http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ Unstressed Syllables discussion and practice en-US Sat, 31 Jul 2010 21:00:08 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/search.php http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/community#post-86 Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:41:33 +0000 Anonymous 86@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>No bad community, very no bad </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/conscious-me-pre-writing-challenge-site-information#post-21 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:38:24 +0000 Aaron Pogue 21@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>To help Carlos gather information conveniently in one place, feel free to post his requested site information in this thread. He asked that you include the following:</p> <ol> <li> A 100x100 pixel head shot or site logo. Give me a flickr link, or upload it to your blog and give me the link to that. </li> <li> First and last name (if that's something you have public, if not, no worries). </li> <li> Site name &amp; tagline if you have one </li> <li> 100 word bio </li> <li> A link to your Pre-Writing Challenge page (you don't have to send this immediately, but please send everything else asap) </li> <li> How many posts you normally publish in 2 weeks (your goal for the challenge) </li> </ol> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/conscious-me-pre-writing-challenge-general-discussion#post-19 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:26:58 +0000 Aaron Pogue 19@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>Hey, welcome to all my first time visitors. Carlos (from Conscious Me) asked me to host the discussion for the big Pre-Writing Challenge, so feel free to dive right in.</p> <p>Feel free to start new threads within the forum, but to kick us off I've created this one for general discussion about the Challenge, <a href="http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/conscious-me-pre-writing-challenge-site-information">a thread for you to easily submit your site information</a>, and <a href="http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/conscious-me-pre-writing-challenge-important-links">a third dedicated to links to relevant information</a>. Check back on these three regularly. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/conscious-me-pre-writing-challenge-important-links#post-20 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:33:52 +0000 Aaron Pogue 20@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>This thread contains links to blog posts and pages relevant to the Conscious Me Pre-writing Challenge. I'll maintain this top-level post with a list of official Challenge links, but we also encourage you to add links to posts on your page that you might find helpful, whether they're about writing to a deadline or getting started or keeping a social commitment.</p> <p><strong>Official Links</strong><br /> Every participant's Challenge page should include the following links:</p> <ol> <li> Link html to Pre-Writing Is Your Friend - With Benefits (Part 1): <a title="Pre-Writing Is Your Friend - With Benefits (Part 1) on Website In A Weekend" href="http://website-in-a-weekend.net/creating-content/prewriting-friend-benefits-part-1/">Pre-Writing Is Your Friend - With Benefits (Part 1)</a> </li> <li> Link html to Pre-Writing Is Your Friend - With Benefits (Part 2): <a title="Pre-Writing Is Your Friend - With Benefits (Part 2) on Website In A Weekend" href="http://website-in-a-weekend.net/creating-content/prewriting-friend-benefits-part-2/">Pre-Writing Is Your Friend - With Benefits (Part 2)</a> </li> <li> Link html to Pre-Writing Challenge main page: I'll get it to you when I'm done creating it, which I need your info for. Then you can add the link and publish it and we'll launch this thing. </li> <li> Link html to forum: Same deal as above. Aaron at Unstressed Syllables has been kind enough to host a forum for us. He's doing some set up and I'll get you the link soon. </li> <li> Banner image and link: Here are the Flickr links to the banners my talented wife made (this is one of the issues discussed below if you have any concerns or questions) - <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosandjulie/4348381949/" rel="nofollow">http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosandjulie/4348381949/</a> | <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosandjulie/4348858842/" rel="nofollow">http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosandjulie/4348858842/</a>. You have total freedom to resize them as you need or desire. Ideally, this should be in your sidebar or somewhere that will send your readers to your challenge page (yes, link this to your challenge page, not my main page). </li> </ol> <p><strong>Participant Pages</strong><br /> Visit the blogs of fellow participants, and see how they're doing. Carlos also encourages you to include these links on your own site.</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.consciousme.com">Carlos Velez at ConsciousMe.com</a> </li> </ul> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/procrastination-thoughts-and-helpline#post-57 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:31:25 +0000 Dustin Evenson 57@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>So the first day is almost gone, and I have nothing to show for it. Worked the first half of my day from 8-430, then dinner and pre-birthday festivities for wife until now, 930pm. I haven'y gotten anything to paper except for this comment, maybe a log of the events surrounding my inactivity could lead to a one or two good posts? any feedback? </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/writing-exercise-instructions-9#post-18 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:39:45 +0000 Aaron Pogue 18@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>This week, I'm going to call on you to start a blog. If you're here at all, you realize that you're a writer. Maybe not a prolific novelist, maybe not even a willing emailer, but it's your lot in life to do some writing from time to time.