We Improve Our Writing

  Our writing is important:

                We can improve our writing. I post about that. We can identify writing errors. We can identify ways to correct those errors. We may identify process whereby we can better our writing. We can keep our word choice as simple as is appropriate. We can use a dictionary to get a deeper understanding of the words we do use. We can spell those words correctly. God bless spellcheck apps.

The following list can point you toward ways to improve your writing:

~ Read some of my posts here. Each of them is intended to be an encouragement and a real help to a writer.

~ Read for pleasure with a bit more awareness of the nature of that writing.

~ Read about the "how to" of writing.

~ Try to see how a writer you like writes.

~ Study with a good writing teacher.

~ Join a writing group.

~ Form a writing group.

~ Start writing.

~ Keep writing.  

                We can learn to write better; practice helps. I intend to pass on as much as I am learning as I can. I still have a lot to learn. I am  following nearly all of the suggestions I make accept the joining of a writing group or forming one. I believe that my excuses for not doing so are fairly good.  I do know of such groups and have given them much thought.

                Participation in such a group strikes me as being an agreeable and productive activity. I have participated in groups and supported them. I have read about writing groups and there is a kind of group which I find attractive. An example of that of that kind of group was practiced and perfected by an Englishman by the name of Peter Elbow. He is a good teacher and a good writer and has written a particularly useful book entitled Writing Without Teachers. Much of that which follows here is my interpretation of parts of that book. I think that another appropriate title of that work could have been The Power of  Good Feedback. Peter's book is about the use of writing groups. An important value of such groups is exceptionally useful feedback. Such a group could prove very useful for you.

                Many of us find that our practice of writing is often an important personal growth process. As our writing grows so do we. That seems a good deal. As we grow and mature our writing gets better too. Writing can be wonderful. Most of us have done it mostly alone and that has worked out pretty well. Others enjoy the fruits of our labour, but know little of the process of its development. It may seem a wonder to them. Not a bad deal.

                Still we could find it profitable to help each other to better our craft. Evidence strongly suggests that learning in a group can be more profitable and productive in a group.

                With the help of a group or on our own we can be pleasantly surprised that our writing develops and improves with completing a single piece. In our career we may come to be please to discover that we have grown, matured, and become a better person through our practice of writing.

Words about that practice:

                I have discovered that I can find "a center of gravity" in a piece of work as I am writing it. That may center can develop and clarify as I write. It is like discovering the sharp, short form of what is is that I am really writing about.

                The example below includes ways I have gathered for getting a center of gravity or unifying theme around which I can organize a particular piece of writing. I trust the list will be helpful. It could be just a way of saying that you have my blessing to stray from an original outline. Such straying could lead to your discovery of a real unifying theme much more useful than was your original idea or outline.

Okay here's that example. Note that the idea is to start writing.

~ Start writing X because it seems more believable than Y. Note that as you write about X that you are beginning to understand about Y.

~ Continue your struggle with X and Y and see "A" come up.

~ As you write along you may honestly say "Ah, now I see what I have been getting at." 

~ Finish that which you have been writing about. Put it aside for a time. See useful implications as you look it over again.

~ See that your good idea iscrap.  Sort out the good parts from the bad.  You do not have to throw anything away. Some of it may turn out to be better than your favorite idea.

~ Your first writing may prove a good scaffolding for your next writing.

~ You find a powerful spark in a tiny digression. You keep the same elements of your work, but change the whole orientation for the better. 

~ As you progress in your writing be alert to emerging focus or theme.

~ If nothing emerges, sum up that which you have written, then sumit up again.

~ Push yourself a bit to keep getting some center of gravity or summing up to occur. 

~ Work gradually toward moderation of extreme positions.

               

                Don't Try to do all of the above at once every time! Reread the items. I have found that just part of one of them can be a saver, can make an okay piece be really good.

                For about 50 posts like this click here to go the Write With RCS site.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                                                                    RCS

        

        

Writing: First Words.

 

Writing With RCS: We are born with talents. Writing is a developing skill

 

Skills are developed and maintained with practice. 

            As an aid to improving your writing skills you can keep a free-writing diary as a practice tool. You may also find that it is a great source of writing ideas.

            Keep your free-writing in a private diary, journal, or notebook. No one but you need ever read a word you put there. In that private place you can write whatever you want in any way you want to.
 

            "Free-writing" is writing without judgement or criticism. Do no editing, corrections, or rewrites. All there is to it is to do it.

            Do not throw away what you have free written. You can use it to discover subjects you can enjoy writing more about.

