When I study the craft of writing, I shift into student mode. I underline in my books, write comments in the margins, and work my assignments in Skill Bill.
Page After Page and Chapter After Chapter both by Heather Sellers has writing assignments at the end of each chapter. In Skill Bill, I outlined the chapters of Between the Lines by Jessica Page Morrell.
Andy Couturier teaches great techniques in Writing Open the Mind: Tapping the Subconscious to Free the Writing and the Writer. One of my favorite exercises is in the first chapter.
Important notes, writing mantras, teacher comments are quick to find in Skill Bill. Now, remember I said, no writer knows it all. Good writers are forever learning, better writers are practicing what they learn.
Remember I said, study interviews of other writers. Sent you over to Paris Review. Encouraged you to subscribe and get the four-volume set. Skill Bill holds quotes by Truman Capote, William Falkner, and others. More recent entries include assignments from Dancing With The Gorilla blog.
Learning to construct great sentences, analyzing short stories, reading author interviews, working through writing exercises, are just a few of the ways to improve our writing. Use a notebook to keep everything you learn in one convenient, easy to find, pseudo-reference book created by you for you.
Without a doubt any writer can keep a number of notebooks. Right now, my magic number seems to be three.
- Blog Heaven for scrawling out blogging ideas ahead of time
- Infernal Journal for insights into myself and life
- Skill Bill for note taking, writing exercises, mantras, and etc
Any questions?
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