Writing Tips and Techniques

How to Increase Your Concentration Levels

Roy De Souza — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:50:17 +0000

The ability to concentrate deeply is one of the signs of a privileged mind, perhaps even of genius.Paraphrasing Shakespeare, some men are born with the ability to concentrate, others are forced to concentrate, while others teach themselves to concentrate.

Thomas Paine, American patriot famous for his ‘Common Sense’ pamphlets, was able to write his ‘Age of Reason’ when in prison in revolutionary France while awaiting his turn at the guillotine. Any other person would have fallen into a deep depression, obsessed only by his impending death. The fact that he was able to put aside all thoughts of his coming execution and concentrate on his writing is remarkable.

Did he write to forget about his death or did he write out of a feeling that he had a task to perform and nothing would prevent him from carrying it out? Whatever drove him to write, it must have been something powerful enough to keep him going until he finished his book.

Writers particularly, exhibit this tendency to focus their attention is spite of trying circumstances. Marat, for example, was afflicted by a painful skin disease. He was able to find some relief only when submerged in a tub of water. It was there that he wrote most of his fiery pamphlets in favor of the French Revolution. It was there also that he met his death at the hands of Charlotte Corday.

James Thurber, cartoonist and writer for the New Yorker, was also famous for his ability to concentrate anywhere. His wife was always on the lookout for the tell-tale signs of his ‘mental writing’, especially at social gatherings. Whenever she saw that his attention was wandering she would say to him ‘Thurber, stop writing.’

Bearing in mind that anyone can concentrate deeply whenever their interest is aroused, it would seem that the key to deep concentration is deep interest in a subject.

Since we cannot summon interest at will, we should try to find something of interest in the subject we are studying. By focusing our attention on that aspect we would be forced to increase our range to include the entire topic.

Even though we cannot hope to achieve the ability of the select few to block out all outside stimuli, there are things we can do to increase our concentration levels. Finding something of interest, focusing our attention on it, and increasing our sphere of interest can help us to concentrate better.

Tips for Smart Writing

Roy De Souza — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:58:35 +0000

One of the greatest obstacles to writing is a computer. One of the greatest aids to writing is also a computer.

Before you write me off as being nonsensical, let me explain. No one can honestly say that they can concentrate on what they’re writing when they have to concentrate on the keyboard while trying to think of a suitable phrase or sentence. The brightness from the monitor can also prevent you from concentrating, forcing you to move your eyes away from the glare.

One solution is to use a dark screen such as Q10, that effectively darkens the screen, leaving only the words you are writing.

A computer can also be the greatest boon to a writer because of the ease with which you can edit an article or story. You can easily move a phrase to the end of a sentence for a better transition or eliminate it altogether. You can also do the same with an entire paragraph or chapter.

Where a computer really comes in handy, however, is in the word for word editing that can transform a run of the mill post to one that can be retweeted or liked by thousands.

This is where an online dictionary comes in handy. My favorite is Stardict because one can install extensions for other dictionaries. My copy of Stardict has extensions for synonyms, word use, etymology, computer terminology, and even Latin for those phrases that a reader can find in some technical articles.

Every writer must find his or her mode of writing. One way, and probably the one that is most popular, is to write with pen and paper and then edit with a word-processor. You would get the best of both worlds: the ability to concentrate all of your faculties on your article and the ease of editing with a word-processor.

Finding Inspiration

Roy De Souza — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:37:02 +0000

When do you feel most inspired? Most people feel inspired whenever they receive positive feedback for their efforts. If someone praises an article or a post or if it receives a lot of comments, good or bad, you feel encouraged to do even better in your next post.

If you do not receive any comments, however, you begin to feel that maybe you are doing something wrong, that your writing has lost its verve.

The best way of recovering your enthusiasm for writing is to continue writing. You may spend long minutes staring at the screen but, sooner or later, you will find that your love of words, the challenge you feel when you try to describe something, is coming back.

Robert Heinlein once said that he knew of many writers who stopped publishing but he did not know a single writer who stopped writing. He said that he once stopped writing for a week when he received a rejection from his publisher. A few days later he began to feel slightly ill. This continued for a few more days until he sat down and began to write something.

Once you become accustomed to doing something that you enjoy doing, you will find that it becomes a part of you. If you’re a painter you will look at a tree and wonder what colors to use to best represent the particular tint that you are now seeing. If you’re a writer you will find yourself automatically correcting a story you’re reading and wondering how you would improve it.

The way to become inspired is to enjoy what you do.

Tagged: inspiration, writing tips

Learning from the Masters

Roy De Souza — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:52:47 +0000

Many famous men have perfected their technique by reading a piece of writing that they liked and then rewriting it in their own words. Men like Benjamin Franklin, George Orwell and others used this technique often. I think this is useful because it is similar to that used by painters who copy the famous works of the masters. In this way they come face to face with the difficulties faced by a master painter and get an idea of how he solved the problem. The student might then copy the solution or think of another way of solving the same problem. What is important is that he gets a glimpse of the thought processes of someone far more advanced than he when faced with a difficulty. A writer can do the same with pen or keyboard. He studies how the writer he is imitating or summarizing goes about his descriptions and the way he uses certain words and not others. Later on, in his own compositions he will use the same reasoning that he perceived when studying the master’s work.

