Wherever you are now, the way you develop your writing craft can make all the difference.
You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.
You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.
If there's a voice in your head saying, 'You can't write,' you must surely write, and silence that voice. Writing is like driving through the fog with one headlight. But every once and while the mists clear and something emerges
What better way to learn than to emulate works of others?
Let’s dissect the use of language in the following curated collection of essays.
Spice up your use of language with
a specially-curated assortment of helpful words and phrases.
Developing your personal voice
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What if my tutor reads and loathes this? What if people think I’m dumb, silly, shallow, egocentric, just plain idiotic?
The high-wire act of crafting an essay involves the willingness to submerge oneself in the contemporary world. But make no mistake: this is not a personal exposé. You are not revealing every single facet of your identity. You are picking and choosing every single word. Do not forget that you’re carving an essay out of what is true — but still, it’s your essay to tell.
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Though it directly contradicts the famous dictum “write what you know”, we believe that good writing emerges from discovery.
If you begin with what you know, where can you go next? If you begin with uncertainty, possibilities will appear. You might even realise that you know more than you thought you did. Moreover, writing through confusion allows you to avoid arrogance and self-absorption.
So forget “write what you know.” Write what you don’t know, but would like to find out.
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We study new ideas not by turning inward toward what we imagine is inside us, but by the act of looking outward at the world.
Your mind is nothing without what it looks at. On its own, it’s inert. But direct it towards something else — rising gas prices, the failed promises of meritocracy, abandoned football pitches in South Africa, London’s art galleries, the youth’s love affair with e-sports — and it perks up.
In other words, the best way to write about the larger picture is to write about something specific in the world. We don’t write about ourselves. We write ourselves.
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We are all magical writers, even if we don’t think we are. The challenge is to figure out how to tap into our magic. We are the stories we tell ourselves — narratives that are either limited or expansive, depending on our self-perception. And our point is key: Everyone needs a community.
You can hone your writing expertise by observing and listening to other subjects. You get to bear witness to their aspirations and foibles, spending weeks absorbed in their lives. Then you can examine your own.