This artikulo contains suggestions for basic practices for being a good writer, and was last edited on 12 June 2009 (to add the admonition about backups).
How to be a Better Writer
If you're pagbaba this, chances are that you are interested in being a Good Writer: someone who is able to write well and convey ideas effectively through text. Note that we are not talking about being a Successful Writer here, nor a Widely-Read Writer; those are separate concerns. Before you worry about who's going to read your Pagsulat or what you can get out of your writing, you should concern yourself with making your Pagsulat worth reading. How do you do this? Below are some simple suggestions for practices that should improve your writing. Not all good writers do all of these things, but most do. Thus, it follows that if you want to emulate a good writer in the quality of his/her work, you should also emulate their practices. Each of these practices is important.
1. WRITE
This one should go without saying. To get better at something, you need to practice it. For a writer, that means Pagsulat all the time. No amount of mental composition, thinking about the Pagsulat you plan to do, will enable you to put the words together as effectively as actually Pagsulat the words. A week of careful consideration will yield less than an oras of typing or Pagsulat sa pamamagitan ng hand will do.
Daily writing
Make sure that you write every day, not just on weekends or weekdays when you "have the time". Write every day.
If you are at a loss for what to write, keep a journal and write in that daily. Carry a little notepad with you (or mobile device where you can quickly make notes), and jot down phrases, images, or bits of dialogue that you see, hear or imagine throughout the day. Commit yourself to Pagsulat a certain amount each day, either of time (I'll write for an oras with no breaks) or length of product (20 lines of poetry, minimum). Consider setting aside a regular time for writing, and also consider setting up a dedicated place for writing. Both of those can get you into the habit of Pagsulat such that, just entering that time or place, ideas start to flow.
Write a lot
Try to write as much as you can. There's an old aphorism that the first million words you write will be crap. The trick, then, is to get those first million words out of the way so that you can get to the good stuff. Of course, the process of Pagsulat those million words is how you actually get better, so there is some importance to making sure that you keep Pagsulat volubly as well as often.
Keep an archive of your writing
Mostly one writes to get the words out of the way of the susunod batch of words. That said, it's very useful to keep a backup of your writing: if you write on paper, file away your Pagsulat in a ligtas place. If you write on the computer, make sure to regularly back up your Pagsulat onto a CD or other local storage. This is useful for a number of reasons: inspiration (you can return to your Pagsulat months or even years later and be impressed with the ideas you had, and also how much better you are at Pagsulat after that time), copyright (you have some evidence that you wrote what you wrote), and just having something to ipakita for your efforts. If you write exclusively online in posting to sites like Fanpop, you'd better start going back and saving copies as soon as you can. There's no guarantee that those sites will keep your content intact - there are database failures, power outages, kraker attacks, and all sorts of other things that could cause the site to accidentally lose your Pagsulat - and if such a site goes out of business or is purchased sa pamamagitan ng another company, all bets are off as to what they keep. So your online Pagsulat could disappear overnight. Make sure to keep backups.
2. READ
Read a lot of the Pagsulat that others have done. While you should particularly read stuff that is similar to what you plan to write, you definitely should read widely, to give yourself broad exposure to different styles, voices, perspectives and approaches to writing. For this reason, constant pagbaba is a good practice for developing your own writing.
Style
Every writer has a distinctive way that they put words, sentences and paragraphs together. pagbaba madami will expose you to madami writers' styles, which you can then bring to madala in your own style, or, if you become familiar enough with a ibingiay style, you can even imitate for comic effect or as tribute to authors you particularly enjoy.
Voice
Well-written characters have clear behaviors, mannerisms, perspectives and attributes that define and illustrate who they are. Since this is all conveyed through words, it is referred to as the voice (either of the character - usually fiction - or the may-akda - either fiction or non-). This is often an extension of the author's style, which is specific to one character/narrator. Paying attention to character/narrator voice when you read will help you to be consistent in whatever voice you create for your writing.
Perspective
sa pamamagitan ng reading, you may see different approaches to perspective of the narrative, from a first-person omniscient to a third-person flawed. As you can tell from those examples, there are two scales that measure perspective: the orientation, and the trustworthiness of the narrator/authorial voice.
Orientation: This can be first person, in which everything is written from the perspective of yourself. An example: "When dawn broke, I rose and checked my gear. Then I walked downstairs and unpacked the grenades." A different orientation is segundo person, in which everything is written from the perspective of the reader: "When dawn broke, you got up, pulled on those boots you like so much, and were halfway to the store before you realized you hadn't worn anything else." However, the most common orientation is third person, in which you write about someone else (not you, and not the reader): "When Dawn broke, Larry untied her and had the orderlies return her to her cell, where she would receive medical treatment as reward for her confession."
