All opinions expressed in the blog are solely mine.
Advance your prospects in school and in life with better ideas and communication. People judge us on the clarity and content.
Study and learn from accomplished writers.
1) Share strong first lines and first paragraphs. The average reader engages with a piece for 36 seconds. Catch them early. - via Stephen King
2) $#@tt* first drafts, as humorist Anne Lamott calls them, are part of the process. Don’t fear writer’s block. Write.
3) Seek "the best available version of the truth." Washington Post investigative journalist Bob Woodward says that the whole truth is never known.
4) Put good ideas aside that you can't use now. - Malcolm Gladwell Good ideas remain useful at the right time. Develop a filing system.
5) Raise the stakes. - Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons) A ticking clock and meaningful stakes add value.
6) Use "creative imagination" and "critical imagination." - Salman Rushdie (The Satanic Verses) Rushdie describes how the first overcomes the blank page, and the second revises and sharpens.
7) "The director is the keeper of the story." - Ron Howard Coach Scott Celli is the keeper of the MVB story. In school, take responsibility to tell stories well and keep them on track.
8) "Read. Read. Read. Read. Read." - Werner Herzog Few accomplished writers don't read. Herzog has all his film student read "The Peregrine" for its brilliant prose.
9) Make it appealing. "The pages turn themselves" with great writing according to novelist James Patterson. Transitions between chapters help achieve that as the reader presses on, trying to understand and solve the story.
10) Know when you're bad. "The difference between good writers and bad writers is that good writers know when they're bad." - Dan Brown Brown once tossed 150 pages of a novel because it wasn’t good. Good writers know when to cut. He advises imitation—study others to see what worked and why. Hemingway, for example, wrote in short sentences, avoided “five-dollar words,” and claimed, “Writing is easy. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
11) Know your subject. Authors Tom Clancy and David Baldacci master knowledge of guns and military hardware. Mistakes in detail annoy and lose readers.
12) Reward readers. Bob Woodward provides at least six lessons in every piece. Give readers value for their time.
13) "Do one thing every day for your business and one thing for your craft." - David Mamet (Author, director, playwright) Mamet advises writers to "shave syllables" in the tradition of comedy writers. Less is more.
Where's the volleyball message?
- You are student-athletes. Be ambitious in class and on the court.
- How you do anything is how you do everything.
- Be curious about improving. Study the craft of experts and classics.
No comments:
Post a Comment