Writing Forward

 I dipped in and out if Melissa Donovan's Writing Forward website. She describes its purpose partially as 

Welcome to Writing Forward, a creative writing blog packed with tips and ideas that will inspire and inform your writing projects. You’ll find posts on grammar, good writing habits and practices, plus tons of writing prompts and exercises to keep your pen moving. Whether you’re looking for fresh ideas or trying to improve your writing, you’ve come to the right place!

Writing Forward’s mission is to share helpful and inspiring creative writing tips to benefit the greater writing community and to advocate on behalf of all writers and artists.

Here are two examples which made me add this blog to my blog list (which, if you are viewing this on a phone, can be seen in web page view). The first comes from the article Creative Writing, Art, and Commerce;

Whether or not the book will sell appears to be a more significant consideration than whether it’s a good story — or whether it’s any good as a piece of art.

Is one better than the other?

You have to answer that question for yourself. Personally, I love all types of art. I think sometimes the big money makers were genuinely inspired by something other than money. And occasionally, the art that was supposed to make a mint barely turns a dime. The world keeps on spinning.

The remainder goes into why it is important to keep on writing.

The second article Eight Characteristics of Good Writing. Of the eight this one I highlight because it is one that I do not see often mentioned and because it is an idea I have come to on my own. 

Thought-provoking or emotionally inspiring: Perhaps the most important quality of good writing is how the reader responds to it. Does she come away with a fresh perspective and new ideas? Does he close the cover with tears in his eyes or a sense of victory? How readers react to your work will fully determine your success as a writer.

Seems to me the willing suspension of disbelief happens when there is an emotional attachment to characters. Underlying that attachment is the ability to see a human reality in the fiction. Would that I can do this in my stories.

sch

12/18/21