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Re: Writing
Posted By: Howard, on host 205.184.139.34
Date: Sunday, May 23, 1999, at 08:03:41
In Reply To: Writing posted by GreenJeanz on Friday, May 21, 1999, at 15:02:24:

> Right now I'm having writers block. I really would like to write something, and I'm sort of in that writing mood, I have ideas, but yet I'm sort of having writer's block, and I don't know how to get out of it. My problem is that I don't have a very good writing style, it's kind of bland(Even though I never write anything much, I have wrote some stuff, not any full-blown stories or anything). It's not dramatic enough. I read my friend Lindsay's stories, and they're very dramamatic, they're simply spectacular and I really wish I could write like her. Does anyone have any ideas on perking my style up?

I wish I'd gotten in on this one earlier. You've already gotten some good advice.I've taught creative writing to people your age, and I see talent in what you post here. You write just as you would speak. Some people can't do that. You write with energy. Most people can't do that.
You have an excellent vocabulary, too.
My advice:
1. Read a good variety. That is, classics, short stories, essays, poems, etc. Look at Earnest Hemingway. He used short, bland sentences that would be terrible out of context, but when he put them together, they were dramatic.
2. Don't try too hard. Just write what you think.
That computer makes it easy to go back and edit later if you need to. Don't get hung up on spelling and punctuation. It's even okay to have someone else edit that out. Many authors employee people to do that.
3. Write news stories. You might want to work on a school newspaper. That was some of the best training I ever had.
I hope you have better luck as a writer than I did. It took me 50 years to figure out why I never made the big time. (no talent!)
Howard

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