Fifty writing tools – Roy Peter Clark

Roy peter Clark has written a list of 50 tools to help your writing. It is taken from the the website on the poynter institute and is for writers and journalists. Roy states that these are tools and are not rules. He also says the following:

These are tools and not rules.

It will not help to apply these tools at once.

You will become handy with these tools over time.

You are already using many of these tools without knowing it.

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The whole website is fantastic and a great read for those of you who would like to write better. Obviosusly i am still putting it into practice.

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

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