Today's guest article is from Babu Basu again
A guide to award winning writing.
And the Oscar goes to...
Time is short. People are busy. Our duty as writers is to produce work worthy of peoples’ time.
To many, writing is an unfathomable black art. It allows the world a glimpse into your soul. If people reject your writing, they are rejecting you (or so we believe). Professional writers know they can’t please all the people, all of the time, but by ‘eck, they’ll give it a try.
I’d like to thank...
Like actors, writers are prone to ego, self doubt and fear. Even the best writers are plagued by questions. “Will they like it?” “Will they understand it?” “Will they think I’ve lost my mind?”
Is your writing creation worthy of an Oscar or is right for a Raspberry?
Here are six things to consider.
Audience
Who you write for should determine tone, content and style. Assume the audience is intelligent with no specialist knowledge. Explain terminology and keep prose short and to the point. A dash of humour may work for most people and most situations.
Research
Research should be thorough and varied. Numerous sources boost your understanding, creativity and credibility.
Passion + Balance
Engaging and powerful work has passion and a clear sense of direction. However, writing needs to be balanced otherwise it deserves to be dismissed by the reader.
Humanity + Honesty
Finally, never forget humanity and candour. Honesty will grab the reader’s attention, empathy will have them coming back for more.
See you on the red carpet.
Babu
http://www.babubasu.co.uk/
Showing posts with label Babu Basu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Babu Basu. Show all posts
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Writing Wizardry
Writing Wizardry
You know how lawyers and accountants always hate networking because people always want free advice from them. Or doctors being shown bumps and lumps at dinner parties.
Well I'm different because I love it when people come to talk to me about writing. You see that gives me clues all the time about what writers find challenging, or difficult. Which leads my brain to ask the question how do we at the Writer's Little Book Club help them to overcome that obstacle.
We've already started Babu at the Bar where my colleague Babu Basu does a video session about emails we've received. Obviously we can't answer too many in that format so I thought I'd start a blog thread about writing challenges.
My great niece has recently been enrolled into the Puffin Club by her grandmother to encourage her to read. Not that she really needs much encouragement in our family because we're all great readers.
I'd love it if we can make The Writer's Little Book Club as much fun as the Puffin Club. So I thought you might like this tip for a very common writing challenge that faces us all at one time or another.
We all get stuck, bogged down and at a loss for words sometimes. But when it goes on, sometimes it takes a bit of a blast to lever us out.
How about using this tip - If being stuck with your writing was an animal what would it be?
The first time I tried that out, I came up with a rhinoceros standing on the path in front of me. Whoa I thought. So then my solution was definitely not to take it on! Instead I slid away from it - in writing terms I stopped trying to tackle the block head on and started to creep around the edge of the project instead. Did a part of it that was almost a copy and paste job.
And you know what - it worked - never thought it would but in my next writing session, the problem I'd seen with the writing just had disappeared and the words flowed.
Try it if you like - see what it does for you.
You know how lawyers and accountants always hate networking because people always want free advice from them. Or doctors being shown bumps and lumps at dinner parties.
Well I'm different because I love it when people come to talk to me about writing. You see that gives me clues all the time about what writers find challenging, or difficult. Which leads my brain to ask the question how do we at the Writer's Little Book Club help them to overcome that obstacle.
We've already started Babu at the Bar where my colleague Babu Basu does a video session about emails we've received. Obviously we can't answer too many in that format so I thought I'd start a blog thread about writing challenges.
My great niece has recently been enrolled into the Puffin Club by her grandmother to encourage her to read. Not that she really needs much encouragement in our family because we're all great readers.
I'd love it if we can make The Writer's Little Book Club as much fun as the Puffin Club. So I thought you might like this tip for a very common writing challenge that faces us all at one time or another.
We all get stuck, bogged down and at a loss for words sometimes. But when it goes on, sometimes it takes a bit of a blast to lever us out.
How about using this tip - If being stuck with your writing was an animal what would it be?
The first time I tried that out, I came up with a rhinoceros standing on the path in front of me. Whoa I thought. So then my solution was definitely not to take it on! Instead I slid away from it - in writing terms I stopped trying to tackle the block head on and started to creep around the edge of the project instead. Did a part of it that was almost a copy and paste job.
And you know what - it worked - never thought it would but in my next writing session, the problem I'd seen with the writing just had disappeared and the words flowed.
Try it if you like - see what it does for you.
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