#1 Create a History

Every person has a past, so it is important to create a past for your character – even if you do not share the entire contents of that past. People evolve over the years because of their experiences and surroundings throughout their lives, and your fictional character is no different, so you need to develop a fictional past for him or her. When you are initially developing a new character, you are getting to know that character, just as your readers will get to know that character when they read your story. It is important to understand why your character will react or make decisions the way that he or she does, so it is important to have a back story that goes along with the personality that has been created for that character over the years.

#2 Show (don’t tell) His or Her Emotions

If you have not heard the phrase now, you will a lot throughout most of your English related courses: show, don’t tell. Simply saying that your character is feeling sad is not a proper description of a realistic character. People don’t feel the same emotions in the same way. Some people cry when they are sad, while others scream or go completely silent. You need to show how your characters are feeling, rather than just say how they are feeling.

Bad Example: Nora became angry after reading the letter. She just couldn’t stand it anymore.

Good Example: Nora’s face became hot after reading the letter. She viciously began to tear                       apart the envelope when she couldn’t look at its content any more.

Showing a character’s emotions through actions lets your readers get a better idea of what kind of personality someone like Nora has.

#3 Give Your Character Habits or Quirks

People are remembered for the little things they do that are different from anyone else, and everyone has something peculiar them that seems unique. Giving an interesting habit or strange quirk lends personality to your character. It can be as small as eating M&Ms all the time, but refusing to eat any other kind of chocolate. Or as big as having your character insist on eating at the exact same restaurant every day, and is thrown off if something disturbs this regimen. Whatever habit or quirk you give your character will allow your readers to get to know him or her better. Sometimes you can give an explanation for the behavior, but you don’t always have to. Either way, your readers will have another reason to think, “Hey, this character is interesting.”

#4 Show Relationships

We can learn a lot about individuals by the way they interact with others. If your character is very sociable, then you should show the character interacting with a lot of random people at work, talking on the phone, and even chatting with strangers on the street. But, if the character is more of a recluse and only has one or two friends, show the bond between those few characters, and maybe even show the uncomfortable feeling that character gets when dealing with new individuals.

#5 Reveal Character’s Hopes, Dreams, Aspirations

People live their lives with a particular purpose. They don’t just go through the motions of school or work without having some reason to do so. If you are going to show that your character is unhappy with his or her job, then be sure to explain why that character continues to keep that job – what is his or her motivation? Is she saving up for a car? Is he trying to pay off a loan? These are the kinds of questions that readers ask about characters who are interesting. And, if you are answering those questions, then your readers are going to enjoy your character and your style of writing that much more.

Step #1 Prewrite

Yes, you hear your instructors tell you all the time to prewrite, but do you ever listen to them? Prewriting (which is listed in another blog) is not just a way to organize your thoughts and get down ideas, it is another way to look at your writing project and force yourself to write. Getting past your writer’s block is often just a matter of looking at your task from a different perspective (or looking around your writer’s block, if you will). If you can brainstorm or outline some ideas for your writing, then you have a better chance at feeling confident and putting your pen to the paper to start writing. With all of the different methods of prewriting, there really isn’t any reason not to use at least one of them when you’re stumped.

Step #2 Write Backwards

Even after the prewriting is finished, you may still feel uncertain how you want to word your thoughts exactly. If that’s the case, jot down your ideas out of order – write the end first and the beginning last if you must. Sometimes your ideas may be scattered, which is why you are having trouble focusing on just one idea. Maybe your mind is blank with your introduction, but you know what you want to write for your body paragraphs. If that is the case, then just skip ahead. Write down whatever good ideas you think you have and reorganize them later.

Step #3 Take Your Opposing Side

If you are really uncomfortable with your topic and feel you have absolutely nothing to write about, then you may want to take yourself out of your own head and put it into someone else’s. This has nothing to do with cheating. You are supposed to write the opposite of what you really feel. Or, think of what other people would say about your subject. It may be easier putting down what you think other people feel or believe than what you actually believe. Your confidence in your own ideas may be what stops your writing. Do not use this technique all of the time though. There are some assignments where you need to give your honest opinion, and this method of breaking writer’s block may not always be suitable.

Step #4 Just Write!

It may sound harsh, but sometimes you just have to force your pen to move on the paper or to have your fingers move across the keyboard. Often people refuse to write anything because they don’t think their ideas or words are good enough. Well, when you’re struggling, writing something is better than writing nothing. Put down whatever comes to mind whether or not you think it sounds good. You can always fix it later, which is how we come to Step 5 in breaking the writer’s block.

