<![CDATA[A New Tale ~ Creative Writing is FUN! - Blog]]>Thu, 03 Apr 2025 18:45:04 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Who is Interested in this Tale?]]>Thu, 27 Feb 2025 02:29:12 GMThttp://anewtale.com/blog/who-is-interested-in-this-tale
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Choosing Your Words Carefully
By Stu Leventhal

Reporters, Politicians, Radio DJs, Defense Lawyers all
learn quickly the power of wise, word usage. Speach Givers, Clergymen, Comics and of course advertisers toil over word and phrase choice.

Knowing what you wish to say is just the beginning. Now, you need to pick the best, most effective way to say it.

Think about this; you probably would not speak with your friends using the same tone, style and words as you would use when talking to your boss, even if you were trying to communicate the exact same message.

The top writers, know how to present their messages so that their ideas leave an impression.

The moral of your story is why you are telling the tale. The moral is your lesson that you wish your readers to take away after they are done reading your piece.

Most of us do not just write to write because writing is time consuming. Important stuff gets written down.

If we trust our neighbor, we can seal a deal with just a handshake, nothing's written down. We write up a contract that we each are going to sign when we are agreeing to something that is important. The written agreement is to assure each party understands the terms they are agreeing to with little chance for one party misinterpreting or forgetting the terms.

When you have a good reason for spinning a yarn, there is probably going to be a moral to the story. The way you expose your story's moral makes all the difference.

The challenge isn't in stating or revealing your tale's moral but in regulating what emotional response you are going to get when your reader or listener finally realizes what you have been trying to teach them.




]]><![CDATA[The Story Is In The Details]]>Thu, 27 Feb 2025 02:26:11 GMThttp://anewtale.com/blog/the-story-is-in-the-details
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]]><![CDATA[Write for Yourself & Your Fans Too]]>Thu, 27 Feb 2025 02:21:24 GMThttp://anewtale.com/blog/write-for-yourself-your-fans-too
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Spruce Up Your Writing ~ By Stu Leventhal

Whether you are trying to communicate by song lyrics, poetry, short story, essay or other prose, do not be vague. Be precise, non-cryptic, on point and as specific as possible.
 
Your readers need to understand exactly what you are trying to tell them.
 
Yes. You can still use imagery and symbolism and metaphors and have hidden messages in there, if that is your thing; but be careful with words, phrases and statements that have more than one meaning. Do not risk being misinterpreted.
 
When you say, “Society is angry because of blah, blah, blah…” The word society can mean many different things to your various readers. Drill down to the actual part of society that is mad. Plus, there are different versions of ‘angry’ too. How upset is your particular sector of society. Are they about to get violent or organizing a peaceful protest rally or just ranting and venting online in chatrooms?
 
Explain, define, clarify… General messages are too weak but very long descriptions become boring. So, it is a balance. Give us enough to comprehend but do not drone on and on and on.
 
They say, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, so, make us visualize. Don’t just give us a dictionary type interpretation or an encyclopedia style narrative or a long sermon. Compare stuff to make your points fast.
 
His heart was as big as the universe.
 
She was small as a minnow but gutsy as a grizzly.
 
The great writers twist language to fit their needs. Definitions are subject to context. Nature gets interpreted for your use.
 
Creative Writing TIP: Teach through emotion.
]]><![CDATA[Your Title Should Sell Us]]>Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:23:10 GMThttp://anewtale.com/blog/your-title-should-sell-us
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]]><![CDATA[Do Readers Recognize Your Writing Style?]]>Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:21:35 GMThttp://anewtale.com/blog/do-readers-recognize-your-writing-style
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Being Interesting Creative and Worth the Read 
By Stu Leventhal

Your writing style should be to 'WOW' your readers, so they are hungry for more.

There are authors who can say more with one sentence than most authors can say with five pages of words!

TIP: Be careful with your cleverness. Remember that language and talking allows us a lot of room for making flip comments but writing has to be more eloquent.

Know that great stories, essays, speeches... that sound smooth and are read effortlessly, have probably been rewritten, reworked, edited and rewritten again and again in order to achieve their high level of literacy.

You will definitely need to put time into your work to elevate your quality.

IMPORTANT: Whenever you write, get into the habit of presenting your very best verbiage.

Force yourself to write what you think you cannot. Slowly, with experience, your writing will improve with each challenge you undertake.

