So you want to delve into creative writing. You're thinking about writing a novel or even a series, and you don't know where to start. Try getting the book Spilling Ink: A Young Writer's Handbook by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter.It's a great resource book for young writers. It's light, funny and chock-full of advice. Best of all it starts at the beginning-the very beginning of the writing process.Mazer's first piece of advice is: pick up a pen. She then takes you through a series of steps to get ink on paper. Each chapter explores another aspect of writing. Chapter two explores first drafts while chapter three helps you to figure out where to get inspiration. Believe me, it doesn't grow on trees.
Once you get down to the creative aspects of pre-writing there's a chapter on Crafting Your Story, which includes convincing your readers about your characters. The authors are very good about offering advice and samples of writing. They give step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish a writing goal. They also suggest teaming up with a friend so that you have a sounding board and an editor.I like the idea of an idea catcher, and I find the authors are very good at breaking down the elements of fiction: plot, characterisation, theme, tone, conflict and setting, dialogue and point of view.The authors even offer advice about one of the most challenging aspects of writing: how to come up with a title for your story. You can learn how to write dialogue, how to write and use poetic devices-figures of speech like similes and metaphors.
Any good story must have a structure. The authors teach budding writers how to build a structure from beginning to end so that the story can be more meaningful. After all, a meaningful story must tie up all the loose ends. It must resolve the conflicts if it is going to have meaning.What I also like about this book is the way the authors include short essays about the writing process itself.The authors of this book really do have everything covered. They even tackle journaling, which is a way for you to understand more about yourself. Knowing more about yourself is one way of discovering your interests and values, which are all part of the creative writing process.
Spilling Ink offers useful tools including: a writer's contract, devices for setting goals, developing your voice and determining your audience. There's a useful question and answer section in the back as well.The authors really do know what they're talking about. Anne Mazer is the author of 40 books for young readers including the Salamander Room and the Sister Magic series. Ellen Potter is the author of the award-winning Olivia Kidney series.
I highly recommend Spilling Ink for any aspiring writer. It will help you to face your fears about writing, You'll find ways to organise yourself, plunge into the wonderful world of writing and tackle challenges like editing.Spilling Ink will help you no matter what stage you are in your writing. If you're already writing, you're bound to find useful advice about how to reach another level in your writing. Spilling Ink is available in online book stores like amazon.com or you can ask your favourite bookstore about ordering it for you.There are so many great books out there right now to teach you writing skills. All students' personal libraries need to include the following books:
1. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss.
2. Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T O'Conner.
3. On Writing by Stephen King.
4. The Knots in English by Merle Hodge.
5. The Deluxe Transitive Vampire-the Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed.
6. A Writer's Guide to Powerful Paragraphs-30 Ways to Oragnise and Write Effective Paragraphs by Victor C Pellegrino.
One of my favourite Web sites for research and writing tips is www.questia.com, which bills itself as the world's largest on-line library. This is a paying site, but there are many books that you can see for free. Sometimes you can just see a few pages of the book.If you sign up for their newsletter, you get lots of cool writing tips.OWL at Purdue is one of my favourite grammar sites. It's reputable and the exercises are fun. There are many links to quizzes to test your grammatical skills.Let's face it, your writing is only as powerful as it looks. That means you have to get your grammar in order. Check out OWL at the following address: owl.english.purdue.edu