#learning writing

[wanderrealms]

FUCK YEAH ADVANCED SETTING CLASS MARCH TO APRIL 2026 STARTS NEXT WEEK

[psychagoguedigitalmusical]

My way in - Analysis and Concrete Action Plans

Anyone can be inspired by art. But can anyone create art?

I think that's a complicated question. Generally speaking, of course anyone can pick up a paper & pencil and draw something, or type out some poetry from their stream-of-consciousness. But is the artist in this scenario satisfied with what they've put out into the world? I wouldn't be. The artistic inspiration often comes paired with a clarity of purpose. And when our own lack of technical skill prevents us from matching the clarity we have inside, it feels helpless. Like there's some sort of "skilled artists" club out there in the world, and somehow they all got the mysterious membership card somehow, and it's just a gulf that can't be crossed. "Man, it would be cool, but I just don't have the stuff." It wasn't until last year when I completed the first project I was ever truly proud of creating that I realized that the gulf is crossable.

Basically, what I'm saying is that before I can make art that I am proud of, I need to understand my current limitations and learn my tools.

I have some music experience and some theatre experience, but I primarily studied a STEM subject in school. My experience with the arts has been enough to dabble, but not enough to express, and basically everything is hard. Tag urself in this meme, I'm both people

So what's my plan for dealing with this?

First: What skills will I need in order to create a project on the scale of Epic?

Writing (Plots)

Writing (Characters)

Writing (Lyrics)

Music (Composition)

Music (Singing)

Music (Production)

(There's other stuff like social media, advertising, etc. but I'm intentionally choosing to ignore other necessary aspects unrelated to the creative process, because honestly a lot of that stuff is interchangeable and can be figured out as it comes up. No use overplanning. The most I'll do for now until I've got something to show is to keep up these blog posts and crosspost to other sites. Hi Instagram!)

I have done minimal creative writing before. I know just enough music theory to play the trumpet, but I can't improvise my way out of a paper bag and don't know a chord progression from a lydian triad. I don't even feel comfortable right now singing in general, even by myself. And even if I did, I doubt I'd be good at it, and my space at home isn't exactly conducive to practice mush of anything loud. Lots of challenges, but with the confidence that even these large gulfs can be crossed, it feels not quite so overwhelming as it might have to me as a younger man.

Second: What are the concrete actions within my power to start to cross the skill gap?

Writing - I'm going to make a spreadsheet. I will start with systematically analyzing each song from Epic, laser targeting some basic information from the text (starting with lyrics only, musical analysis later once I have a better idea of what I'm doing). I will be focusing on identifying how the situations, characters, philosophies, and relationships are communicated through the lyrics. After I get through everything in Epic, I'll probably do a similar exercise for some of the other seminal works of musical theatre, and even non-musical theatre. If I want to make a competent contribution to the artistic conversation, I need a solid foundation of artistic context.

Parallel to this, I will map out the narrative shape of Epic and other stories I'm drawing inspiration from. By discovering patterns, I can reverse engineer what Morvic's journey through the Realm of Shades could look like.

I am also personally taking notes whenever specific ideas about Psychagogue, its characters, situations, and its themes come to me.

Music - I'm less certain about this one. At the very least, I'll sign up for a singing class and emphasize that musical theatre is the style of singing I would like to focus on. Music theory and composition is currently looking like the actual most difficult part to me right now. At this point, I'm honestly struggling to find appropriate resources for learning music theory and production that will stick with me this time. But I also was never able to consistently work out until about a year ago when I found a sustainable way in, so if it's possible for that, it's possible for this. It'll just take more time. I have some tentative ideas for what this might end up looking like, but I'm keeping the horse before the cart on this one.

Ramble over.

Next post, I'll show off initial progress on the spreadsheet and what kind of progress I've made on learning music.

[thomcantsleep]

How You Learn How to Write

They say that you can’t teach writing and they’re probably right. What I believe is that there are definitely ways to get better and improve your craft. Certain things are absolutely necessary to progress and improve as a writer - no matter what the skill level is.

