Zee Write Stuff

Thirteen #1 Writing Tips

from 13 Different Sites
I Googled While Drinking Coffee

Stumped again. Am I losing my creativity? I hope not. Here's what I finally decided . I googled "great writing tips" and looked for sites that focused on a list or hierarchy. I copied the first rule... Rule #1... from each of thirteen different websites. I didn't link. Didn't want to spend that much time on this silly project. But, you get the plan, Stan? Not much here we didn't know. But I'm always game for a new T13 Idea. You should see the ones I discarded. Oy!

1. Make your opinion known. (from Ten Tips for Writing a Blog Post) [duh?]

2. Branch to the right. (from 50 Writing Tips) [huh?]

3. Speak what you write. (actually Rule #0 from Writing Tips for Non-Writers Who Don't Want to Work at Writing) [brother!]

4. Choose a subject that interests you. (from Homework Center - Writing Skills) [duh #2 on my growing list of Duhs] [do we need a tip if the idea is that obvious?]

5. Get organized by listing your reader's questions. (from Business Writing Tips) [very businesslike]

6. Use short sentences. (from Copyblogger - Ernest Hemingway's Top 5 Tips for Writing Well) [maybe I'll come back to this one, huh?] [I suppose that's a decent tip, but what about Dickens and Faulkner, and the tres long sentence?]

7. Know your audience. (from "A Dozen Online Writing Tips," Cyberjournalist.net) [probably good idea, even beyond online writing]

8. Write. Don't think. Write. (from "Dana's Quick Writing Course," on Moore's Lore, Corante) [very first draft. I agree.]

9. Cut the boring parts. or...I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard (from "10 Writing Tips from the Masters" a Pick the Brain)

10. Use writing bursts to generate ideas and enthusiasm. (from Daily Writing Tips) [sure thing] [that must be all these enthusiastic scraps of paper scattered on my desk?]

11. Get to the point. (from "Stephen King's Top 7 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer) [now I am sitting at attention -- I think I have this on a handout somewhere]

12. Bloodless. [had to add the rest] Remember to avoid fuzzy and warm words--insubstantial words like "happy," "sad," "good," "bad." These words offer your reader little more than a limp handshake. (from Great Writing Tips at Cerritos College)

13. "Writing may be magical," Murray told us, "but it's not magic. It's a process, a rational series of decisions and steps that every writer makes and takes, no matter what the length, the deadline, even the genre."

Don lived by a simple rule, a Latin phrase he had regularly laminated, shared with me and other fortunate disciples, and kept close by his writing desk. "Nulla dies sine linea." Never a day without a line. ("Don Murray - the Things He Gave," from Poynter Online Resources)

I'm partial to #13. That #1 tip really was the last of the first 13 sites I checked for the #1 tip listed. That's a mouthful, eh?

Can't say working on this T13 wasn't interesting. If I did say "it wasn't interesting," I'd have to cut the sentence. Even thought it's short... Because, it's....
Boring.
I would describe my morning foray into writing tips as a bit like ice skating -- quite daunting on approach, personally damaging to the pride, delightful when finished.