Do not get too caught up in copying the technique of your favorite authors. Old or modern, the methods of other authors will not fit you or gel with your topics or appeal to your audience.

We all think differently and thus must develop our style for the writing project at hand.

The situation, subject matter, the audience and our goal will call for how we write this time. Next time we may need to write in a totally different way.

TIP: Try setting out to write specifically to get a certain predetermined reaction.

Ernest Hemmingway advised writing students, "As a writer you should not judge. You should understand."

Nietzsche said about communication styles, "Style ought to prove that one believes in an idea, not only that one thinks it but also feels it."

Do you have a favorite author whose style you are trying to imitate? Tell us in a comment who your writing idol is and why you like how they write.
]]><![CDATA[Writing Cleaner & Clearer]]>Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:19:43 GMThttp://anewtale.com/blog/writing-cleaner-clearer
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Do You Need a Signature Writing Style?
By Stu Leventhal

Only other artists can know what a fellow artist, author, poet, lyricist, journalist goes through to put the final touches on their work. The mental turmoil, the focus and self-imposed stress is harsher than the toughest literary critic could possibly impose.

It is amazing where an author can transport a reader with just a few well-crafted written sentences.

Let your emotional state flow into your words.

The style of the language must fit the subject matter.

Long stoic sentences may not mesh with your topic's tone. Think, are more delicate words more appropriate? Perhaps your telling style is interrupting the dark mood you are trying to produce.

TIP: Good writing takes total concentration.

REMEMBER: Words can have more than one meaning. Don't distract your reader from your message by making them think about which definition you mean about a word.

The reading should be easy.

Language should be rhythmic and flowing.

Sentences, paragraphs and thoughts should intermingle, one leading into the next.

Ideas big and small must complement each other at least slightly. The whole piece must give off a feeling of continuity.

The author should strive for invisibility.

Young creative writers seem to be more concerned with what the reader thinks about them and their talent rather than getting the reader absorbed in the subject matter of their work.

TIP: Your goal is not to convince your readers, what a cunning linguist this author is or what a funny writer you are or even to make them think, wow, this author knows his stuff. You are successful when the readers are not thinking about you, their author, at all because the work itself has captured their total attention.

Do no worry about developing your distinct, recognizable writing style. You'll have one or a few. We all do. Your styles will be developing and changing as you get more confident, the more you write.

Know there will be times when you must create a style or twist a technique based on what you have to communicate to your readers.

Experiment, keep pushing yourself. How else are you going to find out how great a writer you can be? 
]]><![CDATA[Tell Me Again Why You Are A Creative Writer?]]>Mon, 24 Feb 2025 03:41:03 GMThttp://anewtale.com/blog/tell-me-again-why-you-are-a-creative-writer
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I write to develop my imagination, which is the essence of all living... AGREE or DISAGREE???

Comments Welcome!

Authors can do great things with just a pen and some paper.

We create stuff, solve problems, inform, inspire... Make people smile and laugh or sigh.

Lots of great things get written while the author is located in the most unusual places. Many books, stories, chronicles, have been penned under the harshest conditions... in jail, for instance, or during wars or while recovering or dying in hospital beds.

Learn to write well and you can and will change the world!

How much of the world you wish to write for is up to you.

Heck, Shakespeare still influences the present-day world, hundreds of years after his death and the Play-Write will go on influencing coming generations yet to be born too.

Will someone find your book four hundred years from today and be delighted?

If you write it passionately, they will read it cover to cover.

]]><![CDATA[How Good Are You At Writing Email?]]>Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:07:12 GMThttp://anewtale.com/blog/how-good-are-you-at-writing-email
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Effective E-mail Writers Are Worth Their Weight In Gold
By Stu Leventhal - A NEW TALE!

All Writers can make their mark in the Email Arena. So many Emails are sent each day that businesses cannot keep up with writing them or with replying to the emails they are sent.

The world revolves around Emails. Snail Mail is dead for marketing, though it still gets sent. Yep, sending an email can be FREE of charge. Sending thousands of emails with one click may cost a small fee but compared to stamps being put on letters and stuffing printed literature into envelopes the cost for mass emailing too seems almost FREE!

IMPORTANT: All emails are not created equal. Cleverly crafted emails get great results.

Companies that use email campaigns the most effectively, know that people do not respond to the same style of email message. The wise emailers send different emails to different groups of people.

A creative writer that understands how to connect with varying audiences thru email writing will always be in high demand.

