BUILDING BLOCKS
Fine-tune the words and sentences you use in this writing group exercise from Julie Phillips
In the beginning there is a first word, followed by another and another. It’s like going for a walk. You put one foot in front of the other so that many steps lead you to your destination. Writers often forget that even the most prolific and successful of writers today had to take that first tentative step and write that first word on a blank screen or on a blank piece of paper. Sometimes it can seem daunting to face that blank screen and get disheartened when the words are refusing to flow as fast and efficiently as we would like.
Even when we do start writing and have got into some kind of flow with basic sentences, we then have to think about how we can make those sentences better. We have to move on from the first draft if we want to make it into publication. This workshop pulls apart each sentence into its specific parts and identifies that the way we construct our sentence conveys meaning, clarity and intent. Every short story, novel, poem or article, just as any building or bridge, needs to have strong foundations.