Trustworthiness: This relates to how much the narrator knows/how fallible the narrator is. Most common is the omniscient narrator (usually going hand-in-hand with the third person perspective), which presents the text as the factual truth, with no reason for the reader to doubt what is being communicated. Most journalism artikulo are written from an omniscient perspective. "President Obama today spoke to Congress about the bill." is an omniscient perspective, just as is "Henry pulled an arrow, nocked it, drew back to his chin and let fly all in one smooth motion, his eyes never wavering from Diane's." A limited omniscient narrator is similar, but tells the action only around one character with no jumping around in time or place separate from the one character. If a story follows Ed the gameskeeper through 20 years of his life at the kastilyo and never shows us action that Ed didn't witness, but it is clear from the story that other stuff was happening that affects Ed - the narrator may even mention Ed's feelings, then that's a limited omniscience. A limited narrator is Pagsulat from the view of one who is actually a character in the story/narrative, and so stuff that happens in front of the character isn't necessarily conveyed accurately or interpreted correctly. "Sam sat at the table, dealing cards. Sheila accused him of cheating, then all hell broke loose and I didn't see what happened next." Finally, an unreliable narrator is Pagsulat from the perspective of a character whose very accounts can not be assumed to be factual. "Paul sat there with a smirk on his face. Or maybe he cried. In those days, he did both with some regularity, so it could have been either."
Approach
This is a pretty broad topic, but pagbaba different approaches can really help a writer of any level. Approach can mean the broad strokes: am I going to tell the story in chronological order? Will I write it in rhyming verse? Will it work better as past, present or future tense? But approach could also mean the specific tacks the writer takes for a particular scene or paragraph: will I use alliteration here? Will I develop a theme of the color blue here? Seeing the approaches that other authors have taken may give you ideas on different ways to approach your own pieces.
Dialogue
pagbaba a lot can help you with your dialogue: both how to write dialogue well, and in many cases how NOT to write dialogue well.
3. TALK WITH OTHER WRITERS
Having a Pagsulat group or a regular get-together with other writers is key to Pagsulat well as well as improving your writing. Writers challenge each other, as well as energizing each other. Meeting regularly with other writers can:
1) Encourage discipline (making sure that you write regularly). If you have a writer's group and you're expected to bring some new writing/revision to each meeting, you are madami likely to do it than if you only had expectation on yourself to write regularly.
2) Reinforce the idea that you're not alone. Other writers can commiserate with you about the difficulties with writing. They can offer tips at handling problems with approaches or blocks from times they've had similar experiences, and you can gain confidence sa pamamagitan ng talking to them about your solutions to problems you've had in the past.
Sometimes a writer on his/her own will start to feel blah about their own writing, but sharing it with other writers can get you out of those doldrums when they express their enthusiasm for your story.
3) Inspire you with their work. pagbaba another author's work in progress can be thrilling, because the other may-akda will almost certainly have a different style and voice than you do. Just pagbaba new ideas and getting excited to see what happens susunod in a work in progress can really rekindle the apoy for your own work.
4) Help you with your work. Sometimes just trying to explain what you're trying to say in your Pagsulat is enough for you to realize problems with your narrative. When that isn't enough, though, the other writers can hear your work and then give you feedback which can help out your craft.
4. CRITICALLY ANALYZE WRITING
Feedback is vital to a writer. But you don't just give criticism of others' Pagsulat in the hopes that you will get criticism in return! The main value in critically analyzing others' Pagsulat is that it gets you in the habit of reviewing the craft that went in to a particular piece of writing, identifying what technical choices were made and how they worked for the piece. As you focus on the (mis)spelling of others, you become sensitive to your own mistakes, and can thus correct them madami easily.
What is critical analysis?
Critical analysis is reviewing a work, checking how it functions as a whole, as well as how each of the pieces contributes to that whole. Usually critical analysis is delivered to the may-akda of the work being analyzed, either in person or in writing. This is so the may-akda can benefit, and so that you are organized and thorough in your criticism.
Some things to analyze
There are many things to consider when you critically analyze a piece, and that listahan will be somewhat different based on the type of Pagsulat that you're reviewing. mga tula will be different than memoir will be different than reporting. Here's an example of some of the things you might consider when reviewing short fiction stories:
* spelling
* grammar (sentence structure)
* syntax (the order of words in the sentence)
* word choice (are the words being used correctly? Are the words repetitive or limited? Do the words chosen enhance or hinder the narrative?)
