Two E-zines to Improve Your Writing
© Roxianne Moore
If you want to meet other writers online, improve your writing and have some fun, stop by this new site. A variety of pages, set up like a newsletter or brief magazine, are geared toward beginning and intermediate writers. Even more advanced writers will find something of interest, and might want to participate in the message board for inspiration and companionship.
Editorial - The spring issue features a thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion of how television affects us as writers. Editor Lisa Cote suggests that, unless we're using TV to avoid the work of writing, it can be stimulating and teach us how to develop better stories.
Letters - The message board seems like a good place to discuss writing and meet like minds, but it's rather sparse at the moment. As it's a new feature, it may take some time to get started. Reply to existing messages or discuss the latest editorials.
Hodgepodge - This assortment features a writing tip, with examples for improving your writing through elimination of adjectives. The Bloopers range from bad poetry to student blunders, mangled expressions and miscellaneous mistakes. I especially liked "The government of England was a limited mockery." Maybe not such a blunder after all, depending on your view of politics.
Instant Inspiration Poetry Generator - Create a random sentence or fragment, then use it to inspire your own poetry. Think about the words for a while, then write down your thoughts and ideas. Other tips will help you use this as a block-breaker.
Vocabulary Challenge - Try your hand at fitting the words into the proper contexts. This issue's words provide a little stretching and would also be useful in characterization.
Online Bookstore - This useful collection of titles links to Amazon Books for instant ordering.
Feature Artilce: Poetry, Prose, and the Rules of Good Writing - Three rules are applied to both prose and poetry with good results. While not all inclusive, they'll certainly improve most initial drafts:
- Prune and Sharpen
- Let it Flow
- Pack a Punch
Novel Advice: A Cyber Journal for Writers is a biweekly newsletter, with columns on fiction, nonfiction, mechanics and the writing life. Titles like "What's a Metaphor for Anyway" and "The Workshop from Hell" give you an idea of the tone of the newsletter: informative and often humorous. You'll find good, solid information here, leavened with a dose of inspiration.
The layout is very different from The Art
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