Reddit mentions: The best writing & grammar books

I too would like to be a published writer at some point, so I completely identify with your questions. I am 27 and sometimes wonder if it's too late for me as well but I have to keep telling myself that it is never too late. It's possible that your writing could only get better with age, as you are able to draw from more of your life experiences.

Here are some tips and recommendations that I have found to be useful:

• Read a lot and write a lot. Reading a lot will help you get an understanding of what works and what doesn't, what to do and what not to. You will be able to see good writing from bad writing and it will help you increase your vocabulary and get an understanding of formatting techniques although don't worry too much about that until the end. You have to be willing to write a lot as well. It will give you practice and teach you the best ways to get your ideas onto paper. Don't worry if it makes sense or not or whether or not it is part of the story you want to create, just get as much of it as you can out.
  
  
• You will have to put the time in to get the results. Writing is an extremely time consuming task and it can be difficult to find motivation especially if this is something you are doing on the side while still working a full time job. This is one of the things I struggle with, trying to find the time or energy to do the writing. Writing is a very energy-consuming activity for me and it requires my complete attention. Finding that can be difficult.
  
  
• Writing is rewriting. Don't be afraid to go back and rework everything once you get it out. Revisions will only make your work stronger.
  
  
• Don't use long or big words just to sound "smart" or "eloquent" or to make your work longer. More often than not, the first words that come to mind will be sufficient. Usually the most direct way to say something is the best.
  
  
• Don't show what can be said, don't say what can be shown. Try to find a good balance of not over describing the setting or provide too much description or narration. You can learn a lot just from what a character says and how they say it. Do not over-describe your setting, allow the reader to imagine things on their own, using their own experiences to create the world. Dialogue is probably the most difficult thing for me. Just be sure that your character's voices are unique and remain constant to who they are, even if the character's point of view is different than yours or what you believe in. Make sure what your characters are saying is truthful and believable to themselves. If the characters happen to be less than intelligent, show that in the way they talk.
  
  Some books I have found to be very helpful:
  
  
• Get yourself a good grammar book. I would recommend The Elements of Style. This one is quite good, comes highly recommended and has been around for 50 years.
  
  
• I am particularly a fan of Stephen King and his books. He wrote a book that was published in 2000 called On Writing. I have found it immensely helpful, a great book about the craft. I believe there is a 10th anniversary edition coming out this summer, probably with additions and updates. Half of the book, Stephen talks about how he got started, selling his first book "Carrie", stories from his life that influenced his work. The second half is his "Toolbox" section where he talks about tools and components to writing, vocabulary, grammar, dialogue, character description and development, narration, etc. It's all very frank and he tells you just exactly what you need to hear. Extremely useful.
  
  
• If you are creating an entire story (and not something short or small like poetry), you will need to have a good understanding of how the pieces are constructed, how to set up a beginning, a middle and an end successfully. I have this but have not read it yet, a book called Elements of Writing Fiction - Beginnings, Middles & Ends. So far it seems quite good and useful. When I was in college I took several screenwriting courses so this is something I already have a fairly good grasp on but it's still good to have something like this on hand to refer back to. I am more interested in writing fiction right now, as opposed to screenwriting so it is a bit challenging to change techniques. The two are very different.
  
  
• If you get to the point where you have completed a few pieces of writing and are hoping to get something published, you should probably start by picking up one of the Writer's Market books. I am interested in novel writing so that's the one that I linked to but there are different variations depending on what type of writing you are trying to get published. Just do a search on Writer's Market. The book contains complete, up-to-date contact information for book publishers, magazines and journals, literary agents, contests and conferences. There is a lot of very useful information in this book for when you get to that stage.
  
  I am certainly no expert but hopefully this is useful advice and helps motivate you to get to it!
  
  *EDIT: Added another recommended book.

I answered this same question a while ago, I'll copy/paste that response here, but just really quick, the reason you see MFAs springing up in published authors' bios is because it's still the traditional, old school route. If you get your MFA in Creative Writing, you're more likely to pursue traditional publication than a more contemporary route (ebooks, audiobooks, self-pub, etc.).

But anways, onto the main content:

---

A degree is only as useful as you make it after you've attained it.

I could have gotten an MFA (I was offered a free spot in my grad school's program—long story) but chose not to because, frankly, I didn't feel that I needed it.

Don't get me wrong: an MFA can be invaluable. But imo (I can't stress that enough, this is all through my own lens), it's mostly the experience and the ease-of-access to useful tools that makes it worthwhile; not necessarily the degree itself. In other words, the journey to the degree is what gives it value (which I suppose could be said of any degree you earn, but I digress).

When you go for an MFA, you get (most obviously) incredible amounts of workshopping and feedback on your pieces; this is pretty essential to a growing writer. Just look at the weekly critique thread here, workshops/critiques are what people crave and you'll have consistent access to quality critiques. You really can't find that anywhere else.

In an MFA, you will absorb a lot of information regarding craft and nuance—all things that you could surely find on your own, but are consolidated and streamlined nicely for you in a program geared towards creative writing.

By extension, you also get immediate, intimate, and prolonged access to successful and published writers (instructors, guest writers, temp/visiting writers, etc.), whose brains you can pick quite freely.

And lastly (probably the "most" important thing for aspiring writers), you're given a 'better' platform from which to get published. You'll have all these connections that you can work, and they'll do what they can to help you get in (all the while improving your writing in a sustainable environment).

So, just to sum up quickly, what are some important things an MFA gives you?

• Workshops: Feedback given and received (both are very useful; do not underestimate the utility of being a good and articulate reader first and writer second; I can elaborate on this philosophy if you'd like, just ask :D).
  
• Networking: Like-minded peers to collaborate with, and instructors who are invested in your success (befriend as many people as you can; you never know if a peer is gonna be a breakout writer).
  
• Knowledge: Easy access to a ton of information ranging from style to craft.
  
• Guidance: You have a schedule. This seems like a no-brainer, but everything is laid out for you, and there is a logical progression to the things you will learn. You don't have to create your own lesson plans, you're walked through it by seasoned and skilled writers who are proven craftsmen and craftswomen. Also, you'll get advice from these same people who've been in your position before.
  
  Now here's the thing: all four of these things are attainable without an MFA. It'll take more effort on your part, but it's doable.
  
  You can workshop—either on your own, or as part of a community (like this sub). This also opens the door to networking, both with the people who critique your work and with those whose work you critique (see, beta readers).
  
  You can make your own schedule—a little harder for those who tend to procrastinate or find it difficult to self-motivate, but it can be done. Buy some books on creative writing (for example, the Portable MFA; or GWW on Fiction, etc.; I'm assuming you're interested in fiction rather than nonfiction/memoir or poetry), set a schedule for yourself (maybe M/W/F or something). Make your own lesson plan, do the exercises. It is imperative that you honor this schedule—no cheat days, no skipping (we'll talk about this in a bit).
  
  If possible, try to find a friend or two to do it with you (even if they're not great writers or really interested in it,
  but rather just want to support you)—it's always better with other people, and there's more motivation for yourself to do the exercises. Write on the days in between and the time before and after the lessons.
  
  Sure, you might not have such easy access to people in the industry without going to an MFA program, but at the end of the day, it's more often than not the quality of your writing and the execution of your ideas that will get you places. There are lots of self-published authors on this sub alone. How many of them have MFAs? I couldn't guess, but I can guarantee not all of them have one; they were just determined and diligent. They put in the time and work, maybe got an agent.
  
  Pursuing an MFA is great because it gives you constant (almost incessant) exposure to creative writing in what is usually a conducive environment: you cannot afford to put things off or to have writer's block; even if you're at a loss, you have to write.
  
  The problem with doing this solo (i.e. not in an MFA), especially if you have motivation issues, is that creative writing can be an endless time-sink. If you have writer's block and you just think, "Ah, I have no idea where to go with this, I'll just come back later," you can just go off and do something else: play video games, watch TV, see a movie, see friends... or maybe you're just a bad procrastinator. It just becomes an infinite loop of minimal-to-zero productivity.
  
  If you don't get much writing done in an MFA, you will get your ass handed to you. And you might be one of those people who can get by on procrastination, but in a CW program, it's very easy to see who is procrastinating... so your work will likely be sub-par and your ass will get handed to you anyways. Your instructors won't mince words, they will tell you straight up if your work is bad. One of my instructors gave me an anecdote of his first workshop at the famed Iowa Writer's Workshop where the instructor had the whole class workshop one of the student's works—he remained silent the whole time and let them guide the discussion. They went on for over 45 mins talking about the good and bad parts of the story, craft, etc., and after they had all finished, the instructor simply held the manuscript up and tore it in half. He told them they were all wrong and had wasted their time, because the manuscript was trash.
  
  Granted, this is an extreme case in probably the most prestigious MFA program there is, but my point stands: at an MFA, you must produce. At home, doing this alone, you can have days where you only write one page, days where you write 10, and nothing bad will come of it. Don't worry too much about quality—it will come with volume. The more you write, the better you'll get at it; likewise, the more you critique other stories, the better you'll get (which is why workshopping is so important). I'd argue that critiquing others is more important than writing yourself but that's linking back to the philosophy I mentioned above and I don't want to delve into that since it's not really relevant.
  
