H. Paul Honsinger
1. Learn everything you can about English grammar, composition, literature, and vocabulary. You must master these things like a mechanic masters his tools, like a surgeon learns anatomy and physiology.
2. Write. Write a lot. Write every day. Take courses in college where you will have to write a lot (and not necessarily "creative writing"). Write for your high school or college newspaper. Just write so you will get fluent--so that the process of expressing your thoughts in the written word will stop being difficult and laborious and frustrating and become natural and relaxed.
3. Read. Read constantly. By reading, you will get a feel for what works on the page and what doesn't, how to develop a plot, how to build a character, how to end a book, and so on. You learn the language of narrative and the tools of the writer. If you read enough, you will make these tools your own without having to sit in a classroom and be told what foreshadowing is.
2. Write. Write a lot. Write every day. Take courses in college where you will have to write a lot (and not necessarily "creative writing"). Write for your high school or college newspaper. Just write so you will get fluent--so that the process of expressing your thoughts in the written word will stop being difficult and laborious and frustrating and become natural and relaxed.
3. Read. Read constantly. By reading, you will get a feel for what works on the page and what doesn't, how to develop a plot, how to build a character, how to end a book, and so on. You learn the language of narrative and the tools of the writer. If you read enough, you will make these tools your own without having to sit in a classroom and be told what foreshadowing is.
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