One of the text that come highly recommended on writing is the book by Kathryn Lindskoog, Creative Writing: For People Who Can’t Not Write. In this book, the author suggested a number of areas writers should pay attention to in order to reach out to their readers.First, write creatively, because the world will never be starved for want of wonders.
Second, write simply and correctly, not necessarily with large vocabulary, but with untangled thinking to keep sentences from going awry.
Third, avoid pitfalls and pratfalls, as they can make the writer look foolish, sidestepping into the booby traps of misspelling or overwriting.
Fourth, show instead of tell. Make familiar things new and make new things familiar.
Fifth, write something funny or at least interesting. Write things that please the ear, tease the brain or ease the heart.
Sixth, think up ideas that can make some earnings out of writing. Get published, paid and read.
Seventh, let the readers see and hear what is going on for themselves instead of interpreting and summarizing it for them.
Eighth, continue to strive to do better and stretch the limits, because with each new piece of writing, it usually gets more difficult than easier.
All the pointers mentioned above are good advices for writers to put into practice. However, if our wish is to be really good writers, we will need to look into other pointers as well. Here are some pointers from me.
Ninth, get to the heart of the matter. In order for us to get to the readers’ heart, we must write with a heart that cares enough to want to know what matters to them.
Tenth, don’t just write what ease the readers’ hearts or what they like to hear. Share what we have seen and heard that our readers may understand plainly and also learn from us. Even if we are writing fiction, our plot can include true to life examples, like our own experiences or those of other people we know.
Eleventh, understand your target readers, their background, their culture and practices. Remember, if our target is to the masses, then we must write in a way everybody can understand.
Twelfth, use references to substantiate claims if writing non-fiction, and use identifiable traits to describe the behavior of characters in the story when writing fiction.
There are of course many other areas we must also consider as writers. This blog entry merely touches the tip of the iceberg what’s involved in the writers’ craft. In the real world, writing skills are very much dependent on one’s own flair for writing, the degree of our creativity, the inspiration, and the talent given to us as individuals.