Step #5 Walk Away… and Come Back

Sometimes students are just not in the right state-of-mind to write. If there are a bunch of things running through your head, you may need to just set up your writing assignment as best as you can and walk away from it for a while. When you come back to whatever writing you have put down, you may feel more inclined to fix your ideas and even add more ideas down on paper. Depending on how much time you have for your writing, walking away from your assignment for an hour or a full day may be just what you need to come back to your writing and look at your project with a clear head. When you come back to your writing, look it over with a critical eye, as if it were someone else’s paper, and see what you do and do not like about it. And then, take your writing from there. Unless you are taking an in-class essay, this method can be a great way to clear your mind. Otherwise, you’ll have to rely on a different method of break down that writer’s wall.

Although many students don’t like the idea of doing extra work before they actually start their homework, writing an impressive essay actually requires putting in a little extra effort prior to putting  together a final draft. Prewriting techniques involve warming up your – the student’s – brain, organizing ideas, and setting up a plan before diving straight into writing a composition. It may take just a little extra time, but you will find that if you practice some prewriting  before every essay you write, your papers will be better written overall, which will in effect give a better overall grade. Ten or fifteen minutes of extra work may be the difference between a B and an A grade for your paper. And, with all of the different techniques you can use to prewrite, there really is no excuse not to use at least one of them.

Brainstorming

Writing down every idea that is related to your topic in a list form is one of the simplest forms of prewriting, which is called brainstorming. The great thing about brainstorming is that you can put anything in the list that pops into your head. If your topic is on birds and you have random thoughts like,

-They fly

-They’re pretty

-They squawk

-They poop on people’s heads

All of those things would be fine because your brainstorming ideas are related to your topic on birds.

Mapping, Clustering, Bubbling, Webbing

It has several different names, but whatever you want to call it, it is one of the quickest ways to organize ideas in a fun manner. Circling ideas and linking the related ones that surround your main idea is a messy way to be organized… which ends up feeling a lot more enjoyable than most homework does. And, since your related ideas are clustered together, your separate body paragraphs are already prepared for you. What’s better than a prewriting technique that’s fun and easy?

Free Writing

There is nothing more freeing than knowing you can write whatever you want without worrying about grammar, spelling, structure, or coherence. That is the joy of free writing – you are free to make mistakes and write whatever you want. The trick is to force yourself to continually keep your pen on the paper and write whatever thought comes to mind, while trying to think of your essay’s subject. You may go off topic at times, but that is okay. You do not want to stop or correct your free writing because you may lose a train of thought that could be useful to you later. Just force yourself to keep writing, and you will eventually have enough material to use in your composition. By reading over your free writing afterwards, you should highlight or underline any ideas you find useful to your essay.

Outlining

Although outlining is more structured than other forms of prewriting, it is a very useful format to use in order to have your essay organized prior to writing your essay, which was explained in a previous “how-to” (see “Writing Outlines”). Outlines also help your essay stay on topic. By outlining your body paragraphs with their specific points, it is easy to just refer to your ideas written in your outline before you begin writing your composition.

Asking Questions

Sometimes the only way students will work is if they feel they are being forced to. Asking yourself questions is a way to make yourself feel forced into coming up with ideas for your essay. The standard reporter’s questions – Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? – are great ways to begin asking yourself questions about your topic. If you are still writing a composition about birds, ask yourself, “Who likes birds?” or “What kinds of birds are there?” or “Where do birds live?” Obviously, you can bend these questions to your own needs; these are just ways to force yourself into coming up with answers that will inevitably lead to ideas for your essay.

Maybe you are familiar with the writing major’s curse: once the semester ends, and there are no looming deadlines or in-class essays, your motivation to write suddenly shrinks. It’s a bit of a paradox, really, because there are few students who long for homework assignments, and yet the regularity of a school schedule does insure productivity. But what happens when classes end, and you sit down to a blank page or a glaring computer screen, only to realize that you have no idea what to write? Today we suggest 5 Ways to Write Outside of Class, ideas that hopefully will rev your creative engine, and, who knows, beef up your resume while you’re at it.