  When I was getting my MA in English, I had a friend who was in the MFA program (while I was still deciding if I wanted to enroll in it after I got my masters) and whenever I asked him how his MFA was coming along, he always seemed to be stressing about his deadlines and workload. He'd have to have a brand new short done by the next week; or 50+ new pages for his novel-in-progress by the week after; the entire novel draft by midterm break; the draft revised by the end of semester; all of this while writing other shorts, workshopping other people's stuff, teaching at the local high school, etc.
  
  In the military, there's a term during basic training/boot camp called "getting smoked." This is when the instructors make recruits run or do insane amounts of push-ups/pull-ups.
  
  In an MFA, your ass is going to get smoked. You're going to have to write a lot. When there's a deadline to meet and something on the line (your reputation, your grade, etc.), you'll find your motivation fast, even if you have to make it up; this isn't necessarily the case when you're your own boss.
  
  Like I said earlier, I was offered a guaranteed spot in my school's MFA program. I eventually declined, because, essentially, I'm very confident in my prose. The head of the CW department was really pushing for me to join, and I knew that if he thought my writing was that good, I didn't actually need the MFA (although I'd be lying if I said I didn't want one).
  
  Worst-case scenario, if you get your MFA (and even while pursuing it) and everything else falls through, you can get some teaching opportunities at local high schools and temp jobs at colleges. When you get your MFA (since it's a terminal degree), you can actually teach full-time at the college/university level which does have its perks. But teaching isn't for everyone (:
  
  So, TL;DR: if you're a very motivated person, you don't really need an MFA. If you need a kick in the ass, an MFA may be very helpful (and you'll get some very helpful things along the way).
  
  Also: money. It sucks, but it's a factor.
  
  If you have any other questions, I'm all ears. Good luck!
  
  ~b

I totally understand. I need some structure as well.

I've bought so many creative writing books, and I've realized the best ones are the ones used in college classrooms.

This one is my favorite. You can do a writing exercise from it everyday, and you'll improve greatly. Unfortunately it's pricey at $67 (try to get a used version at half the cost).

What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers (3rd Edition)

What's great is that each chapter builds your skills gradually, starting with exercises to write good intro sentences, then to character development, point of view, dialogue, interior landscape of characters, plot, element of style, revisions, learning from the greats, etc.

The authors have said this has been the best way to see improvements from their students, and it's been working for me. Unlike other writing exercise books, this one has a clear structure, and moreover, they really go in depth in explaining the exercise and it's goal -- the technique it's trying to develop.

What I find especially helpful is that the book includes student examples for most of the examples. I own many writing exercises books, and so often I need to a clue on how to execute the exercises or I'm lost. The book also comes with short stories to study, too.

I was so skeptical about the book, since it isn't cheap, but the reviews on Amazon won me over. Read those reviews -- so many people recommend the book.

Note, if you can't afford it, there is the original, much cheaper version. It's much smaller, and doesn't have as many student examples or extra content (like the short stories), but it's costs way less. I'm guessing this was the original book before they expanded into a college textbook. I also own it also and it's still good. It's nice to carry around with me if I don't want to take the much larger newer version.

My other recommendation is this book:[The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by Alice LaPlante](
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Story-Norton-Creative-Writing/dp/0393337081/)

LaPlante is great at explaining the little nuances, the details in what makes creative fiction work. She goes into more details, and has writing exercises at the end of each chapter, including a short story to read. So she gives more theory of how good writing works. She avoids flowery or abstract advice found in so many other books.

I found it an excellent companion to the "What If" book.

This book is also used in college courses, and it's thick! Lots of material. Fortunately, however, this version I linked is around $13. This is the same exact book as the college version for $52 (named "Method and Madness: The Making of a Story").

Lastly, this isn't a college writing book, but just a bunch of really helpful exercises on how to improve as a writer.

Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark

What I like is that he gives examples to his exercises, too, from books, newspaper articles, etc. I really love all of Roy Peter Clark's writing books.

Anyway, good luck. I was in a deep writing funk. Depressed I wasn't improving, and I decided to write everyday using exercises from those books, and it's helped me so much.

Edit: typos.

• "On Writing," by Stephen King (http://amzn.com/B000FC0SIM) - The first half is a good biography, and the second half is great insight into how Stephen King comes up with his stories. Not just the genesis of the story, but that actual "I sit down and do this, with this, in this type of environment." And then what to do when you finish your first draft. He is very critical of plotting, though. If you disagree with him about that, it's still good for everything else.
  
  
• "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White (http://amzn.com/020530902X) - This is a handy little book for proper grammatical and prose rules. How to write proper dialogue, where to put punctuation, and how to structure sentences to flow in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
  
  
• "Stein On Writing" by Sol Stein (http://amzn.com/B00HFUJP5Y) - I just picked this book up, so I haven't finished it--but it seems to be a little more in depth than Stephen King's On Writing. For instance, it looks more at not just what makes a good story, but what makes a good story appealing to readers. So whereas Stephen King preaches a more organic growth and editing process to write a story, this one seems to be more focused on how to take your idea and make it a good story based on proven structure.
  
  Honorable mention:
  
  
• "The Emotion Thesaurus" by Angela Ackerman (http://amzn.com/B00822WM2M) - This is incredibly useful when you're "showing" character emotions instead of "telling" the reader what those emotions are. For example, "He was curious," is telling the reader the character is curious. "He leaned forward, sliding his chair closer," is showing the reader that he is curious.
  
  
• I think it's easy for writers (myself included) to get too wrapped up in studying writing, or reading about writing. The best way to improve your is to write more, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, articles or short stories, novels or book reviews. The same principle applies to most skills, art especially. While reading about the activity certainly helps and is probably necessary at some point, you're going to just have to perform the activity in order to improve. Imagine reading about running more than actually running to practice for a marathon. Or reading about flying instead of getting hours in. Or reading about piano theory instead of actually playing piano. But if you're coming from nothing, it would probably help to read those three books before starting in order to start practicing with a good background right away, instead of starting with nothing and winging it on your own.

My First Impressions

Okay, I can’t stop thinking about your expressed desire to write for a living. From what I’ve read and heard, get ready for a shock of harsh reality. Writing is not so lucrative, and it is difficult work as well. So that said, I empathize with your heartfelt desire. Let’s see what I might add.

Also, I don’t want to forget to acknowledge the passion and depth portrayed in a story unlike anything you would ever want to write. Nice work!

The Scope

With everything I say, take it for what it’s worth. I’m no expert. I only want to keep my skills sharp by helping others. Feedback on my feedback is always welcome--I want to learn also.
I don’t put much stock in the whole telling verse showing concept. Faulkner told some great literature. And besides, why must everyone write in a stock format anyway. Do what you feel is right and what fits your creative mode.

Mere Suggestions

If you want to be a writer by profession, I would suggest taking the long way home and not hitting the drive thru. I know what I’m saying is cryptic, but there is a metaphoric point behind it.

Many times we want to pull up, order, and hit the road before our food is cold in the bag. When it comes to writing, we find the drive-thru convenient and flashy, but when we get home our food is often stale and dry. Quick courses are beneficial in many respects, but I’ve found that a hard study will open new avenues of depth and precision that were once beyond our present conception.

My advice, if you want write, I mean really write and be successful in writing: step back and study. Take a grammar class or get a grammar book. Understand the components of language we know but hang around us with and unfamiliar plume of foggy understanding. Nail them down and use them.

Then, take a course in creative writing or get some books relating to the creative craft.

I’m not a salesman, but I’ve been one in the past, so beware. Here is a regimen of books I’ve found very helpful in my quest to achieve your expressed desire.

This is a great textbook that approaches English grammar from a linguistic framework. Forget about the old Latin-based grammar rules, this book will teach you the practical aspects of grammar as they relate to writing.

Next, I’ve read all of these and they provide a broad understanding. Each book brings a unique voice to the creative approach. I encourage you to take hold of them all.

Imaginative Writing: The Elements of the Craft

The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing

The Practice of Creative Writing: A Guide for Students

Take them for what they are worth. I apologize for not addressing any specifics in the piece you posted, but I thought this the best place to start.

Humble apologies and encouragements . . . dwrightjones

Overall, I'm quite impressed with this.

I agree that you could use a bit of help with conveying emotion, but so could most writers, to be perfectly honest (I include myself in that camp). A good tip is to evoke emotion by describing the outward (physical) and inward (mental) expressions of it. For example, instead of saying "Robert seemed more relaxed and focused than before," describe what makes Robert seem more relaxed and focused: "Robert's restless fidgeting had subsided, and he was leaning back in his chair."

Everyone expresses emotions differently, so it's good to decide ahead of time how each character expresses anxiety, happiness, anger, or whatever feelings you expect them to have over the course of your story.

I quite like The Emotion Thesaurus as a reference for this type of thing, but be careful not to rely on another writer's ideas of expression too heavily. As long as you can use a reference like this as a starting point, rather than a crutch, you're in good shape.