</p> <p>Unstressed Syllables is all about helping you get better at that, but all our writing advice can't do much unless you put it into practice. That's why I provide a weekly writing exercise, to get you writing something low-impact that will help you think like a writer.</p> <p>That's the benefit you get from blogging, too, but I'll save that sales pitch for tomorrow's post. For now, I want you to focus on the writing you do.</p> <p>Think about your writing education.</p> <p> * How did you respond to your English classes in school?<br /> * What's the most recent class you've taken that was focused directly on writing?<br /> * What are your weaknesses?</p> <p>Think about your process.</p> <p> * When you've got a document you need to work on, how do you approach it?<br /> * Do you start with prewriting?<br /> * Do you put it off to the last minute?<br /> * Do you research relevant topics? </p> <p>Think about all the ways you have to write in your daily life.</p> <p> * Do you write emails to friends and family?<br /> * Do you write emails for work?<br /> * Do you write business letters for official purposes?<br /> * Do you post to any sort of social media (whether that's Twitter, Facebook status updates, or a private blog)?<br /> * Do you do any other creative or hobby writing?<br /> * What do you enjoy about writing? What do you do well?<br /> * What projects are you working on at the moment?</p> <p>Write up a short autobiography of you as a writer (300-900 words). Make it three sections, with appropriate headings, and generally answer the questions above.Tell us where you're coming from, so we can better help you get where you need to be. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/writing-exercise-instructions-8#post-17 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:09:41 +0000 Aaron Pogue 17@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>This week we're going to discuss techniques in getting and giving useful criticism, so it might be tempting to put off today's assignment until you've read tomorrow's article. I'd recommend that you go ahead and do your best job now, and then try again after you've read the week's lessons. See what changes, what gets better, and what gets easier.</p> <p>The actual assignment, though, 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.</p> <p>Start by reading through your document, and then write one to three paragraphs of analysis on each of the following topics:</p> <p> * Clarity of communication - organization, transitions, good introduction and conclusion, etc.<br /> * Effectiveness of the message - strength of the argument, connection to the reader, etc.<br /> * Elements of style - punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, etc.</p> <p>Refer to or quote the document where appropriate. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/dream-sequence#post-8 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:14:36 +0000 Carlos Velez 8@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>Hello! Here's the link to my <a href="http://www.consciousme.com/2010/01/07/writing-exercise-dream-sequence-inciting-incident/">Dream Sequence post</a>. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/outline-for-how-i-intend-to-make-money-on-my-blog#post-12 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:12:12 +0000 Carlos Velez 12@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p><a href="http://www.consciousme.com/writing-exercise-outline-an-argument/">Here is my outline</a> for part 2 of a series of posts on how I intend to make money on my site. This will go through different needs of blog readers in general, ways to fill that need, and how I feel about each one in regards to my own blog/business. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/writing-exercise-instructions-7#post-13 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:10:41 +0000 Aaron Pogue 13@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>Let's have some fun with the writing exercise this time. All that talk about cards on the table has me thinking about the serious drama in every hand of poker.</p> <p>So that's your job this week. Sit down at the poker table with four of your characters -- whether you make up new ones for this assignment or mix and match from your works in progress. In 300-600 words, tell us about one hand, maybe just one round of bidding, but make it intense.</p> <p>Maybe it's relationship drama among the players, or financial drama for our gambling addict protagonist. Maybe it's international espionage coming to a head at the high-stakes table, or a deeply introspective consideration of morality, expressed as an extended metaphor.</p> <p>Whatever your story, show it on the camera. Practice revealing your characters through their actions, not explanations, and give your readers just the hints they need to figure out everybody's hands (literally or figuratively, depending on your plot). </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/writing-exercise-instructions-6#post-11 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:26:20 +0000 Aaron Pogue 11@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>This week we finish our series on document structure, so I'd like us to take a moment to remember what that structure looks like.</p> <p>For your writing exercise this week, I want you to outline an argument. This argument can be the thesis of an essay or a defense of your position vis a vis your roommate's dirty dishes. It can be the message of a document you're working on right now, or a proposal you've been wanting to make to your boss.