3

Is there any widely accepted step by step method for writing a creative article in a professional manner. I want to improve my English writing skills in relation to creative article writing.

I read some related sites like:-

Write Articles

Well-Researched, High Quality Articles

Improve this question
2
  • ...one thing I can add: "Bring new ideas to the topic." Placed as second bullet point of third point, buried among insignificant. There's nothing worse than yet another article on the same thing a thousand articles have covered. You may do it to improve your English, but if you ever plan to publish, make sure you're contributing, not just rephrasing.
    – SF.
    Dec 30, 2013 at 21:14
  • Can you say more about what you mean by a "creative article"? Do you mean something like an essay that uses clever word-play or unusual analogies or something like that? Thanks.
    – Monica Cellio
    Dec 30, 2013 at 22:39

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
7

I agree with hildred's answer that a review of the basics is in order here: Sentence structure, grammar, and so on.

There are no standards for general-interest articles, but academic papers do have such standards. Without knowing what, exactly, you want to write, it's hard to give you advice on structure. But I can give a few suggestions that might help you get started.

Read a lot

Since you want to write articles, read a lot of articles of the type you want to produce. You'll get a thought for how people choose to structure them.

Just write

Everyone has thousands of terrible sentences in them. It's in your interest to get them out of you as quickly as possible. (I'm paraphrasing Chuck Jones here.) It's okay to write pages and pages of terrible essays. It's good practice.

Structure

Try ordering your work. Put related points next to each other, try to eliminate redundancies. Adding paragraph breaks helps.

The three paragraph essay is an old format used in schools. It's oversimplified, but a good way to learn to write until you learn on your own. It goes like this:

  1. Introductory paragraph - tell people what the thesis is. (i.e., tell 'em what you're gonna say.)
  2. Your main essay - what you want to say. (This can be more than one paragraph.)
  3. Concluding paragraph

You can also try outlining. For this answer, an outline would look like this:

  1. General thoughts on standards
  2. Read a lot of stuff
  3. Vomit out text, gain experience
  4. Common basic structure devices
  5. Conclusion

Also

Reading the question on this site may also help. A basic book on writing like The Elements of Style might be a good idea. (There are questions about those on this site, and I'd look for something brief.)

Improve this answer
1
5

You probably should join a writers group where you can get reviews and feedback for your writing, and support from other writers. In your question I noticed at least one grammar error in every sentence, so I would recommend reviewing the basics: sentence structure, verbals, and punctuation.

Improve this answer
4
  • I think that the problem here is that the user can't even get started on writing. It's hard to critique when you don't have any text to point to.
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Dec 30, 2013 at 22:52
  • Thus a writers group.
    – hildred
    Dec 30, 2013 at 22:56
  • I looked at the edits. Yes.
    – dmm
    Dec 30, 2013 at 23:00
  • Hmm, you may have a point. Not what the user asked for, but it may be what they need. Gonna edit this question so I can reverse my downvote.
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Dec 30, 2013 at 23:09
0

Writing creatively in a language that is not your native language is extremely difficult. I don't know how authors like Joseph Conrad managed it. My advice is to write first in your native language, then put it through a translation program, then fix the translation. Then reverse the translation, and see if it's close to what you originally said. Also, you will have to change (or eliminate) most idioms you've used, because they are probably different in the two languages.* By doing this process a lot, you may eventually learn to write like a native, without this process.

*(For example, Google Translate faithfully renders "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse" to the literal equivalent in French "Je suis tellement faim que je pourrais manger un cheval," and no Frenchman would understand that. The correct translation is "J'ai faim du loup," which literally means "I have hunger of the wolf.")

Improve this answer
3
  • I wouldn't recommend writing in another language and then fixing the translation. The best approach is to think in your target language (e.g. English). Otherwise your writing might look bizarre. Idioms are not the only language-specific thing in creative writing. Language devices and literary techniques can be different as well.
    – rems
    Dec 31, 2013 at 15:06
  • @rems: I absolutely agree, the best way is to think and write directly in the target language. Unfortunately, that way requires a fluency that some of us have not yet attained (and may never attain). Hence my suggestion. (The asker seemed anxious to get started, despite having weak English skills.) But that's a good point you make about language devices and literary techniques -- I was assuming they were universal. So my method might make one's writing sound bizarre, or it might make one's writing sound "fresh," "highly original," and "groundbreaking." (Quotes from imaginary reviewers.)
    – dmm
    Dec 31, 2013 at 20:07
  • p.s. Those imaginary quotes are from the New Yorker, Village Voice, and Atlantic Monthly, respectively. The Times and the Trib hated it. Nobody else read it.
    – dmm
    Dec 31, 2013 at 20:13

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.