My other general comment: don't be afraid of adding a bit more colourful description. You're somewhat like me, in that dialogue is clearly your strength, but you're a bit intimidated by descriptive text. You don't have to describe every feature in the room, or every single movement a character makes. The trick is to add a little bit here and there to break up the dialogue; right now I feel a bit like I'm reading a courtroom transcript instead of a work of creative fiction. The good news is that you're already good at bits of description (case in point: the line about the steam and smell of the tea is perfect). You just need to employ it a teeny bit more.

I'm a PhD student in philosophy, and one of the areas I'm beginning to research is effective methods for training students to properly use evidential support in arguments (obviously this isn't my main area of research, but I have thought about it a bit).

Many universities now offer an Introduction to Critical Reasoning course. Their quality does vary depending on who teaches it (like any course), but I know the one offered at my university is fantastic. If you can't take a course, then there are plenty of books and textbooks aimed at teaching the kind of skills you are looking for. I honestly don't know which are considered the best, but these three all seem fine: 1 2 3.

I'd like to talk about some more specific things. You mentioned in another post studying predicate logic. I love symbolic logic. I wish more students took it. I will probably be teaching it for a long time. But, I think for your stated goals, studying critical reasoning will be much more efficient than studying formal logic.

Another posted suggested reading Spinoza, Kant, and Heidegger. This is terrible advice. These are three of the most difficult philosophers to read in the entire history of philosophy (Spinoza is actually quite fun to read in TPT, but nobody reads that, so I'm sure the poster was referring to The Ethics). Reading Heideger won't help your ability to use logic and reason. It just won't.

Students' biggest problem is that they often fail to understand the reading. For example, a very large chunk of students in Intro to Philosophy classes every year think that Descartes actually believed in an evil demon who was deceiving him, and was thus a skeptic. Critical reading is not an easy skill. Lots of intelligent people aren't that great at it (when an article gets posted on Reddit, look at some of the responses). The best way to improve this skill is to identify your friends who you think are especially good at critical reading, read the same thing as them, and then discuss it.

Students' second biggest problem is not understanding evidential support. For example, almost every intro to philosophy and intro to ethics course includes a day or two going over the Euthyphro. A modern slant on Socrates' main question in this dialogue goes like this: Does God command certain actions because they are morally right, or are certain actions morally right just because God commands them? The right way to respond to this argument is to draw out the implications of each position, and see whether they have any problems or not. Instead, most students will say things like "I'm a Christian so I believe in Divine Command Theory" - and then they will use the rest of the essay to misquote Bible verses at you. The best way to improve your use of evidential support is to study critical reasoning texts - they all have large sections on it - and to practice using it in discussions with people who will challenge you.

Outside of students, many experts (and dare I say) even scientists still make mistakes with reasoning. The most common mistake that I see is when people ignore or don't give proper attention to alternative interpretations of data.

For example, consider this really neat little article. The author (a researcher in cognitive science) describes some really cool experiments where people screw up even simple rule-following tasks (e.g. they recognize and correctly identify 400 as an even number immediately, but take longer to recognize 798 as an even number, and in some cases actually respond that it is odd). The author of the article then makes the claim that "The human mind is ill-suited to carry out rules." However, the data discussed doesn't support this claim - people aren't getting the even / odd tests wrong a majority of the time. The weaker (and less interesting claim) is that the human mind is not perfect at carrying out rules. Or, even better, that the human mind is mostly fine at carrying out rules, but frequently when we should use rule-based thinking, we use heuristics instead).

So yeah. My advice. Don't read Heidegger to try to improve your critical thinking abilities. Read some critical reasoning textbooks. Some of them are fantastic. Talk with your friends who you think are really good at using logic and reason. A lot. Argue with them. Using reasoning is a skill, and you have to practice it to get good at it.

I heard someone say once that you need to understand the rules before you can break them the right way. Anyway, I found these books helpful. I would never adhere to their advice exactly, but I did learn a lot from all of them and combine it with my own personal style:

John Gardner - The Art of Fiction

A bit dated, but it still does a good job of laying out what it means to write fiction. He has some good suggestions for exercises at the end.


Anne LaMott - Bird By Bird

Half craft, half inspirational. I'm not usually big on sappy, inspirational shit, but I loved this book and found it very helpful.


James Bonnet - Stealing Fire From the Gods

Focuses on the elements of great stories in film and books.


John Trimble - Writing With Style

This is a great overview of the technical side of writing well. The best I have found.


The main thing though: READ A LOT OF FICTION. You should read much more than you write. No one ever became a great writer by sitting around and reading about writing, but it can help you zero in on what to look for in the fiction of others.

Hope that helps.

It sounds to me that the times in which you are unhappy with your ability to be assertive come from when you lack confidence. You say when pushed too far, you react in unbalanced ways, that you feel shitty when you have successfully presented your case, that you let others make decisions since you worry about the outcomes if you do, and that your attempts at assertiveness are often desperate. It seems to me, in these situations, you fear being wrong--you aren't confident that you are right.

Confidence during conflicts, arguments (since arguments aren't always conflicts), and decision making comes from a couple of difference places, in my opinion.

First, the ability to clearly articulate your own position. If your own position isn't clear to you, you're likely to fumble your words, miscommunicate, contradict yourself, etc. It also makes it more difficult for you to change your position if you are confronted with a good argument against it. Also, sometimes in arguments, there needs to be a give-and-take, meaning, your point may be lacking or overextending on something, and if you acknowledge that, your point can then be all the more stronger.

Second, your ability (and recognition of this ability) to competently analyze the situation and/or the counter-arguments. Now, I say this as a philosophy major, but a formal study of logic can aid enormously in this (here is a good, short book I would recommend if you were so inclined). However, I find that most people are already quite capable of this, since everyday language is composed of numerous analyses of situations and arguments. Sometimes all it takes is slowing yourself down. For example, I used to rush into conclusions and see things narrowly, which lead me to make a lot of mistakes and had an impact on my confidence. Slowing down just a little bit to contemplate other options can make a big difference. This can be practiced outside of arguments, too, which helps, since it is far less stressful that way.

Third, patience and self-control. Staying calm, striving for clear communication, being receptive to feedback, and being emotionally honest can all have a big impact on the ways your confidence is felt. A lot of people think that emotions are antithetical to reason, and for women, this is a particularly pernicious misconception. But the reality is that emotions are integral to the ways we come to understand the world around us, and being clear and honest about the way you feel with other people, and they to you, sheds a lot of clarity on a situation.

I hope some of this is helpful. You say that you are otherwise a confident person, so you know that side of yourself already. You just need to work it in to being assertive about something when you want to be. Best of luck!

Are you asking whether you could learn new language with this method? Its best you follow a language learning system for that.

It worked for me with english because I grew up learning it from childhood and obsessively read nearly hundred or more novels in my teen and young adult phase.

>What did you do/what was your method?

To put it in simple words, its basically taking great writers work, and imitate their content. For example here's
from the book The scarlet pimpernel first paragraph, chapter 3:

>Feeling in every part of England certainly ran very high at this time against the French and their doings. Smugglers and legitimate traders between the French and the English coasts brought snatches of news from over the water, which made every honest Englishman's blood boil, and made him long to have “a good go” at those murderers, who had imprisoned their king and all his family, subjected the queen and the royal children to every species of indignity, and were even now loudly demanding the blood of the whole Bourbon family and of every one of its adherents.

Now rewrite this paragraph to your own liking randomly like this:

>In nearly every part of new york, the feeling of tiredness ran very high against the southerners and their army. Runaway slaves and legitimate human traffickers between the two high parts of texas bought news from over by carts and by doves, which increased the animosity of the northerners towards the slave owners and made the northerners blood boil, and some of them even wished to have "good go" at those war mongers, who had imprisoned even the little black children in dark slave rooms, subjected their parents and the northern soldiers who tried to save them with every known piece of indecency, and were even now demanding the blood of the whole confederate army and every one of its supporters.

Yeah, this doesn't make much sense if you read it too much, but as you can see, I imitated that paragraph with few things added and few things removed. This is how you learn to write effectively. The more you imitate the great writers, the more your own writing will improve.

>How did you use this for English?

The only way you could have mastery over writing is to seriously finish reading books like these and apply its concepts everyday until you get better:



This is a classic book on sentence writing and gives you tons of examples and explanations, although it can get quiet challenging to read it in first try.



This book is quite challenging read and at times very hard to comprehend, but read it one chapter at a time slowly.

Next, this book gives you a basic introduction to the field of rhetoric, which is something that writers in this sub don't usually talk very much, but its one of the biggest things you should focus on if you want to improve your writing to the advanced level from basic and intermediate level.

Finally, this book is the one you should definitely read, and this book is the one that basically inspired my initial comment.

I would definitely recommend practicing with real LR questions. Consider purchasing Fox’s Logical Reasoning Encyclopedia. It’s a huge collection of questions organized by type and from easiest to hardest so that you can work your way up.

