500 Word Limit

Thank you Stan. :D That was very helpful. I'll take a look.

How do you do that?! :O I'll try...and I see what you're getting at. Thanks a bunch! :D

You made it so clear Stan, thank you. :) Though, practice indeed. I tend to overlook things and try to make them as descriptive as possible. But what you say is true. I'll try to keep a closer eye on things of this respect.

Hmm, the old 'show, don't tell'. One thing I love about writing is the gift of fooling your readers (especially those who don't write themselves). It's all about the skill, isn't it. When we writers learn these techniques and apply them to our writing, we create worlds; incredible descriptions; even realistic diologue, and, therefore, fool our readers into believing it (an engrossing short piece, for example) comes absolutely naturally. And for some, it does...but it's all about the skill. Or am I wrong? Like, for me, as an example, I started writing at a young age (like 7 or 8 years old, I think), and amazed my teachers and classmates, believe it or not, with the quality of it. I didn't know a thing about writing then — perhaps just to capitalize the first letter of the first word in a sentence, and to eliminate run-on sentences, etc. Yet, I still managed to incorporate these skills to my writing. As I grew more, I learned new things and discovered that the way I wrote had techniques about it that I wasn't even aware of at the time (of course, as I grew, I also tried to perfect them). I suppose now that I say it this way, it seems pretty obvious. Bottom line, this is something I'm going to have to learn. Although my writing comes naturally, it definately isn't the greatest work known to man — or remotely close. This thread is interesting because, it has taught me the importance of showing, and not telling. To me, it's this technique that we use, sometimes absentmindly. And it works like a charm. By the way, I already read some of MarkBrown's work, and he's brilliant. In it, I see a lot of what Stan has told me somewhere above: To "[k]eep your description precise and to the point." This is something I'm going to have to learn, because I'm so used to doing the complete opposite. :P

Wow, I really like that lavadis. You got a way with words. ;)

Thanks again Stan. You always know how to lift my spirits - even if they don't necessarily need lifting. :) I believe in what you're saying and am encouraged to proceed because of it. Thank you. As for King and Lamott, I seem to have lost a link you gave me to something of theirs (if you even gave me one). If you have, could you maybe send me it again? If not, lol, I'll simply search for it myself. By the way...do you like my style of writing or is it, I don't know, childish. :P Thanks.