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What is Active Reading? Learning to Savor the Words on the Page
It is a truth universally acknowledged that non-fiction is worthy reading, teaching us useful facts and making us more knowledgeable, and therefore more awesome.
Fiction, on the other hand, is good only for escapism, for relaxing from the trials of our more taxing reading, and for recharging our batteries, perhaps. Lesser mortals may indulge in fiction, but the truly driven will pave their road to success with the noble volumes of non-fiction.
Right?
Wrong.
Writing Styles of Famous Authors
If you’re a creative of any kind, you’ve experienced the intense desire to be special. Not just special to a partner or a child, but special to the world. Special at what you do.
Part of the reason people create is so they can leave their mark on the world; so they don’t disappear into oblivion when they die. So they are remembered.
7 Ways Improv Will Make You a Better Writer
On the surface, improvisation may seem to be the furthest thing from writing. It looks like acting—like a heightened, specialized, and—honestly—terrifying form of acting.
Consider the type of improv that most of us are familiar with—short-form comedy improv, like what is featured on Whose Line Is It Anyway? In this show, the cast performs in short “games,” often as characters or in settings suggested by the audience. (“You’re both cowboys—who ride kittens—on Mars! Show us what your first date would look like—now!”)
But what really draws us to watching performers create something on the spot? We may think of them as particularly clever actors—but that’s not exactly the case, because acting isn’t the primary thing they’re doing.
We’re really watching people write—on the spot.
Writing for a Brand
It can be disconcerting being the voice of someone else. You may find that you start adopting mannerisms and language that you’ve never used before, because you’re focused on creating in a voice that’s not your own.
For example, in a previous job where I managed a social media feed for a senior official in our organization, I frequently neglected my own social media presence because it was a little weird being two people on the internet.
Writers often talk about finding their own voice, but writing for a brand requires us to write in someone else’s voice or style. You may be copywriting or you may be creating content for a company’s blog; either way, you may feel like you’re writing as someone else.