Writing

Writing well, a great art

Stefano Landi — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:57:06 +0000

In my most recent post I reviewed a book on beating writer’s block. In it the author writes about the importance of writing well. In fact, and perhaps I’m rather biased about this; but I hold the ability to write clear, concise and coherent sentences as one of the highest characteristics of which an individual can be endowed. Too long now have I mourned the slow decay of the English language brought on by e-mail and the ubiquitous cell phone text message. Many of my friends tease me for my proper use of punctuation, capitalization, and thorough spelling of words in my text messages and instant chat sessions; they keep reminding me that I only have 140 words by which to make my point; I also, incidentally, have the same problem with Twitter. Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand the reasons for abbreviating words, and sometimes complete phrases in cell phone text messages due to the lack of space and characters. I would be more than happy to oblige if this literary compression were only relegated to text messages and chat sessions; Unfortunately, it also finds itself in regular e-mail correspondence, and most recently even surfaced in a university exam and thesis paper. Kathy Kleidermacher, the author of The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Beating Writer’s Block suggests that writers hone their craft by practicing and improving upon their writing whenever possible. She cites e-mails, letters to friends and other correspondence as opportunities to be taken to improve one’s own writing. I applaud her for this suggestion and urge everyone reading this blog to do the same. I realize sometimes that it takes quite a bit of time to craft an ideal e-mail; but, I have found, more often than not, that the recipient often enjoys the e-mail much more and is likely to respond in kind. Let’s put writing back on its pedestal and give it back its rightful place among the three R’s.

Beating Writer’s Block

Stefano Landi — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:35:37 +0000

Some time back I wrote a small entry on getting around writer’s block, but never went into it in any depth. This time around I’d like to introduce you to a book I recently took out of the library on getting around writer’s block.
It’s from the Pocket Idiot’s Guide series and is entitled Guide to Beating Writer’s Block. I must admit I’m not all that fond of the title of the series, but in this case I’ll overlook that and state that the author, Kathy Kleidermacher, has done a wonderful job of concisely putting together advice to not only spur on a writer and re-charge their creative juices, but also to inspire would-be writers who are not sure where to start in their writing adventure. The author brings up great points on organizing one’s writing space, but the literal one in front of them and also the figurative one between their ears. Other notable topics covered are: tools required for writing; writing skill exercises; tips for building your confidence and interspersed she presents small snippets of information on famous writers. The book is an easy to read, easy to carry pocket format and has definitely earned a small space on my reference shelf right here by my keyboard. I’m currently reading it straight through, but it is well laid out and lends itself to skimming and also reference look ups. I’m not actually in a writer’s block moment, but this book covers so much more than simply getting over a literary dry spell. In it, the writer will find suggestions for delving into other genres of writing to excite the creative muscles. I would encourage you to check it out either at your local library, used book store or through the link on this article.

Single Sourcing

Stefano Landi — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:23:51 +0000

What is Single Sourcing? It is a technical writing philosophy that maintains that content should be ideally written in a non-specific way regardless of where it will eventually be used. One example might be the instructions for using a piece of software. The content of a printed document and the information contained in the online help file will be very similar, but with differences depending on the final output. Single Sourcing helps in that the content writers produce text/images/multi-media that is somewhat generic and then through special software and workflow the information is then specially formatted for its intended use. To get a better grasp on this I have found an excellent Youtube video series. Although it specifically talks about Adobe Framemaker, the principles presented can be applied to workflow using different tools.

Framemaker and DITA for Single Sourcing

Free Technical Writing Online Book

Stefano Landi — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:16:50 +0000

I’m currently taking an online course and one of my fellow students sent this to the class discussion forum. It is a link to a Free Technical Writing book.

http://www.faculty.english.vt.edu/Collier/stc/

It seems to be very thorough, although a bit difficult to read as it is a serif font and isn’t formatted to be read online. I suggest you either print it out or copy and paste it into a word processor and change the formatting to make it easier to read.

