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10 QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK YOUR CHARACTER How can you write about what a character will do or say if you don't know how they think, or what is "in character" for them? If you're writing from the point of view of one or more of your characters, it's even more important to know them as well as you know yourself. Often, you need to be able to put yourself in a character's place, to get right inside their head to see what they're thinking. One way to do this is to ask them questions. These ten probing questions will get you started. 1) Who are you? Answers to this question can range from simply a name to a deep exploration of the character's

Examples of common grammar and stylistic errors (particularly applicable to formal writing, but still potentially relevant in creative writing of any kind). 1. About sentence fragments 2. Don't write a run-on sentence you got to punctuate it. 3. Join clauses good like conjunctions should. 4. Each pronoun agrees with their antecendent. 5. In letters reports articles papers and stuff like that we use commas to keep a string of items apart. 6. Don't use commas, which aren't necessary. 7. Its important to use apostrophe's right. 8. The smothering of verbs is a cause of the weakening of sentence impact. 9. As far as incomplete constructi

Alliteration and Assonance These two terms tackle a truly tedious type of terminology - repetition. Alliteration is the term used to denote the repetition of consonants, as in the previous sentence (repeated snakelike 's' sounds are called sibilants), whereas Assonance refers to 'chiming' or repeated similar vowel sounds; 'anger ran sanguine through him', for example. Anacoluthon Anacoluthon is a sentence that lacks grammatical sequence, such as 'while in the garden the chair fell over'. Anacrusis Anacrusis is where the beginning of a verse of poetry opens with an unstressed syllable. 'And where the great offence is let the great axe fal

Frequently Asked Questions about Writing Workshops What are my responsibilities as a workshop reader? We are all writers at various stages in our work. Unless we are writing in a locked diary, we crave an appreciative audience. So the first thing you can do is be that audience. Be a receptive reader, and let the writer know her manuscript affected you. For example: "I laughed here . . ." "I almost cried when. . . " "I could just see this . . ." "You made this place come alive" "I identified completely with this person" are all phrases that are appropriate responses to written work. An interpretation of the piece can be very helpful to the w

Suggestions for Responding to Short Stories 1. Pick one positive thing to begin your discussion. What was it about this story that kept you reading, that made you want to know more? Were there particular lines you enjoyed? Did the writer handle some aspect of the story particularly well – dialog, plotting, setting? 2. Talk about what you think the story is trying to do and how far it went in accomplishing this. Is it a plot-driven action adventure? A portrait of a character? A slice of life? A moral tale? A comic piece? 3. Talk about characters. How do each of the characters in the story come across? Which are the best drawn and which need

Okay. So you've written something. Part of a story perhaps, or a description. A prologue or a novel chapter. You want to post it as a deviation on dA. Fair enough. You want comments? You want people to take your writing seriously? Show us you take your writing seriously then. 1. Proofing and Polishing. If you apply for a job and your CV is full of typos, spelling mistakes and poorly worded sentences, you won't get the job. Your application will go in the bin. Most people on dA don't know you. If they randomly find your work and it looks like you dashed it off, wrote it between lessons, and submitted it just as it is, most people won't b