Richard G. Petty, MD

50 Tools for Better Writing

After decades as passive consumers we are becoming a community of writers.

I read quite a lot and I have found some excellent writing on the Internet.

I’d like to give a plug to the Poynter Institute. Though designed to help journalists, they give our loads of excellent advice that we can all use.

Roy Peter Clark from the Institute has posted 50 tools that can help you when you do any kinds of writing.

Alhtough each of us wiull find some more useful than others, I hope that you will find many of them to be valuable and interesting.

Links of 50 Writing Tool

  1. Writing Tool #1: Branch to the Right
  2. Writing Tool #2: Use Strong Verbs
  3. Writing Tool #3: Beware of Adverbs
  4. Writing Tool #4: Period As a Stop Sign
  5. Writing Tool #5: Observe Word Territory
  6. Writing Tool #6: Play with Words
  7. Writing Tool #7: Dig for the Concrete and Specific
  8. Writing Tool #8: Seek Original Images
  9. Writing Tool #9: Prefer Simple to Technical
  10. Writing Tool #10: Recognize Your Story’s Roots
  11. Writing Tool #11 Back Off or Show Off
  12. Writing Tool #12: Control the Pace
  13. Writing Tool #13: Show and Tell
  14. Writing Tool #14: Interesting Names
  15. Writing Tool #15: Reveal Character Traits
  16. Writing Tool #16: Odd and Interesting Things
  17. Writing Tool #17: The Number of Elements
  18. Writing Tool #18: Internal Cliffhangers
  19. Writing Tool #19: Tune Your Voice
  20. Writing Tool #20: Narrative Opportunities
  21. Writing Tool #21: Quotes and Dialogue
  22. Writing Tool #22: Get Ready
  23. Writing Tool #23: Place Gold Coins Along the Path
  24. Writing Tool #24: Name the Big Parts
  25. Writing Tool #25: Repeat
  26. Writing Tool #26: Fear Not the Long Sentence
  27. Writing Tool #27: Riffing for Originality
  28. Writing Tool #28: Writing Cinematically
  29. Writing Tool #29: Report for Scenes
  30. Writing Tool #30: Write Endings to Lock the Box
  31. Writing Tool #31: Parallel Lines
  32. Writing Tool #32: Let It Flow
  33. Writing Tool #33: Rehearsal
  34. Writing Tool #34: Cut Big, Then Small
  35. Writing Tool #35: Use Punctuation
  36. Writing Tool #36: Write A Mission Statement for Your Story
  37. Writing Tool #37: Long Projects
  38. Writing Tool #38: Polish Your Jewels
  39. Writing Tool #39: The Voice of Verbs
  40. Writing Tool #40: The Broken Line
  41. Writing Tool #41: X-Ray Reading
  42. Writing Tool #42: Paragraphs
  43. Writing Tool #43: Self-criticism
  44. Writing Tool #44: Save String
  45. Writing Tool #45: Foreshadow
  46. Writing Tool #46: Storytellers, Start Your Engines
  47. Writing Tool #47: Collaboration
  48. Writing Tool #48: Create An Editing Support Group
  49. Writing Tool #49: Learn from Criticism
  50. Writing Tool #50: The Writing Process

A Rainy Day Question

“Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”—Susan Ertz (a.k.a. J.R. McCrindle, Anglo-American Novelist, 1894-1985)
I was reminded of this quip while reading some new material about the progress being made in aging research. Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in St. Louis, biologist Shripad Tuljapurkar who holds the Dean and Virginia Morrison Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University highlighted some of the issues surrounding the extension of human life-span. This is something that I have been tracking closely for over twenty years, since it was shown that the cells of people with diabetes mellitus age more quickly when placed in tissue culture, even if they are away from the high glucose of the diabetic environment. There is a link between premature aging and diabetes.

It is widely known in the scientific community that there has been a great deal of progress on aging research, much of it done behind the closed doors of pharmaceutical companies. According to Professor Tuljapurkar between 2010 and 2030, the modal, or most common, age of death will increase by 20 years if anti-aging therapies come into widespread use. This projected increase is based on some sophisticated modeling, and reflects a life-span growth rate that is five times faster than the current rate. If accurate, this would increase the modal age of death in industrialized countries such as the United States from roughly 80 years to 100.

So back to the question: if you suddenly discovered that you were going to have an extra thirty years of healthy life, what would you do with it?

I really do suggest that you start thinking about that. Assuming that you have enough money to live a decent life, what would you do with that extra twenty years? Would you:

1. Enjoy spending more time with younger members of the family?

2. Learn some new skills?

3. Make new friends?

4. Travel?

5. Read those books you always meant to?

6. Become more involved in spiritual pursuits?

7. Find a new way of serving others?

    8. Sit in front of the television?

What plans or aspirations do you have that you want to add to this list?

But then I have another question for you: if your answers included any of the points from 1-7, why not do them right now? What exactly is stopping you from doing all those things today?

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