Up to Snuff

Up to Snuff #67: Key Things to Think About When Writing
By Afua Serwah Osei-Bonsu

What one aims for when writing is often the good perfected book that can go into schools. One must have all their ducks in a row, good education and degree’s lined up neatly to get the respect they deserve. A writer needs to have a good brain “tape” and hopefully wisdom. Maturity is also key and very often writer’s mature into writing and unfold as they grow older. A writer needs enough practice and should write regularly. It is also beneficial to cultivate a rich creativity, build something up and work from it. You can write from education and degrees. It helps to perfect writing and dialog in fiction if you use the right software. Writing non- stop with tablets can help to collect a setting, dialog or build up a fiction or a non-fiction book. One key some writers use is to always use a plan. Journalist’s with plans are often more successful. Another key idea for a writer is to do a little branding. Your book generally succeeds when it can be used to teach something.

Wise choices are good for a writer like collecting books and building a library and reading vs. TV. Wise choices can also promote preservation of your brain by avoiding ignorant TV programs and choosing a non-violent route for ultimately a healthier brain. Avoid crime or violence in music, choose programing and entertainment that aligns with your views. A good hobby to have is to research books. To propel yourself, what is crucial is to self- educate as much as possible by reading things in your field and building “ladders” for yourself to study. Education is generally not on a platter; you must have a rich self-education, experiential learning, to prepare you for and combine with your education. Set high bars and work towards mastership studies. Be a wise guide and look for good teachers, private teachers and align with smart people. While you are studying you can also be assembling notes for future writing, books or teaching. Buttress your books with classes and experiential learning to build a strong foundation for your books and writing career.

One key area for a writer to development is analysis. Analysis in the end impacts ones total and complete knowledge frame work. A good way to propel and acquire knowledge is via asking questions, just as in a PHD, one may start with a question or hypothesis to frame a greater study. Great books are something to use to build understanding of writing, vocabulary, analysis and very often romance or passion for your personality. A percentage of your reading and writing should be “KB” or knowledge based reading. Try to get up high enough in every subject that you can study independently and have it be meaningful. It is important to have high standards, bars and goals. You may feel “the power” to do something special in the world or for mankind-have something to offer.

Originality arrives from a variety of sources. It can arrive from bringing three disparate things or concepts together to make a new form via juxtaposition. Well- crafted questions can help you to arrive at original ideas as well as analysis. Research and inferential writing are some of the best ways to get at original evidence based thinking. Taking an aspect or a perspective where you slice off a piece of something or take a sampling can also be an essential way to look at subject matter. You can also write your thesis and later write associated variables as in an APA research proposal which can be developmental and a good path to original thinking. Observations and field work can be good to achieve original notes and writing with descriptions. You can use something you create like a microcosm, a catalyst or something like a “maquette,” to feed off and generate original ideas. Critique your writing to elevate it and get additional perspectives.

What is essential to a writer is to think about what is detrimental and available vs. what is responsibility and choice. Things that weigh heavy on the readers brain and could be avoided are things like: suicide, abortion, crime, killing, negative ideas and instigation, misogyny, low self-esteem, alcoholism, drug fame as opposed to health promoting, humanitarian, Paradisian and the world you want to live in.

One big challenge the writer has is to have a daily “digest” of enough words to adequately build their vocabulary. What is often recommended is to use a Thesaurus when searching for a word or something like “Soules Dictionary of English Synonyms.” A Thesaurus will build your vocabulary out sideways. It is good to read frequently and classics with better vocabulary choices. It is worthwhile, to read the classics with a dictionary and pen and paper. To advance rapidly, read every summer or regularly the dictionary itself. There are on Amazon.com a few books on building the vocabulary, the vocabulary from classic roots, vocabulary workshop, and vocabulary flash cards. You can sign up for new words delivered to your email box on M-W’s Word of the Day. Other good places for information on writing are the “Purdue Owl” website, the “Library of Congress” Database, “Wikipedia” and the “Poetry and Writers” website.

What can ultimately be good is to organize your reading so when you first wake up in the morning you have morning reading and before bedtime reading. It is good to catch your favorite current events in the morning along with your favorite online magazines and blogs.

A nice ways to round out a personality is to heavily read in subject areas. Try subscribing to better newspapers around the world like Chinese English Papers, “NY Times,” “Washington Post,” “The Guardian” in London, “BBC News,” and international English language papers to get a good cross section of news. You can watch Mexican news on TV’s “Telemundo” plus “CNN” or other respected TV news sources for weather and broadcast news stories etc.

Other things that are nice to subscribe to or view are sources like “MXDWN,” or “Pitchfork” or “Rolling Stone,” “Entertainment Weekly,” “Noisy,” “Stereogum,” “Alternative Press,” “Brooklyn Vegan,” “BBC” and “Tone Deaf,” as some of the online music magazines.

Art Magazines like “Art in America,” “Art Forum,” “Juxtapoz,” “Virtuogenix,” “American Art Collector,” “Hi Fructose,” “Fine Art,” “La Mode,” “Photo Play,” “Art Market,” “Art News,” “Cloth Paper Scissors,” “Aperture,” “Aesthetica,” “NKA,” “Fine Art Connoisseur,” “Daguerreian Society” or art websites that regularly send email news like “E-Flux” also make for good information about art. “Bio News” is an online science news source.

More than 1600 Literary Journals can be found on the “Poetry and Writers” website at pw.org. To read things like poetry, short stories and creative writing or essays try a variety of literary magazines like “The Paris Review,” “Ploughshares,” “The Kenyon Review,” “The American Poetry Review,” “The New Yorker,” “The Atlantic,” “Poetry,” “New England Review,” “The Missouri Review,” “The Gettysburg Review,” “Cimarron Review,” “Sewanee Review,” “Antaeus,” “Esquire,” “O’Henry Awards” or “Columbia Journalism Review” or “Michigan Quarterly Review.”

There are also a variety of culinary sources out there like the blog “Cooking without Limits,” or magazines like “Bon Appetit,” “Food and Wine,” “All Recipes,” “Marth Stewart Living,” “Better Homes and Gardens.”

Try reading in an area or subscribing to journals online or in print to spruce up, to stay on top of your field and improve your skills. Many magazines can be found by searching online or in magazine.com, magazinestore.com or discount mags.com. A good writer is well informed and well-read.

A good writer’s kit may be tablets to take notes, pens, tape recorders to record notes or dialog or interviews, a telephone recorder for interviews, camera’s, video cameras, a Wi-Fi device, a telephone, a watch, a sketch pad to make a sketch or a diagram of something and maybe a pocket dictionary or if you can carry it-a laptop and work in every café with Wi-Fi around town. It may also be nice at times to have an artist’s easel and capture in paint a rendition of a place or create a set. BN.com out of New York sells telephone recording devices. It is good to get started collecting all the basic tools of the trade.