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Learning the Craft
Posted by: kerrynangell
Actually writing, putting one word on the page after the other to form a story, is what makes us writers. Learning the craft of writing is what makes us better writers who write better stories.
Part of being a writing is to aspire. In most cases this is why we are aspiring authors. We aspire to be published and to be published we need to work to improve our writing. Even if you're not aspiring to be published or if you are already published I think we all aspire to be better, to write better and to tell better stories.
For the last 3 years I have been living and breathing writing. I write stories, I read stories, I read about writers, I read about writing and I read about writers writing stories. I can now look back at the stories I wrote three years ago and see how my writing as improved, how much I've learnt and the potential I have to learn even more and to improve more into the future.
The Internet provides writers with such a wealth of knowledge that we really have no excuse not to learn and develop our writing. One very important thing to remember when you are learning from other writers (or agents or editors) is that they will be telling you what works for them. Their way might not work for you. In most cases you will pick up bits and pieces from dozens of writers and build up your own way of working. To this end it can be a long yet rewarding process of trial and error to discover the way we work best.
If you want to learn something in ten minutes read this blog post by JA Konrath and this one by Agent Kristin. Once you've got a taste for learning browse the Kiwi Writers Resource section that xengab is beginning to update and the Resources forum.
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15 Jul 2008 13:14:02
Comments
On 15 Jul 2008 22:09:13 mousewords said:
That's a great point--not everything will work for everyone, but there is so much value to be gained from others! I discovered that so much over the past month. It's exciting to discover my own voice, as I get to know others' better!