Tagged: writing techniques, writing tips

Make Writing a Habit

Roy De Souza — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:20:07 +0000

Perhaps the biggest challenge a beginning write has to face is finding the time to write. The day job takes its toll of our energies and determination and we find that at the end of the day we do not have much left of either to start writing. How can we get down to writing when we are faced with so many distractions, TV shows to watch, social networks to check out and so many other things that are always beckoning to us. One way that we can get down to writing is to realize that we need to form the habit of writing. A habit once formed does not take any denying. We wake up and brush our teeth and if we do not perform this hygienic habit we feel unsettled until we go to the bathroom and grab our toothbrush. This is the kind of realization and reaction that we need to instill into our brain. For example, we could set a specific hour at which we will start writing, for example, at nine o’clock on the dot. We set our alarm for that hour and as soon as it goes off we go to our desk and start writing. If we do this consciously for at least seven days then the habit is formed and we will continue with this routine until something earthshaking comes to put us off our routine.

Learning from the Masters

Roy De Souza — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:16:18 +0000

Many famous men have perfected their writing by reading a piece of writing that they liked and then rewriting it in their own words. Men like Ben Franklin and George Orwell used this technique often. I think this is useful because it is similar to that used by painters who copy the famous works by the masters. In this way they come face to face with the difficulties faced by the painter and could get an idea of how he faced it. The student then uses the solution or thinks of another approach. What is important is that he learns how to solve a problem. A writer can do the same but instead of using paint and a brush he uses a pen and words. He studies how the writer does his descriptions, the way he uses words and the kind of words he uses. He then asks himself why that particular word was used and why not another. Later on, when faced with a similar problem he could apply the same kind of reasoning to decide what words to use.

A Writer should both ask and answer questions.

Roy De Souza — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:56:31 +0000

I think a writer should try to go beyond just relating what is happening in the world. He should ask questions as well as give answers. The fact that his answers would sometimes appear naive or excessively simplistic does not really matter because these would have emerged from his questions. If his questions are correctly stated then his answers would be valid. More importantly, his answers would be read by others who could give a different answer and maybe even ask more and better questions. Ibsen’s assertion that a dramatist job is not to answer questions but to ask them is therefore too restrictive. A writer should view the world, make his diagnosis and write his conclusions and then make his recommendations.

Writers and Painters

Roy De Souza — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:17:09 +0000

A writer has more in common with a painter than with any other artist. Both have to develop their skills over the years bit by bit, until they can allow their fingers, with pen or paintbrush, to write the words or to apply color to the canvas. The writer has to start with his cliché-ridden paragraphs, his self-conscious search for the ideal word, until he reaches the point where he forms a new framework or a new set of paradigms that he will automatically use to give form to his thoughts. These paradigms will help to produce the end result: the polished passages free of clichés and other writing pitfalls. To get to that point he has first to undergo a training period where he will write until he flushes out of his system all of the bad habits. One training technique advocated by Ray Bradbury in ‘Zen in the Art of Writing’ is to write a thousand words a day for twenty years. His phrase ‘Out of quantity comes quality’ is a good quote to remember.

Writing: computers vs. pen

Roy De Souza — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:08:04 +0000

I used to think that a computer was the writer’s main writing tool and that one of the first things he should buy is a computer with the best possible features. Later on, while reading about famous writers and their working habits, I learned that most of them spent their days writing longhand with pen and paper. Joyce Carol Oates, for example, says that she starts writing late at night and works until around three in the morning, writing with pen and paper. She then transcribes what she has written to a computer and prints a hard copy. This seems to be a good way of working because one could write late at night without fear of disturbing a sleeping spouse or anyone else for that matter. Another advantage is that one does not live in fear of a computer crash erasing a few hours work. If the electricity goes then one can light a candle and continue writing. Where a computer excels is in editing one’s work. One can move entire paragraphs to where they can work better or find a better word that more adequately expresses one’s thoughts.
Another area where a computer comes into its own is in gathering information. One can consult a few online encyclopedias for any relevant data and then analyze it to extract something that can be used.

Trollope: a writer’s writer

Roy De Souza — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:56:59 +0000

Trollope is one of the writers who has always amazed me with his enormous output and, most of all, with his method of writing. He had a job in the government service as a postal inspector and he always regarded this as his main occupation. For him, writing was just a sideline. Yet he performed this sideline so systematically that he was able to produce many books. He used to wake up at around five o’clock in the morning and write for about three hours before going to the office. In his comments on his writing habits he explains in detail how he kept a record of his hourly production and how he strived to maintain his schedule of so many words per hour. Yet one does not get the impression that he is trying to impress us with his industry. He simply thinks that his method of working has served him well and could be of some use to other writers.

Reference: Autobiography of Anthony Trollope, Project Gutenberg, gutenberg.org