            In your notebook, journal, diary, write. Produce a finished piece of writing. Keep a topic in mind. Digressions are okay, but when you find yourself digressing in this practice bring yourself gently back to the topic.
 

            Digression are to be honored and respected. After all they do come from your beautiful mind. 
                

            The idea in this practice is to keep writing. Do not stop writing. Do not stop for anything but the most serious and urgent reason. 
            

            You may say to yourself "Let's remember the topic," but do not let a little digression of yours bother you.  Gently practice the discipline of keeping the topic in mind as you honor and value your digressions. 
            

            It does seem that we writers are very much about digressions. They may lead us to our best writing. Still we do not want them to keep us from finishing a piece of work. 

            As an aid toward helping myself to finish a piece of work I have told myself to write down everything I can think about the topic at the moment.                     

            Later you can look for your digressions in you work above.  Do another writing exercise based on your digressions. Let your digressions enrich your writing. Your  digressions may give you topics that motivate the real you.

             Peter Elbow's book WRITING WITHOUT TEACHERS has inspired me know that it is truly possible to write better with appropriate practice and Useful attitude. 

            Use the "comments" section below to contact me. Do so by clicking on "comments." If you see "no comments" click on it.

            You can find more posts on this topic at Writing With RCS.

            Thank you for reading.

            Keep writing.

 

                                                                                             RCS

                                                                                

Writing: First Words

 Writing With RCS: We are born with talents. Writing is a developing skill

 

Skills are developed and maintained with practice. 

            As an aid to improving your writing skills you can keep a free-writing diary as a practice tool. You may also find that it is a great source of writing ideas.

            Keep your free-writing in a private diary, journal, or notebook. No one but you need ever read a word you put there. In that private place you can write whatever you want in any way you want to.
 

            "Free-writing" is writing without judgement or criticism. Do no editing, corrections, or rewrites. All there is to it is to do it.

            Do not throw away what you have free written. You can use it to discover subjects you can enjoy writing more about.

            In your notebook, journal, diary, write. Produce a finished piece of writing. Keep a topic in mind. Digressions are okay, but when you find yourself digressing in this practice bring yourself gently back to the topic.
 

            Digression are to be honored and respected. After all they do come from your beautiful mind. 
                

            The idea in this practice is to keep writing. Do not stop writing. Do not stop for anything but the most serious and urgent reason. 
            

            You may say to yourself "Let's remember the topic," but do not let a little digression of yours bother you.  Gently practice the discipline of keeping the topic in mind as you honor and value your digressions. 
            

            It does seem that we writers are very much about digressions. They may lead us to our best writing. Still we do not want them to keep us from finishing a piece of work. 

            As an aid toward helping myself to finish a piece of work I have told myself to write down everything I can think about the topic at the moment.                     

            Later you can look for your digressions in you work above.  Do another writing exercise based on your digressions. Let your digressions enrich your writing. Your  digressions may give you topics that motivate the real you.

             Peter Elbow's book WRITING WITHOUT TEACHERS has inspired me know that it is truly possible to write better with appropriate practice and Useful attitude. 

            Use the "comments" section below to contact me. Do so by clicking on "comments." If you see "no comments" click on it. Too late it has been taken from us.

            For more about writing go to the Writing  With RCS web site by clicking on the blue Writing With RCS above.

            Thank you for reading.

            Keep writing.

 

                                                                             rcs

                                                                                         

A Writing Group

 Mago Bill writing: One of the top values of a writing group is the variety of great feedback it often provides.

 

                The developing, growing, maturing writer learns to value the feedback of one's peers. Such feedback is precious and very often rare. Your writing group will be made up of fellow writers. In such a group you can have several knowledgeable readers telling you about the feelings and thoughts your writing stirred in them. They can tell you what they felt as they read a specific piece of your work. You can get regular feedback of several kinds from the members of your group.

 

                I hope to post more about feedback and other benefits of a writing group in future posts. This particular post is a short wide-ranging introduction to the subject.

 

                A writing group is usually about writing better without the use of a teacher. However, a writing group may attract more than one teacher, including teachers of writing. Don't be surprised if that happens, teachers are often learners who want to learn more about their subject.

 

                They might, however, need to be reminded that they are not there to teach. They are there as a learning reader and writer. They are there to be good readers ready to provide their honest reactions to that which they read. Each of your group members focus on telling you how she experiences the work you submit. Just as you will tell her how you experience your careful reading of her work.

 

Quickly moving forward, I here add actions you may consider taking before you choose a writing group or before making one of your own.You can:

~ Start writing and keep writing.

~ Find a writing group in action close to you and check it our.

~ Sit in a a couple of meetings to see how it may benefit or suit you.

