Instructify

Creative writing students, take note. If you want to succeed, listen to the successful. Stephen King, a writer who has done pretty well for himself, spells out “Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully—in Ten Minutes.” The article contains common-sense strategies to produce publishable prose. The advice ranges from professionalism (be neat, know who you’re writing for), to craftsmanship (remove extraneous words). He also handles the ultimately subjective subject of talent, and gives a definition every creative writing teacher should use—writing talent equals communicating with the reader.

You can find a lot of this advice in Stephen King’s excellent book on writing, On Writing. He wrote this article in 1988, so you can ignore stuff about not typing on erasable onion-skin paper. Nevertheless, this is good advice worth a lot more than what you’ll pay for it. –BILL FERRIS

Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully—in Ten Minutes by Stephen King

Related Stuff:
National Novel Writing Month – Get Your Fingertips Ready!
Generate Students’ Creativity with Simile of the Day Generator