Four Ways to Make Your Writing Sound Prettier
Some writers write prose that sounds good. The writing makes you want to read it slow, as if you could let the words melt on your tongue. I once read some of Faulkner's Sartoris out loud to Liz. Faulkner is known for his long, convoluted sentences and huge jumps in...Hide Away Your Writing
Happy Saturday, writing friends. As you know, on Saturday I have only one rule: do the opposite of something we did during the week. The reasoning behind this is simple. If you occasionally break the guidelines you set for yourself, your writing will never get stale,...Three Easy Steps to Critique a Friend’s Poem
Writers can be solitary people. Our work requires long periods of being alone with no one to keep us company but the characters. However, I'm starting to see a community form through the Write Practice. People are commenting on each other's practices. They're chatting...How to Use Word-Pictures to Write Poetry
Our guest today is Audrey Chin, a published novelist and one of our own readers, who's here to tell us something about how she writes poetry. Audrey lives in Singapore where she has published two novels. To read some of her poetry visit Audrey's blog. I hope you enjoy...How To Use Allusion Like Taylor Swift
Last week, I read an article about Taylor Swift, whom I knew nothing about except that she apparently wears Converse, sits on the bleachers, and doesn’t wear short skirts.
The article mentioned that Taylor will often write songs about her celebrity ex-boyfriends, like that guy who always takes his shirt off in the Twilight movies, and one of those kids in that Disney channel band—Jonah-something-or-other—and the tool-of-all-tools, John Mayer (he can play a mean guitar, though). Apparently, she puts secret codes into her songs to give hints to her fans about the identity of the celeb she’s singing about, like capitalizing letters in her liner notes that spell out their first name.