I’ve got a few things here and there that aren’t trade secrets but more good advice for moving forward with your writing.

1. Put Pen to Paper.

You don’t know what you’re like at writing if you don’t try at least once. The important thing about giving it a go is that if you won’t know where to start if you don’t start at all. You may think that you’re terrible at writing or that you’re God’s gift to the medium but you have to produce something - and I mean anything - to get started. Think of it as taking a preliminary test for a college to get a handle on your skill level. See my blog about writing exercises if you need any help. :)

2. Get Help (and Allow Yourself to Be Helped).

It seems incredibly obvious considering what the subject of this article is but what is fundamental to learning the art of writing is that you have to know how to get help, where to get help from and how to apply it to your work. What I should point out at this juncture is that you should never hand out money to people who are offering to read your work. Most literary agents would happily read your work for free.

But it doesn’t have to be a literary agent. Just get someone who you trust to tell you the truth and be honest. Preferably, get a reader to critique your work like they would for a book from a bookshop. The more important aspect is psychological. You have to learn how to take criticism on the chin and not take it personally. Understand that whoever is giving you constructive critcism has your best interests in mind. What is constructive criticism? Simple. The want for your work to be more effective and when that want is asked for. Not unprompted put-downs in preference of what the critic wants.

Be prepared to take the advice and make the changes to your work. You may see it as a damage to your work and you may even not end up with that in your final edit but cycling through the chunks of info will help you find your way - what is good and what isn’t.

3. Read.

I’ll keep putting it in writing articles until I’m blue in the face but you have to read. If not read, take in any media - painted art, television, cinema, music - and think about it creatively; how was it put together and how it works as a piece of media. Take in the story, the composition, the structure, the dialogue and the syntax. What you learned in English Literature at school is useful in these scenarios because of the problem-solving skills it teaches you. When you understand what makes something quintessentially good. What, exactly, absorbs you in the product?

When you know the answer, it will make you a better writer. Think about art like a philosopher thinks about life or how a psychologist thinks about the mind.

4. Make Use of Your Notebook (or memo app on your phone).

Plan. Write down story ideas (they won’t stay in your head forever). Keep tabs on your progress and if someone tells you helpful advice or if you read a pertinent quote online, write it down. Be economical and try not to fill your notebook with random circled words out of context or underlined dates for no reason. It isn’t enough to just cosplay as a writer because you actually have to be one if you want to be good at it. This piece of advice is only small but it’s practical and a good notebook can put in the hard yards to make you work-hours more efficient in the long run.

5. Engage Your Imagination.

The word learning might sound tedious to you because it probably reminds you of a time in your life where you were depressed, bored, lost or just generally having a bad time of it. The truth is though that the best writers at the top of their game with nothing left to prove are still learning. You have to think about the process of writing without an academic mindset so you get the best out of yourself.

I did go to university and it must be said that it didn’t necessarily teach me how to write but taught me how to be better. I didn’t take a fancy to writing in school because they don’t really teach it and the subject of “creative writing” isn’t defined by 2+2. It’s closer to crafting a sum with two numbers you’ve invented yourself. I may be rambling but my point is this: engaging your imagination is learning how to write.

6. Read Your Own Work Aloud to Yourself.

This is very hard. It’s difficult but very, very necessary. You have to read what you’ve written out loud to yourself so you can see how it sounds.  See if you’re out of breath at the end of sentences and if full-stops (periods) and commas are in the places that they should be. You have to believe me when I say that reading in your head is a completely different sensation.

You’ll even discover certain adjectives and nouns don’t roll of the tongue the way you think they do in your head. There is a certain beat and rhythm to writing that you won’t discover without properly dictating it out loud. As a little bonus, you could unearth grammar and spelling mistakes dotted around here and there. That brings me on to my next and final point.

7. Master The Basics.

Okay, this is the only hard-nosed point that I have to make so I left it at the end.

