Write Better Sentences: Creative Writing Mastery

1. Introduction: It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks was striking the team. This is the opening line to George Orwell's masterpiece in 1984. And in my opinion, a fantastic sentence. By writing this, you can tell something is off. How can a day in British April pay both cold and bright? Clock starts strike 13 to yet, as Orwell lighter illuminate. These contradictions make up the tyrannical government of Big Brother. Orwell's prose is excellent too. And there are many favorite lines which have become famous in the English language. Yet, how can write us reach this level where they can compose excellent attention grabbing sentences and therefore create memorable stories. Well, writers can reach this through practice and taking a closer look to how language works. This comes by understanding The mechanics behind each sentence written. Welcome to a brand new course on writing better sentences. My name is madeleine giants and beyond teaching creative writing, I'm also a journalist working on her novels. It is exciting to bring my experience with nonfiction and fiction to this arena. He, you'll learn about the English language, the Importance of contextualization and editing tips concerning irony and character perspective, as well as general advice concerning grandma. Towards beginners. This course is ideal for writers who are currently working on a Fiction related projects. In the end, the class project allows you to put theory into action. But for now, let's begin 2. The Importance of Genre: A good writing tip is to always consider genre and audience of your story. Ask yourself, what novels and short stories mirror my style while Genre, whether it is science fiction, historical, fantasy, romance, or crime, does my novel fit in? The point of these questions is to develop your understanding of readers expectations and the standards set by genre. For example, thriller writers, may benefit from sparse and short sentences to keep the tension alive Brewing. However, historical fantasy novel, like Jonathan Strange and Mr. neural by Susana clock, requires detailed and lush sentences to immerse the reader into her world. The best way to understand raises expectations is through developing a solid rating habits within your genre and outside of it. If your goal is to write a romance novel and to get your readers to support a particular romantic pairing. You all to raise successful romance novels, which accomplish this by the classical and contemporary once. It will also help terrain novels outside of romance, such as literary and historical fiction. To understand the different methods authors use to get readers invested into characters and relationships. However, I don't want you to feel constrained by your chosen Genre. Some of the most interesting Fiction comes from writers with a rebellious streak who breaks the rules, try something different. All mixed various styles together. Here's an example which I really like. It's from David Mitchell's 2014 novel, the bone clocks. Well, it's clearly a science fiction and fantasy novel. Mitchell uses short sentences and repetitions to illustrate a philosophical points. For example, human cruelty can be infinite. Human generosity can be boundless. Treasures here. Why, in its simplicity, much to his credit, Mitchell uses to descriptive words to describe his genre. Infinite and boundless. That's adding a poetic touch to his writing. Genre matters. It is not everything. To writing better sentences. You must consider the feelings and thoughts, your radar, or to have a story progresses. This as a result, will make your writing stronger 3. Using Context To Your Advantage: Great sentence also considers the ones that precede and follow it. Take this simple paragraph is written. The flowers were freshly pruned and exhumed. Many fragrances. Rose who, cilia and Jasmine with the finest sent born from Lavender, oranges draped from trees. The lemons and Apple's shown from the simmering sunlight, which turns the night sky into a cloudy white. Americans gotten enjoyed the largest collection of roses and daisies across the remnants of Sweden. He based nestled onto petals as if it were their home. For this lesson, we'll focus on the third sentence. From the second and the fourth one. To begin. The second sentence is quite short and contains one subject on object and one verb on its own. The sentence is not very interesting and tells the reader little beyond oranges hanging from trees. That's why when I wrote the third, I added more detail with adjectives and descriptions. I also used certain linguistic tools, such as rhyme. Interestingly, the full sentence features names for the disgust place, Sweden and Meghan's garden. As you can tell. H, three of these sentences are different. There are four types of sentences. Novelists must know. Simple, compound, complex, and finally, compound complex. The first sentence is a simple one, but the last two, a compound complex. However, the next sentence, I write, web-based Nestle onto petals is not a compound at all. This is why variation is key. Not every sentence should have the same structure, link, syntax, or function. Also, excessive word repetition is mostly to be avoided as readers value some surprise. Well, it's reading, finding new and creative ways to rewrite sentiments and words is so crucial to effective writing. Readers do crave a degree of novelty. This is done by keeping your language fresh and surprising. To do this, I suggest grabbing