Starting Out In The Evening

Stefano Landi — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 04:37:15 +0000

I just finished watching a very poignant independently produced movie about the angst, turmoil, raw emotion that is writing. This blog post isn’t a movie review, far from it. What I would like to share with my readers this Friday evening is the deep sentiment that this movie brought out in me. It’s actually quite ironic really that when we turned off the DVD player and the TV went back to the cable channel, it was on the Silverscreen and the Woody Allen movie Manhattan was playing and it was the scene with Mariel Hemingway, the famous writer Earnest Hemingway’s granddaughter. As I have alluded to in the past in my posts, my journey as a writer is a very slow and personal one. I have no expectations, no specific goals other than to explore what it is to write, how to practice the craft and attempt, perhaps feebly, to write fiction. The movie did reinforce how I feel about character and story development, you see I’ve always felt that as a writer starts to develop and write a story the characters take on a life of their own and live through the words and actions of the author. As I had written previously, I’m in a kind of writer’s block and although I have a plethora of ideas and scenarios going through my head it is very difficult for me to write at times. I sit down at my computer or even at my notebook with pen in hand and find it difficult to come up with what happens next. What this movie reminded me was that I should just let the characters themselves tell me where they want to go and what they want to do. For some reason I had forgotten this and I almost feel as though the characters in my book are in some kind of suspended animation, put there by me and left to stagnate. Now, hopefully I can sit down again and let them live again and see what they can teach me and what they want to do.
Until next time keep writing.

Do I need to know a great deal about science to write science fiction?

Stefano Landi — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 03:52:30 +0000

The question above was raised by a member of the writers’ association to which I belong. I found it a very interesting question and we debated it back and forth a bit, but I felt it never really came to a firm conclusion. My take on it is that, no, you need not be a scientist or be some kind of science guru to write good SF. Oh of course it depends on what kind of SF one is writing. As I mentioned during the discussions, as I see it, there are two main categories of SF writing. There are actually many more, but for the purpose of this post I will make a broad distinction between hard core science-fiction and non-hard core science-fiction. So what is hard core science-fiction you might ask? It is a type of SF writing that relies primarily on technology to tell the story. It usually delves quite deeply on the technical nature of the objects, tools, vehicles and apparatuses used by the protagonists. It is usually characterized by heavy use of technical terms, sometimes real or invented and in most cases very thorough explanations of scientific theories, principles and the inner workings of technology. The writer of this genre does have to do some research before embarking on hard core SF, as the readership is often quite versed and has been exposed to scientific and technological concepts either in the media, academic circles, scientific literature or other SF writings. This is not to say that the hard core SF writer cannot take certain liberties when approaching their writing, they must keep in mind that the reader may be more sophisticated and may be quite critical if the writer strays too far from the plausible without adequate explanation or at least a cursory acknowledgment of their scientific hyperbole.
Non-hard core SF on the other hand does not rely as emphatically on technology, it is usually more implied and used as a casual sub-plot device and when mentioned, it is usually very matter-of-fact. I had used the example of perhaps a passage where a group of beings live in domed cities as their atmosphere is no longer breathable. In this case, the writer may not go into the technical intricacies of how the domes work or why the atmosphere is not breathable, it is simply used as a ’scientific’ locale to the story and might be meant to convey the message that this isn’t your run of the mill city or planet. Non-hard core SF story lines usually deal with the human condition and may use a SF circumstance such as another time or location as the scientific ‘hook’ so to speak.
If I were to give some advice to someone taking their first tentative steps into SF, it would be to start with non-hard core SF. However, having said that, science-fiction is probably one of the writing genres with the most flexibility. So don’t be scared of it, have some fun, place your characters in strange places and times. Take a seemingly normal person, a shoe salesman or instance and put them in an impossible situation of having just witnessed the abduction of a fellow salesman into the bowels of a alien saucer or a normal situation, such as a childrens’ playground and include some alien creatures that first discover a merry-go-round and fall all over the place. You’ll be amazed at what you might concoct, but mostly just have fun!

