Writing Tools & Techniques

As Lawrence Kasdan famously stated, "being a writer is like having homework every day for the rest of your life." It is difficult to imagine that some writers would not have used certain tools and techniques to their benefit while slaving over a blank page. Getting words to emerge and perfecting a technique takes a bit of coaxing no matter how far along a writer is in his career.
  1. Write or Die

    • Write or Die is an application intended for writers who have a penchant for procrastination. Of course, you don't actually die if you don't write, but you feel that sense of impending doom as the timer winds down. The goal of Write or Die is to produce as many words as possible in a fixed amount of time. The settings for consequences include Gentle Mode, Normal Mode, Kamikaze Mode and Electric Shock Mode. The consequences of each mode differs, with the nicest only emitting a faint sound or music when you stop writing for a few seconds. The harshest mode, however, deletes previously typed text until you begin to write again. It's kind of like Indiana Jones being chased by a huge boulder.

    Moderate Tone

    • Place yourself into the background of your writing, so that the reader pays attention to the content rather than to the author. This technique establishes an efficient, moderate tone that can help the writer get past mental roadblocks. Practicing this technique will develop the writer's true style without affecting the content of the prose.

    The Morning Pages

    • The Morning Pages are three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing. Writing the Morning Pages is the first task of the day upon waking up. The goal of these pages is to invoke a long-lasting surge of creative energy for the writer. It will also help eliminate the inner editor in a writer's head. While writing the Morning Pages, you must continue writing until you reach three pages, even if you find nothing to write about. Silence your inner critic by refusing to correct misspellings and awkward sentence structures.

    Write Naturally

    • In everyday writing, no one injects elaborate phrases and colorful uses of creative force into letters, to-do lists, emails, etc. So why should it be necessary to break out the big guns when writing professionally? Using a simple, natural style is the first approach to drafting believable words. Write in a way that sounds natural when spoken aloud.

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