Hello, hello!

It's here!

I don't own many, MANY things, but in this case I don't own Golden Sun, Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age, the six traits of writing, etc, etc.

If you want to scan over this instead of actually reading it, read the bullets. And, if you don't read anything else, please read the "Voice" section!

Feel free to print this out if you want. In fact, as long as you don't claim this is yours or anything, feel free to use it, as long as you incorporate and me.

ENJOY!

BK

You click on what you think is a promising link. The summary was, well, "valeshipping hope it good come look no flames!"

The first paragraph you read…

"Hey Jenna" "wat" "where's the sord?" "I don't no" "well tel me if you get it, I want it bad" "ok"

Isaac yelled, falling off a cliff "hey jenna a little help here" "ok" she grabbed a rope then she told a djinni to get another one then she lowered the rope and Isaac caught it and climbed on and she pulled but then she fell then they both fell then they fell into a river "hey jenna grabb my waiste I will swim" "ok" she did and then he swan and the they lay down

"you ok? Yeah" ok "well ok if you need anyting just tell and I'll come "ok"

BK

What do you think of when you read that? A bad piece of writing, right? That is a symbol of a weak writer.

For this instructional, we will focus of the 6 Traits of Writing, temporarily, for our purposes, we will shorten it to "t6T" for "the 6 Trait(s)."

Part I: Ideas

First, there is the t6T ideas. This is like the foundation for a house or the mould for a ring. Without a good idea, no matter how great, stupendous, wonderful, or tasteful your writing is, it simply won't be interesting to read. It can be a great, 10/10 piece of writing, good intro and all, but it won't have the importance or luster that a piece of work with a great idea has.

Example, without a good idea (the idea being that Isaac ate cake and died.):

It was absolutely amazing. I bit into the frosting, and quivered in delight as my teeth sank into the cake itself. My taste buds oozed as flakes and crumbs found themselves onto my tongue, sending shockwaves of sweetness into my body. The frosting melted on contact, making a sugary ooze that flowed down my throat.

Suddenly, an arrow stuck into my shoulder blades. Numbness flowed through my body, its tentacles of stiffness reaching down my spine. As I stiffened into paralysis, a half-gurgle escaped my lips as I fell, knees first, onto the morning turf, still wet from dew.

As I felt my consciousness slowly fade away, I remembered only the wonderful, wonderful cake.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't that bad, but, come on people, I really tried to make it bad! Seriously!

As you can see, you can make up for bad ideas with great writing. But I don't recommend it.

Also, a point to remember is that the section above is simply an unconnected fragment, from the depths of my mind. In an actual story, you can't just put random things down. You need to have a basic structure in mind as you build the plot. Here are some tips:

First, use a technique called brainstorming. It doesn't have to be written, guys and girls. It doesn't have to be like your English class, where the teacher (who is always very nice, you may have noticed) says, "Oh! Lets gather some ideas, put them on a piece of paper…blah, blah, blah." I hate that. No, brainstorming doesn't have to follow strict rules. Just use that noggin and think, as you walk home from school, or whatever, when you're reading, mentally add things that you want to include on your book, article, fanfiction, etc. Whenever your mind is at rest, think.

Use what I call quick write. Get out a sheet of paper, a pencil, and a timer. This is for people who can't seem to brainstorm, or remember what they thought. Set the timer to anywhere between 1-5 minutes, and jot down anything, anything at all that comes to mind. The main thing here is don't stop writing. This I seldom do, but I find it useful because ideas, even crazy ones, seem to pop into my head. If you need to see clearly, you can go back and organize it. But we will go into more detail in the organization section.

Finally, do multiple writings at once. Writer's block strikes me, (as I'm sure it does you, too) all too often. I'll get done with one idea, and bam! Nothing else comes to mind. So, to remedy this, you should be working on several things at once. If you get stuck on one story, and you can't seem to think of an idea, that's all right. Just save it (or close the book, stop typewriting, etc.) and move on to something else. But, keep in mind that too many at once can be very distracting. So I suggest keeping it between 1-5 chapters/oneshots at once.

With a good idea, you can draw interest to your story. In the case of Golden Sun, one big thing is pairings. Me? I like Valeshipping, Imilshipping, Lighthouseshipping, but don't let that affect you. I seem to find that the most read stories have a bit, however slight bit, of romance in them, but that is not meant to persuade you only to write romance. Romance is like…sugar. You usually (emphasis on the usually) need a bit of it, but too much and it goes…bleh.

And, with that, we will wrap up ideas. I hope you found this helpful. As a quick review, these are the tips, shortened:

Brainstorm

Quick write

Write multiple items

Add flair, flauntiness, and romance, usually.

BK

Part II: Organization

If you're like me, then organization in life is not your thing. Your room is a total pig sty, you're missing homework half the time, you just can't seem to find that CD your friend let you borrow…you get the picture.