~ Check  out online posts here and elsewhere about writing and writing groups.

~ Talk with a writing friend about forming a group.

~ Consider that most better writers have been good readers.

Once you better know your options and better know the kind of group you want, you might consider thoughts you would like potential members of your group to consider. Here are some sample points of the sort:

~ Find a time for your meeting and stick to it. Its fair to have have two writing groups each meeting at a different time.

~ Help one another to become better listeners and better readers as well as better writers.

~ Help each other to better know the kinds of feedback most needed and most wanted.

~ Decide on whether you want to handout your work to be read at home, to read your work aloud at meetings, or both, or what. 

~ When you read a piece in group, read it twice. You will find that two readings are much better than one.

~ Show up at meetings.

I enjoy and appreciate your comments about specific parts of the content of my posts. There is, I hope, a "comment" window just below. It may sometimes be marked with the words "no comments!"

 

This post appears on a new blog: Writing Better With RCS

URL: https://rcswriting.blogspot.com

RCS

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practice Is A Way To Better Writing

A way to practice is to start writing and to keep writing.
Write without stopping to worry, correct, or edit. Write for more than ten minutes without stopping. You will write some phrases you will really love. You will find it hard to throw them away.

                Be ready to to throw them away because  they probably won't fit the writing you end up with. If you don't come up with a whole new focus or angle, you will probably come up with a whole new subject.

                Before you do throw away what have written do this: Read it and pick out your three or four best sentences. Then rewrite them. As you do so make, consider improvements you might make in them. Rewrite them and save them for a while.




by Richard Sheehan
for Mago Bill

Without a Teacher

Learning to write without a teacher may be effectively done and enjoyed.

                It has been done in groups of from 5 to 17 participants. Basically, the members each commit to reading the writing of a member then to coming together with the other members to share their feelings about what they have read. 

Hearing what others have felt as they read your works has proven a great help to improving one's writing and a powerful experience in itself.

Any Questions?  I'll clarify one doing without being asked.
Every member reads one specified piece of  writing of one member of the group. Then in a gathering of all the members each member tells about how she felt as she read the piece.
This telling of feels is done at nearly every meeting of the group.

The bit below is about what I have learned from my experience and from Mr. Elbow. It is something that I might offer at an appropriate moment in the gathering of my group.

                On the horizon, a Final Draft 

                Once you have some writing from which it seems you can coax some coherence, you may be close to the point at which to edit and turn out a final copy.

            Take 15 minutes to make your meaning clear to yourself.

                You might let yourself consider an outline or plan.

                Sum up what you have into a genuine single assertion of what your meaning is. Not easy, but possible. Remember that your assertion must actually assert something that can be quarreled with.

                You have grown your meaning and specified it to yourself clearly. Good for you. Your efforts and good thinking will give you a good chance to do some truly powerful writing.

                                                                            by Richard Sheehan
                                                                            or Mago Bill

Writing Skill

Writing  Skills

 

We are born with talents.
Skills are developed and maintained with practice.
Writing is a skill.  

As an aid to improving your writing skills you can keep a free-writing diary as a practice tool. You may also find that it is a great source of writing ideas.

Keep your free-writing in a private diary, journal, or notebook. No one but you need ever read a word you put there. In that private place you can write whatever you want in any way you want to.

You are likely to be very uninterested that I have gotten much inspiration
for this post and others like it From Peter Elbow's book WRITING WITHOUT TEACHERS. 

"Free-writing" is writing without judgement or criticism. Do no editing, corrections,or rewrites. All there is to it is to do it.

Do not throw away what you have free written. You can use it to discover subjects you can enjoy writing more about.

*******************************************************************

In your notebook, journal, diary, write. Produce a finished piece of writing. Keep a topic in mind. Digressions are okay, but when you find yourself digressing in this practice bring yourself gently back to the topic.
Digression are to be honored and respected. After all they do come from your beautiful mind. 
The idea in this practice is to keep writing. Do not stop writing. Do not stop for anything but the most serious and urgent reason. 
You may say to yourself "Let's remember the topic," but do not let a little digression of yours bother you.  Do very gently practice the discipline of keeping the topic in mind as you honor and value your digressions. 
It does seem that we writers are very much about digressions. They may lead us to our best writing. Still we do not want them to keep us from finishing a piece of work. 

As an aid toward helping myself to finish a piece of work I have told myself to write down everything I can think about the topic at the moment. 

Keep Writing.

Later you can look for your digressions in you work above.  Do another writing exercise based on your digressions. Let your digressions enrich your writing. Your  digressions may give you topics that motivate the real you.