About the Writing Craft

Since we seem to have a small group of writers who were poised to take over the welcome thread...

Here, then, is a general discussion thread about the craft of writing. The hows, the whats, the whys, the works. It'll probably work best if we stick discussion topics to our own writing ventures and make individual thread for any specific authors we want to discuss, but... We'll just see where it goes. ^-^

So... To start us off/continue roughly where the welcome thread left off... We were discussing where/how to get advice on improving your craft.

General ideas we came up with so far were:

- Check out author websites for advice (you'll also find information on getting published on some)
- Get books on the craft (as the above, but in printed format)
- Attend writing or creative writing classes (to polish up your grammar/spelling or your more abstract aspects such as world-building, characterisation, etc)
- Join a critique group
- Read your text aloud

(We were also discussing 'How to get Shanra's writing to improve', but I'll be truthful and say Shakespeare can't live up to my expectations, so let's just keep it general. ^-~)

Specific useful people mentioned so far are: Diana Gabaldon, Chuck Palahniuk (who won't produce a touchstone) and Limyaael.

What resources do you use to polish up your skills? (And if you haven't joined in the discussion before, what is it you enjoy writing?)

This may be a little off-topic, but a few resources before/after you get published(for those who are unaware):

Easy Publishing/book editing services:
- Lulu.com
- Wordclay.com
- Blurb.com

Author-Reader Community, Connections:
- Filedby

Guides/articles:
- writeandpublishyourbook.com
- howtobooks.co.uk
- bookwritinghelp.com

I'll add more into this message later(busy right now). Anyone else can do the same.

there is the Critters Writers Workshop - an excellent online workshop.