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Monthly Archives: January 2010

Reader Response Questions (Creative Writing Exercise)

Sit down and think about what it is you want your writing to do, and then make a list — ask your readers if you’ve succeeded. Make your questions open-ended, encouraging longer and thought-out answers, but make them specific, too. Some of my favorites are, “What was your favorite scene? What’s something from the story that you’ve found yourself thinking about even when you weren’t reading? Which character did you find the most engaging, and why?”

Keep it Yours

As a new writer ready to start on revision, it’s difficult to know what’s wrong with your story, and sometimes even more difficult to know why it’s wrong. A good mark-up will reveal both of those things, but then it’s still up to you to figure out what to do with them.

What I Learned about Writing this Week…from Brandon Sanderson

Once upon a time, I started reading the epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time (WoT) by Robert Jordan. Sadly, Mr. Jordan passed away before he could complete the series; however, author Brandon Sanderson is in the process of carrying on Jordan’s work. I have yet to read anything Sanderson has written for WoT, but [...]

Make it Better

I met my little sister for dinner recently and said, “It’s time for you to start taking your writing seriously. It’s time for you to start proofreading!”

She just frowned and said, “But I do! That’s the thing. I don’t know how to make it better!”

Document Critique (Technical Writing Exercise)

The assignment this week is to critique one of your own documents. Pick something you’ve written recently and write a short analysis of the document’s quality and craftsmanship.