a piece of paper or opening a new Word document and start to brainstorm different ways to express something. You could also make use of Google, which is great at providing word origins, sentiments, and suggesting phrases. The possibilities are endless 4. Mirrors: A Wonderful Tool: Here is my favorite strategy for writing better sentences. Mirrors. Mirror is when an author picks a type of word, repeats it twice or more, and uses it in a similar contexts. For example, in Donuts hearts, the sacred history, she writes. But pot, I'm less, she is wed to something more meaningful. Is always superficial. The last word, superficial, rhymes with meaningful. There's a second mirror to, as the sentence has three parts. The subjects being the first, the thesis coming next, and finishing with a judgment, is a pleasant number. Aesthetically speaking, as it is used in painting, sculpture, and storytelling. With the three act structure, mirrors is a careful use of repetition. When writing. I'll use my own writing for the next example. I write. He trembled his fingers against the page and caused the book to shake. Paying me a compound sentence, the word trembled and caused not only rhyme, but at both verbs in the past tense. The best way to apply mirrors throughout your story is through practice. Unfortunately, this tip does take awhile to implement. But a good shortcut is learning different tenses and types of words. So often, the best writers are well-versed in not just literature, but the study of language and linguistics. Editing can help to, and it's usually how I apply mirrors to my Writing. There are times when mirrors will not do. And it is important to not slow the pace of your novel by adding too many. Ask yourself, does this word add anything to the readers understanding of the setting, character, or plot point. If not, consider a sharpened way to articulate the sentiments. Keep going. Practice hard and you can do it 5. Creating Mental Images: In each sentence, there isn't least one atom of information. This typically tells the reader something about the narrative, a location, or character, a plot beat, or an upcoming events. Sometimes the sentence can convey a mood, builds the atmosphere up. Within a story. Michael andar cheese, novel, wall lights. He writes, I was about to enter a borderless terrain between adolescence and adulthood. The period between youth and adulthood is described as a borderless terrain, which relates well to the novel's emphasis on war time and travel. This may evoke memories of crossing borders or countries where things change. That's the only reason why this sentence works. The other secret is the ambiguity lurking beneath it. The character is positioning. They are coming life milestones as rife with uncertainty, because the boundaries between adolescence and adulthood are just like that. On unclear. Writers typically have their own approaches in creating Mental Images. Some like the light Cormac McCarthy likes boss descriptions and encourage the reader to fill in the blanks. There's certainly suited the psychological terror of the road and No Country for Old Men. However, you also have blush data, prose from Tolkien to this. I implore you to not feel. You have to include every aspect of a setting or individual to create a strong mental image. When describing, say, a city, it might not matter how tall the buildings are or what colored lights are flashing. Stick to the details matter, which contribute to mood and tone. If this is difficult, make sure to do an extra round of edits, specifically on descriptions and time 6. All About Similes: A simile is a figure of speech that compares two different things, using the words like or as, highlighting their similarities to create vivid imagery or a better understanding of one of the things being described. For example, her smile was as bright as the sun is a similarly that compares the brightness of a smile to the brightness of the sun. Fiction, of course, has frequent use of Similes. Yes. Some are better than others. And writers must avoid similes, which someone contrived, awkward, or off putting. The best way to avoid this is to consider what you want the reader to feel. And to imagine. Take this sentence. She was as beautiful as Marilyn Monroe as a leavening while wearing white. This would establish a central and romantic image of the woman in question. One based in contemporary history and American culture, fit in a historical novel set in Renaissance Italy, or in a story where the characters don't know who Marilyn Monroe is. Ties back to the lesson on. It's also good to avoid cliched analogies. Like earlier, she was as beautiful as the sun. As I previously said. Readers a drawn to novelty and surprise. They want to read sentences which spike couldn't predict. To improve your similes, make sure you read the feedback from editors and better readers. This is something which really does benefit from feedback. Best of luck 7. The Power of Rewriting: In most cases, your first attempt at writing a particular story moment is not perfect in my have correct grandma and tense while communicating. A crucial aspect of the story. Yet there's a chance of being dull, repetitive, or cliched. That is why Rewriting is so valuable as writers can truly allow the magic design in future drafts. In the earliest stages of a work, re-writes will typically focus the big picture and developmental issues concerning plot and characterization, thus delaying the attention on individual sentences. So when you are confident with