Tuesday 4 June 2013

Tips to improve writing

Hey there readers, how's your week going? First I would like to say that its so lovely to have new people coming here to read. Lately I've had a few people ask the question..how do you write and how come you enjoy it so much? So today I'm going to answer you...

When I was younger & even as a 'new' professional I always knew where to place my words and that everything made sense (unless of course I was making a brain snap or forgot to edit-rarely since I dorkily enjoy it) but never could explain why. That is until I went to a literacy course a few years ago and got to know linguistics.

Linguistics is a field of mass information but when understood helps to create beautiful writing; fabulous sentences and hence blissful texts. Although I loved poetic devices etc it was essential to know the nuts and bolts as its own subject. Enter prepositional phrases, adjectival clauses, connectives, conjunctions, present and past participles and I've already probably got some people confused. But alas, acquaint yourself with these little munchkins and you're in for a literary treat! To save mass confusion in a complex world of words here's a few tips and strategies to get your story writing better.

1. Get to know Master THEME and RHEME. Theme used to be taught as the base moral of a story- this is out (though moral/invited readings as still very much important to the teaching of reading/writing). The most important thing is that people know the theme is the beginning of the sentence up to the first noun. Why know this? Well because what you preface the sentence with indicates to the reader what/who is the most important noun and therefore what the whole sentence should revolve around. Who is master RHEME you say? He is everything AFTER the theme up to the full stop. You can layer your writing in a theme/rheme pattern to create cohesion however doing this constantly makes for a rather 'heavy' piece of text bogged down by too many words.

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2. Adjectives & adverbs. Lovely little cherubs they are but how do we use them for good? The biggest thing here is not so much the use of them but the placement of them in association with the noun (adjective) or verb (adverb). Do you want to state 'he quickly ran' because you want the image to be of quick movement or do you want to say, 'he moved from the back if the room to the front quickly' ...if its the later the pace isn't really that important. Be aware though you can overload your readers with too much description that the message is lost.

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3. Senses- I've said it before & I'm saying it again. When you write keeping in mind your 5 senses you will engage people who respond to texts in different ways. The example below is done while thinking about coffee (yes my addiction shines through again).
Eg: sight- the coffee was caramel in colour, it reflected my tired face and was deliciously decorated with chocolate dusting.
Taste-the coffee immediately warms my lips & the back of my throat, it has full flavour.
Smell- freshly ground coffee and chocolate granules waft up through the nose.
Touch- the coffee mug feels heavy in the hand as I lift it up for a drink. The smooth ceramic is warming my hands.
Hear- as I drink I hear my throat clunk open and close as I let the coffee into my stomach but the time the mug clinks the table again I'm ready for another sip.

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Well, that is it for now...there is much more I would like to share with you what I have learnt and use regularly, however I'm not a fan of information overload & I bet you aren't either! So let me know, if these tips help you and what tips you follow when writing as well! Till next time...

Happy Writing :)

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