This isn’t even something that you need a degree for. You just have to know how to use Google and utilize it for incredibly accessible knowledge about language and how it is constructed. Grammar, punctuation, sentence structure - all that really boring stuff that you learned really early on. If you didn’t pursue the subject of English Language (or the respective national language class in your country) in further education because of whatever reason, you will lose that basic knowledge.

If you use a word and you ask yourself what it means and your brain doesn’t have a proper answer, look it up. Always double-check that a word means exactly what you think it means. You can’t just guess or go from memory unless you are positively sure. Don’t allow yourself to be caught out and, by using Google more and more, it will stick in your head. For example, I used the word quintessentially in this article earlier. I looked up both what it means and how to spell it. I was 95% sure but that isn’t enough. If you don’t know where the apostrophe goes in a sentence, I am begging you to look it up. There is no shame in not knowing and using a search engine takes ten seconds max.

If you master the basics, even your writing isn’t all that much to write home about, it will look professionally put together. You’d be surprised how many mistakes you read online and you don’t even know it is a mistake. I have made mistakes that have been easily avoidable had I just looked it up.

[agrawalaastha798]

Lockdown learning. Part- 8

Hello everyone!! I hope you are doing fine. I don’t know what is the situation in your country but be safe. I am trying to give as much as possible I have learnt or realized in this time period. I hope it helps you too in your life.

    So, I will start right away and not beat around the bush. I will not be writing a big post as I am occupied today with some work. But the habit of writing should not break.

    Today I am going to tell you how practicing writing is helping me in another way. Yes, I am enhancing two skills at one time. Can you guess it? It’s not very usual skill most people work upon. So, can you name it? It’s the “TOUCH TYPING”.

   Yes, I am practising touch typing- typing without looking keys on the keyboard. But I am not perfect at it. I have been practising it for a month and I have become quite good at it( or what I thought so). Today I realized I have practiced some keys with wrong fingers( the worst thing). But I am trying to make these new changes now. It is difficult to realize that all the time you were learning something wrong but kudos a wrong way is found where many people can make mistakes. So I can tell those mistakes to new  learners of this skills, not to make it again as I have.

Don’t overthink and remain sad about any setback. Just step up and start again.

Do let me know your challenges when you started learning Touch Typing. Till then “HAPPY READING”!

[alexbgd]

“It's been three days since I've been stuck here in this basement. Nothing to eat. No one to talk to. I might die just of boredom. The only thing keeping me alive is this diary which I found today when I was looking through some drawers. But something strange is happening. I don't know if I'm imagining it, but I keep seeing this pretty girl and this creepy man everywhere. The girl is always by the staircase, watching me. The man is all the way on the other side.”

[agrawalaastha798]

How COVID-19 affected my life? Part- 1

Hello everyone!! Hope you are doing fine during this pandemic. Some of us are locked in our homes and others are set free. This pandemic has given time to us to realize who we are and what we want. Our priorities have been totally changed from being workaholic to spending some time with family. Almost all of us have started to learn new skills to enhance our personality in different areas which helps to gain a broader view of a problem which may come across at any moment in our life.              Yes there are some exceptions but not me. To help me develop my writing  skills I am trying to do a thirty-day challenge in writing. Let me start my first article on how COVID-19 has turned my life upside down.               I was in my final year of engineering degree but started doing training in a data analytics company as a data engineer. Life was good till one and quarter months when the situation started getting worse in my country due to Covid-19. I came back to my hometown and started work from home. At first, it seemed good to be back home and I thought I will be back to my office in April. But how on earth can this be possible? Lockdown started and getting extended from March to April, to May. But the days which seemed happier were no longer good now. I have to juggle between household chores to office work and have to keep everything on time. And what became worst, my family started to develop dependency on me for small things like giving water etc: Argument was no option as this had no effect on them through which I became emotionally unstable. As a result I became tired throughout the day and did no work. But now I am motivated enough to develop my skills these days to enhance my personality.    Want to know how this transformation happened? Wait for my second article!! Thanks for reading.

[wanderrealms]

I learned to use parentheses in creative writing from Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Stephen King, Mick Herron, and Bruce Springsteen.

One those is not like the other (man also likes Caps Lock)