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For art and music there are pretty clear and well defined skills that can be drilled. Anyone have suggestions for writing drills?

by bloaf 5y ago

macintux 5y ago
That’s an interesting question. My completely uneducated idea: reproducing masters’ works. Take a novel, or something shorter, and type it up, thinking with each sentence, each page, why they wrote what they did, and what they left out.
- thatcat 5y ago
  HS Thompson did this
Jakob 5y ago
Most writing drills are about reading critically: http://www.criticalreading.com/ http://www.criticalreading.com/ Look into universities and approaches from Professors: Jordan Peterson’s writing approach is based a lot on drill: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://jordanbpeterson.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Essay_Writing_Guide.docx https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://jordanbpeterson.co... Umberto Eco’s "How to write a Thesis"
someguyinthe 5y ago
I assume that’d be doing some subsection of writing, like focusing on dialogue, or describing a scene, etc. From what I gather, you’d want to focus on one thing and try and get really good at it, then you could write a short story as a “scrimmage” to see how you’ve improved as a whole
okwubodu 5y ago
I'm not a writer but I've used one drill where you set a theme and handwrite off the top of your head without pausing or erasing up to whatever set length. Like freestyling.
vladTheInhaler 5y ago
You might be interested in Peak, by Anders Ericson. The author mentions him briefly, but the book is well worth reading. He looks at the case of Benjamin Franklin, and some of the strategies he used. In brief, he found pieces of writing that he especially admired, and transformed them in various ways, then tried to reproduce the original from the transformed versions. The version that seemed the post practical was to create a cue for each sentence, and attempt to reproduce the original wording from the cue. Another was to scramble the sentences of the piece and try to put them back in what felt like the most logical order. These seem pretty mechanical and rote, but they tie into an overall approach Ericson lays out called deliberate practice.
daniel_iversen 5y ago
I'm quite sure there was a great example in the book "Talent is overrated" that goes through this with one of the early US presidents. Basically this guy wasn't much of a writer but then he employed the "deliberate practice" technique to methodically study, pull apart, rewrite and review+correct some of the great writings of the day, to improve his own writing. And ultimately he ended up apparently being a great writer. I guess there's a science to most things.
totetsu 5y ago
Have a look a the writing for academic purposes material for second language learners.. there are books that break down writing into a process with stages that can be drilled.
aaron5 5y ago
I have one that I think helps - of course I made it up, so I'm biased. Take a passage from a book you think is written well. For each sentence, ask yourself what, in your own terminology, the sentence is doing - what's the function of the sentence. For example, "a person reacts bodily" or "a decision is made involving time". Then write your own passage for an entirely different story, wherein each sentence accomplishes the same function as what you encoded from the other passage. For example, I did this to begin a children's story, taking my template from the first page of The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. THE READER by Bernhard Schlink When I was fifteen, I got hepatitis. It started in the fall and lasted until spring. As the old year darkened and turned colder, I got weaker and weaker. Things didn't start to improve until the new year... LULLABYE by P Aaron Mitchell When the moon first appeared my little Zienna hid from it. The moon waited to see her for about 18 minutes, which is a long time for the moon. The moon felt for her with its beams but she just hummed to herself in the molasses jar. When the moon looked the other way she climbed out... Maybe the relationship isn't obvious to anyone else, and that's okay. It's still good practice - you force yourself to tell your own story in a cadence that matches (at least to you) that of a strong writer.
- gpt5 5y ago
  To extend on this - this method is extremely useful at work. When writing a doc, look for similar doc and not just copy their high level structure, but at the paragraph structure in the same way the parent poster has mentioned.
autofellatio69 5y ago
Okay, I know this sounds crazy and probably difficult because we're pretty inflexible as human beings, but if you try my method, you should be able to accomplish what you're setting out to do. First, you're going to want to sit up with your back against the wall. You should be on the floor for this. Now, scoot forward a bit, enough such that you can place your feet against the wall behind your head. Next, you will use your feet firmly planted against the wall to push your torso forward. With the leverage of your feet against the wall. If you "cannot reach" you should still be able to angle your hips upward and meet yourself halfway. From here, you should be able to slide it all the way in your mouth. Good luck, friend. :) Also, please do not try this if you have a wife and kids. It will ruin your life, trust me, I learned the hard way.
runevault 5y ago
There are a lot of different drills, several of which are listed below but will touch on. 1. Copy something you like. Take a sentence/paragraph/page/scene and just retype it in. This sounds crazy, but pushing the words not only into your brain but back out through your fingers gives your brain a different avenue into them. 2. Object writing. Learned this one from Pat Pattison's writing better lyrics, but most of the techniques are generally applicable. You take an object/idea, and for 5-10 minutes write about it using all 6 senses (the standard five plus motion). The more you do this the more your writing will shift (at least in my experience). 3. Journaling. Morning pages (3 pages at the very start of your day) is a common one for writers, learning to take the filter off and just write. A lot of crap might come out, and you'll just write about the day before or your concerns about the day ahead a lot, but the act of putting the words down will help you shift your writing. 4. This one isn't a drill but I wanted to include it: explore other types of writing. If you are interested in academic writing, try making short stories or poems. Exploring entirely different uses of words will help you build new, because intent shapes the way the brain uses the words, and learning to unlock different pathways can have surprising results.
mch82 5y ago
What audience are you writing for? Drill by frequently publishing work to that audience so you can get feedback and iterate. Build up larger works over time.

