Writer's Haven
Spenser-spork has been writing on the web for two years, although her
Nicole alter-ego has been writing in some form or other since high school. While I can't say that my creative writing
is any good, I can lay claim to the fact that I write decent e-mails, articles and press releases on occasion.
So, below is my attempt to put some of the news writing principles I've
learned into something usable for creative writing. Let me know what you think or send me any additions you'd like
to make. :)
- Write what you know.
If you know Batman, write it. Or if you know about lazy summer day, I won't stop
you. Writing what you know about makes things easy to illustrate with words as well as making your work seem believable.
- Know you characters, plot, etc.
Make sure you know your characters and your plot. It sometimes helps
to make outlines or character sketches. Without a good, flowing plot, your story lacks credibility. The same goes
with characters, if you don't explain why they have a change of heart or something out of their nature, then your
readers will question the persons motives throughout the rest of your story.
- Spell check and consistency.
Make sure you spell check, it's just common sense. Unfortunately, we
haven't done that at the Inner Asylum as much as we should, but that will change soon. Also keep a list of the
names handy. That way you can make sure you always spell the name of your characters, places, things, etc. right.
- Style.
While it doesn't matter as much in creative writing, style is an important
element of other forms of writing. Keeping your verb tense the same throughout a story is a good thing. It's like
spelling, but it has to deal more with keeping everything similar and concise. The Inner Asylum tries to adhere
to the AP style. That is also why the Inner Asylum reads a bit like a newspaper.
 Feel free to e-mail Spenser-spork if you
have any questions or things you'd like to add to the Writer's Haven.
© 1999-2001, N.B. Layton. All rights reserved. All Inner Asylum
images (except the backgrounds and bars) were created by using Paint Shop Pro. Batgirl, Batman and the entire Batman
universe is property of DC Comics, a division of Time Warner Communications. This is a non-profit site for just
fun and to pay ode to Gotham's dark lady. If you would like to use any of our materials for use on your sign, please
contact the web-master, Spenser-spork, at spenser-spork@iname.com. I just want to see what you'll do with it. It helps me to know that other people
are looking at my site. :)
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