That being said, if you are looking to read something that will make LR easier, consider a book like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0872209547/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=0K40QP66SXTM0BKQAHBS&dpPl=1&dpID=61X5ctUve8L

I literally just typed “fallacies” into amazon, but a book like this will basically cover every wrong argument you could see on the LSAT. I took a class on Critical Reasoning my freshman year and I know it gave me a head start on LR.

For reading comp, I’m a philosophy major so I have the opposite problem you do. Scientific articles throw me off a hair. If you want some interesting reads, check out the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy online. It’s free, the language is very formal and sophisticated, and you can read about basically anything and everything you’d want. The LSAT seems to like bringing up utilitarianism relatively often, so maybe check out their page on that. Also the LSAT mentions Kant pretty frequently, so you can also check out the page on him.

Of course this isn’t necessary to get a perfect LSAT score; the test, as you know, does not presuppose any prior knowledge about these topics. However, I’m sure you have found, as I did, that it’s easier to read about things you know something about. Read some philosophy, but drill drill drill those RC passages!

As for getting a 170, I can’t say. My diagnostic was 155, and I got a 164 in February. My last two PTs were over 170, but obviously the only one that counts is the official.

You’ve got this!!!

The best route is to take up a course on Logic.

Study introductory predicate logic. Break statements into predicates - identify their antecedent and consequent. Identify the differences between a predicate's negation, inverse, converse, and contrapositive; more importantly, how they can be used to derive logical Truth. Familiarize yourself with Gödel's completeness theorem.

Next, learn to identify a fallacy; study up on logical fallacies.

Cognitive Biases are the next most important step. Being aware of your own cognitive biases will help you identify when your analyses are being skewed.

Study everything about everything. More information about your domain of concern will granter you further insight for analysis.

Lastly, take care of yourself. Get lots of sleep, eat healthy, and exercise; your judgement will be impaired if you don't.


Some books to help:

• Aristotle's Organon: Amalgamation of Aristotle's work on logic and reason. The starting point for most Logisticians.
  
• Critique of Pure Reason: Kant's works on logic and reason are pretty much mandatory - but require careful study.
  
• Critique of Practical Reason: Another of Kant's works. Read this after the critique of pure reason.
  
• Science of Logic: Hegel's work is an extension of Kant and Aristotle - also mandatory.
  
• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Hume's works are a much easier read, but aren't as explicitly stated.
  
• Informal Logic a Pragmatic Approach: The best introductory logic book I've read.
  
• LANGUAGE, COGNITION, AND HUMAN NATURE: Steve Pinker has an unique perspective as a psychologist, linguist, and cog. scientist. This book highlights some of his more interesting insights.
  
• Thought and Language: Offers interesting insights into some innate biases in language and culture.
  
• A Rulebook For Arguments: This provides nice introductory reference material for fallacies and argumentation.
  
• Thank you for Arguing: Exploits fallacies and cognitive biases to pursuade an audience in an argument. Witty and easy to read.
  
  Edit: Added book suggestions.

1. Right off the bat, your title. Just call it "June Wedding." Drop the letter A.
   
   
2. Be sure to do your sluglines properly. Formatting can throw people off. Your first slug should still indicate whether it is night or day.
   
   
3. Try to avoid bizarre comparisons. If you compare you should make it simply and understandable. What does it mean "Greek chorus"? Don't be vague and intellectualy superior. You're not writing a novel.
   
   
4. Watch out for dialogue. Make it natural and make it clear. First line you say "2007," where "the year 2007" would sound much better. A number alone could mean many things. This is really just tightening up your screenplay.
   
   
5. You have excessive use of flashbacks and the narrator's voice. Keep it limited. You must make the audience feel like they are not observing a story, but rather that they are a part of it. Too many flashbacks and too much speaking over, while it can come in handy, may suck your audience out of their fantasy.
   
   
6. Honestly. I don't know what MOS means. Probably a good idea to take that out.
   
   
7. Do not do SMASH CUT! No one does that. I've never seen that in a professional screenplay, nor is it something I do. Leave it out. "Cut To:" is fine.
   
   
8. You need to get into the action and tension quicker. As I am reading this, I am finding myself bored. You gotta hook the audience in a little. Make it more exciting sooner. You do have some action, but it comes way later on, and we are not set into it gradually.
   
   
9. Conflict, conflict, conflict, and there isn't enough emotion. You need to push your audience to the edge, you need to jerk 'em around, and make them feel what everyone else is feeling. These characters of yours are talking about what? Not much. Unfortunately, it's too subtle.
   
   
10. Your screenplay first and foremost needs structure. It's too unbalanced. Don't stretch out the exposition and back story so long.
    
    
11. As far as I can tell there's nothing at risk. Risk is a basic part of life, and we all have something to lose. It seems like these characters are living in a world of zero consequence. Sure, some words are exchanged, but not much other than that.
    
    
12. You gotta make your characters more distinct. It feels like there is one person, who is playing everyone. Although that's how real life probably is, your screenplay needn't be like that. Give people quirks. Give them characteristics that help the audience separate them.
    
    
13. It appears that your screenplay really starts around page 72 or so, we find out who is cheating, and then everything starts taking off. You might not want to do this, but if you start from there, and then write about the consequences following you could make a great story.
    
    
14. Every good story has some humor in it. Try and have some laughs to give the audience a break.
    
    
15. Make us care about these people (your characters). Why do we care about them?
    
    To conclude, your main problems here are: lack of structure, action, conflict, risk, loss, suspense, humor, and unique characters.
    
    Now, that might seem harsh, but it's not to discourage you. I think you can write. I think you have that ability in you, like most, but what you lack is keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, and making them scared, and happy, and emotionally involved. I highly suggest that you pick up some books on writing and read them. That's my main advice. It's not that you have to follow exactly what they say, but once you know the rules you can break them, and shape them to your liking.
    
    Anyway, good luck in the future! Keep on writing.
    
    Pick this up, if you can:
    
    http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fiction-Practical-Acclaimed-Creative/dp/1582343306/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382945522&sr=1-1&keywords=gotham+writers+workshop
    
    It's just the basics, however, can come in handy.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

There are two books that I recommend reading. On Writing by Stephen King and The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White. I have learned a lot from both. One of the best pieces of advice from King was; read a lot and write a lot. It seems too obvious to be helpful advice, but I started a reading regiment that matched my writing regiment. Soon I was studying books as well as reading them, and I learned a lot more about wordplay, grammar, and vocabulary.

As far as grammar is concerned, I want my writing to communicate my emotions to the reader. That's my ultimate goal. Sometimes that requires perfect grammar, sometimes that requires breaking the rules. Take The Road by Cormac McCarthy for example. He's basically thrown all grammar rules out the window for the sake of his story, and it's an excellent story.

One of my writing professors told me there are three rules to breaking rules, and they have become my favorite rules of all. They are:

1. You have to know you're breaking a rule.
   
2. Your audience has to know you're breaking a rule.
   
3. Your audience has to know that you know that you're breaking a rule.
   
   If you can accomplish those three than it's a safe bet you haven't lost your reader. However, readers will put down a book just because of the grammar, so we must be diligent.

Short term (i.e. your paper): Get a draft to your teacher early and ask how you can improve it for your final draft. You'll want your teacher's opinion as early as possible if it's a good grade you want. Proofread it yourself and have others proofread it if possible.

Long term: The Elements of Style

Some other advice:

• Good academic writing doesn't mean fancy or indirect, it means clear and concise.
  
  
• Make becoming a better writer your goal if you want to really improve. Your work will be better and your teacher will sense your genuine interest when you approach them for help.
  
  
• Take advantage of your teacher's help even if you don't like them.
  
  
• Ultimately, getting better at anything is up to you, and that means putting time in.

I agree with you in general and it's a good point: of course people can and should make up their own minds.

Still, the OP was looking for some sort of 'definitive' guide to start off with. I was just suggesting the EofS probably isn't that guide, partly because it's so prescriptive, which is a problem if it's also often wrong. It's no good saying "here's what a split infinitive looks like: don't use them", if good writers have been splitting infinitives for hundreds of years. It's a personal prejudice elevated to a diktat, and I'm not sure that's good for a student who wants to understand grammar or style.

As mentioned by another poster, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by Huddleston and Pullen is good (if long) — it's a descriptive grammar, but it does a good job of describing good usage and it's probably a better foundational guide to prepare people to be able to take the good out of books like EofS, while disregarding the bad.

A Student's Introduction is quite expensive, though. The Oxford Guide to plain English (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Guide-English-Paperback-Reference/dp/0199669171/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2/257-8116461-2798740?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0199669171&pd_rd_r=6ce92ef0-fc45-445e-adec-8f2560d61755&pd_rd_w=NIW0h&pd_rd_wg=Jqqn6&pf_rd_p=7a9d3b22-47b7-4932-be38-57f4219c3325&pf_rd_r=AYTAYM68196T1BE8KHB3&psc=1&refRID=AYTAYM68196T1BE8KHB3) is a lot shorter and cheaper. I've not read it myself, but a quick scan through suggests it's fairly sensible and useful. E.g. there's a section on "Six Writing Myths" which looks like it provides good advice. It's from the same stable as the Oxford English Dictionary, so it's likely to be fairly authoritative.