</p> <p>Whatever the point you're trying to make, you can make it stronger with a little structural design. So make an outline! Big Roman numeral I is "Introduction," so use your A, B, and C to describe how you're going to introduce your topic. Then give another numeral for each of your body points -- supporting evidence -- and draw your argument's conclusion within your document's conclusion.</p> <p>As you build your argument, pay careful attention to the order and relationship among your body points, and see how it compares to last week's discussion of organization methods. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/writing-exercise-instructions-5#post-10 Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:46:32 +0000 Aaron Pogue 10@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>WIPs, or Works-in-Progress, are often the favorite topics of creative writers. I realize now I was a fool to wait so long to invite you to talk about yours!</p> <p>That's this week's Creative Writing exercise, though. In light of our recent discussion of the various stages of manuscript development, I want you to tell me what you've done. Have you written a first draft? Have you toiled through a month of prewriting and put 30,000 words on the page before your project's inner fire flickered out? Have you finished six novels and hundreds of rounds of rewrites?</p> <p>Let me know. If you've only got one WIP, tell me where you are with that one. If you've done more than one, chart it out. It can be amazingly useful to compare the different stages of writing and where you've spent your time on different projects. Compare the amount of prewriting you did to the amount of revision your manuscript needed, or to how many times you abandoned it along the way. Compare how many times you shared your document out for feedback with your completion rate. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/writing-exercise-instructions-4#post-9 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:40:22 +0000 Aaron Pogue 9@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>I talked last week about the importance of writing good introductions to establish context (especially for readability down the line), and that message is never more important (or overlooked) than when you're sitting down to write an email.</p> <p>We still occasionally run into the big formal business letters and memos on company letterhead, and so we're in the habit of thinking of emails, by contrast, as casual communication. It's certainly less work to put together an email, but as a direct result of that most of our official written communication these days takes place in the form of emails.</p> <p>Sure, adding a lot of formal structure to emails would make them just as much of a nuisance as memos and business letters, but at the opposite extreme, leaving out information in the name of convenience will ultimately cause problems.</p> <p>So your exercise for this week is an email context audit. Open up your email client (personal or work, whichever you prefer), and look at the last ten non-reply emails you sent -- that is, new emails starting new conversations. Copy out the opening paragraph of each email, and add it to a list, then read over all the items in the list and see how easy it is for you to tell what each email message is talking about. Chances are good you still remember each of those emails, so try to guess how well you'd be able to figure the meaning out a year from now, too.</p> <p>Then test yourself. Go back one year, and list the opening paragraphs of ten non-reply emails you sent on this date last year. How many of them make sense to you now?</p> <p>This is an audit, a self-evaluation, and there's a real possibility you'll come out of it with a perfect score. If you don't, if you find in your archives a bunch of unintelligible one-line emails or messages that start in the middle of a conversation, take some time to practice improvement. Revisit your ten newer messages, and try writing a short, clear introduction for each of them. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/writing-exercise-instructions-3#post-7 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:16:48 +0000 Aaron Pogue 7@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>We're in the midst of a conversation about document structure, and in the first week of the new year, so let's take this opportunity to combine two useful self-improvement exercises in one.</p> <p>Have you figured out your resolutions for the new year? Do you even do that sort of thing? If so, are you in the habit of writing down your goals? If the answer to all of those is "yes," this week's writing exercise should be an easy one for you. I want you to write out all of your New Year's Resolutions in document format (that is, not just a bulleted list). Instead of "weight loss," write, "This years I'm going to lose X pounds to hit a target of Y. I'm going to do this by..." etc. Make paragraphs out of your resolutions. I don't mean big honking English-class essay paragraphs, but two to three sentences, adding some meat to the bare-bones list of resolutions you might have scribbled on a markerboard on your fridge.</p> <p>I want you to write an introduction (again, two to three sentences is fine) for anyone who doesn't already know the assignment, explaining the purpose of the document. Then organize your list of resolutions in a logical organization (take your best guess at the meanings behind the names I listed in last week's post: Chronological, Thematic, Parallel, Least to Greatest or Greatest to Least, and General to Specific or Specific to General). Try to write smooth transition sentences, keeping in mind your organization method when you do so.