When we're writing, it's easy to grab at the first word that comes into our head. Take, for example, the sentence:
The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a cloth.
How about being more specific about what type of fabric the cloth was made of?
The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a square of silk.
Or:
The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in her damask cloth.
You could also give a fuller description of the cloth, by naming the colour, but again, a little attention to detail goes a long way. Compare this sentence:
The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a red silk cloth.
with this one:
The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a crimson silk cloth.
You can also play with the word order to add greater emphasis:
The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a cloth of crimson silk.
Doesn't that sound more poetic?
Try making simple changes like these to your writing and see how they bring it to life.
Showing posts with label description. Show all posts
Showing posts with label description. Show all posts
Monday, 6 October 2008
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Strong Writing - Choose Powerful Verbs!
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that it's the adjectives you choose, the words that describe things, that makes your writing vivid. But sometimes you can make your writing a lot stronger by choosing verbs that are powerful and descriptive.
Take these two sentences for example:
The cheerful man walked down the street.
The man sauntered down the street.
Which sentence do you think is stronger? Although the second sentence doesn't even have an adjective and it's one word longer than the first, it's much more effective. Not only does the word sauntered describe the way in which the man walked - it also suggests something about his mood.
Compare these two:
The man walked home unsteadily.
The man stumbled home.
The second version is more economical. It expresses the same idea as the first sentence but in more neatly, without having to use the adverb unsteadily. (Remember, an adverb is a word that describes a verb.)
So when you next sit down to write, make your writing strong - choose powerful verbs!
Take these two sentences for example:
The cheerful man walked down the street.
The man sauntered down the street.
Which sentence do you think is stronger? Although the second sentence doesn't even have an adjective and it's one word longer than the first, it's much more effective. Not only does the word sauntered describe the way in which the man walked - it also suggests something about his mood.
Compare these two:
The man walked home unsteadily.
The man stumbled home.
The second version is more economical. It expresses the same idea as the first sentence but in more neatly, without having to use the adverb unsteadily. (Remember, an adverb is a word that describes a verb.)
So when you next sit down to write, make your writing strong - choose powerful verbs!
Sunday, 22 June 2008
A Day in the Life of a Writer - Beginnings and Endings
The Story Continues
Yesterday was quite an exciting day, writingwise.
Beginning to Publish on Triond
As I mentioned yesterday, I began to submit pieces to the online publishing site, Triond - just a couple of short 'how to' articles about writing and a poem of mine.
I was astonished to find that my two articles were up and running on their site within about an hour of me submitting them. Talk about instant publishing!
And I was even more astonished today to find that someone had clicked 'I like it' on one of my articles and a couple of complete strangers had left comments. I think one of them was a teacher from America. The internet is such an amazing resource for making contact with like-minded people from all over the world and sharing your knowledge and passions.
I'm very pleased to have discovered this new outlet for my writing and am looking forward to submitting many more items this week. Do go on to Triond and check out my work there - and leave a comment.
Creative Writing Workshop at the University of Huddersfield
The other exciting writing event yesterday was the writing workshop at the university with our guest writer, Char March. It had attracted an excellent turnout - fifteen enthusiastic and very talented writers of all ages.
As I told you in my last posting, we'd been given some preparation to do for it and I had managed to do mine, but unfortunately there were only a handful who had, so we weren't able to get off at quite the gallop that Char had intended. But we were soon all up to speed and had a fascinating workshop exploring how to convey different moods when describing a setting.
Char had brought along several extracts from published short stories for us to examine. We worked in small groups to compare how the writers had used the five senses in their descriptions of the setting.
We later discovered that one of the extracts was from a short story that Char had written herself. She confessed that she didn't usually use examples from her own work and had been quite nervous about it.
As promised, she did make us work hard. We covered a lot of ground and by the end of the workshop we had all written something of our own and read it out to the group, been applauded and generally had a fantastic time.
A Sad Ending
Which brings me to the 'endings'. Unfortunately, Rommi Smith, who has organised and run the series of workshops as part of an eighteen-month project, has been told that the project will finish at the end of July and there are no plans to extend her contract.
It's a great pity as it has been a marvellous opportunity for writers of all abilities and levels of expertise to come together from time to time and enjoy learning about writing at a very reasonable cost. The project also included regular workshops for parents and their children to come to together, which I gather were very popular and great fun.
It's been marvellous that the University has provided these opportunities for the general public to discover writing. I'm sure that it will have enhanced its reputation as an institution which fosters creativity, as well as getting lots of people inside its doors who would never have ventured in there otherwise.
We'll miss the chance to come and be part of the university and enjoy its marvellous facilities, if only for two hours a month.
Pastures New for Rommi Smith
We'll also miss Rommi Smith, whose workshops are legendary and who never fails to inspire us with her knowledge of and enthusiasm for new writing.
So thank you, Rommi. We've all learnt a lot from you over the past year or so. Let's hope it won't be the last we see of you.
Yesterday was quite an exciting day, writingwise.
Beginning to Publish on Triond
As I mentioned yesterday, I began to submit pieces to the online publishing site, Triond - just a couple of short 'how to' articles about writing and a poem of mine.
I was astonished to find that my two articles were up and running on their site within about an hour of me submitting them. Talk about instant publishing!
And I was even more astonished today to find that someone had clicked 'I like it' on one of my articles and a couple of complete strangers had left comments. I think one of them was a teacher from America. The internet is such an amazing resource for making contact with like-minded people from all over the world and sharing your knowledge and passions.
I'm very pleased to have discovered this new outlet for my writing and am looking forward to submitting many more items this week. Do go on to Triond and check out my work there - and leave a comment.
Creative Writing Workshop at the University of Huddersfield
The other exciting writing event yesterday was the writing workshop at the university with our guest writer, Char March. It had attracted an excellent turnout - fifteen enthusiastic and very talented writers of all ages.
As I told you in my last posting, we'd been given some preparation to do for it and I had managed to do mine, but unfortunately there were only a handful who had, so we weren't able to get off at quite the gallop that Char had intended. But we were soon all up to speed and had a fascinating workshop exploring how to convey different moods when describing a setting.
Char had brought along several extracts from published short stories for us to examine. We worked in small groups to compare how the writers had used the five senses in their descriptions of the setting.
We later discovered that one of the extracts was from a short story that Char had written herself. She confessed that she didn't usually use examples from her own work and had been quite nervous about it.
As promised, she did make us work hard. We covered a lot of ground and by the end of the workshop we had all written something of our own and read it out to the group, been applauded and generally had a fantastic time.
A Sad Ending
Which brings me to the 'endings'. Unfortunately, Rommi Smith, who has organised and run the series of workshops as part of an eighteen-month project, has been told that the project will finish at the end of July and there are no plans to extend her contract.
It's a great pity as it has been a marvellous opportunity for writers of all abilities and levels of expertise to come together from time to time and enjoy learning about writing at a very reasonable cost. The project also included regular workshops for parents and their children to come to together, which I gather were very popular and great fun.
It's been marvellous that the University has provided these opportunities for the general public to discover writing. I'm sure that it will have enhanced its reputation as an institution which fosters creativity, as well as getting lots of people inside its doors who would never have ventured in there otherwise.
We'll miss the chance to come and be part of the university and enjoy its marvellous facilities, if only for two hours a month.
Pastures New for Rommi Smith
We'll also miss Rommi Smith, whose workshops are legendary and who never fails to inspire us with her knowledge of and enthusiasm for new writing.
So thank you, Rommi. We've all learnt a lot from you over the past year or so. Let's hope it won't be the last we see of you.
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