How to write

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Well, I mean also what you said was totally true. But this thread, man, this thread.

[Cain]

Also great advice.

[Cain]

Hmm, anyone have stuff on writing academic papers?

As promised http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1E0X1BQN

[Kai]

How to write: Write, like, a lot.

Slightly less tersely:

1. Love words, love language
2. Build a good vocabulary
3. Read a lot (this helps with 2)
4. Say exactly what you mean (2 helps with this)
5. Use only as many words as are necessary to get your message across
6. The message includes the feeling or tone you want to get across (also known as the Faulkner exemption)
7. Write a lot (it takes ten thousand hours to master something, supposedly)

I agree with this, especially 3 and 7. S King said in On Writing that improving your ability to read improves your writing ability, and vice versa. This seems very true, as the better reader I become the better writer I seem to become as well.

[Requia ☣]

Hmm, anyone have stuff on writing academic papers?

As promised http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1E0X1BQN

Thanks.

[Love]

I am filled with strife that this book is not discussed in this thread.

This is not an ad since this is not an affiliate link => htxtp://wwxxw.amxazon.com/Write-Good-Advertisement-Victor-Schwab/dp/0879803975/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251549656&sr=8-1 <=Naked LINK.

ASK WES UNRUH if you can't track the vocabulary. There will be a quiz in a few daze and I would prepare if I were you before ALL YOUR GUESTS COME!

You like guests, right?

I'll be inviting guests from here => htxtp://twitter.com/Daryl0

0 Effect

[the dreadful hours]

what?

[Kai]

Horrible troll. Nothing more.

[Captain Utopia]

Sometimes I miss "Ben Mack", author of "Poker without Cards", and wish he'd check his google alerts more assiduously. As of today, he hasn't been back since Sep 29th.

[Z³]

I always thought of the Hunter S. Thompson technique, typing out the Great Gatsby, as kind of a zen meditative thing. There is merit to the simple pneumonic programming aspect of it, but I imagine the approach was designed specifically to create kind of a no-mind state that would allow him to channel the flow. I haven't tried it, but I imagine it would have its benefits.

[Triple Zero]

pneumonic?

[Z³]

pneumonic?

Mnemonic, sorry.
Pretty tired when I wrote that.

[nurbldoff]

Kurt Vonneguts tips for writing short stories:

   1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
   2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
   3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
   4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
   5. Start as close to the end as possible.
   6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
   7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
   8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Not that I write a lot, but I love Vonnegut's style.

[President Television]

Kurt Vonneguts tips for writing short stories:

   1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
   2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
   3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
   4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
   5. Start as close to the end as possible.
   6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
   7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
   8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Not that I write a lot, but I love Vonnegut's style.

But it should be kept in mind that he goes on to say that great writers break several of these rules.
Not to disagree with them, but I thought that part should be included.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch said "Murder your darlings", and I think that's still one of the best bits of writing advice out there. Along with Octavia Butler's "write every day" and my friend's mom's "Write what you want and then strike a third of it".