* punctuation
* dialogue (Is the vocabulary appropriate to the time period/social status/location of the character
* paglalarawan (how well are things described, when they're described?)
* character motivation (Does what the character is doing/saying make sense? Does it make sense for that character?)
* plot (does the action make sense? Does it flow from one event to the other in an appropriate, believable way?)
SUMMARY
There are four broad categories that all writers should do: write, read, discuss and criticize. The first is foremost, but all of the others are just as important as any of the others. Try to consistently do all four and you will find your Pagsulat improving.
How to be a Better Writer
If you're pagbaba this, chances are that you are interested in being a Good Writer: someone who is able to write well and convey ideas effectively through text. Note that we are not talking about being a Successful Writer here, nor a Widely-Read Writer; those are separate concerns. Before you worry about who's going to read your Pagsulat or what you can get out of your writing, you should concern yourself with making your Pagsulat worth reading. How do you do this? Below are some simple suggestions for practices that should improve your writing. Not all good writers do all of these things, but most do. Thus, it follows that if you want to emulate a good writer in the quality of his/her work, you should also emulate their practices. Each of these practices is important.
1. WRITE
This one should go without saying. To get better at something, you need to practice it. For a writer, that means Pagsulat all the time. No amount of mental composition, thinking about the Pagsulat you plan to do, will enable you to put the words together as effectively as actually Pagsulat the words. A week of careful consideration will yield less than an oras of typing or Pagsulat sa pamamagitan ng hand will do.
Daily writing
Make sure that you write every day, not just on weekends or weekdays when you "have the time". Write every day.
If you are at a loss for what to write, keep a journal and write in that daily. Carry a little notepad with you (or mobile device where you can quickly make notes), and jot down phrases, images, or bits of dialogue that you see, hear or imagine throughout the day. Commit yourself to Pagsulat a certain amount each day, either of time (I'll write for an oras with no breaks) or length of product (20 lines of poetry, minimum). Consider setting aside a regular time for writing, and also consider setting up a dedicated place for writing. Both of those can get you into the habit of Pagsulat such that, just entering that time or place, ideas start to flow.
Write a lot
Try to write as much as you can. There's an old aphorism that the first million words you write will be crap. The trick, then, is to get those first million words out of the way so that you can get to the good stuff. Of course, the process of Pagsulat those million words is how you actually get better, so there is some importance to making sure that you keep Pagsulat volubly as well as often.
Keep an archive of your writing
Mostly one writes to get the words out of the way of the susunod batch of words. That said, it's very useful to keep a backup of your writing: if you write on paper, file away your Pagsulat in a ligtas place. If you write on the computer, make sure to regularly back up your Pagsulat onto a CD or other local storage. This is useful for a number of reasons: inspiration (you can return to your Pagsulat months or even years later and be impressed with the ideas you had, and also how much better you are at Pagsulat after that time), copyright (you have some evidence that you wrote what you wrote), and just having something to ipakita for your efforts. If you write exclusively online in posting to sites like Fanpop, you'd better start going back and saving copies as soon as you can. There's no guarantee that those sites will keep your content intact - there are database failures, power outages, kraker attacks, and all sorts of other things that could cause the site to accidentally lose your Pagsulat - and if such a site goes out of business or is purchased sa pamamagitan ng another company, all bets are off as to what they keep. So your online Pagsulat could disappear overnight. Make sure to keep backups.
2. READ
Read a lot of the Pagsulat that others have done. While you should particularly read stuff that is similar to what you plan to write, you definitely should read widely, to give yourself broad exposure to different styles, voices, perspectives and approaches to writing. For this reason, constant pagbaba is a good practice for developing your own writing.
Style
Every writer has a distinctive way that they put words, sentences and paragraphs together. pagbaba madami will expose you to madami writers' styles, which you can then bring to madala in your own style, or, if you become familiar enough with a ibingiay style, you can even imitate for comic effect or as tribute to authors you particularly enjoy.
Voice
Well-written characters have clear behaviors, mannerisms, perspectives and attributes that define and illustrate who they are. Since this is all conveyed through words, it is referred to as the voice (either of the character - usually fiction - or the may-akda - either fiction or non-). This is often an extension of the author's style, which is specific to one character/narrator. Paying attention to character/narrator voice when you read will help you to be consistent in whatever voice you create for your writing.