your story on its developmental level, it's time for array, right? Here are some tips for rewriting. First, use a blank page. Your previous writings can sometimes distract, and it's important to understand the many possibilities open to you. Secondly, try rewriting the one sentence in multiple different ways. Not worry about grammar or spelling at this stage. Finally, you are ready to pick a preferred sentence. Reread what you've written already by taking a close look at previous and following sentences. It helps and creative writing to offer variety. So a paragraph will have sentences with different structures and length. Once you finalize your decision, copy and paste your sentence back to the story and edit for clarity, grammar, and spelling. This doesn't mean you a ton. And one frustrating parts of writing is the need for ongoing rewrites and edit. The good news is, you don't have to do this for every sentence. However, I recommend this process for clunky and confusing once. It's also not a bad idea to seek feedback. There are many writing forums who can look at your paragraph and follow with suggestions. In fact, I find writing communities quiet essential in the rewriting process. Even more so than in the first draft. Perhaps you would do 8. Editing Strategies: There are multiple levels of editing. Structural scene by scene, line editing, as well as proofreading. Focus on the last two. But I highly suggest conducting developmental edits before devoting significant time to copy edits. In this stage, you will edit your sentences by focusing on grammar, spelling, punctuation, structure, clarity, and flow. My first tip is simple. Use the style guide. A style guide is a document outlining the standards you will writing needs to fit. In terms of language and grammar. You have two options. Make your own style guide or use a pre-made one. You can find style guides online and from publishes, and they usually cover the ideal usage of dates, capitalisation, italics, manuscript formatting, book titles, interior thoughts, referencing, quote marks and punctuation. One recommended handbook, The Chicago Manual of Style, which has multiple additions. And it's treated as a go-to book for fiction editors, there isn't necessarily a correct style guide or one that is better than others. It's not when editing fiction. You must have a level of consistency. It's unacceptable to have part of your documents in, say, British English and the rest in American English. Place note. Publishes typically have their own style guide and any successful submissions you make will usually conform to the standards. It's not uncommon for story britain and say Australian English. Slight changes to fit an American magazine. If you don't want to use a style guide, I suggest reading and learning about grammar and the arts or sentence structure. This could mean taking a weekend course on editing or reading non-fiction about the craft of writing. However, learning how to edit well is a process which can take years to master. You'll get better for more, you do it. You won't catch all the issues in your documents on the first card. So often, editing takes multiple rounds, can involve outside readers, like a professional editor. However, it's also true that editing can make your sentences shine. Best of luck 9. Class Project: Welcome to the class project. This works best if you have an ongoing project. But if you don't pick a character from a previous work, then follow this prompt and write your character's reaction. If you do have an ongoing project, I want you to pick a character from it just spun. The prompt is Your chosen character has woken up in a small enclave in the Himalayas. There's a phone nearby, but no reception. The camera works. How does your character react? And what do they do? Next? In a few sentences to a paragraph, right? The next part of the story. This project requires you to write multiple sentences, at least three. With the more the better. This is because writing good sentences demands a sophisticated grasp on context and flow. As stated in the second and third lessons. Afterwards, do light editing and try some of the techniques I've mentioned, like mirrors, Similes, and mental images. You may also like to rewrite aspects, but the choice is up to you. Once you're happy, post your work in the class project section, and if you can comment on others, I'm looking forward to seeing your work and for member creativity as well compare. It doesn't matter what your genre, style all story is because they're all valid. And I can't wait to see what you've come up with. Best of luck. 10. Conclusion: Thank you very much for taking this short class on writing better sentences. I hope this helped. And please remember the Importance of Rewriting, editing and the many strategies concerning mirroring and creating Mental Images. I couldn't cover every topic, but understand that writing better sentences does take practice. I suggest keeping track of your progress, seeking feedback, and maybe even experimenting with different approaches. I implore you to leave a review and skew feedback on Skillshare. I also have over ten classes on Creative Writing, covering topics ranging from outlining to genre fiction, such as rewriting fairy tales and dystopian stories. I aim to post more Creative Writing classes in the future. And any suggestions of highly appreciated, following my channel on Skillshare, It's the best way to get updates. Thanks again for watching. Best of luck with your writing and I'll see you soon.