Hijacking top comment: while both of these are good, neither one will really force you to confront challenges and issues in your own writing except in a very general way.

To make it three, I would add "The Making of a Story" by Alice LaPlante. It is, by far, the absolute best book on writing I've ever read: it has small "teaching" sections discussing certain concepts (metaphors, characters, voice, etc.) followed by exercises with examples, and then accompanied by a wonderful selection of short stories that really captures the best of that concept. It's a thick book with a lot of work if you do the exercises, but it's definitely worth it. It's like a DIY advanced college creative writing course, and it's helped me so, so much. The author teaches at the MFA program at Stanford so she not only is a great writer, but also a great TEACHER, which distinguishes her from the other two books mentioned.

Reddit apparently doesn't know about it, unfortunately, which is why I only very recently discovered it on an Amazon recommended books list! It really deserves a wider readership.

Amazon link for the lazy:

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Story-Norton-Creative-Writing/dp/0393337081/ref=asap_B001ILKBC2?ie=UTF8

As long as you put your desire and hope in the act of writing itself, as opposed to the desire of wanting to have written something, you will do well.

I would suggest a few pieces of light reading, a few pieces of heavy reading, and some listening for you too.

Light reading:

Stephen King's "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" This book is not meant as a book of lessons so much as the formula that assembled one writer. It's short, it's heartfelt, and it has some wisdom in it.

The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. - This is a short book, it gives a good starter set of rules that we accept for communicating with one another in the English language.

Heavy Reading:

Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell. - This is a short book but it is very thick with information and esoteric names from all cultures. Why is that? Because it deals with, very succinctly, the fundamental core of nearly all human storytelling, Campbell's "Monomyth" premise can inform you all the way from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Star Wars a New Hope

Writing Excuses This is a Podcast about writing by Brandon Sanderson, of "Mistborn," "Way of Kings," and "Wheel of Time" fame, Howard Taylor, the writer and artist of Schlock Mercenary, a webcomic that hasn't missed a day for a long while, Mary Robinette Kowol, a Puppeteer and Author of "Shades of Milk and Honey" and Dan Wells, from the "I am not a Serial Killer" series It has been going on for more than a decade, and nearly every episode is a wonderful bit of knowledge.

Not quite the background you're looking for, but 28 year old sales engineer here and just started writing fiction recently myself. My advice would be to just start brainstorming some ideas, maybe look at some writing prompts for inspiration, and start to write whatever happens to pop into your mind. The first couple of stories are going to be pretty horrible, but you're not really looking for quality at this point, just simply being able to complete something with a somewhat coherent storyline. I'd recommend taking a stab at a short story, something along the lines of 3-5k words.

Also, I recently had someone here recommend the following as an introduction to writing:

http://www.amazon.com/Gotham-Writers-Workshop-Practical-ebook/dp/B002UM5BU0/ref=tmm_kin_title_0

Haven't had the free time to really get into it too much yet, but from what I can tell it's generally regarded as a pretty good starting point. Plus, at 3 bucks for the kindle version, it's not exactly a huge loss if you download it and never even get through it.

Best of luck with your first story!

I have a name book (this is the one I have, but it's pretty easy to find lists of baby names online for free if you don't need names for different cultures), so I just try and find one that sounds nice and rolls off the tongue. Past that, as much as possible I just try and make sure I don't have two main characters with names that start with the same letter or sound very similar, just so it's easier for the readers to keep them all straight.

The Lively Art of Writing is absolutely amazing. It's enjoyable to read and the techniques can really help you write well. It gave me a great understanding of how to write a persuasive essay.

After that, Elements of Style is also an excellent reference on the finer points of writing, and can help you clear up some confusions you have.

I'd recommend working through The Lively Art of Writing first, just to put some practice and thought into how to communicate effectively. The second book is more for polish, but nevertheless still very good.

I agree with /u/dmealing: conflict is the core. The brain understands narratives, and the core of a narrative is conflict. I suggest you look at Writing for Story by Jon Franklin. He was a long-form journalist, but he developed his method by studying short stories and so forth. There's a little more about it here.

You can't have a good, much less great story without character, description and the other elements, but without a conflict to overcome the story will be unsatisfying for most people. To me, it's like that kind of free-form jazz where the musicians seem to be guys doing their own thing in the proximity of a microphone as opposed to a band playing a song. You can enjoy the virtuosity, the inventiveness, etc., but it's not the kind of thing people dance to or sing in the shower.

On the other hand, there's no shortage of famous authors who sell a ton of books and get accused of having wooden characters, or mediocre description, but obviously put out good stories.

I own each one of those books and I would only cosign on the Amy Cooper and the Emily Baker. I also got a lot of helpful info from Unsilenced's first book.

For Erotica in general - I would also skip the Susie Bright. Instead I would go with Stacia Kane Be A Sex Writing Strumpet. Also this website also helped me helped me think stories through.

I would suggest you start learning story structure and outlining early. Dan Wells is an awesome free source - through his youtube videos, and Dwight V Swain Techniques of the Selling Writer. Also Gwen Hayes Romancing the Beat.

As a writer I would keep reading additional sources, once you find a story structure that you like - as in 3 part or 4 part, then find an ultimate resource for this.

When I first started I didn't really understand pinch points so I read a book on screenwriting that helped.

GENERAL FEEDBACK

The piece wasn't a complete train wreck, but it didn't blow me away either for reasons that I'll get to in the mechanics section. My main issues with the piece are a consistent one or two clause sentence structure. (I ate coco puffs and the sky was falling. The coco puffs were good. The sky falling sky wasn't.) You need to wring more out of your descriptions and make each sentence work a little bit harder. It can take some practice doing, but it is better to have to much that you can cut down -- rather than having to construct whole descriptions of objects in my opinion. This, however, is not an excuse to spew giant info dumps upon the reader. Make sure to add details as the main character interacts with them, which will in turn help with showing rather than telling.

MECHANICS


> The path we traveled grew more worn as the environment around us slowly shifted from the lush forest I was familiar with into that of a swamp. The rich green of the forest floor began to give way to the wet browns and greys of the wetlands. Arlets feet fell with a moist plop in the muddy soil and the smell of mildew filled the humid air. Our path was raised to avoid being completely taken by the swamp and its water. One could not say that these people were completely at their home’s mercy

I'll spend some time deconstructing your opening paragraph to give examples what I'm talking about. The first sentence is abysmal and it's a good example of one that looks like it's doing something, but requires another sentence to say what you did before (e.g. how is the forest shifting to wetland? I don't get a picture of it). The second could simply be the opening line, and the reader can begin to infer that the forest was shifting to wetlands, and you could describe some of the foliage. Since this is an academic written in first person, it would establish his character if he could precisely name some of the plants and it makes sense to describe some interesting examples of foliage that you could come up with. As it stands his absorption into this new world feels shallow because there isn't much description of it. Try reading the opening section of Perdido Street Station by China Mieville if you want the most evocative description that I've read of a setting, and a fantastic novel centered around an academic. "Ardets feet fell with a moist plop in the muddy soil and the smell of mildew filled the air" This is a good example of showing rather than telling, and giving descriptions of the scenery through the actions of the people involved. The last sentence is poor because it is telling rather than showing, and it has a surprise "not" which makes the whole thing a non-description of stuff that isn't happening.



> “So, we keepin’ tied up now? Don’t love the silence meself.”

The mixture of potential slang with a heavy accent makes this sentence unintelligible. Whilst the accent is consistent, I think it is too hamfisted usage throughout the piece. Try dropping the apostrophes to see if the accent can still be discerned, rather than throwing them on every word. The reader will probably read "Don't love the silence myself" in the same tone as "Don't love the reader meself," because the key word is starting the sentence with "don't."

>So many unfamiliar sights and flora came into view as we traveled that I had become lost in simple observation.

This doesn't fit with a plain description, and it is implied.

>He responded. He maintained an amused grin about him as he spoke.

He responded is implied, and the second sentence can be implied from the tone of the sentence. Cut the whole thing and watch out for excessive description on speech.

> As the goblin spoke, I strained as my fingers flipped through the various books in my bag. My notebook had to be amongst these somewhere. Were fairies more reliant on their wings for flight I would have had an even rougher time of this. Arlet looked towards me shortly after starting off again and paused upon seeing my predicament.

The first sentence is clunky, and I had to read it a few times to get a vague idea of what was going on. The second sentence can be completely cut. The third needs a ", then" before "I" to make it less tricky -- however the description doesn't do anything in itself. Are the fairies flying with the bags? The first clause in the last sentence is unnecessary, because it is implied that he started again if he had to pause.

>The belittlement was less than appreciated. My strain now coupled with the heat of irritation and grew significantly worse as a result.

This is a prime example of showing rather than telling, and I'll give a rough example on how to get more out of your sentences.

>I struggled with the massive bag of books that teetered back and forth as the Goblin sniggered, "you got it master?"
I gnashed my teeth together as sweat poured down my face and aggravated my eyes.

