Comments on: 5 Exercises From Famous Authors That Will Sharpen Your Writing Skills

By: Nicole Bianchi

Nicole Bianchi — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 22:28:29 +0000

In reply to Lars M. Thanks so much, Lars!

By: Lars M

Lars M — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 19:20:31 +0000

This was a splendid article! Thank you very much

By: Nicole Bianchi

Nicole Bianchi — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 17:14:34 +0000

In reply to Marv Waschke. That's a great exercise. Thanks for sharing, Marv.

By: Nicole Bianchi

Nicole Bianchi — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 17:13:38 +0000

In reply to Meraki S. You're welcome, Meraki! :) Thanks for your comment.

By: Nicole Bianchi

Nicole Bianchi — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 17:12:43 +0000

In reply to Eric Nilsson. Hi, Eric. I do not think I have heard of that technique. Even if the character is unnamed, maybe you can refer to him by a nickname in the story so the reader has a way to identify him. For example, in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", the protagonist is nameless but referred to as "Blondie" by other characters. Just a thought.

By: Nicole Bianchi

Nicole Bianchi — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 17:07:53 +0000

In reply to lyndon. Thanks for commenting, Lyndon. I enjoyed reading On the Road a few years back. Such a cool story about how he wrote it.

By: lyndon

lyndon — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 15:19:27 +0000

My first ‘super hero’ writer was Jack Kerouac. The original manuscript of his book ‘on the road’ was a 30 foot long continuous scroll of paper taped together. The scroll was written stream of consciousness, single spaced without paragraphs and little if any punctuation. His manuscript was written in three weeks!

The scroll was packaged up and shipped to a publisher. The publisher contacted Kerouac asking permission to publish his book. That was that. LOL!

By: Eric Nilsson

Eric Nilsson — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 23:14:54 +0000

Hello, Nicole. I’ve looked at the list above. You are missing Dashiell Hammett. I am trying to write of a bygone event using the Hammett style (protagonist is unnamed). Have you any suggestions?

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Eric Nilsson

By: Meraki S

Meraki S — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 14:02:15 +0000

Thank you for this article. Very helpful.

By: Marv Waschke

Marv Waschke — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 02:47:00 +0000

Ursula LeGuin put a set of powerful writing exercises in her book “Steering the Craft.” My favorite is “Write a descriptive paragraph without using adjectives or adverbs.” It forces you to think about hard about nouns and verbs.