5. Journalism and Media Internships

Whether you are a diehard poet or a regular blogger, your interest in writing already makes you stand out as a potential journalist. Although many say that the era of print journalism is dying out, some skills, such as pitching stories, interviewing subjects, and working under deadline, are universal in any medium. Regardless if you live in a bustling metropolitan hub or a small college town, there is always a reliable news source nearby. Some independent corporations offer internships in specialized fields, such as The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Media Internships in Health Reporting , while most newspaper chains such as The Washington Post have regular, term-length internship programs.

Even if a paper or organization doesn’t advertise an internship program, it never hurts to ask. Many small news organizations and publications rely on a small staff, and might offer to train you if volunteer your services.

4. Volunteer at Your Local Theater

This is a great opportunity for future Tony Kushners and Suzan-Lori Parkses . Sometimes the best way to become a better writer is to expose yourself to as much as possible: drama, comedy, one-acts, solo performances, dance, music, and community theater. Many theaters host rotating theatrical seasons, or might feature celebrated playwrights or artists-in-residence. Prominent theaters, such as the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky, offer internships in everything from dramaturgy to education to acting.  If you’re not certain yet what kind of theater interests you the most, you can always volunteer as an usher, which, as I’ve been told, is a great way to get free theater tickets.

3. Become a Tutor

For many people, the best way to learn is to teach, because it reinforces what they already know. Many elementary and middle schools may need counselors for after-school activities, or might offer tutoring workshops for kids in specialized areas. Some university programs, such as the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, offer arts programs for local kids, and rely on a young staff to help teach fun classes such as poetry, photography, and painting. Smaller schools might also offer opportunities to work as a teaching assistant, which is a valuable experience for potential teachers.

2. Check out Your Local Radio Station

Many college radio stations reserve time slots for beginner deejays and novice news producers. If you are interested in digital media or the music industry, radio is a great place to start. Prominent National Public Radio member stations, such as KQED in San Francisco, WNYC in New York, and WBEZ in Chicago, often accept interns and volunteers on a rolling basis. Smaller stations, such as San Francisco’s KALW, produce local news programs and often train volunteers how to report, as well as how to engineer audio.  If anything, the opportunity to weave writing skills into serving your community always looks good on your resume.

1. Join a Writing Workshop

I know what you’re thinking—another class? Writing workshops aren’t exactly equivalent to classes, although they can be if you want them to. Many communities host writing classes and clubs through social organizations, and some site-specific courses, such as San Francisco’s Writing Salon or New York City’s Gotham Writing Workshop,  are popular. Or, you can start your own group—why not? Gather a group of friends, set up a writing schedule, and make time to swap stories and offer feedback.

Writing, unlike, say, medicine, isn’t a craft that must be studied chronologically in order to be understood. Therein lies the inherent dilemma: how can one seemingly absorb all the skills necessary to be a successful writer while maintaining an original style and personality? We hope that our 5 Ways to Write Outside Class have offered some insight into the world of writing beyond school.

What gets you to write? Share your tips with us!

by Adam Krause

One of the best pieces of advice about writing comes from William Faulkner, who said, “I only write when I’m inspired. Fortunately, I’m inspired at 9 o’ clock every morning.” If you wait for an otherworldly message from the Muse to hit you before you sit down at the desk, you may have the same odds of being inspired to write as you do of being struck by lightning. It often helps to have some specific, small challenge to meet that gets you to think about the writing process in a new way. In this, the first installment of a series, Eduify presents five ideas to help you start writing fiction.

1) Surprise your characters.

At some point, almost every writer produces a story about a jaded young person who makes cynical, knowing comments about everything around her, but has no challenges or obstacles to confront that she isn’t already prepared for. This is wasting an opportunity to draw in the reader with tension and conflict. Often, the most interesting scenes in fiction are those in which a character is knocked off guard and has to adapt to the situation.

For instance, you might write a scene in which a character has to pretend to be someone they are not, in order to negotiate a set of tricky circumstances. In the process, they might grow into the new identity with more confidence. (This is a variation on the many identities everyone assumes in the course of a normal social day: to quote Indian author Vikram Chandra, “It is very common for a person to speak one language at home, use another on the street, do business in a third, and make love in a fourth.”) Or you might take a cue from Douglas’ Adams Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in which one sodden, unhappy character is always followed by rain clouds. He is a rain god, and doesn’t know it. Create a character that causes trouble, or some other recurring event, wherever they go, and has to deal with the consequences.

Finally, you could write a scene between two characters that do not speak the same language, but urgently have to communicate. You do not necessarily have to be bilingual to write such a scene. The important thing is not what the characters, initially unintelligible to one another, say; it is their conflict or cooperation as they deal with the unusual situation that could make the scene into compelling fiction.

