My First Review
I just sent off my first review for Curve Magazine. I wrote a sidebar review on two green living guides. I am very happy that I get to write reviews for the magazine...next up I get to write three reviews on new DVDs, two documentaries and a stand-up comedy show. I'm a little apprehensive about this first review as I want to make a good impression, but it is what it is. I tend to be a "put-er in-er", as my husband calls me, so it's going to be a real exercise for me to keep my writing clear and concise. I'm looking forward to it, though.
Enjoying the experience,
Aislinn
Enjoying the experience,
Aislinn
posted by Aislinn at
4:30 PM
2 Comments:
Yes, Neil's right. Get rid of the throat-clearing in your writing. Trash the adjectives and cute linking phrases you too often use to ease into a thought while keeping one foot out of it (which is to say, all that hemming and hawing is your way of not taking full responsibility for what you write.) Decide what's important and cut everything else out.
I would like to see you use this blog as a place to exercise paring away extraneous words, vernacular phrases, and passive syntax from your thought. This is a good place for that kind of finger work, because you're writing on the fly, which is a good way of establishing habits, if you write on the fly with one eye out for craft.
You need to develop better prose habits. Your writing won't grow interesting until you sharpen it.
By
David Millstone, at 7:22 PM
Funny thing is that when I first started taking writing seriously in college, my writing was sharper. I was told by a fiction teacher and a creative non-fiction teacher to do more with my writing. It took me a long time to get comfortable with adjectives, but it's what they seemed to want. I don't know if I took their advice the wrong way or built a habit that didn't resonate with my voice to appease their tastes. Either way, I do need to build new habits. Thanks for your thoughts on that.
By
Anonymous, at 10:23 PM
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