For art and music there are pretty clear and well defined skills that can be drilled. Anyone have suggestions for writing drills?

by bloaf 5y ago

For art and music there are pretty clear and well defined skills that can be drilled. Anyone have suggestions for writing drills?

macintux 5y ago

That’s an interesting question. My completely uneducated idea: reproducing masters’ works. Take a novel, or something shorter, and type it up, thinking with each sentence, each page, why they wrote what they did, and what they left out.

thatcat 5y ago
HS Thompson did this

Jakob 5y ago

Most writing drills are about reading critically: http://www.criticalreading.com/ http://www.criticalreading.com/ Look into universities and approaches from Professors: Jordan Peterson’s writing approach is based a lot on drill: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://jordanbpeterson.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Essay_Writing_Guide.docx https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://jordanbpeterson.co... Umberto Eco’s "How to write a Thesis"

someguyinthe 5y ago

I assume that’d be doing some subsection of writing, like focusing on dialogue, or describing a scene, etc. From what I gather, you’d want to focus on one thing and try and get really good at it, then you could write a short story as a “scrimmage” to see how you’ve improved as a whole

okwubodu 5y ago

I'm not a writer but I've used one drill where you set a theme and handwrite off the top of your head without pausing or erasing up to whatever set length. Like freestyling.

vladTheInhaler 5y ago

You might be interested in Peak, by Anders Ericson. The author mentions him briefly, but the book is well worth reading. He looks at the case of Benjamin Franklin, and some of the strategies he used. In brief, he found pieces of writing that he especially admired, and transformed them in various ways, then tried to reproduce the original from the transformed versions. The version that seemed the post practical was to create a cue for each sentence, and attempt to reproduce the original wording from the cue. Another was to scramble the sentences of the piece and try to put them back in what felt like the most logical order. These seem pretty mechanical and rote, but they tie into an overall approach Ericson lays out called deliberate practice.

daniel_iversen 5y ago

I'm quite sure there was a great example in the book "Talent is overrated" that goes through this with one of the early US presidents. Basically this guy wasn't much of a writer but then he employed the "deliberate practice" technique to methodically study, pull apart, rewrite and review+correct some of the great writings of the day, to improve his own writing. And ultimately he ended up apparently being a great writer. I guess there's a science to most things.

totetsu 5y ago

Have a look a the writing for academic purposes material for second language learners.. there are books that break down writing into a process with stages that can be drilled.

aaron5 5y ago

I have one that I think helps - of course I made it up, so I'm biased. Take a passage from a book you think is written well. For each sentence, ask yourself what, in your own terminology, the sentence is doing - what's the function of the sentence. For example, "a person reacts bodily" or "a decision is made involving time". Then write your own passage for an entirely different story, wherein each sentence accomplishes the same function as what you encoded from the other passage. For example, I did this to begin a children's story, taking my template from the first page of The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. THE READER by Bernhard Schlink When I was fifteen, I got hepatitis. It started in the fall and lasted until spring. As the old year darkened and turned colder, I got weaker and weaker. Things didn't start to improve until the new year... LULLABYE by P Aaron Mitchell When the moon first appeared my little Zienna hid from it. The moon waited to see her for about 18 minutes, which is a long time for the moon. The moon felt for her with its beams but she just hummed to herself in the molasses jar. When the moon looked the other way she climbed out... Maybe the relationship isn't obvious to anyone else, and that's okay. It's still good practice - you force yourself to tell your own story in a cadence that matches (at least to you) that of a strong writer.

gpt5 5y ago
To extend on this - this method is extremely useful at work. When writing a doc, look for similar doc and not just copy their high level structure, but at the paragraph structure in the same way the parent poster has mentioned.

autofellatio69 5y ago

Okay, I know this sounds crazy and probably difficult because we're pretty inflexible as human beings, but if you try my method, you should be able to accomplish what you're setting out to do. First, you're going to want to sit up with your back against the wall. You should be on the floor for this. Now, scoot forward a bit, enough such that you can place your feet against the wall behind your head. Next, you will use your feet firmly planted against the wall to push your torso forward. With the leverage of your feet against the wall. If you "cannot reach" you should still be able to angle your hips upward and meet yourself halfway. From here, you should be able to slide it all the way in your mouth. Good luck, friend. :) Also, please do not try this if you have a wife and kids. It will ruin your life, trust me, I learned the hard way.

runevault 5y ago

There are a lot of different drills, several of which are listed below but will touch on. 1. Copy something you like. Take a sentence/paragraph/page/scene and just retype it in. This sounds crazy, but pushing the words not only into your brain but back out through your fingers gives your brain a different avenue into them. 2. Object writing. Learned this one from Pat Pattison's writing better lyrics, but most of the techniques are generally applicable. You take an object/idea, and for 5-10 minutes write about it using all 6 senses (the standard five plus motion). The more you do this the more your writing will shift (at least in my experience). 3. Journaling. Morning pages (3 pages at the very start of your day) is a common one for writers, learning to take the filter off and just write. A lot of crap might come out, and you'll just write about the day before or your concerns about the day ahead a lot, but the act of putting the words down will help you shift your writing. 4. This one isn't a drill but I wanted to include it: explore other types of writing. If you are interested in academic writing, try making short stories or poems. Exploring entirely different uses of words will help you build new, because intent shapes the way the brain uses the words, and learning to unlock different pathways can have surprising results.

mch82 5y ago

What audience are you writing for? Drill by frequently publishing work to that audience so you can get feedback and iterate. Build up larger works over time.