2) Stretch your style.

French experimental author Raymond Queneau wrote a book called Exercises in Style, in which a mundane encounter on a bus (an older man tells a young man in a tall hat to move aside, and the narrator later sees the same young man in a tailor’s shop having a button on his coat raised) is written in 99 different and increasingly wild prose styles. For instance, one of the entries is written from the point of view of the inanimate objects in the scene, who naturally see themselves as more important than the people. Another narrator, who uses the anecdote to lodge a complaint against the government, substitutes “taxpayer” each time a person is mentioned.

As a reading experience, the book sometimes feels like it is spinning its wheels. However, as a writing exercise to imitate, it is excellent. Take notes on a public encounter that you witness (something involving at least two characters) and write the same scene using five or more writing styles. If you can’t think of five styles, try taking on the mantles of different authors that you admire. How is the way that hard-boiled detective author Raymond Chandler would see a scene different than the way that free-associative, lyrical James Joyce would see it? Knowing that the author’s palette of words, or how they choose to write about something, is at least as important as what they choose to write about, should always keep you from complaining that you don’t have any writing material.

3) Make headlines.

Now that supermarket tabloids are all about celebrity gossip and unflattering photos captured by paparazzi, it makes one nostalgic for the bygone age of Weekly World News and the old National Enquirer, whose stories were primarily composed of supernatural nonsense. “Bat Boy Endorses Al Gore” was a typical headline, accompanied by photos of a Nosferatu-faced feral creature standing next to the smiling vice president at a campaign rally. “A Baffled Scientist” was often the source quoted for expert opinion.

Make up your own outlandish headline and then write an accompanying fake newspaper story, or other short work of fiction, to go along with it. Or go the opposite route: look in a more legitimate newspaper for a local, national or international story that tells what happened, but not why it happened. Making up the background – the nuanced relationships between characters that eventually led to a newsworthy occurrence, which might be the climax of your story – is part of the fiction writer’s job.

4) Family ties.

One of the deepest seams a writer can mine is their family. But you don’t have to be limited to your own experiences, with your parents as parents and you as the child. You can go back in time and show, with all the clarity and immediacy of fiction, the origin stories of how people became the way they are.

For instance, you might write a scene in which your parents meet for the first time. Did they have a memorable first date? What details of another time and place could come out when you imagine that scene in detail? Or you might have an eccentric uncle who collects rare fish and seems to prefer their company to that of people. What paths in his life may have led him to that state? Pick anyone in your family over the age of, say, forty, and just from anecdotes you have half-listened to, you probably know enough about their past to make them a complex and compelling fictional character. If you don’t know something in their history, make it up. They never have to read it, and you might now be halfway to creating a character of your own.

5) Personal inventories.

There are many ways into a character, but one reliable and deceptively easy way to figure out the person you are rendering on the page is through the objects around them. Some objects reveal a person’s profession and standing in the world: a student’s private school uniform, a musician’s jazz trumpet, a police officer’s badge. Others reveal their personal tastes and quirks: a collection of swizzle straws, a fridge full of condiments but no food. What do your characters have in their sock drawers, duffel bags, coat pockets, locked safes, space shuttles?

Make a list of at least a dozen items each of the characters in your story keep with them. Try to keep these objects physical and tangible so that you can describe them, and stay away from using digital possessions – iPod libraries, and the contents of Facebook photo albums – to sum up your characters, unless their music tastes and embarrassing photographs are absolutely key to who they are. Even if little or none of this information ends up in the story itself, it will make the characters seem that much more real, since the author has gone to the work of imagining their inner lives. And, most importantly, it might be a simple enough project that it breaks your mental block and gets you writing in the first place.

Step 1: Read the Directions Slowly

Do not read the instructions fast. This is not a race, and getting through the instructions quickly will not do any good if you do not understand the instructions fully. It may sound silly or overly simplistic, but all too often students hastily read over the instructions and start writing their essays without realizing that they have missed a particular point in the prompt.

Step 2: Read the Directions More than Once

Some things are missed on the first read-through. Go over the instructions at least twice before you start writing your essay; read them again while you are in the middle of writing; and, read them at the end of writing your essay. It may sound like a lot of reading, but it is very easy to forget certain bits of information required in your compositions. You could start writing your essay, get some really good ideas, and have a great flow of words pour forth. But, your writing could also have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Instead of writing a biography of yourself, you began to focus on your mother’s history instead of sticking to how she raised you. This is why it is important to refer back to your instructions in the middle and at the end of writing, so you know that your ideas are staying on track.

