Columns – Writing Quips and Tips
A writer passes on the lessons she’s learned to make your writing better. Jo-Anne Richards muses on the challenges and excitement of a writer’s life.
-
Writing Quips and Tips
Show, Don’t Tell and how to use detail effectively
His desk was bare, but for a human skull, with a cigar clamped firmly between its grinning teeth.
Immediately, we know a huge amount about this person, without anything having to be explained.
By now, the concept of “showing” rather than “telling” is pretty much accepted. But in numerous writing workshops, it’s become clear that people may accept the concept, but they’re often unsure how to to put it into practice.
Writing Quips and Tips
Getting the Love You Want Couple Workshop
Johanri Englebrecht, Allaboutlove’s Virtual Therapist is holding an inspiring, practical two-day couple workshop in Johannesburg. The workshop will be held on the 22nd and 23 of November and is filled with insight, information and communication skills.
Every committed relationship, no matter how strong, has its frustrations, and these most commonly present as stemming from “a lack of communication skills” that lead to disconnection and conflict between life partners.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing dynamic dialogue
You’ve written a really crucial dialogue that will end your characters’ marriage. It should be dramatic and poignant, but instead it seems flat, unreal or, worst of all, dreary.
What’s wrong with it? It will change your characters’ lives. Why doesn’t it affect the lives of your readers?
Here are a couple of quick hints that will lift a plain or dreary dialogue and give it dynamism:
Writing Quips and Tips
Short stories by course participants
Two of our Preparation for Romance Course participants have written short stories, which are being featured on the allaboutlove site.
Writing Quips and Tips
Why Our Virtual Therapist is a Woman
Dear Walter,
I hope you can help me here. The other day, I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn’t driven more than a mile down the road when the engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband’s help. When I got home I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was in our bedroom with the neighbour’s daughter. I am 32, my husband is 34, and the neighbour’s daughter is 22. We have been married for ten years.
Writing Quips and Tips
Dialogue is real speech but better
Everyone recognises good dialogue when they see it. But few people can write it. So here’s a quick guide to really good dialogue:
Writing Quips and Tips
Love’s Labour’s Lost and The Language of Love Festival
If you don’t currently have a love of your own then you can find some love at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, UK, from tonight until 15 November. Famous for its dazzling wit and exquisite word play, Love’s Labour’s Lost is a rare jewel that should not be missed. To coincide with Love’s Labour’s Lost, the Rose Theatre’s first home-grown production, there will be The Language of Love Festival in celebration of language, Shakespeare and the spoken word.
Writing Quips and Tips
Characters and how to lift them beyond the cardboard cut out
A friend of mine is a fine writer, whose first book was a great success.
His characters were beautifully drawn and tugged us into a poignant memoir. But he had always longed to write a novel. I couldn’t wait to see it.
When he showed me a draft, I couldn’t believe it. The characters were cardboard stereotypes.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writer’s Block - Managing those pesky writer’s blues
I don’t believe in writer’s block.
Every day I ever sat down to write, I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. I always sit down sweaty-palmed, wondering if I’ll be able to get a word on paper.
That’s why I believe writer’s block is another way of saying “fear”. And it’s just another excuse for not pushing through it.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing a novel – how to keep going
No first draft was ever perfect. Most novels need rewriting and extensive editing. But if you never finish writing, it, there’ll be nothing to work on. Writing four published novels, I’ve learnt one or two things about how hard it is – and how to make it easier on yourself.