Writing update, free-writing, writer’s block

Stefano Landi — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:21:21 +0000

I had originally begun this blog in an effort to share my own experiences in becoming a better, and hopefully, more prolific writer. So far my journey to become a writer has been slow going, it’s not because I’m not wanting to become a better writer, but it is more that I’m facing a kind of writer’s block. Even my blog has suffered, as I’m finding it difficult to find subjects on which to write that could make for interesting reading by my blog visitors. However, undaunted I will try to write more often, even if it might eventually only be to let you know that I don’t have much to write about. It might be a form of public free-writing. In fact, that is one of the exercises often recommended for new writers to get their juices flowing. Free-writing is just that, putting pen to paper and just writing anything that comes to mind. Practitioners of the exercise even tell you not to think about anything in particular and just to set a timer for 10 minutes and just write anything that comes to mind, even if it is gibberish. I may do some free-writing in the near future and perhaps even post it and let you see a real-life example, it might be very revealing who knows. Meanwhile, I have been busy doing some writing for my writer’s association news magazine. I belong to a writing association based in the Western part of the island of Montreal. The West Island Writers Association was founded back in late Summer of 2008 and so far has about 14 or so members. The association has just put out the second edition of their news magazine called WIWA Writer’s Forum which showcases the writing talents of some of the members of the association. I will post a few of the articles that I’ve published in the news magazine here on this website and if you wold like to see the entire WIWA Writer’s Forum in PDF version please go to the association website at the following address: http://www.westislandwriters.org. My other writing ambitions include a how to book for which I currently have a working outline and have only started writing the introduction. I’m hoping on getting some more writing during the Summer months. Meanwhile, I will keep writing this blog and my other personal blog and hopefully keep the creative juices flowing.

Writing begets more writing

Stefano Landi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:23:43 +0000

One of the things that I find most frustrating about my journey into writing is finding and keeping the motivation to write. I so often simply put things off or find excuses not to write. However, what I’ve also found is the more I write, read and edit my own works, the more I want to write and the more I find myself thinking about writing. I suppose it’s much like exercise, where one has to start and build up a certain momentum before it becomes second-nature. So do yourself a favour, write! Don’t worry what you are writing or when, just write something every day. I started this blog for that exact reason and since it is such a public manifestation of my writing, I’m almost embarrassed when it’s been a long time since I’ve written or posted anything. I recently downloaded a new word processor that I was trying out and since I didn’t have anything else to write while testing it, I started to simply type an opening to a SF short-story on which I’ve been meaning to work. Well, I found myself typing and the words and ideas were flowing so well that now it has compelled me to continue writing that piece. You would be amazed as well how your writing will improve from just writing more and thinking about your writing. So get your pen in hand or your hands on keyboard and write.

My writing buddy

Stefano Landi — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:29:40 +0000

I’ve always said that having the right tools goes a long way to creating good work. Well, what better way to write than to have a buddy to keep you company and an eye on your work.

Blue helping me write technical reports, what's that? I missed a comma?

Visuwords.com – Not your grandmother’s Thesauraus

Stefano Landi — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:16:48 +0000

I’m always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to jog my creativity when writing. I always have my Thesaurus and Dictionary next to me, but there are times when I need to view how words relate to each other. A thesaurus is a great tool for this, but being a very visual person I’m always looking for more visual representation of displaying and viewing information. Some time back I came across a very innovative online dictionary based on Princeton University’s wordnet English database. Visuwords.com is unlike any online dictionary you may have used in the past, you simply type in a word and click on the “GO” button and a graphical representation of the word and all related words displays on the screen. The interface is very user friendly and extremely interactive and allows one to view the definition of words with coloured links indicating the relationships between words. It can be used an a traditional dictionary or as a very elaborate thesaurus. I’ve been using it to help my writing by entering in words and letting the system generate a sort of mind map of concepts/ideas. For those of you unfamiliar with mind maps I will be posting an article on what they are and their use in the near future. For now check out Visuwords.com and give it a spin, it may very likely become one of your favourite online tools.