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I'm just curious, have any others here taken any courses or used any applications that have helped them to become a stronger writer?

Is taking a writing class at your local college an idea you have? Have you taken a class? Do you feel it worth it?

What about writing programs? Do you feed your story through an editing application?

Or are you achieving your goals with nothing other than a high school degree and a free word processor?

I've thought about courses but haven't taken any on writing. i earned my MBA and use the marketing skills. I also use ProWriting Aid to catch mistakes.

Just ran into this.

WordTune

Products that correct your grammar, spelling, and word choices exist. But Wordtune is the first & only tool that understands what you're trying to say, serving as your true writing companion & thought partner.

Andres wrote: "Just ran into this.

WordTune

Products that correct your grammar, spelling, and word choices exist. But Wordtune is the first & only tool that understands what you're trying to say, serving as yo..."

OMG

I think I've learned the most from working with my beta readers. It's purely practical rather than reading a theory and then thinking about how to put in practice.

I use no tools and attended no courses other than various university courses related to my profession - which have certainly helped me hone my writing skills.

In my (not so) humble opinion, writing courses are really only good for one thing - they help you find a way into the network. If you hope to be trad published, or even if you just want to find some kindred spirits, being in the network is where you need to be.

That's where all the right contacts are made.

As a person whose native language is French, I have relied on years of reading and practice in writing in English to gradually perfect my English skills, first learned during my years in secondary school. When I first started to write novels in English, some ten years ago, my grammar and spelling, along with synthax, still reflected my francophone background (I live near Montreal, Canada), but my written English has gradually improved since then, to the point that many of my anglophone readers tell me that my English is now as good as most native anglophones. I never took special classes in English writing and relied solely on experience and practice. As they say: 'practice makes perfect'. As for becoming a popular writer, the two things that help me build my readership are patience and imagination. Building a significant readership takes years, not mere months. Also, I would argue that a good imagination and meticulous research of your subject are two important things for a fiction writer. Simply having a perfect grammar and synthax are not enough to write an interesting story: you have to write something that will interest the readers by its novelty or originality (there are many ways to describe a space battle or an alien encounter) and that still has a solid base in science, logic or history. Inventing a new technology for your novel is nice, but make it sound credible. So, a good background in technology and science helps a lot.

Again, my main tools were and still are patience, persistence, good researching skills and imagination.

I ran into this Plot Dot for planning out your story.



It kind of reminds me of the book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Has any of you used this or something similar when planning out your novel? In the past I have not used anything while writing but the more I continue to read and write the more I can imagine planning things out rather than winging them.

I've heard stories that George RR Martin has a wall of characters and strings mapping out his world.

I have yet to try and map out a story before writing it, presently I keep it all wrapped around my mind as it often wonders on its own but I like the idea of finding a plot skill that works for me.

I ran into this site offering a free tool addon for the google docs. It looks like the Oprah club sponsors it too.

I never finished anything until I learned to plan it all out in advance.

Is there a way to distribute your novels to readers without having to collect their private emails?

I'm wondering if there is a place you could upload them and then simply pass out a promotional code or something. I see most posts authors attempt to sell their book for a 0.99cents but is that because they have no other choice without trying to gather users emails?

Andres wrote: "I ran into this Plot Dot for planning out your story.



It kind of reminds me of the book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Has any of you used..."

I for one need to plan things, otherwise it becomes a mess and inconsistencies creep in. I never used a tool for it though, so that link is quite interesting.

As for myself, I always spend a long time outlining the story, starting with the general plot, then a sheet with a description of all the important characters (description, characteristics, motivation), then a more detailed overview of the plot (maybe 2-3 A4s), and finally a 1-2 paragraph description of the next couple of chapters that I am about to write.

The more complex the story, the more planning I need. I have a middle grade book out now, which is quite simple and short, so planning that was pretty straightforward. But I also wrote a YA novel, which was a veritable nightmare in terms of making everything fit without errors and inconsistencies.

If I get good ideas while I write (which happens often), I'll use them, but I always go back and edit the plan.