Step 3: Highlight or Underline Specific Points

If the directions are a bit long, then it is a good idea to highlight or underline steps in the prompt you may forget. It is far from juvenile to write on your directions to clarify things. If anything, there are many teachers who are pleased to see that students underline important points. Teachers feel that if you are underlining parts of the instructions, you are doing your best to follow them correctly.

Step 4: Look Up Confusing Words or Phrases

Understanding directions is your top priority. If there are parts in the directions that are confusing, either ask your teacher to explain them, or look up the words in the dictionary. Do not be embarrassed to ask your teacher questions. It is better to ask for help before following the directions than to get back a bad grade that confirms you misunderstood the prompt.

The fall semester is drawing to a close, and you are having that dream again. The one where you show up on the last day of class, assuming all your work is done, just to find out that your entire grade is riding on a semester-long research paper. The one you have seemingly forgotten. Your palms begin to sweat as your classmates share war stories about staying up all night revising their work, and then the professor turns to you, asking: “Where’s your paper?”

And then, hopefully, you wake up. Right?

Not to worry, fearless readers; there is still time left in the semester to polish up (or, err, start) your research paper. We’ve got five tips that will help you ace that term paper, or, at the very least, remind you to do it. Here goes:

1. Memorize the essay prompt.

Regardless the class, regardless the topic, every professor has a reason for asking his or her students to write a term paper. Take the words of the essay prompt to heart: what exactly are being asked to do? Are you comparing and contrasting ideas? Are you applying class concepts to a specific field? Are you making an argument for or against something? When drafting your paper, keep in mind every key term from the prompt, as well as any major concepts from the class, and be sure that your thesis includes class terminology. Every paragraph should introduce a new idea or support an argument, while simultaneously supporting the overarching idea.

2. Refer to class sources.

Whenever you get stuck, return to the materials your professor has assigned over the course of the class. Even if the text does not support your argument directly, you still have to demonstrate that you have done the reading. Refer back to your class syllabus to see how your ideas relate back to the overall themes of the class. Review previous homework assignments and class notes. Many professors these days have websites that list course materials and associated resources—use them.

3. Go to office hours.

That’s right—ask for help. Depending on how much time you have left, you might still be able to schedule an appointment with your professor or teaching assistant. This is a good opportunity to clarify any questions you may have about the assignment, and it also shows them your dedication not only to the class, but to the field. Most professors and lecturers are required to provide a certain amount of office hours per semester, and they would rather talk to you about your paper before it is due, then have to spend more time grading one written the night before.

4. Write, rewrite, write.

Give yourself as much time as possible to explore the topic. Only have one day? Divvy up your time into manageable chunks: notes, outline, first draft, edits and revision, second draft. The key to writing anything well is to write it more than once, as we mentioned in our Personal Statement post. Whatever you do, don’t turn in the first draft you write. Regardless how smart you are, how well you know the material, or how expertly you write, it is always important to review your paper for minor errors you might skip over the first time.

5. Get feedback.

One of my professors used to say that words can colonize us; the more familiar we are with a text, the more we trust that it is written flawlessly. After spending lots of time researching your topic and drafting your paper, you might not notice small spelling or grammatical errors. Or, even worse, you might have a lot of great material, but fail to answer the professor’s question. Either way, one good way to perfect your paper is to share it with someone. If you need help day or night, you can always drop into Eduify. We can give you help day or night. Try reading your paper out loud—you might catch more grammatical and structural errors.

Hang in there; the semester’s nearly over. Follow these tips and surely that homework nightmare will be just that—a dream. What helps you write papers? What resources do you use? Let us know!

If creative writing is supposed to be about finding an original way to say something, why do people so often fall back on the same few tired phrases when telling other people how to do it? For every nugget of time-honored writing wisdom, there are a dozen great writers that have broken the rule and lived to tell about it. Here are five pearls of wisdom about what to do, and what not to do, when writing. Are these stepping stones to success, or a rock slide that will crush your creativity? You be the judge!

1) “Begin at the beginning.”

