How To Write With Pictures

Your style can also vary on how long you have been writing and which genre you write in.

For example, if you’re writing a paper for a scientific journal, you won’t need to establish a setting as a novelist would. Understanding what you want to write helps you tailor your skill-building approach.

Don’t limit yourself to one specific genre. Read novels, non-fiction books, fan fiction, poetry news articles, academic journal articles, and even good marketing material. Familiarizing yourself with as many writing styles as possible gives you a bigger toolbox. It’s also a great idea to read texts that can help you accomplish the type of writing you want to do. If, for example, you’re writing a sci-fi novel, scientific journal articles will help you master the technical speech while good ad copy can teach you about sensationalism and emotional appeal. Keep up a regular reading schedule. Even if it’s only 20 minutes a day before you go to sleep, you’ll notice an improvement in your writing.

What genre are you writing in? What themes do you want at the core of your story? What important traits will your main character have? What will motivate your antagonist? What tone (comedy, tragedy, etc. ) will your story have? Why should the reader be interested in your plot?

Ask yourself questions like these: What is my argument? Who is my audience? What research will I need to do? What genre am I writing in? For example, if you need to write about the relationship between Greek and Phoenician gods, list out all the deities from each pantheon that you can think of along with their traits. Then, pick a few that have the clearest connection as support for your paper. If your subject is broader, like colonial overseas connections, you have more freedom. You can talk about how food crossed oceans or how people used to communicate between overseas colonies.

Freewriting works for almost any style of writing. You can start writing a story, write down your thoughts and observations, crank out everything you know about your subject. Just let the words flow.

Your audience will determine what language you use, what needs to be explained, and what can be assumed in your work. An academic audience, for example, likely already has a basic background in your field and prefers concise explanations over flowery prose. You don’t need to explain the basics to them. It’s natural to want your writing to appeal to everyone, but you’ll do better if you are realistic about your target audience. Someone who only reads romance novels may pick up your murder mystery, but fans of the genre are still your target group.

Be selective about the information you retrieve online. Some Internet sources can be unreliable. Established sources such as peer-reviewed journals and books from academic publishing houses, have to undergo a thorough vetting process and are safer to use as sources. [6] X Research source Check out a library. You may be able to find information on your topic in a library that hasn’t made its way to the web. For a greater breadth of resources, try a university library. Research is important for fiction pieces, too. You want your piece to sound plausible even if the events are made up. Details like saying your character is 600 years old and knew Caesar (who lived over 2,000 years ago) can take your reader out of your writing.

If you have an open deadline, you may aim for a goal like writing 5 pages a day or 5,000 words a day. If you have a specific deadline, like for a school essay, you may need to be more specific. For example, you may give yourself 3 weeks to research, a week to write, and a week to edit.

Your outline should flow in the rough order that you want your piece. You can reorganize and rearrange as you write, but the point of the outline is to help your points flow together. Some writers prefer to work without an outline, and that’s totally fine. You should budget more time for revision and rewrites, though, since you don’t have a rough flow set before you start.

Resolutions don’t have to mean a happy ending if that’s not your style. Your resolution should simply bring all the strands of your plot together so that they make sense. This form works for many types of creative writing, not just fiction. Popular history books often follow this format, for example.

If you conducted your own research or gathered your own data, your research methods should be discussed before you present your data. Discussion sections are also common in between the analysis and conclusion. These talk about other possible interpretations of your data and what work should follow to answer questions brought up by your research.

You can draft a full version of your piece, or you can draft in stages. Stages, like going chapter-by-chapter, can be particularly helpful if you’re writing a longer piece. If you have an outline, don’t worry about following it to the letter. Your outline helps instruct the general flow of your piece. It’s a guide, not a rule book.

Check for coherency. Do all parts of your piece make sense together? If so, continue. If not, consider revising or cutting whatever doesn’t fit in. Check for necessity. Do all parts of the story contribute? Does each section give necessary background, advance your plot or argument, develop an important character or point, or introduce critical analyses? If not, cut it. Check for anything missing. Are all your characters or points properly introduced? Is all your supporting data or information present? Do your points flow smoothly together, or are there some logical gaps?

There is no set number of drafts you do before a piece is done. The exact number of drafts you go through will depend on your timeline, your comfort level, and your personal writing style. It’s common to feel like there’s always something more to add or revise, but try not to focus on perfection. At some point, you will need to put your pen down.

Online tools like Grammarly and the Hemingway editor can help check for more advanced issues like clarity and word use. Just like spell check, though, you shouldn’t depend on these for full edits.

Teachers, professors, topic experts, your colleagues, and other writers are all good people to ask. You can also join a writer’s group to share your work, read others’ writing, and give mutual feedback. Ask them to be honest and thorough. Only honest feedback, even if it’s a wholesale criticism of your entire story, can make you a better writer. If they need some guidance, give them the same questions you’ve been asking yourself.

Re-read your work with your readers’ comments in mind. Note any gaps, places that need to be cut, or areas needing revision. Rewrite necessary parts using the insights gained from your readers and from your own subsequent critical reading.

Adjectives. Adjectives describe nouns and are most effective when they’re used intentionally and selectively. Take the sentence: “He stepped aside, an indignant wrath boiling up inside his loins. " “Indignant” means angry, but so does “wrath. " A better sentence would be: “He stepped aside, wrath boiling up inside his loins. " Idioms and slang. Idioms, such as “a piece of cake” or “foam at the mouth,” don’t always translate into enjoyable writing. Like slang, they date the piece (who says “suck the milk of nations” anymore?) and can be misinterpreted. Be verbs. Change be verbs, such as is, was, are, were, am, and being, to active verbs. For example, don’t write, “She was tired. " Instead, say, “She collapsed under the weight of exhaustion. " Strings of prepositional phrases. It’s okay to use prepositional phrases, but don’t list several in a row. For example, don’t say, “The cyborg climbed on the molding above the staircase along the wall beside the throne. " Instead, you could write, “The cyborg skirted the staircase molding on the wall closest to the throne. “[16] X Research source

“Manuel drank his brandy. He felt sleepy himself. It was too hot to go out into the town. Besides, there was nothing to do. He wanted to see Zurito. He would go to sleep while he waited " — Ernest Hemingway, Men Without Women. “He did not feel weak, he was merely luxuriating in that supremely gutful lassitude of convalescence in which time, hurry, doing, did not exist, the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours to which it its well state the body is slave both waking and sleeping, now reversed and time now the lip-server and mendicant to the body’s pleasure instead of the body thrall to time’s headlong course. " — William Faulkner, The Hamlet.

Take the following sentence: “He creepily went into the room. " There’s nothing wrong with this sentence, but it’s a little bland and wordy. You can enhance the sentence and be more specific by introducing a new verb. Try “crept,” “slunk,” or “slithered” in place of “creepily went. ”

In some fields and industries, passive voice is standard. For example, as science paper may say “The solution received 2 drops of the activator,” to keep the subject out of the sentence. If passive voice is standard in your field, follow those conventions.

It’s easy to stick to similes and metaphors, but try adding different devices to give your writing depth and texture. Hyperbole, for instance, can make your writing explode off the page. Another example of figurative language is personification, which lends human attributes to non-human things. “The wind danced across the sky,” creates the image of strong but graceful wind without having to say, “The wind was strong but graceful. "

Use exclamation points sparingly. People don’t often exclaim things; nor do sentences often merit exclamation. “Jamie was excited to see him!” for example, does not need an exclamation point. The sentence already states that Jamie is excited.