Perspective
sa pamamagitan ng reading, you may see different approaches to perspective of the narrative, from a first-person omniscient to a third-person flawed. As you can tell from those examples, there are two scales that measure perspective: the orientation, and the trustworthiness of the narrator/authorial voice.
Orientation: This can be first person, in which everything is written from the perspective of yourself. An example: "When dawn broke, I rose and checked my gear. Then I walked downstairs and unpacked the grenades." A different orientation is segundo person, in which everything is written from the perspective of the reader: "When dawn broke, you got up, pulled on those boots you like so much, and were halfway to the store before you realized you hadn't worn anything else." However, the most common orientation is third person, in which you write about someone else (not you, and not the reader): "When Dawn broke, Larry untied her and had the orderlies return her to her cell, where she would receive medical treatment as reward for her confession."
Trustworthiness: This relates to how much the narrator knows/how fallible the narrator is. Most common is the omniscient narrator (usually going hand-in-hand with the third person perspective), which presents the text as the factual truth, with no reason for the reader to doubt what is being communicated. Most journalism artikulo are written from an omniscient perspective. "President Obama today spoke to Congress about the bill." is an omniscient perspective, just as is "Henry pulled an arrow, nocked it, drew back to his chin and let fly all in one smooth motion, his eyes never wavering from Diane's." A limited omniscient narrator is similar, but tells the action only around one character with no jumping around in time or place separate from the one character. If a story follows Ed the gameskeeper through 20 years of his life at the kastilyo and never shows us action that Ed didn't witness, but it is clear from the story that other stuff was happening that affects Ed - the narrator may even mention Ed's feelings, then that's a limited omniscience. A limited narrator is Pagsulat from the view of one who is actually a character in the story/narrative, and so stuff that happens in front of the character isn't necessarily conveyed accurately or interpreted correctly. "Sam sat at the table, dealing cards. Sheila accused him of cheating, then all hell broke loose and I didn't see what happened next." Finally, an unreliable narrator is Pagsulat from the perspective of a character whose very accounts can not be assumed to be factual. "Paul sat there with a smirk on his face. Or maybe he cried. In those days, he did both with some regularity, so it could have been either."
Approach
This is a pretty broad topic, but pagbaba different approaches can really help a writer of any level. Approach can mean the broad strokes: am I going to tell the story in chronological order? Will I write it in rhyming verse? Will it work better as past, present or future tense? But approach could also mean the specific tacks the writer takes for a particular scene or paragraph: will I use alliteration here? Will I develop a theme of the color blue here? Seeing the approaches that other authors have taken may give you ideas on different ways to approach your own pieces.
Dialogue
pagbaba a lot can help you with your dialogue: both how to write dialogue well, and in many cases how NOT to write dialogue well.
3. TALK WITH OTHER WRITERS
Having a Pagsulat group or a regular get-together with other writers is key to Pagsulat well as well as improving your writing. Writers challenge each other, as well as energizing each other. Meeting regularly with other writers can:
1) Encourage discipline (making sure that you write regularly). If you have a writer's group and you're expected to bring some new writing/revision to each meeting, you are madami likely to do it than if you only had expectation on yourself to write regularly.
2) Reinforce the idea that you're not alone. Other writers can commiserate with you about the difficulties with writing. They can offer tips at handling problems with approaches or blocks from times they've had similar experiences, and you can gain confidence sa pamamagitan ng talking to them about your solutions to problems you've had in the past.
Sometimes a writer on his/her own will start to feel blah about their own writing, but sharing it with other writers can get you out of those doldrums when they express their enthusiasm for your story.
3) Inspire you with their work. pagbaba another author's work in progress can be thrilling, because the other may-akda will almost certainly have a different style and voice than you do. Just pagbaba new ideas and getting excited to see what happens susunod in a work in progress can really rekindle the apoy for your own work.
4) Help you with your work. Sometimes just trying to explain what you're trying to say in your Pagsulat is enough for you to realize problems with your narrative. When that isn't enough, though, the other writers can hear your work and then give you feedback which can help out your craft.
4. CRITICALLY ANALYZE WRITING
Feedback is vital to a writer. But you don't just give criticism of others' Pagsulat in the hopes that you will get criticism in return! The main value in critically analyzing others' Pagsulat is that it gets you in the habit of reviewing the craft that went in to a particular piece of writing, identifying what technical choices were made and how they worked for the piece. As you focus on the (mis)spelling of others, you become sensitive to your own mistakes, and can thus correct them madami easily.
