Rss FeedsTips for writing better in English
Feb 29, 2008 No Comments »
If English is the primary language of your blog then it helps a lot if you attain a certain degree of efficiency in it. You don’t need to be a literary genius but if you can communicate in an interesting, engaging manner it can keep the communication vibrant on your blog and your writing flows with the mood of the moment. The strain definitely shows through in case you are not comfortable writing what you are writing.
Just read an excellent post by Jarkko at NorthxEast where he has explained how you can improve your English writing proficiency by doing certain things like listening to native English speakers, reading good books in English and thinking in English when you are writing in English. Although Jarkko has covered practically all the aspects of improving your written English (except for doing a PhD) 
would like to add that a good vocabulary also helps you a lot especially when you have to articulate comparatively tricky issues.
I would quickly like to add here that listening to native English speaking people doesn’t necessarily improve your English language because being able to speak the language facilely, they rarely learn it properly unless of course if speaking and writing is a professional or public necessity for them (but then blogging is mostly conversational doesn’t require you to learn the language properly). On the contrary, people in India follow a stricter regime when they are learning English as a foreign language. But I think this is natural.
Not only English, to learn any language you should interact with the native speakers and read plenty of books written in that language.
Reading is quite easy these days due to the Internet and you can offer no excuse, just as myself, if you don’t read enough. Even if you can spend 20 minutes every day reading literature (I mean literature in the real sense) present on various websites it is more than enough.
Posted by Amrit Hallan | Tags: Quick Writing Tips
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When is the best time to write?
Feb 25, 2008 No Comments »
There never seems to be the right time to write. Your brain goes into a tizzy of obfuscation the moment you think about writing. I’m talking about creative writing not the usual professional stuff you might be writing; professional writing to be frank doesn’t require too much imagination although it definitely needs talent. If you’re wondering what I mean by professional writing, it is like writing technical manuals, corporate literature, instructional content, and articles mainly dealing with data. In professional writing you just have to present the information you already have in an interesting manner.
Creative writing involves writing stories, novels, investigative books, and blog entries where you have to articulate your own thoughts. For instance you may call this blog post creative writing because I’m mostly writing it using the ideas that I have in my mind and not using the facts present all over the Internet. Making your mind process the ideas and then convert those ideas into words sometimes becomes a hard nut to crack and this is how you sometimes end up with a writer’s block.
So what is the best time to write?
It is a time when you’re feeling totally relaxed and you know that nobody and nothing is going to bother you for at least an hour or few hours. You should not be feeling hungry, tired, or disturbed. Although great works have been written under the excruciating conditions mentioned in the previous sentence but let us say they can be avoided so make the arrangements that they remain avoided.
If you live with your family then you will have to choose a time when there are very few activities in the house. The ideal time is at night when most of the people in your house are asleep. If you are a lonely writer than believe me you are a lucky writer and if you’re not utilizing your time than you are missing a very big opportunity the fate has bestowed upon you.
I prefer night because the darkness is a perfect ambience to dabble with literature; at that time even nature doesn’t disturb you. Even if you sit by the window you cannot see anything outside.
What time is your best time?
Posted by Amrit Hallan | Tags: Quick Writing Tips
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Put your thoughts into words
Feb 19, 2008 No Comments »
As soon as you can. Our mind is a breeding ground of great thoughts. A difference between great thinkers and "common people" is that great thinkers know how to preserve their thoughts and then arrange them in a logical manner. You too can write great stuff if you develop the habit of preserving your thoughts using either pen and paper or your computer or simply some recording device. In the beginning even if you think that you are writing very stupid things and they don’t really matter much don’t get bothered, just write them down. Sometimes even inane things, with a few shufflings of a word here and a comma there, turn into memorable quotable quotes. A lot of story ideas can come out of random thoughts. It will also be interesting to go back and see what and how you were thinking, say, six months ago or a year ago. Writing day-to-day thoughts is one of the biggest challenges writers face; master this art and you will be soon working your way towards writing a classic.
Posted by Amrit Hallan | Tags: Quick Writing Tips
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