It is very easy for a company to find out which writer's email brings in the most orders. Emailing is a number game. As long as your emails bring in customers and sales, you will have lots of work writing emails.

The smart companies will pay you to create a series of emails targeting each group they message because once they have paid for an email address list they want to email the folks on the list at least a few times. They need a new email designed for each emailing attempt or they will be accused of spamming the recipients on their email list.

NOTE: It is illegal to constantly send advertisement emails (SPAM) to the same E-address without permission from the person you are messaging.

Once your email business clients have realized the results your well-crafted emails bring in for them, you can easily convince them of the value of hiring you to write for them a weekly company email letter for them to send to all their customers and prospects each week.

From there you can offer blog writing services and social media posting services. Explain that blogging and social media are great ways for brands to gather email addresses from fans so the company can send out special offers and new product announcements via emailing.

Just remember that emailing gets the best business bang for the buck because it so inexpensive to connect with infinite amounts of people. Blogging, article writing, promoting with video, social media activity all helps your client gather email addresses from people who show an interest in what they sell.

A well-crafted series of emails sent out on autopilot, a different email every few days, brings in the sales and convinces new customers to try ordering.

TIP: Yes, you are an email writer but, you can still add photos and videos and graphics to your emails to make them more dynamic.

One key to email success is you need to get past the spam email filters. Thus, your email titles cannot give away that this is a promotional email or your emails will be sent straight to email trash with no one reading them.

Another Key element is making it clear how you wish the recipient of your e-message to respond.

TIP: Don't wait until the very last line of your email message to tell them how to act. For example, if you wish for them to call a phone number in order to receive a discount, you have to ask them to call a few times thru-out the email. The more times you ask them to call, the more calls your client will get.

"Mastering the electronic world is the future of Business and Marketing!"

Writers who can help businesses compete will always be able to make a nice living.

Winning at emailing requires you to be able to address the interests of specific types of people. Once you build your reputation as the go-to writer for a specific industry the companies and brands will find you to place their writing orders.

As long as you can speak the language of a niche group, you will get great results for your clients. Write honestly. Speak directly and yes, get personal!

IMPORTANT: Once you have a winning email message, that is not the time to stop and start working on a totally new email. You should attempt to improve all your best emails so they work even better! Turn your good emails into Super Emails!     
]]><![CDATA[Read More to Write Better]]>Fri, 07 Feb 2025 18:07:38 GMThttp://anewtale.com/blog/read-more-to-write-better
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You learn by reading other author's work. The more skilled the writers are, whose words and phrases you are exposed to, the better you become at communicating when you write.

The object is not to sound smart. You ideally do not want your readers even thinking about you, their author. You wish them to be engrossed in the subject matter of your written piece.

When you can use less words and simple language... Do It!

You want to thoroughly explain what you are talking about but then move quickly on, to make your next point.

What and who you read matters most in your development.

Great Authors:

  1. Mark Twain
  2. Ernest Hemingway 
  3. George Orwell
  4. Tennessee Williams
  5. William Faulkner

Who is Your Favorite Author?
What is Your Favorite Book?
]]><![CDATA[Your Next Writing Project Idea]]>Fri, 07 Feb 2025 16:33:36 GMThttp://anewtale.com/blog/your-next-writing-project-idea
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You do not learn Art from textbooks!

You search the world seeking great art picking up the sense of the wonders of art thru each example you experience.

There is surely a lot of art all over the place. Some of the best art works we stumble upon in the most unlikely places.

To create artistically, you need to first put yourself in a playful mindset. The ideas can come to you on a whimsy but the process of turning your visions into real works of art takes concentration.

Get to it... If you are a painter, PAINT! A writer... WRITE! A sculpture? Mold and carve!

Listen, you have to do then fix, then do some more and try to do better this next time.

There is inspiration all around you for subjects to write about or to sing about. Just glance around you if you want something to paint.

It is not a question of whether you have the right stuff to be the next Picasso or John Steinbeck. The only question to ask is, "Do I have the determination to stick it through?"

TIP: When you have FUN expressing yourself thru a specific art form, you will find a way to continue creating. When crafting and creating is no longer enjoyable, the world is full of distractions which will pull you away from your art projects.

I have no doubt that you have great art inside you. Know, your journey is going to be mostly traveled alone.

Learning about ART is mainly self-teaching.

What is your favorite type of art? Painting, writing, dancing, acting...?


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