Organization in writing, however, is different. What it is, is:

Having a good topic sentence, a good introductory sentence, and a good conclusion

Writing that is easy to follow; does not lead off in wild directions. (see also Sentence Fluency, as this is discussed more there)

If ideas were like the foundation of a house, organization would be like the floor plan, the decorations, the façade, the walls, etc. It's like, when you first see the house on the outside, you are lured into it (intro sentence) and when you are inside, you find that there are labels and other things that make it easy to tour the house without any trouble whatsoever (arrangement of sentences). And, when you are finally leaving, it ends with such a pleasant finale that you long to see it all over again.

That is what organization should do. While 6Ts like word choice, voice, and ideas make the writing interesting, good organization puts all of those "raw materials," per se, into a fairly easily navigated and overall good piece of writing. I mean, sure, if you've got all these good words, good voice, and good ideas, it's probably going to be good. That, which would get you like, a 8/10 could be doubled with organization.

Tips on organizing your writing:

Proofread. After finishing a section or paragraph, read it over, see if it flows with ease, if you got everything you wanted in there, and if they fit in as you want them to. This is a good time to use cut-and-paste (on most word processors). If you aren't sure what to do, and you want to check your writing, have a knowledgeable friend over to read it. If you don't know any, or if it's plain embarrassing, pick it apart, and categorize the items, putting one section together, and thus separating different ideas.

Using paragraphs, bullets, numberings, etc. To have good organization, one of your best friends is the Tab key, on computers. Indentions are important to make your reading easier to follow. Another good technique is using double space, both on word processors and on writing on paper. On paper, us writers take advantage of the space to add in corrections and insert words, phrases and sentences. While word processors conveniently eliminate this process, it does help your writing look not so packed together.

Use proper connecting sentences. Do this to begin paragraphs as well as to shift from one idea to another. This is like glue. Without this, it's just a jumble of sticks, but not connected in any way. This helps your sections flow.

There are many benefits to good organization, not the least of which is the fact that readers will find your writing more appealing and the plot easier to follow. In quick review, here are the tips:

Good topic sentences, introductory sentences, and conclusions

Good writing that is easy to follow, and that stays on track

Proofread your writing

Use paragraphs when necessary

Use good connecting sentences

If you follow these tips, I can almost guarantee you that viewers will like and follow your writing with ease.

BK

Part IIV: Sentence Fluency

This is really closely related to Organization, so I will not go into too much detail about some of this.

Sentence fluency is how your sentences blend with each other, how the sentences themselves are structured, and it also deals with dialogue, as well as fragments.

How does one blend sentences? In writing, it's not like you rip sentences off the page, stick them into a blender and punch "liquefy." Here, you have to be creative. Use words like while, then, because, thus, so, as, then, when, etc.However, note that you should not repeat these often, because if you do, well, it'll sound like:

He jumped. Then, as he braced himself for another landing, he noticed that he was falling, fast. He yelled, long brown hair flapping in the wind as he plummeted to the lava below. Then, he miraculously grabbed and handhold. Then, he began to slowly, ever so slowly pull himself up.

Did you notice that the word "then" kinda sounded awkward after a while? That is what happens when you repeat a word too often. "Then" is one of the most commonly abused words that are used this way.

Commas.

Commas are very important. I cannot emphasize enough how important they are in writing, as they are one of the most effective ways to bind sentences together, and you can't really overuse them…well, maybe you can. The point is, comma usage is very important in sentence fluency. However, when using commas, make sure that they have proper conjunction(s) after it, if necessary. In case you don't know what conjunctions are, they're words like and.

Fragments are one of my favorite things. I like using fragments. Why? Because they fit, if you use them properly. Fragments are just what they say. They're parts of a sentence, and if you put them together, they, usually, will make a sentence with a little help. Fragments I use a lot of times, but they are often misused. If you really want to write one, just write a sentence with a comma and cut it in half, at the comma, like this:

Yeah, as if that'll ever happen.

Yeah. As if that'll ever happen.

While that may not be an exact fragment, you should get the picture.

And finally, dialogue.

A few quick rules? One obvious one is use quotation marks ("") around the spoken phrase. Some people use quotations around thought too, but I prefer italics instead.

Two, start a new paragraph when the speaker changes. This makes it look much better and easier to read. So, instead of writing:

"Oh. Well, maybe." said Felix. "So, will you, hm?" said the mayor. "Erm…no" said Felix.

You should change it to a new paragraph when the speaker changes, but before I show you that, I want to tell you something about the word said.

"Said" is an even more abused word than then, because of its frequent use. I think that you can use it, but you should try and find better words to replace it. While there is pretty much no other way to say "said," there are betters ways to replace some other words.

With that, let us fix the dialogue above:

"Oh. Well, maybe…" muttered Felix.

"So!" the mayor exclaimed. "Will you, hm?"

"Well, erm…no." answered Felix, grimacing.

So, that about wraps up Sentence Fluency. Quick tips in review of this section:

Blend sentences well, but do not overuse any single connector

Use commas, as needed

Fragments, if used, must be used properly, and in the right context

Dialogue should begin a new paragraph when the speaker changes, and authors should try to limit the word "said"

That wraps up sentence fluency, right?