How many times have you heard this? It comes from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, during Alice’s mock trial, when the White Rabbit asks where he should begin in his testimony and the King instructs him to “Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end, then stop.” The joke is that this advice is useless, because wherever the White Rabbit begins is the beginning, and wherever he stops is the end. Surreal advice from a character who has just told Alice that she is in contempt of court because she is two miles high has been taken as gospel by writing teachers and hard-nosed journalistic editors alike.

In fact, where to begin and where to stop are entirely up to the author, and they are two of the most complex and significant choices a writer makes. Do you start with a mysterious action scene and then jump backward in time (so that the second paragraph of your story uses the well-worn phrase, “It all started when…”) Do you begin with the character’s birth or, like Orson Welles in the film Citizen Kane or Leo Tolstoy in “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” with his death? Or do you just start your story with the character getting out of bed in the morning?

To take one example that clearly violates this “rule,” Martin Amis’ novel Time’s Arrow begins at the end and goes backward. The narrator perceives time in the wrong direction, so that he goes to the grocery store and receives money before putting everything back on the shelves, and he sends his emergency-room patients out looking worse than when they came in. This fundamental mistake, which continues through the entire novel, proves to be poignant when the role he played during the Holocaust is revealed.

Whatever beginning you ultimately choose for your story doesn’t have to be the part you first get down on paper. Plunge into what interests you most, and perhaps once you’ve made it to the end, you will see the beginning in a different light.

2) “Avoid clichés like the plague.”

This is a coinage of recently deceased right-wing New York Times columnist William Safire. It is taken as good advice, with the self-deprecating twist that it is itself wrapped inside of a cliché. Of course, we wouldn’t still be repeating it if that cliché weren’t attached to it to make it memorable.

The word “cliché” has the same origin as the word “stereotype”: a printing shortcut. When type was set one word at a time, it was convenient to combine oft-used phrases into a single block, so that you could just stamp “A penny saved is a penny earned” into the middle of your pamphlet or broadsheet and move on. Ironically, to become a cliché in the modern sense, a phrase has to be striking and original the first time you hear it. (Or the tenth time: I still think I’m being witty whenever I say “Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends.”)

So clichés aren’t bad writing on their own, they’re just mechanical. You should indeed avoid them, for the same reason you stay away from plagiarism: it may be harder to come up with your own quotable, memorable distillations of complex ideas, but there’s more satisfaction and glory in it than when you swipe someone else’s phrase. The greatest honor your fresh, creative aphorism could be paid is to become a cliché some day. Then you can laugh at everyone else who uses it. As the unarguably original painter Salvador Dali put it: “The first man to compare the flabby cheeks of a woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was probably an idiot.”

3) “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

This quote has been attributed to Confucius (who never, as far as we know, said anything of the kind) as well as to Napoleon Bonaparte, who wanted a clear report from the battlefield and said impatiently to one of his generals, “A good sketch is better than a long speech.”  However, its modern phrasing comes from neither of these sages but from a 1921 advertising campaign to put ads on the side of streetcars. It makes sense that the originators of this philosophy would be in the business of selling pictures.

Why a thousand words? It’s not that many: a little longer than the average newspaper column, a little shorter than this windy blog post. I’m sure people have tried to do a conversion of sorts, typing out thousand-word descriptions of Van Gogh’s Starry Night or Georges-Pierre Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon On the Island of La Grand Jatte, and I’m sure these compositions have fallen short of the original painting’s arresting power. Great painting gives the impression of the universe frozen at a single significant moment, and great writing, by contrast, seems to flow seamlessly from one moment to the next, part of an endless Scheherazade-like story. It’s hard to reconcile the two art forms, though more and more cool graphic novels are doing it (check out Eduify’s recent graphic novel post!)

If you want to turn your words directly into a picture, try Wordle. It will turn any block of text, no matter how long, into a cloud graphic of your most prominently occurring words. Then you can decide for yourself how many pictures your words are worth.

4) “Show, don’t tell.”

There is definitely some truth here. The essence of the statement – that information is more likely to move and interest a reader if it is described in tangible, sensory details or dramatized through character actions, so that we can draw our own conclusions from the evidence at hand – is good advice for writers who need to be reminded to fully imagine the world they want to convey. A sentence like “Riding at the back of the train car is exciting” contains the same opinion as, but is less gripping than, this sentence from Richard Yates’ novel Revolutionary Road:

“The way for a man to ride was erect and out in the open, out in the loud iron passageway where the wind whipped his necktie, standing with his feet set wide apart on the shuddering, clangoring floorplates, taking deep pulls from a pinched cigarette until its burning end was a needle of fire and quivering paper ash and then snapping it straight as a bullet into the roaring speed of the roadbed, while the suburban towns wheeled slowly along the pink and gray dust of seven o’ clock.”

