How can I Improve my writing ?

[Sy Borg]

Yes, it's best to use short paras and sentences for any material being read on a screen. I consider this a kindness to readers. One's eyes get tired and need that extra whitespace. Not having your screen too bright and reducing the blue light component of your display can help with eye fatigue.

I'm a fan of short paragraphs, anyway. It's about having empathy for your readers. It's complicated business to interpret small black marks on a page as meaningful letters, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, pages and chapters that make up a story, whose meaning/s and nuances we simultaneously juggle in our minds.

It depends, Lone Wolf. Not long ago I wasted six hundred dollars on a creative writing course in Sydney. The trouble was that I'm interested in sci fi and speculative fiction but the the instructor was a renowned crime novelist who clearly detested sci fi. Once she found out my interests she snubbed me throughout while focusing on those in the class writing about crime or human interest stories. I could see there was no point asking her to read my manuscript.

The experience impacted on my confidence and stole some of the momentum and belief I had in my short stories. It took months to regather my equilibrium and mojo - and the information provided in the course was obvious anyway. All the info is online if you are disciplined.

It's well worth checking up on writing instructors to make sure that you won't be an ignored paying bum on a seat subsidising the instruction of "inner sanctum" students. Note that best selling authors won't necessarily have the equivalent capacities as a teacher.

I am sorry that you had a bad experience in a creative writing course. I did some and found them variable. The last one I went to al few years ago, by a published author was the most unhelpful. That is because he had a fairly rigid formula and it froze my own writing process for such a long time. In some ways, an unhelpful class can we worse than none at all.

I did find a writing group before lockdown, which was fairly useful and hope to find one again. But, finding the right one is sometimes difficult. I experiment with various genres and it does seem that a lot of people in creative writing circles shun science fiction, almost as if it is a bit 'nerdy', which seems rather elitist. I have found that some people in creative writing circles, including some tutors almost encourage 'purple prose' under the category of literary fiction.

Yes, drama, crime and romance fans tend to scorn anything about space or non-human entities. Their reaction is like a muted version of how the KKK would view black fiction. They see it as socially primitive. Lesser. Stupid. To them, only human relationships are interesting or deep.

The snobbery is based on anthropocentrism. Naturally, any contempt held held by human supremacists for the non-human has a tendency to expand into contempt for "lesser humans".

I see some sense in encouraging purple prose in young writers, though. As an analogy, young musicians often overplay because they are pushing to expand their musical vocabulary. Once those building blocks are in place, then they can use those skills to be expressive rather than just showing off.

[Sculptor1]

By all means use short pithy and ambiguous statements on Twitter and elsewhere. But it might be worth reflecting that such practice may well be the reason why there is so much antagonism and aggression in the world of social media.

So you don't subscribe to the idea that Twitter is a bit like haiku, where the short length is said to contribute to poetic creativity?

I have never thought of Twitter and poetic in the same moment.

[JackDaydream]

Yes, it's best to use short paras and sentences for any material being read on a screen. I consider this a kindness to readers. One's eyes get tired and need that extra whitespace. Not having your screen too bright and reducing the blue light component of your display can help with eye fatigue.

I'm a fan of short paragraphs, anyway. It's about having empathy for your readers. It's complicated business to interpret small black marks on a page as meaningful letters, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, pages and chapters that make up a story, whose meaning/s and nuances we simultaneously juggle in our minds.

It depends, Lone Wolf. Not long ago I wasted six hundred dollars on a creative writing course in Sydney. The trouble was that I'm interested in sci fi and speculative fiction but the the instructor was a renowned crime novelist who clearly detested sci fi. Once she found out my interests she snubbed me throughout while focusing on those in the class writing about crime or human interest stories. I could see there was no point asking her to read my manuscript.

The experience impacted on my confidence and stole some of the momentum and belief I had in my short stories. It took months to regather my equilibrium and mojo - and the information provided in the course was obvious anyway. All the info is online if you are disciplined.

It's well worth checking up on writing instructors to make sure that you won't be an ignored paying bum on a seat subsidising the instruction of "inner sanctum" students. Note that best selling authors won't necessarily have the equivalent capacities as a teacher.

I am sorry that you had a bad experience in a creative writing course. I did some and found them variable. The last one I went to al few years ago, by a published author was the most unhelpful. That is because he had a fairly rigid formula and it froze my own writing process for such a long time. In some ways, an unhelpful class can we worse than none at all.

I did find a writing group before lockdown, which was fairly useful and hope to find one again. But, finding the right one is sometimes difficult. I experiment with various genres and it does seem that a lot of people in creative writing circles shun science fiction, almost as if it is a bit 'nerdy', which seems rather elitist. I have found that some people in creative writing circles, including some tutors almost encourage 'purple prose' under the category of literary fiction.

Yes, drama, crime and romance fans tend to scorn anything about space or non-human entities. Their reaction is like a muted version of how the KKK would view black fiction. They see it as socially primitive. Lesser. Stupid. To them, only human relationships are interesting or deep.

The snobbery is based on anthropocentrism. Naturally, any contempt held held by human supremacists for the non-human has a tendency to expand into contempt for "lesser humans".

I see some sense in encouraging purple prose in young writers, though. As an analogy, young musicians often overplay because they are pushing to expand their musical vocabulary. Once those building blocks are in place, then they can use those skills to be expressive rather than just showing off.