What is critical analysis?
Critical analysis is reviewing a work, checking how it functions as a whole, as well as how each of the pieces contributes to that whole. Usually critical analysis is delivered to the may-akda of the work being analyzed, either in person or in writing. This is so the may-akda can benefit, and so that you are organized and thorough in your criticism.
Some things to analyze
There are many things to consider when you critically analyze a piece, and that listahan will be somewhat different based on the type of Pagsulat that you're reviewing. mga tula will be different than memoir will be different than reporting. Here's an example of some of the things you might consider when reviewing short fiction stories:
* spelling
* grammar (sentence structure)
* syntax (the order of words in the sentence)
* word choice (are the words being used correctly? Are the words repetitive or limited? Do the words chosen enhance or hinder the narrative?)
* punctuation
* dialogue (Is the vocabulary appropriate to the time period/social status/location of the character
* paglalarawan (how well are things described, when they're described?)
* character motivation (Does what the character is doing/saying make sense? Does it make sense for that character?)
* plot (does the action make sense? Does it flow from one event to the other in an appropriate, believable way?)
SUMMARY
There are four broad categories that all writers should do: write, read, discuss and criticize. The first is foremost, but all of the others are just as important as any of the others. Try to consistently do all four and you will find your Pagsulat improving.
♥ I've always mused about this significant quandary!
Here are some of the provided words that are in the English Dictionary and no other words rhyme with them.
♥
It is sometimes sinabi that the words:
orange, purple, and silver ♥ are the only words which rhyme with no other words.
♥ Non-rhyming English words of two syllables or fewer
pili
aspirin
bachelor
chaos
chimney
circus
different (whether pronounced as two- or three-syllable word)
film
hostage
javelin
justice (only rhymes with proper nouns)
laundry
luggage
monster
buwan
citrus
office
oliba
kahel (only rhymes with proper nouns)
pint
ibong dagat
pizza
promise (only rhymes with proper nouns)
purple
shadow
silver
transfer
vacuum
Here are some of the provided words that are in the English Dictionary and no other words rhyme with them.
♥
It is sometimes sinabi that the words:
orange, purple, and silver ♥ are the only words which rhyme with no other words.
♥ Non-rhyming English words of two syllables or fewer
pili
aspirin
bachelor
chaos
chimney
circus
different (whether pronounced as two- or three-syllable word)
film
hostage
javelin
justice (only rhymes with proper nouns)
laundry
luggage
monster
buwan
citrus
office
oliba
kahel (only rhymes with proper nouns)
pint
ibong dagat
pizza
promise (only rhymes with proper nouns)
purple
shadow
silver
transfer
vacuum
DOVEWING PVO
Tigerheart and Dovewing had finished playing around and were lying in the Great Oak together.
Dovewing was breathing in Tigerheart's soft muscular scent and playing with his tail gently. He was sharing tongues with her and talking about each other's life together.
Dovewing was content to be there with him, it had been ages and there were no other Pusa here, no Bumblestripe, no jealousy. No Ivypool and Toadstep, Cinderheart and Liomblaze and everybody telling her to get a mate, like Bumblestripe.
She was there with who she loved and who she cared about most.
TIgerheart began talking to her slowly, calmly, contently.
"Dovewing, I pag-ibig you madami than ever!" He purred.
"I pag-ibig you too, Tigerheart." Dovewing murmured.
She crouched down and started to lick his smooth balahibo and he played around.
"Tigerheart..." Dovewing began.
"Yeah?" Tigerheart asked.
"Will you ilipat to ThunderClan?" She asked.
Tigerheart and Dovewing had finished playing around and were lying in the Great Oak together.
Dovewing was breathing in Tigerheart's soft muscular scent and playing with his tail gently. He was sharing tongues with her and talking about each other's life together.
Dovewing was content to be there with him, it had been ages and there were no other Pusa here, no Bumblestripe, no jealousy. No Ivypool and Toadstep, Cinderheart and Liomblaze and everybody telling her to get a mate, like Bumblestripe.
She was there with who she loved and who she cared about most.
TIgerheart began talking to her slowly, calmly, contently.
"Dovewing, I pag-ibig you madami than ever!" He purred.
"I pag-ibig you too, Tigerheart." Dovewing murmured.
She crouched down and started to lick his smooth balahibo and he played around.
"Tigerheart..." Dovewing began.
"Yeah?" Tigerheart asked.
"Will you ilipat to ThunderClan?" She asked.