 |
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1. Generating Ideas.
As you know writing starts in the Mind. Jot down your thoughts on anything handy. Define the type of writing you are creating. Is it fiction, short story, novel, narrative, interview, poem, etc? Create a Title early so you can stay focused on the subject.
2. Researching.
With Internet, the knowledge of the world is at our disposal.
Beware of Plagiarism which is Defined as, "The wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work.” (Personally, I would never use a sentence that long.)
My advice is you can usually steal (err, borrow) a word or two from another. Do not copy sentences and paragraphs. Research is all about collecting as many Ideas as you can. You can always reference the source. I prefer reading something then set it aside to re-write my version in my own words.
3. Create a Rough Draft.
Put ideas and information in sentence and paragraph form. Hint: I like to avoid boredom by adding some “entertainment value’ to my writing. A witty phrase or humor usually works. By the way, what is a Synonym for Thesaurus?
You will notice all the good speakers use humor. Presidents Obama and Clinton are excellent humor orators and George W. tried.
4. Read and Revise.
More than one revision might be necessary. Keep revising until you are 100% satisfied with your work.
5. Editing.
This is the Labor Intensive part of creative writing. Are you planning to hire an editing service or do it yourself? How about editing software? I know that “Grammarly” hates contractions such as won’t and don’t. Check for sentence fragments and run-on sentences.
Use strong subjects, vibrant verbs, and highly descriptive adjectives. Check formatting, punctuation, spelling, sentence, and paragraph structure. Look for subject and verb agreement.
Then study each word individually for proper usage. Hint: Read it backwards.
Make your work easily readable. Use short and simple sentences. Put it “out there” for comments. E-mail to friends and ask for feedback.
6. Publishing your work.
Know your audience. Who do you want to target? Is your creation an e-book, hard cover, article, or what? Are you planning to use FaithWriters, AuthorsDen, Amazon Kindle, Sony, SmashWords, etc. What categories, tags, and key words are appropriate for your writing?
Hope you find this helpful.
God Bless,
Dr. Joe K. Reed
References: TheFreeDictionary, Grammarly
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