My rework isn't super great, but it gives a rough idea of what the concept is. If the characters are pouring down sweat, then it can be assumed that it is blazing hot outside. I growled is a basic description of an anger emote (I highly recommend using The Emotions Thesaurus when struggling to find an emotive action that shows an emotion).

Yes, this is a good precipitating event. However, I suggest starting the story even before this, so you can establish some backstory and characters. Show the relationship between the main character and her brother. Maybe hint at her father's abuse. Get the reader invested in the characters a bit before this event.

Also, I suggest you work on your grammar and punctuation. Make sure to break up your story into paragraphs. Every time a different character speaks, or there is a change in character perspective, start a new line.

I suggest the book, "The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing." It's a great guide on how to effectively create a story.

You've got a great creative mind, you just need to refine how you put it on paper.

Book here: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0393337081/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_jHFvDb7GQPGQH

Think about it like this: if you wanted to learn a new language, what would you do?

You would study. Consciously.

As an adult, that's how learning takes place. Programs and apps like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone offer the fantasy of passive learning, but in reality only children have the benefit of osmosis. Adults do not.

So to answer your question more directly: you have to devote time to memorizing words that you want to know. That's it. That's the only way. That means finding them, writing them down, coming up with mnemonics (seriously, this is the most important one), and using them in sentences. Not to mention: repetition. Review.

If you're trying to learn a specific discipline's discourse -- you are asking this question on /r/askliterarystudies after all -- take vocabulary from the books are papers in that field. For general vocabulary, consider the classic.

I don't know if this bears any resemblance to Franklin's method, but if it does, it's because it's effective.

If you want more than two books:

Stein on Writing is fantastic for learning an editor's perspective

Invisible Ink (not sure what happened to the Kindle edition) is more about storytelling in general but it's fantastic at breaking down what makes good movies good

How Not to Write a Novel will crack you up

Every comment in here is amazing advice to start, but I'd also like to add in the Gotham Writers' Workshop book. It runs you roughly $5-15 on Amazon, but offers you a good way to hone and practice your narrative skills by offering you a diverse story selection with exercises that are geared towards making you think, imagine, and create.

Link to book: Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide from New York's Acclaimed Creative Writing School https://www.amazon.com/dp/1582343306/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.MruzbS4CWM04

Start with the characters and their background first. A story isn’t about the plot, it’s about your characters: how they react to external events, and how those events change them internally. A good book has strong characters you can relate to, so if you start with the plot, you’re more likely to create something with little substance.

I’m in the planning phase for my first book, and I’ve found Lisa Cron’s Story Genius to be incredibly helpful. She recommends to first define your “what if” and the point you want your story to make, then create the characters that help you tell that story, and then you can focus on the plot. Since you’ve already defined your main character and their backstory, you’ll breeze through those parts!

In my case, I started with a rough idea of where I want my story to go, but it will become clearer to me once I finish developing the characters.

Hope that helps!

Good advice. One of the best books on writing theses and other topics is The Lively Art of Writing. It has really clear instructions and gives good follow-up activities at the end of every chapter.
http://www.amazon.com/Lively-Art-Writing-Mentor/dp/0451627121

Buy: Creative Writing MFA Handbook

Visit: Affording the MFA and The MFA Blog

Great places to start. That book is a must. First thing to do is read it. After that you will know enough to make internet searches and contacting programs far less daunting.

Also: AWP has great resources

https://www.awpwriter.org/guide/overview

https://www.awpwriter.org/guide/hallmarks_quality

The second link contains AWP's guidelines for quality MFA programs. They will give you a good idea of what to ask about and what to expect. If a program you're considering fails to meet some of these guidelines you should find out why and whether it's a deal breaker for you.

My own personal opinion?

1. Shoot for a program with full tuition remission and a stipend regardless of your financial situation.
   
   
2. The "Top" lists are almost always outdated. There are tons of programs on the rise right now.
   
   
3. Do not attend a program that offers competitive funding. This means that stipends and waivers are offered based on performance relative to other students. The students end up competing instead of collaborating with and encouraging each other. Nothing stifles creativity and problem-solving in a workshop like competition among peers. Avoid at all costs even if you could care less about funding.

one of my English professors made my class buy this book. Honestly, it's fantastic. I plan on keeping it as a reference for as long as I live. It's definitely worth the money, and it does a great job of addressing writing issues you didn't even know you had.

Yes. You inevitably will teach basic composition, etc,

It COULD morph into basic literature. However you're less likely to teach lit with just a CW degree. CW degrees focus on craft.


It really comes down to what you want.

Do you want to learn to write? And possibly teach writing?
Or do you want to study literature and possibly teach literature?


Some programs offer a sort of split degree, offering a bit of both. But usually, it's mostly one or the other.

I recommend this book highly if you're thinking of a creative writing mfa. (I have one, btw.)

Creative Writing Mfa Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Graduate Students (Revised & Updated) https://www.amazon.com/dp/082642886X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_iTTVzbPN8FDX2

It'll tell you everything you need to know about both, and it'll also help you apply, if that's what you choose to do.

• This book is fantastic.
  
• The first two sections of this site give good philosophy-specific advice.
  
  The best advice though is to find a senior philosophy student or a generous professor or TA who is willing to give you direct feedback.

This is a neat list, but I agree with some of the other commenters--I think it's easy to mis-use this sort of list as an excuse to slip into lazy writing.

Personally, I suggest Angela Ackerman's book "The Emotion Thesaurus." I like her book because it focuses on the psychological aspects of human emotions, and the physiological effects they can possibly have. She doesn't just list a bunch of physical actions, but rather takes the time to delve into what sort of character would use a certain set of actions, and when might be appropriate to include them. It's only a couple bucks on Amazon, if you want to check it out: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00822WM2M/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1#navbar

Writing with Style is great. It's not about thesis writing specifically, but is focused on how professional authors think about their audience when they write. It's enjoyable and useful.

And, please send some job resources, thank you.

I found this book a month ago by one of the lecturers from The Great Courses, I love it:

https://www.amazon.com/Building-Great-Sentences-Write-Courses/dp/0452298601/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498888041&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=brooks+langdom

> Like I said before, it was a smartass response that you're reading too far into.

Like I said before, it was a very basic inference. You're looking way too much into what I was saying.

> Saying "a mix of both idiots and intellegent people who are idiotic" rather than "idiots" doesn't have the same ring to it.

You're reading your own use of the word into his statement. Maybe that is what he meant, but that's not what the logic of his statement said, which is why I was asking him about it.

Here are a couple texts that I think you would benefit from.

• Numbah 1
  
• Numbah 2
  
  The first one is really solid, but it's expensive. The second one isn't as robust, but it gets the job done, and it's significantly cheaper.
  
  > i'm out.
  
  Cheers :)

I haven't read that book, but if you want a great book that shows you different writing techniques, aimed at improving your craft, then get The Making of a Story by Alice LePlante. It not only talks about technique, there are also short stories by quality writers which are then analyzed in order to explain the techniques. For a book on craft, you cant go wrong with this one.

The Negative Trait Thesaurus, with the Emotion Thesaurus, Positive Trait Thesaurus and the Emotional Wound Thesaurus.

Also Careers for Your Characters: A Writers Guide to 101 Professions from Architect to Zookeeper which "Provides over one hundred descriptions of occupations that can be used for writing fiction, detailing the daily life, jargon, and salaries of such fields as dentistry, entertainment, law, and architecture."

And The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook is good for times when I can't get online to find names.

Master Lists for Writing is also a good one.

The Psychology Workbook for Writers

Creating Character Arcs Workbook

Thinking Like A Romance Writer: The Sensual Writer's Sourcebook of Words and Phrases A friend got me this for Christmas, mostly to laugh at, but I thought I'd add it anyway.

I read Writing for Story which I really enjoyed, and he had an interesting take on "outlining" vs "pantsing." He said the world of writers is really better segmented as "outline early" or "outline late." And not that outlining late is bad, but he says "every satisfying story is outlined sometime." Perhaps you "discover your story" by free writing, but then when you're done, you still have to organize what you came up with, and set-up subplots earlier, etc.

I re-read How Not to Write a Novel whenever I get to a 2nd or 3rd revision pass for a book. It's a great list of common mistakes and cliches. Removing lazy/cliche writing from your first/second draft is a great way to make you feel like you're making immediate progress towards a final.

Greetings,

As an English minor, I am aghast!

Mind you, not because you're whoring yourself out for tips—good on ya for that—but because you had the audacity to say, "Unfortunately, I haven't found a college class on erotica yet. One day, perhaps."

CHARLATAN! If it's one thing a person in the English department knows, it is that knowledge isn't bound to simple college courses!

Lucky for you, I have had ample opportunity to research said subject and have found you these!

1: How to Write Hot Sex: Tips from Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors

2: Be A Sex-Writing Strumpet

Now you can hold your head high knowing that you're produced the highest quality smut one can afford to tip for!

Blended linguistics and creative writing background here. My suggestion would be to start looking into research areas like sociolinguistics (related to literature), discourse analysis, pragmatics, and narrative analysis. More particularly, I would highlight the field of stylistics. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'll direct you here, here, and here for some background on stylistics. From what I've encountered in both linguistic and creative writing texts, you have WAY more pedagogical insight into the writing process coming from the linguistic side.