</p> <p>The final document should be 250 to 750 words (or longer, if you want to include more resolutions). If you've got a personal blog, you could be accomplishing two tasks at once -- finish your assignment for me, and then publish your goals for your friends and family. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/writing-exercise-instructions-2#post-6 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:03:03 +0000 Aaron Pogue 6@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>This week I talked about document structure and got into detail on chronology and point of view, and now it's time to stop talking and start doing.</p> <p>Your assignment this week is to write out a dream sequence. Of your own. This should be as close to non-fiction as you can manage.</p> <p>If at all possible, write out the story of a dream you had last night (or recently). If not, to the best of your ability, recreate a particularly interesting dream you've had in the past. If you can't even manage that, I'll settle for a dream that seems like the kind of dream you would have. (See how generous I am?)</p> <p>What I want you to do, though, is try to retell the dream exactly as you experienced it. Remember what I said about telling a story in order, start to finish? You'll learn just how hard that is to do when you start trying to tell the story of a dream. Why? Because our subconscious minds don't obey that rule, and our subconscious minds play a big part in the development of our works in progress.</p> <p>So this is an experiment in control. I want you to really grapple with the uncontrollable crazy behind your eyes that's trying to tell you how to tell your story...and at the same time, I want you to practice telling a story. Give me 200 to 500 words, and if you're brave enough, post it up as a new topic here.</p> <p>I can't wait to hear what you've been dreaming about! </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/writing-exercise-instructions-1#post-3 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:33:53 +0000 Aaron Pogue 3@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>We discussed the business letter format in passing this week, and we'll get to it in more detail in the next week or two, but I'd like to see what you can do now. Maybe you're showing off your chops, proving to me that this blog doesn't have anything to offer you at all. Maybe you're setting up a phenomenal Before and After contrast, stumbling through a crude letter format now so you can really shine once I teach you how to do it right.</p> <p>Either way, have fun with it. Write me a one-page business letter (no more than 250 words, and 100 would probably be acceptable) politely thanking Santa Claus for a gift you received this Christmas, but pointing out a mistake on his part and asking for a full refund. If that's just too silly for you, substitute in your Aunt Edna, or WalMart Corporation. Mainly I want to see how well you can duplicate the business letter format, and how you structure the message in a formal correspondence. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/introductions#post-4 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:21:07 +0000 Aaron Pogue 4@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>Welcome to The Scribblebook, <a href="http://www.UnstressedSyllables.com">UnstressedSyllables.com's</a> discussion board. This forum is meant to give the site's readers a chance to practice some of the principles being taught by the site's authors, and to participate in the teaching as well.</p> <p>Introductions are often the best place to get started, so let me get things rolling. My name is Aaron Pogue, and I'm a professional writer. I have a degree in English/Writing from Oklahoma Christian University, and I've worked as a Technical Writer since the summer of 2002. I've been a creative writer for far longer than that. You can read more about me on UnstressedSyllables.com's <a href="http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/about/">About page</a> if you want all the details.</p> <p>You may know me personally, you may know me as the co-founder of the Facebook writing group <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=app_2373072738&amp;gid=133042491097#/group.php?gid=133042491097">Mightier than the Sword</a>, or you may only know me as the creator of Unstressed Syllables. Whatever our connection, you share that in common with others posting here, so take a moment to introduce yourself. Tell us your writing history, what kind of writing you do, and what you hope to get out of this site. </p> <p>If there's anything else you'd like to talk about, feel free to start a topic. This forum is open for discussion. </p> http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/topic/writing-exercise-instructions#post-2 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:31:41 +0000 Aaron Pogue 2@http://www.unstressedsyllables.com/forum/ <p>This week, your assignment is to write me a story in the form of a fictional blog post. With Christmas so much on our minds, it just seems obvious to tell a Christmas story, but I want you to practice some of that "getting better at being a person" that I mentioned earlier in the week.</p> <p>So tell me about your Christmas, but tell me about it from the point of view of someone else who was involved. Tell me the harrowing tale of your brother-in-law who drove in through a blizzard to make it to Christmas dinner at your house, through his eyes. Tell me about the sister who couldn't make it, or the random cashier at the grocery store who offered a surprisingly exuberant "Merry Christmas" as you made your way through the checkout line.</p> <p>Write a blog post of 200 to 600 words titled "My Christmas" and write it as though you're somebody else. It's good practice at blogging, good practice at writing from a set point of view, and good practice at seeing the world through your fellow man's eyes -- and that's certainly something worth doing at Christmastime. </p>