Writing, Among Other Things

Category: Writing (Page 4 of 19)

Fighting Distractions!

One of my New Year resolutions was to write something everyday. This shouldn’t be hard, I told myself. After all, writing is something I love to do. Yet, it hasn’t turned out to be all that easy either.

Why is it difficult to do something that we love, everyday?

The answer, I think, lies in this one word: Distractions. There is always something, or the other, that keeps us from doing what we want.

Our world today continues to have 24 hours in a day, but the number of things – useful as well as not so useful – we can do in these 24 hours has increased exponentially. Some of these things can be avoided easily, but some others seem absolutely necessary for our survival.

Continue reading

Observe, Don’t Imitate!

“Observe, don’t Imitate!”

I came across this quote by John M. Ford yesterday. Something about the quote appealed to me, and the quote stayed stuck in my mind for the rest of the day. The only way, I thought, I could get it out of my mind was by writing a post about it. So, here goes.

I think most of us, when we read something good, imbibe some of the elements of the writer’s style. It is a natural process and, sometimes, we do it even without realising. We copy what we like, mainly because we want what we write to be liked too. This is why it is often said that if we want to write good stuff, we have to read great stuff.

However, blind imitation is for apes.

The Five Mistakes New Writers Make

As a new writer, it is often easy to get caught up in the excitement of the business. You hold up that shiny new piece of writing and can’t wait to share it with the world. You research everything you can about writing and plan the most effective way to get your work into the hands of the public.

This is great, and writers should get excited about what they are doing. The problem comes when the writer gets so excited that they forget to become their own critic.

Here are five mistakes that new writers often make.

Continue reading

Words -Tools for Great Writing

Learn new words!Writing is a craft, and every writer is a craftsman.

Words are the basic tools that writers use to bring out the best in their work. Like any other craft, the best results can be achieved only with the best of tools.

Even if you possess a good set of tools, you need to constantly sharpen and improve them, so that your tool set does not become old and rusted. Similarly, you need to keep learning new words – your writing tools – to be able to write well and long.

Continue reading

Why you should not worry about being Unique?

A few years back, I was narrating a story I was working on to a friend. After patiently listening to my story, he suddenly sat up straight, and asked, “Have you copied it from somewhere? It sounds like something I have read before.”

You think that you have come up with a great story, and your friend accuses you of Plagiarism. There are very few things in life, let me tell you, that can irritate you more than such an accusation.

I, naturally, asked my friend about the part of my story that sounded copied.

“All of it,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. Then he continued to tell me how my story was a copy of the so many stories he had read before.

Continue reading

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 NeoBluePanther

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