There are some books like Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective / Wicked Good Prose and the ubiquitous Strunk and White's, but if you're looking for more of the creative writing overlap from a deeper linguistic analysis, I'd look at the references above. You might also check out work in forensic linguistics.

Linky.

I'm a believer that things will eventually work out, and so far, they always have. No matter how horrible or stressful a situation, I've made it through and have come out better from it. I may not always get what I want, but when I look back at what happened, it worked itself out and was often for the best.

Even if it's all based on random chance, there's still a chance of good things happening. Your life is complete shit, Maya. Just accept it. BUT DON'T. That's a lie.

As an analytical person, I too have always found the advice 'Just read more!' to get better at the technical, nearly formulaic parts of writing - like grammar, punctuation, and syntax - confusing.

There are some great books out there on writing mechanics and style.

My favourite three are:

1. The Deluxe Transitive Vampire
   
2. The New Well Tempered Sentence
   
3. Sin and Syntax
   
   All three are very readable and much less stuffy than Strunk and White's classic Elements of Style.

Can I recommend this program. It's pretty great.

http://www.harryhiker.com/lc/

And this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Rulebook-Arguments-Hackett-Student-Handbooks/dp/0872209547/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=51zkr-cqNHL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&refRID=0F6NT3RSWM0V9P6YXHSZ

Gotham Writers Workshop: Writing Fiction.

I haven't read all of it yet, so this might be premature, but so far I'm very impressed. Especially with the examples, which come mostly from literary fiction, but the suggestions would improve anything.

yes actually there are some basics that are very helpful, such as what NOT to do with dialogue, or things you SHOULD do when trying to describe things... lots more. I found this book helpful but there are certainly others out there https://www.amazon.com/Gotham-Writers-Workshop-Practical-Acclaimed-ebook/dp/B002UM5BU0

besides those basics you need practice like with any other hobby/skill. That doesn't seem to get mentioned a lot.

All of the big Advanced Learner dictionaries will work for that: Merriam-Webster's, Collins COBUILD, Cambridge, Oxford - American and so on.

However... studying vocabulary from a dictionary is not optimal. I like vocabulary builders for that a lot more: Merriam-Websters and Oxford American are the the two I had used - plus TOEFL, CPE and IELTS vocabulary books. And Swan's Practical English Usage - that last section is a gold mine - highlighting the small differences between words and expressions and whatsnot). And I had found Oxford Collocations Dictionary very useful as well.

And do not underestimate the online resources - all of the big dictionaries are also online and you can look up examples and explanations very easy.

I have several methods depending on if I am the Dungeon Master or the player.

If I am the player, I will ask if there are any cultures unique to our own world within the DM's campaign. If my character is from that region or culture, I will refer to real world names. I use the Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

If I am the Dungeon Master, I use my own home-brewed campaign that I have been shaping and refining for the past few years. It has its own local languages with variations of real world names. I will usually make lists of these local names to hand out to players creating characters.

When I make non-player characters, I will either develop the character around their name or the name around the character. For non-important characters, I use custom 100-name charts. Roll some d10 dice and pick out the results from the charts.

Here is an example of one of my recent characters to use as a DM. I have a local language I am working on in my language with surnames based on Scottish surnames. The surname 'Dour' in Scottish means 'from the water.' I changed it up using my languages grammar to 'Dorve.' Lowborn men and women in my setting rarely earn family surnames. They usually are referred to as x from y. Think Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo of Vinci. I do the same in my setting with its language. Dorve don Vestavia. Dorve of Vestavia. From the water of Vestavia. Vestavia is a city in my setting with a very large river, so this character lives in the city near the river.

Sorry if that was an overload of information, but I am one of those people that likes realistic names in a setting. To accomplish that as I DM, I use custom languages. Otherwise, I research real world cultures and languages to name my characters.

lol you cant formulate a logical reply so you go on the offensive with belittling remarks. That's Intellectually-dishonest debate tactic 101 which clearly subverts your effort when its recognized and lets the opposing conversationalist know you can't back up your side and that they won the argument. May I recommended some light reading on the art of debating, I think you will find it immensely helpful if you plan on continuing to post here.

https://www.amazon.com/Rulebook-Arguments-Hackett-Student-Handbooks/dp/0872209547

Great post. Your topic reminds me of the book 'How Not to Write a Novel.' https://www.amazon.com/Write-Novel-Them-Misstep-Misstep-ebook/dp/B00166YCBU

From its Amazon page: 'Many writing books offer sound advice on how to write well. This is not one of those books. On the contrary, this is a collection of terrible, awkward, and laughably unreadable excerpts that will teach you what to avoid—at all costs—if you ever want your novel published.'

There's a good book series, hold on I'll link it, bought these for myself, and they're great https://www.amazon.com.au/Emotion-Thesaurus-Writers-Character-Expression-ebook/dp/B00822WM2M

> How about more than 2 sentences?

So 3+ sentences for 500+ questions = 1500+ sentences.

According to the Oxford Guide To Plain English you should "make the average sentence length 15-20 words.” Let's assume we Mr. Brimage isn't going to be so formal and reduce that number to 10 words per sentence.

10 words over 1500+ sentences is 15,000 words.

I bet if you wrote a convincing 15,000+ word response as to why Mr. Briamge should write longer responses in his AMA you could convince him to do so.

I teach a course in writing for publication in STEM. I use excerpts from the following books: Writing Scientific Research Articles, Academic Writing for Graduate Students, and Research Genres. The last one can be a bit of a dense read, but many of my STEM students find it especially interesting because it's data-driven. A linguistics researcher collected a big corpus of well-cited articles and identified the most common features. These findings are often a big part of other more practical guides to academic writing. CARS, IMRAD, Swales' Moves are very common writing tips identified by this research. But it gets much more fine grained and nuanced than that.

What is it you're looking for, if you feel like books on writing won't help?

If it's academic writing in particular that you want to improve, why not look at something like

• Hayot, The Elements of Academic Style
  
• Swales and Feak, Academic Writing for Graduate Students

This is a screenshot of one of the MLA Handbook's useful links. How to get web access:

1. Buy an MLA Handbook. Make sure you get the most recent (7th) edition.
   
   
2. The back cover of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers has a code to get online access. Scratch off the silver stuff, get the code, and sign-up for online access. The online book has everything the hard copy has plus four "case studies" or examples that take you through the research process.
   
   If you're not writing in a subject that uses MLA (psychology, math, economics, biology, etc.), figure out what system to use. This site from Cal State LA has resources for AAA (American Anthropological Association) Style, APA (American Psychological Association) Style, CSE (Council of Science Editors) Style, etc.
   
   Here's another useful site from Texas A & M that lists many types with links to how to format them.
   
   Comment in this thread for any questions regarding citation style or your particular topic.

You might be interested in Story Genius by Lisa Cron, which uses the evolutionary purpose of story to talk about how to write a novel. It's one of the only writing help books I would advocate.

Here are the links!

1. https://www.amazon.com/Cengage-Advantage-Books-Understanding-Introduction/dp/1285197364/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497492050&sr=8-1&keywords=Understanding+Logic
   
   
2. https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Logic-Harry-J-Gensler/dp/1138910597/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497492131&sr=8-1&keywords=introduction+to+logic
   
   
3. https://www.amazon.com/Rulebook-Arguments-Hackett-Student-Handbooks/dp/0872209547/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497492196&sr=8-1&keywords=rule+for+arguments
   
   Hope it helps!

A good book that gives a ton of this type of body language and cues for pretty much any emotion is The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00822WM2M

I bought this book for that very purpose.

Even if you don't use any names directly out of it, it's a good starting point to help you realize what kind of name you want.

I have and really like The Emotion Thesaurus, but I'll check that one out too! Always nice to have more tools in the toolbox.

Obligatory

Obligatory 2

Depending on how dedicated I am, I'll (a) make a naming language and give my characters meaningful names or (b) generate a bunch of feasible-sounding names by hand, in Python, or with Zompist's /gen/ and assign them to characters as I see fit.

There are some questions to be answered: How are people's names structured? For example, Swedish naming convention is three given names referred to as "forenames" and a family name, and a person can choose to go by any of their forenames casually and by their family name formally. In Japan, it's just one given name and a family name, and people almost always are referred to by their family name with an honorific title outside of close friends/family. In Arabic, it's traditional given name followed by a bunch of optional parts with cultural significance. In the U.S. your given name is your default name, but if you hate it you can go by a middle name or a nickname. In Thailand people usually have a one-syllable nickname that they almost always go by, but people can conceivably have long-ass Sanskrit (?) names too.

What's important to your people? That's what their names will be.

Otherwise I'll open up my copy of The Character Naming Sourcebook and knock off some mythological Polynesian name.

You're not properly citing them though. Make sure to use a proper citing format. This is a good place to start.

Cite my comments properly and then I might believe you.

