Razor7826's First Level Two Assignment

[Razor7826]

Each of the two articles presented for this assignment offered a dense concentration of writing advice, though the two articles focused on different aspects, with Rabbit's "How Can I Become a Better Writer?" focusing on the writing process, while the General Writing tips focused on story structure and character design. Both were useful, but I believe Rabbit1's article was simple and more immediately helpful, namely due to his focus on the non-writing parts of the writing process. Planning and editing are absolutely vital to creating an entertaining and well constructed story, but the steps often get ignored or under emphasized- too often have I seen a long story fall apart near the end as the author tries to wrap up too many plot threads too quickly, a sad consequence of not knowing and understanding the story before the bulk of the writing has passed. If I fail to plan out the entire story before I begin writing, I at the very least know what will happen with each of the characters by the end of the current story arc.

Editing is also crucial, and, like writing, is a skill developed through practice. When I first started writing in earnest, my editing passes were little more than spell checking, but as I've gone through more and more of my stories, I've realized by how much each draft is better than the last.

The second article was far more general advice, the vast majority of which pertained to the development of characters and story. On the character side of the advice, there are two distinct aspects: the development of characters, and the portrayal of characters to the reader. The character notes and outlines are a necessity for any work of length, and even on shorter stories are useful to creating strong characterization. The advice presented has encouraged me to write detailed character portraits for all of my stories, even my shortest works. Even if it doesn't help much for the story, it is good practice at the act of creation. The discussion about portrayal of accents and dialogue was interesting, but I do not believe it covered anything that I did not already utilize.

Lastly, and possibly the most interesting of all that I read for this assignment, was Rosalyn Alsobrook's comments on scene and sequel. I had not given much thought to chapter and scene organization, but I am certain to pay more attention to it in the future.

[Aussiegirl1]

Thanks Razor, you have reflected well on the articles. I am glad you found some interesting and helpful advice. I will be interested to hear how you find using character portraits helps you with your writing.

I agree with you about the importance of planning out the story. I have to say I am guilty of rushing into the start of a story and then not know where to go from there! It is so much better to take the time to know where you want the story to go, even if you do decide to change it along the way.

If you have not already started thinking about assignment 2, then you can now. There was some confusion with the last student about how to edit the piece of writing you pick. I would really like you to paste the chapter, and then note all the things you would want to change. I don't want you to rewrite the chapter, but to make note of any grammar, puncutation or editing changes you would make.

Please let me know if you are not sure what to do. It might help to look back at how the instructors comment on students work, as that is really what I want you to do.

Good luck
Aussiegirl

[Razor7826]

I've started Assignment 2, but I am still not clear about what to do. At first, I had just copy and pasted the article and began overwriting it, effectively, replacing the messier sentences and plot points, while triaging the material worth keeping. Should I be doing it in method from Level One, where I highlight things off to the side in Red? Due to the shortcomings of copying and pasting text files from elsewhere into the message board, that would likely be a pain (unless, of course, I am missing something crucial as to getting formatting to be retained as I paste material).

[Razor7826]

I went ahead and continued what I was doing before, but I have a general overview of the changes at the beginning.

[Razor7826]

OOPS, posted it here instead of in a new thread. Sorry.

[Aussiegirl1]

I went ahead and continued what I was doing before, but I have a general overview of the changes at the beginning.

Sorry I didn't respond to this earlier. I am at my Mum's for a few days and don't have access to the Internet all the time. I will go and have a look at what you did now.

[Razor7826]

Sorry that I plowed ahead; this was my weekend off, so I wanted to get as much done as possible. Assignment three is getting rather far, as well.