I need to improve my writing...I think I'm acceptable as far as spelling but I have trouble with sentence structure (really loooong sentences seem to get into my stories sometimes), formatting, and just plain everything else (I don't even know what to call my insufficiencies...).
This is partly because the main knowledge I draw upon for "good writing" is simply experience reading. As you can see, this would help with spelling and even some grammar, but not necessarily so much with some of the other things.
So my question is this: what are some resources you'd recommend a homeschooler check out to improve on these things (without help from parents, sometimes they aren't sure about something either!).

I had the same problem...Here are some of my favourites (all available on amazon)

The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction,(Jeff-Don't know his last name)

I have the book "If You Want to Write" (Brenda Ueland) haven't looked at it yet...

Writing Magic, Creating Stories That Fly. (by Gail Carson Levine)

And I bet if you google "(Your favourite author goes here) tips for writing" You'll get plenty.
Also, if you sign-up, Jill Williamson can send you writing tips.
~Aleena

Awesome, thanks! I'll check those out.
Oh, I can't seem to find the place to sign up to Jill's writing tips...can you link to that?

These two books are both incredibly useful...

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fiction-Writers-Second-Yourself/dp/0060545690

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-4th-William-Strunk/dp/0205313426

I consider them two of the best books on writing. There are several others that are also excellent that deal more in-depth with different aspects of writing (dialogue, characterization, etc.), but these two will help most people improve greatly. I hope they help.

I'm really sorry Wolf, but I can't find it... She changed her blog/website around.
Anyway there's still plenty of useful stuff on there. (also, HWs podcast is FULL of great advice... )

Thanks John! Just ordered those from the library too!



That's ok, you're right, there is still other stuff there, and you already suggested some books, so thank you!

Oh my gosh!!!
I love her!!! I have read parts of that book and it was really helpful!!! (I didn't have it long enough to read the whole thing. )

One of my favorite quotes is from her (And from that book!)

"It takes a mean author to write a good story."

I believe it! These are good suggestions, can't wait to see them in person!

Oh my gosh!! I am actually doing this curriculum!! It really helps A LOT! (It is supposed to be for high-schoolers. But I convinced Mom to get it for me anyway. XD) And yes, this is one of THE best things you can get!
Hmmm I haven't been keeping up with it lately... I should get back on track!
- toodles off to do school -

Thanks for those links! I will check those out. By the way, which specific resources from one year novel do you have, if you don't mind my asking? I had heard of the one year thing, but hadn't heard how good it was!



Yes sir!..er, yeah... I have a stack of Ted Dekker books from the library so I am well equipped to begin this assignment!



I'm glad to hear it's working well for you too! That's a good sign that it'll help me too (if I can get it)!

There are a lot of helpful threads in Village Lore as well. Here are some of them.

Descriptive Writing

Perspective

Varying Sentences and Sentence Structure

English as used in the older centuries

Writing Loud Sounds

First Chapters/Lines

Thanks for the links! I had forgotten about village lore...I will have to read those!



Ok, cool, thank you!

Another thing that will help is to just continue practicing writing. Recently I've been thinking on things that are along the same lines as what you have said, and what I'm doing to try to help (other than reading -- you can't beat that ) is to rope a few friends into giving me writing exercises.
Practicing on meaningless shorts and/or various challenges will, in time, do wonders.

Yeah, I have a friend that used to go to my church that I told just yesterday to bug me about writing so I will be motivated to do it!
I agree, if it's "meaningless" then you're more likely to "just do it" and not agonize over every single thing about it...hopefully I'm going to get some work done on an idea for short stories I could try to write like every few days or so.
Thank you for the reply!

I recently did a Podcast interview with OYAN creator. It will be released this week, if you want to listen in about the program.

Cool! I'm looking forward to that, the podcast has always been helpful, encouraging and inspirational for me.

Glad to hear it!

*laughs * Yep, I did. He was fun. Grace has it edited and I will be posting it very soon. This week, actually. Tomorrow or Wednesday.

For a long time I was reading every book about writing I could get my hands on; I can't really recommend that approach as such as some of them were probably a waste of time and I would have been better served just writing instead, but I do recommend reading a variety of such books. A few in particular: Damon Knight's Writing Short Fiction, Fowler's Modern English Usage (which is a reference book rather than something you'd just sit down and read cover-to-cover, but is often tremendously funny as well as being insightful and apt), and Writing to Sell by Scott Meredith (though I've only read a long-out-of-date edition).
For the technical issues I noticed you had most consistent trouble with in your Writing Circle entry last month, I suggest you try copying Scripture; the translators of the RSV, NIV, etc., are generally very careful about sentence structure, proper punctuation of dialogue, etc. (I'm doing this myself for devotional purposes, but it certainly isn't hurting my eye for grammar.)

Plus, so many writing books contradict each other.

I know right?

Oh there was this one thing that my sister saw was on the back of the Narnia books.

"Enter the Narnia world countless times. There are seven books in all."

I would have interpreted that as a comment on their value as rereading material ...


To quote Kipling, again: "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, / And every single one of them is right!"
But this is a general problem with "non-fiction" writing as a whole: authors find something that works for them, and deduce from that some "general rule" they instruct their readers to uncritically apply. This would be reasonable, "all other things being equal," in theory ... but, in practice, they never are.

*nods * I prefer writing books that comes from the "this is not a one size fits all, there are many different ways to write, let me tell you what I have found helpful and what can work". Because writing isn't really a formula.

Thanks for those book ideas, I have marked them down for ordering from the library.
Wow, that's a good idea I never thought of before...I would probably do it in the ESV. So do you have your Bible in front of you while you type, or do you write it by hand (writing is so hard for me that this would be good practice, but might distract me from the grammar and devotional aspects of it, so I would want to do it at least half on the computer)?



I can definitely agree with that interpretation because I've found that to be completely true!



Yes, I agree with this, I found this out myself when I kept looking up stuff about writing...and I totally couldn't understand why anyone would approach writing that way, and knowing that there must be other ways available.
One book I am reading now is The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction
by Jeff Gerke, and it is amazing! He starts out by pretty much telling you to do some soul-searching and make sure your motives are just, but he also calls all writing teachers (himself included) "jokers...all with their own set of rules" or something like that...so one of his points is to "be teachable, except when you stop. And even when you stop being teachable, stay teachable."
By which he means, find what works for you, but still be open to self-improvement (and possibly sacrifice part of your style for the sake of getting published).

I think Jeff Gerke is on my list of people to interview for the podcast...

Awesome! Looking forward to that one now...so if he isn't on there yet, add him to it.

That'd be fine; the reason I mention versions at all is that a) some modern paraphrases and such are probably more dubious, and b) every hard-copy of the KJV I've seen breaks sentences up by verses (so as to have the verse number both at the beginning of the verse and at the far left of the column), which would be counterproductive for grammar-edification.

I do it by hand, partly because I need the handwriting practice, partly so I can work on this when I don't have a computer up or it's not cooperating, and partly because what gave me the idea in the first place was the commandment in Deuteronomy that each king of Israel was to, on taking the throne, write out a copy of the Law in his own hand. And I think that, while typing might still be helpful along these lines, writing by hand (even if it's difficult, or you can't read what you've written a week later) has a greater benefit, as it gets the habits into the brain by a different pathway.

Cool, thank you for the idea, I think I will do that (I'm working on learning italics, so this will really help me with that once I'm able to practice in italic)!

Yes, not just any style of writing is for anyone. They have to find their voice, their own style, their own genre and so forth.

That's true...which reminds me I really need to get with it and write more so I can find my voice... But I am working towards that, hopefully I'll be back at it this week!