Dear Mr./Mrs./Miss Jizzmonger69,

Despite your blatant reduction of proper words and characters, I offer my 2 cents:

• Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald
  
• Story Genius by Lisa Cron
  
  p.s. I do not attempt to insult, but rather to assist you in fortifying your forward momentum toward knowledge. In other words, you will find that despite your willingness to learn, if you do not put in the effort of basic spelling, punctuation, sentence craft –– that many people will not take you seriously.
  
  Bon chance, mon ami.

I have a lot of random things I've bookmarked. In addition to the others listed here:
Synonyms for the word very
FoxType editor, similar to Hemingway
Directly access FoxType thesaurus
Interesting application that generates a kind of word-cloud of the most commonly used adjectives in relationship to a noun
Reverse dictionary
Emotional synonyms

There are also some thesauruses that I bought from Amazon for specific things that I really find useful. Two that I use most often are:

Urban Settings
Emotional Thesaurus

I feel ya, I bought the "Emotion Thesaurus" because i was struggling with this. It made me realize I was creating flat, emotionless dynamics between characters because I just didn't know how to express it other than in dialogue.

Honestly the only way to work through that is to experiment. Like try write a scene with an obvious emotional arc, something easy to work with and cliché and on the nose. You kind of get a feel for it as you progress, and then you can work with nuance and hidden motives and overlapping emotions (still working on that myself). It's just one of many tools in the writer's toolbox, but it's critical, without the emotional development and progression, no one cares.

One great piece of advice i read and shared recently (and promptly forgot the source) was that to explore emotions in fiction, a great strategy is to show thought processes. Like rather than "Joan was sad about losing her dog" you could work with "Joan realized she may never find a dog like the one she had lost. Was it her fault? Was she a bad master?" and explore the emotions with self-reflection and introspective inner monologues etc.

This is a good, short introduction that you can read in an hour or two. It is well written and it explains the basic rules for constructing an argument or writing an essay. It also recommends several longer texts on critical thinking at the end, if you're interested in pursuing the issue further.

https://www.amazon.com/Rulebook-Arguments-Hackett-Student-Handbooks/dp/0872209547

I usually keep everything "in-house" in my courses, but some professors that I respect use this book in their classes: A Rulebook for Arguments.

However, this is for argumentation. I'm not sure if Anthony Weston has written any books about reading philosophy.

Amateur. Why don't you call up my friends Strunk and White?

I found a couple books for you :) This one and thiiis one!!!

All whales are iguanas.
No iguanas live under the sea.
Therefore, no whales live under the sea.

Hey! You said nothing about soundness :) I hope this works

Imagine a world before websites that do it for you. You had to buy this book and flip through it endlessly hoping that there's an example somewhere with exactly what you want.

Yesyes! The latest edition is here: http://www.amazon.com/Rulebook-Arguments-Anthony-Weston/dp/0872209547/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324869183&sr=1-1. Marvelous book! Im nearing the end of my philosophy b.a. but I still turn to this book when writing a paper or preparing a presentation.

You need to work on your debate/argument basics. Fallacies everywhere!

I recommend this book or this.

I was recommended an American classic, Strunk and White's The Elements of Style for my undergraduate thesis class in Economics, we also write more technical papers and I found it very useful. It has guidelines on style and things to avoid, which adds more structure to the way you write and reduces the amount of things that you have to think about while writing.

What are you describing? Are you describing emotions? Physical characteristics? Location? Action? Amazon has all kinds of books that focus on particular subjects and how to describe them; for example, The Emotion Thesaurus and Writing Vivid Settings. If you take a look at those two, it will lead you to other books that focus on how to write descriptions.

This is what you are looking for. It's short, cheap, clear, and handy.

Anthony Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments

>Linking to relevant books is much more helpful than willful ignorance.

So if I link to a bunch of books peripherally related to a topic at hand, and you refuse to read them, does that make you willfully ignorant?

>You asked the question, and if you are actually interested in hearing thoughtful responses to it, you might want to consider picking up a book about it.

His books do not begin to answer the question of the OP.

>If you've been on reddit for any amount of time you surely know that it's a terrible forum for meaningful debate.


Then, by your own admission, you are here for meaningless debate.

>The issues you raised cannot be settled by a few short comments.

I disagree.

Read the following books about debate before you respond. Otherwise, I will have to assume you are willfully ignorant.

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Debating-Leverett-Samuel-Lyon/dp/B003VQRXDC/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376830361&sr=1-2&keywords=debate

http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Debate-Ph-D-Richard-Edwards/dp/1592576931/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376830385&sr=1-3&keywords=debate

http://www.amazon.com/Rulebook-Arguments-Anthony-Weston/dp/0872209547/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376830385&sr=1-4&keywords=debate

I would also like to ask how "story" can be used without any determiner in the title of this book: Writing for Story.

Learn words in context and their roots - I suggest this
https://www.amazon.com/Merriam-Websters-Vocabulary-Builder-completely-revised/dp/0877798559
And reading difficult books! Write sentences! Just practice practice practice :)

Weston's A Rulebook for Arguments is clear and concise.

Heinrichs' Thank You for Arguing is more informal with lots of pop culture references.

Sagan's Demon Haunted World is a paean to science & critical thinking and Whyte's Crimes Against Logic is good as well

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

The Emotion Thesaurus by Ackerman and Puglisi. Also their negative and positive trait thesauri.

I think it's valuable to keep a dictionary and thesaurus on your writing device, even though both are quickly available online. But an encyclopedia is obsolete, in my opinion, replaced by the internet, especially Wikipedia.

Well, writing in general with your own ideas is always the biggest plus. But if you're wanting to use a prompt book or something I suggest the 3am Epiphany or Gotham Writers Workshop: Writing Fiction

You say "first." If you're going to be making a habit of this, investing in a good handbook is probably worth the money.

Check out this book and the also-boughts.

This might help

But it probably won't.

I heard about siamese when I read this book http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fiction-Practical-Acclaimed-Creative/dp/1582343306

Even though The Emotion Thesaurus is directed at writters, I think some GMs could find use in reading it.

Not necessarily just for short stories, but I would suggest the Gotham Writers Workshop Writing Fiction Guide.
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fiction-Practical-Acclaimed-Creative/dp/1582343306

Strunk and White

Or learn a foreign language. My knowledge of grammar grew exponentially after studying Classics.

Bridging English and The Lively Art of Writing are two books I swear by.

I must be the only person ever who found The First Days of School patronizing and dull.

http://www.amazon.com/Lively-Art-Writing-Mentor/dp/0451627121

I'd suggest looking at the emotion atlas.

https://www.amazon.com/Emotion-Thesaurus-Writers-Character-Expression-ebook/dp/B00822WM2M

Replacing words counts as an argument now alibix?

You might want to buy this book mate.

>There are two main problems with this point, the first is simply that saying "well what about this particular example?" doesn't affect the reality of the other, majority examples.

A counterexample is a case that does not fit the general conclusion. Providing a counterexample is a valid way to refute a person's argument. (p. 16-17 in "A Rulebook for Arguments").

>The second point is rather more semantic, in that many wouldn't describe zen buddhism as a religion at all. Since there is no real doctrine to follow etc.

Certainly if you define religion as doctrine then Zen is not a religion. But religion is not defined by having doctrine. A religion: (1) defines the human condition, (2) defines the Ultimate/Reality/Truth; (3) says there is a way to bridge the gap between the two; and (4) provides teachings and practices to bridge the gap.

>and especially not that similar to any religion as we know it, and as affects us on a daily basis.

Regardless of your familiarity with it, it's a religion, and if it doesn't fit your general statements about religion, you should limit those statements to religions that fit, e.g. theistic religions or faith-based religions.

FWIW, I've never heard of Moleneux in my life and I think you're probably one of the least literate people I've ever seen.

You keep repeating yourself over and over, as if your conclusions are sound without any perceivable evidence (here's a hint: they're not). You're not responding to the actual content of the posts, rather continuing along with your own shitposts and direct attacks against your opponents rather than their statements. You're projecting your own insecurities on your opponent and arguing against them, rather than arguing using real logic.

It's time for you to grow the fuck up. You keep blaming millennials for your problems, but you're either a self-hating millennial or you're from an older generation but act like one, and I'm honestly not sure which is worse.

You keep telling people to try reading a book. I've got a reading suggestion for you. I hope you look into it.

People on reddit seriously need to read this short book Rulebook for Arguments

It takes like a few hours to read and would inform soo many people on how to make an argument and identify bad ones.

> some people probably thought your comment was disrespectful

Hmm, that gives me pause. I don't mean to be disrespectful. I am highly critical of feminism, but I am not intending to give offense.

I would like to think that people who identify overly much with feminism are offended by my ideas, not my tone, but I could be completely wrong about that.

Is there some way I could make my points, which I think are all valid, without offending people?

Do you have some suggestions or a link on writing more effectively and/or less offensively?

I have read Strunk's Elements of Style, but that was many years ago.

You failed to acknowledge that you said "Bullshit" in response to my statement about what I was providing. Your insistence on referencing OP only serves to demonstrate your inability to sustain a logical argument. Might I suggest you purchase the following?

https://www.amazon.com/Rulebook-Arguments-Hackett-Student-Handbooks/dp/0872209547