However, don’t take the advice too literally. Sometimes the author does need to frame things for us, move quickly through stretches of time from one interesting scene to the next, or convey a large idea in a character’s thoughts that may not have a physical detail it can be linked to. All these are versions of “telling,” which can be its own art. Consider this sentence from the aforementioned story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” by Tolstoy: “Though his salary was now higher, the cost of living was greater, besides which two of their children died, so that family life became still more unpleasant for Ivan Ilyich.” That the deaths of two of his children is the second grievance listed in that sentence, less important than inflation, seems a shocking understatement. But it gets our attention and drives home Tolstoy’s point that Ivan Ilyich is a man who puts financial advancement above everything truly important. Moreover, its deft irony relies on its very refusal to engage our imaginations: it would be impossible to create the same effect if Tolstoy wrote two long, weepy scenes of children succumbing to nineteenth-century diseases.

Keep your language interesting and your story moving at an expedient pace. “Showing” and “telling” are different ways to meet those challenges, and writers need to have both in their toolboxes.

5) “Write what you know.”

Probably no quote has done more to stifle imagination in beginning writers than this one. It is usually interpreted as advice to stick to autobiography: subjects from your childhood, or what you did last weekend. Or perhaps to expand your range of first-hand experience – skydiving, sea voyages around the world – for purposes of writing fiction about it.

Trying to make your life more interesting just to fuel your fiction is rarely a good idea, and while many great careers have been founded on autobiography and memoir, you can also write a story that combines a bit of experience with a lot of imagination. Margaret Atwood looked around at societal limitations on women, and extrapolated a terrifying future society in The Handmaid’s Tale that took these trends to their logical extent. Patrick O’Brian, who lived all his life in the twentieth century, wrote twenty novels set during the Napoleonic wars. Through research, you can add almost anything to the category of “what you know.” The rest is imagination, whether plotting out a dystopian universe or just imagining how your characters think or what they would do in a given situation. Give your fictional creations the same range of emotions you have gone through yourself, and you will always be writing what you know.

Jesse Thorn, also known as “America’s Radio Sweetheart,” is the creator, host, and producer of the nationally syndicated radio show The Sound of Young America. Jesse sums up his philosophy best on his blog and public forum, MaximumFun.org, by simply explaining that The Sound of Young America is “a public radio show about things that are awesome.” By “things,” he means writers, comedians, filmmakers, musicians, and entertainment personalities such as David Cross, Ira Glass, Patton Oswalt, John Hodgman, and Art Spieglman.

Jesse got his start at UC Santa Cruz, where he and his friends Jordan Morris and Gene O’Neill began the program in 2000.  After a few years of co-hosting, Jesse went solo in fall 2004, and made the program available as an Itunes podcast later that year. Public Radio International began distributing The Sound of Young America nationally in 2006.

In addition to The Sound of Young America, Jesse also produces and co-hosts Jordan, Jesse, GO!, manages the MaximumFun forum, and produces the Kasper Hauser and Coyle and Sharpe comedy podcasts. In this installment of Writing Careers: Real Tips from Real Writers, Jesse shared some insight on what it means to be a public radio host.

How did you get interested in public radio?

I was always a public radio listener. Whatever its faults, and it certainly has some, you can rely on public radio to treat you like a human being with a brain, which is more than can be said of almost any other mass media outlet.  I knew that if I made something, I would want it to talk up to my audience, and not down, and public radio was the one place where that was an asset and not a liability.

Like a lot of younger people in public radio, it was when I heard This American Life, in high school, that it occurred to me that maybe there was a place for me in public radio.  Not because I wanted to make something like that, but because it wasn’t news, which I had no interest in, and it was something completely different.  It reminded me that the values of public radio — intelligence, patience, that kind of thing — were at its core, not a particular demographic.

Who or what inspired you to create the Sound of Young America?

I just invited my two funniest friends (Jordan Morris and Gene O’Neill) to do a radio show with me, basically. Once I figured out how easy it was to get on the air, it seemed like a natural decision.  As far as what kept me doing it, I guess you’d say inertia.  I knew I liked doing it, but I didn’t know how I could make a living, so I figured I might as well keep on driving down to Santa Cruz until I figured it out.  The school was supportive in that they let me continue, but it was a very hands-off situation.  Everyone at the station was doing their own thing on the air, and while I never exactly had any mentorship or instruction, nobody ever bothered me and everyone was exceptionally nice.  That was actually more important than it may sound, because I was doing something that was pretty out of character for the station.

