Mythical Class

What a fantastic resource for writers. I crawled the site Advice to Writers ( link ) from Jon Winokur and am amazed. Not only is the information on the page itself helpful, but the whole website is a springboard to other material. I fell down a rabbit hole looking into interviews that are featured on the site, like T.S. Eliot's and Carl Hiaasen's. Reading these stories from such historic authors is a treasure. Some of them, like Eliot's, are on websites that have a paywall, so that was a little frustrating. But even the first half of the article was enticing, especially seeing the impact that he felt from small notions like notes of encouragements. T.S. Eliot. Link .    One of the main takeaways I got from Winokur's website itself is the size of human nature as a resource for writing. It is such an obviously relatable enterprise, with an endless amount of potential for storytelling and platforms on which to connect with the audience. Another is the importance of ...

I checked out a couple of the articles from the Most Popular tab on Writers Write, but two stuck out to me as useful for this class specifically. The first was "45 Ways To Avoid Using The Word 'Very.'" With a course designed around creative writing, something that includes a lot of description, ridding ourselves of this unnecessary word is a great step towards better writing. Further, when using "very," writers often miss out on opportunities to use more colorful language. I liked the Kleinbaum quote that the article mentions, saying that using the word is lazy and that "A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don't use very sad, use morose." Link to this article. The second article that stuck out to me was a little more direct, titled "25 Myths To Use As Writing Prompts." This one seems a bit obvious, but it matches with the motivation for this class- that myths can be a great inspiration towards creative writing. Link to thi...

I read through Chapter 2: Telling a Story  of the EmpoWord manual. ( link ) Internal Monologue, Surely. ( Link ) Once I figured out how to navigate the e-book, it was an interesting read. At times the material seemed a little early, but exploring the basics is always productive because there is always something that you can learn. I did not do the table and graph activities, but I still picked up some useful information from their organization. I think some of the best exercises to improve writing include timed (or untimed) freewriting. If the activity is not timed, it is helpful to still hold yourself accountable to write for the whole period. When you take a step back and focus less on getting every word perfect, a lot more gets completed as a whole. I often have to remind myself that I should finish a draft of something before the editing phase. Getting caught up in changes before something is fleshed out is asking for trouble- both big and small picture. I wi...