It is a fine line between purple prose and minimalism, especially what works and doesn't, especially in relation to different audiences. I think that I got carried away writing my nursing notes at times as I got accused of doing 'creative writing' in them. Even with philosophy I probably drift off into purple prose at times because I have a rambling kind of mind.

One term course which I enjoyed was a creative non fiction course, which looked at image-based writing. The reading was interesting too, as we looked at Truman Capote and a fictional account of the life of the child prodigy singer, Lena Zavaroni, who died from anorexia.I find the blurring of fiction and non-fiction an interesting experimental area.

Writing has probably changed a lot with so much on-line. It is probably a lot more minimalist with staring at screens. I do download a lot of fiction, ranging from science fiction, fantasy, steampunk and post-apocalyptic/ dystopian genres and styles of writing are often much simpler than in older books. What has changed is that so many writers who probably wouldn't have got published have managed to write e-books. Also, sites such as this give a chance for us to do daily philosophy writing practice to share and exchange ideas with others from so many people across the world.

[Sy Borg]

Yes, it's best to use short paras and sentences for any material being read on a screen. I consider this a kindness to readers. One's eyes get tired and need that extra whitespace. Not having your screen too bright and reducing the blue light component of your display can help with eye fatigue.

I'm a fan of short paragraphs, anyway. It's about having empathy for your readers. It's complicated business to interpret small black marks on a page as meaningful letters, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, pages and chapters that make up a story, whose meaning/s and nuances we simultaneously juggle in our minds.

It depends, Lone Wolf. Not long ago I wasted six hundred dollars on a creative writing course in Sydney. The trouble was that I'm interested in sci fi and speculative fiction but the the instructor was a renowned crime novelist who clearly detested sci fi. Once she found out my interests she snubbed me throughout while focusing on those in the class writing about crime or human interest stories. I could see there was no point asking her to read my manuscript.

The experience impacted on my confidence and stole some of the momentum and belief I had in my short stories. It took months to regather my equilibrium and mojo - and the information provided in the course was obvious anyway. All the info is online if you are disciplined.

It's well worth checking up on writing instructors to make sure that you won't be an ignored paying bum on a seat subsidising the instruction of "inner sanctum" students. Note that best selling authors won't necessarily have the equivalent capacities as a teacher.

I am sorry that you had a bad experience in a creative writing course. I did some and found them variable. The last one I went to al few years ago, by a published author was the most unhelpful. That is because he had a fairly rigid formula and it froze my own writing process for such a long time. In some ways, an unhelpful class can we worse than none at all.

I did find a writing group before lockdown, which was fairly useful and hope to find one again. But, finding the right one is sometimes difficult. I experiment with various genres and it does seem that a lot of people in creative writing circles shun science fiction, almost as if it is a bit 'nerdy', which seems rather elitist. I have found that some people in creative writing circles, including some tutors almost encourage 'purple prose' under the category of literary fiction.

Yes, drama, crime and romance fans tend to scorn anything about space or non-human entities. Their reaction is like a muted version of how the KKK would view black fiction. They see it as socially primitive. Lesser. Stupid. To them, only human relationships are interesting or deep.

The snobbery is based on anthropocentrism. Naturally, any contempt held held by human supremacists for the non-human has a tendency to expand into contempt for "lesser humans".

I see some sense in encouraging purple prose in young writers, though. As an analogy, young musicians often overplay because they are pushing to expand their musical vocabulary. Once those building blocks are in place, then they can use those skills to be expressive rather than just showing off.

It is a fine line between purple prose and minimalism, especially what works and doesn't, especially in relation to different audiences. I think that I got carried away writing my nursing notes at times as I got accused of doing 'creative writing' in them. Even with philosophy I probably drift off into purple prose at times because I have a rambling kind of mind.

One term course which I enjoyed was a creative non fiction course, which looked at image-based writing. The reading was interesting too, as we looked at Truman Capote and a fictional account of the life of the child prodigy singer, Lena Zavaroni, who died from anorexia.I find the blurring of fiction and non-fiction an interesting experimental area.

Writing has probably changed a lot with so much on-line. It is probably a lot more minimalist with staring at screens. I do download a lot of fiction, ranging from science fiction, fantasy, steampunk and post-apocalyptic/ dystopian genres and styles of writing are often much simpler than in older books. What has changed is that so many writers who probably wouldn't have got published have managed to write e-books. Also, sites such as this give a chance for us to do daily philosophy writing practice to share and exchange ideas with others from so many people across the world.

Yes, I like that blend of the real and unreal. Some writers say that, if you have unreal elements to a story, then they will be most effective if every other aspect of the story is thoroughly realistic and grounded.

[Ecurb]

The British novelist Kingsley Amis was asked how novelists could improve their writing.

His answer: "Never mention clouds."

[Sy Borg]

Unless writing about major storms or tornadoes :)

[Pattern-chaser]

Write how you speak. Write about what you know.
Those are the two pieces of advice that have allowed me to improve my writing.

Spoken language is less formal than written. So, if we write as we speak, the results may not be appropriate for all circumstances. I imagine that for some fiction, writing as we speak could work well, but if the aim is something more formal, our presentation won't always work as well as we hope?

[Xenophon]

Apart from reading various authors and books, what else can be done to make writing more stylish/eloquence yet concise?

Write 1000 words daily, without fail. Go back and look at your output after, say, a week. You'll be aghast---"I wrote THAT!?" Revise. You'll soon develop facility at spotting your flaws. The key, though, is to always be writing. Then, to always be revising. In time the two skills tend to merge and your inner editor critiques you in the act of creation.