50 Articles to Improve your Writing

Aug 7, 2008

The Poynter Institute is a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalists, but even if you are not a journalist all writers/filmmakers can learn for their site. Here is a list of a 50 articles by Roy Peter Clark from the Poynter site that all writers should all read.

Writing Tool #1: Branch to the Right

Writing Tool #2: Use Strong Verbs

Writing Tool #3: Beware of Adverbs

Writing Tool #4: Period As a Stop Sign

Writing Tool #5: Observe Word Territory

Writing Tool #6: Play with Words

Writing Tool #7: Dig for the Concrete and Specific

Writing Tool #8: Seek Original Images

Writing Tool #9: Prefer Simple to Technical

Writing Tool #10: Recognize Your Story’s Roots

Writing Tool #11 Back Off or Show Off

Writing Tool #12: Control the Pace

Writing Tool #13: Show and Tell

Writing Tool #14: Interesting Names

Writing Tool #15: Reveal Character Traits

Writing Tool #16: Odd and Interesting Things

Writing Tool #17: The Number of Elements

Writing Tool #18: Internal Cliffhangers

Writing Tool #19: Tune Your Voice

Writing Tool #20: Narrative Opportunities

Writing Tool #21: Quotes and Dialogue

Writing Tool #22: Get Ready

Writing Tool #23: Place Gold Coins Along the Path

Writing Tool #24: Name the Big Parts

Writing Tool #25: Repeat

Writing Tool #26: Fear Not the Long Sentence

Writing Tool #27: Riffing for Originality

Writing Tool #28: Writing Cinematically

Writing Tool #29: Report for Scenes

Writing Tool #30: Write Endings to Lock the Box

Writing Tool #31: Parallel Lines

Writing Tool #32: Let It Flow

Writing Tool #33: Rehearsal

Writing Tool #34: Cut Big, Then Small

Writing Tool #35: Use Punctuation

Writing Tool #36: Write A Mission Statement for Your Story

Writing Tool #37: Long Projects

Writing Tool #38: Polish Your Jewels

Writing Tool #39: The Voice of Verbs

Writing Tool #40: The Broken Line

Writing Tool #41: X-Ray Reading

Writing Tool #42: Paragraphs

Writing Tool #43: Self-criticism

Writing Tool #44: Save String

Writing Tool #45: Foreshadow

Writing Tool #46: Storytellers, Start Your Engines

Writing Tool #47: Collaboration

Writing Tool #48: Create An Editing Support Group

Writing Tool #49: Learn from Criticism

Writing Tool #50: The Writing Process

Writing to a Quota

Writing Pressure: The Theft of Time

Writing for Editing

Writing better scene descriptions

Write What You Know

When All That’s Left Is Writing: Turning Anxiety Into Creativity

What’s Wrong With The Three Act Structure

Want to Write Interesting Screenplays? Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

Visualization in Screenwriting

Turn Anything Into a Screenplay