Part IV: Conventions

Convention misuse/under usage is one of my biggest pet peeves. You could have the best story in the world, take out conventions, and boom! It collapses into a pile of debris and rubble.

Conventions are things such as periods, commas, exclamation marks, question marks, parentheses, dashes, italics, underlines, capitalization, spelling, and bolding. The best way to mess up a good story is to mess up here. I will go into detail about several sections:

Emphasizing

Regular Punctuation/Capitalization

Special Punctuation

Subsection I: Emphasizing

When you want to say something with a special oomph, you have to use special things, such as italics, underlines, bolding, AND CAPITALIZATION. Using these will give your writing flavor and taste, and this also has to do with your voice. With this, your writing has a touch of flavor to it. For example:

"What do you mean it's…oh, by the fire of Tiamat! It is flooding! Hurry…maybe we should get out of here after all…"

Compare that to:

"What do you mean it's…oh, by the fire of Tiamat! It is flooding! Hurry…maybe we should get out of here after all…"

Which one was better? Obvious, isn't it? Using things like italics make your writing sound natural, which is very important.

Subsection II: Regular Punctuation and Capitalizing

This is something people learn in, like, second grade. Yeah, this is properly using periods (.), commas (,), colons (:), semicolons (;), apostrophes ('), exclamation marks (!), etc. For some reason, people seem to not understand this. It looks so, so, so much better with proper use. For example:

Good day sir how are you.

Good what are you doing.

Oh nothing how about you.

Good you too.

Ok.

Now, with proper punctuation:

"Good day, sir! How are you?"

"Good. What are you doing?"

"Oh, nothing. How about you?"

"Good. You too?"

"Ok."

Okay, that doesn't exactly make sense, but you get the picture.

Another thing is capitalization. MS Word automatically capitalizes for you, but it's not good to get dependent on it.

I really don't need to go into too much detail here…right? I mean…you've all seen this, right?

Subsection IIV: Special Punctuation

This is for writers who wish to incorporate great voice in writing. You might say this is going above and beyond the normal.

Special punctuation is things like "…" and " - (hyphen)" Using them can be pretty difficult.

The "…" is used when there is a pause, or a slow interruption, such as:

"Well…okay…but…"

The other mentionable one is the hyphen. This is used sometimes in place of a comma. When things like this come up – you use a hyphen. One tip is to put a space on either side of a hyphen – like that. Hyphens can be very useful sometimes.

In review, here are the quick facts:

Use italics, bolding, underlines, and capitalized words in order to emphasize something

Correctly use punctuation and capitalization

Correctly use …'s and hyphens

That wraps it up.

BK

Part V: Word Choice

Word choice is the decorations in writing. Picking good words communicates to the reader that it is not going to be boring.

I have one tip for you: use a thesaurus. That is as good information as I can give you. This is not an awfully big category, and word choice, in my opinion, is one of the less-necessary t6Ts.

Part VI: Voice

This, in my opinion, is the most important t6T. Voice comes two ways: the author's voice, as well as the character's voice.

Imagine. If everything looked and sounded the same, if every story was identical, there'd be no individuality, no anything. Voice is what makes the story the story.

Voice is like all t6Ts put together. Your writing is much more interesting to read with good voice.

First, there is character's voice. Every character is different. There are some that speak with an accent, some that shorten words, some that have lisps, etc. Read the two things below and tell me which one is better.

"Well. Let's go." muttered Felix.

"Okay." answered the guard.

Then, there's…

"Well? Aren't you coming?" called Felix to the guard. "We're wasting time here!"

"Tsk, thy'r too youn' fer yer own good, Lor' Felix. Hast'ness ain't a-gonna get ya no where, methinks, hm?"

That is a demonstration of character's voice. Some tips to remember are:

Use things that would happen in real life when speaking, like shortening with apostrophes, words like "gonna, wanna, shoulda, coulda, woulda, etc." and accents, lisps and other such things to make each character unique.

Make it sound natural. Voice shouldn't seem strained, or forced. It should meld, and be normal, and it should also be consistent throughout the story.

Use humor. Humor is such an important part of voice. Everyone's idea of humor is a little different. Again, make it sound natural, take openings and opportunities when they arise, but don't force things to happen. Writing should flow together naturally.

Then, there is the voice of the author.

This is the heart and soul of the story. This is what makes each author unique. Some people write with a strong voice, some don't. With voice, stories sound like just a person talking, instead of a bunch of druids droning different stories on monotones.

To do a little test, read a story aloud, record it, and give it to a friend to do the same thing. Play back the recordings. The tones should sound different, because what influences them is your voice. Listen for emphasis and try to spot how your friend and you like to do things different ways.

All right, I'm empty on topics. If I get enough reviews, I will post a REVISED EDITION of this, which you can expect to be a lot thicker.

Review, please. Tell me if this was helpful, if this was boring, too long, whatever. Criticism accepted.