How do you choose your guests?

I listen to my listeners, and I follow my own interests and passions.  I’m in constant dialogue with my audience about guests, but I also have really strong tastes, and I think those tastes are what make the show special.  It isn’t the widest-ranging show on the air, but I don’t think it should be.  It’s a place for discovery, curated like a great boutique.

What advice do you have for students interested in radio and/or podcasting?

Get started and get better.  Audio equipment will cost you a couple hundred bucks.  You can edit on the computer you already have.  Start a podcast, work to make it good, and make new material regularly.  Focus on improving your product.  Share it, get feedback.  And don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Have thoughts for Jesse, or want to learn more about public radio? The Sound of Young America is carried by many local radio stations, and is available as a free podcast through iTunes. You can also join the MaximumFun forum to learn more about his upcoming projects.

Writers Block is a formidable foe.  The following 10 tactics will help you fight writers block and get started on your writing project!  Way back in my high school days I remember having to do stream of consciousness writing projects in class.  These were simple exercises where we wrote down whatever streamed into our brains.  This task helped me come to realize that having great writing is not the most important part. Having great Editing is. If you have suffered from writers block in the past, don’t worry, the problem was all in your head. Take these next 10 tips to heart, clear your mind, and get ready for worry free writing!

(image via drawn)

1. Pace Yourself

Often Writers Block is a symptom of deadline stress. With an impending due date fast approaching the task of writing a paper can seem insurmountable. Quell such unproductive thoughts by planning your writing ahead of time. If you plan to write just one page per sitting then you will not feel so overwhelmed by the task at large.

2. Exercise before you Write

I took this advice last night. When I got back from my run/walk to the gym I got started and wrote the introduction to this Blog Post with no hesitation. Going for a good walk or jog gets the heart pumping and I find that when my heart rate is up my writing and mind become sharper.

3. Find Quotations First

This tip especially helps if you are still unsure of exactly what you want to write about. Finding great quotes that you can identify with expedites the writing process by giving you something to write around.  If you enjoy the Quotes you find, the entire writing process will become more fun!

4. Just Start Writing

Nike’s motto does not just apply to athletics. Even when it comes to writing: Just do it!  The sooner you start writing the sooner you will finish.  The more you manage to do the more attainable your task will seem. Add effort and difficulty decreases.

5. Crowd Source your Ideas

If you ever need help with a writing question Eduify has developed a Twitter based support system that you can use for free. Just send your writing questions to via Twitter to our @askEduify support node. Send us a Tweet and we will get back to you as soon as we can. We can even retweet your question to our followers, many of whom have a career in writing or are at least interested in the discipline. Asking Eduify can produce a quality answer for your writing question, and fast.

6. Grab a Coffee

Start by doing something to move your paper forward.  Write an outline, find some quotes, or write the first paragraph.  Then reward yourself with a delicious coffee or other caffeinated beverage of your choice.  Not only will grabbing this drink make you feel good about what you have already achieved, it will also make you alert and concise writing goes hand in hand with alertness.

7. Get Comfortable

If you are surrounded by bees, a poltergeist, or anything else that demands attention my recommendation is that you should get up and find yourself somewhere comfortable where you can focus on what you have to write.  The Library is always a good choice, so find a good spot, and dig in!

8. Read Uplifting Quotes

On Twitter Eduify has an account from which we tweet out one uplifting and enlightening quote almost every single day. The username of this Twitter account is @EduifyQuotes and if you follow our tweets you won’t be disappointed!

9. Write Something for Fun

Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. Get off to a fast start and shift into “writing mode” by writing about anything at all. Once you get your creative juices flowing just switch to the paper you need to finish and you will find little difficulty keeping with the writing pace you have already set.

10. Have your Paper Proofread

Proofreading helps.  Having a second set of eyes to look at a paper gave me suggestions that helped make my papers awesome.  Whether you have a knowledgeable friend or an eduify proofreading expert edit your paper first this proofreading process will produce a superior paper. By using Eduify you will get feedback that will help give you an academic edge, with friendly advice that will help you to become a better writer, and achieve your best grades possible.

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Do you have any tips for fighting Writers Block? If so, leave a comment below, or just say hello in the Eduify Facebook Page.