<p>@nothingto: franzferdinand’s comment about editing is true. Editing while writing pays off. I was even editing while writing my SAT essay and got a 10. Any kind of editing is helpful, but make sure that you edit frequently because it makes you a better writer. A fresh perspective is always nice because it increases awareness about your audience. I always thought my sentences in my reports were clear, but I would always get comments like “what do you mean?” and “where did this come from?” from my peers and my teachers. Writing is a good thing to work on because you don’t want to make a college admissions counselor confused about what you are trying to say.</p>
<p>@upinflight The others are right. I’ve read like a maniac practically from the womb, and nothing will teach you vocabulary, sentence structure, and pacing better than constant exposure to literature. And force yourself to write regularly. Even if you think it’s crap, the more practice you give yourself the better your chances are that you’ll soon write something that’s -not- crap. Learn to separate the writing and editing processes-- otherwise, if you’re a perfectionist like me, you’ll never finish something because you’re constantly editing it. This is true mostly for fiction, but nonfiction too. </p>
<p>I don’t practice specifically on style, sentence structure, vocab, ect, except to make sure I’m varying everything. Sometimes stories will call for different writing styles-- present tense rather than past tense, first person rather than third person, minimalism rather than flowery prose. As far as inspiration, I’m most inspired by pictures (browsing deviantART is like the inspiration jackpot).</p>
<p>@all: Okay, so read a lot of books [esp adult fiction], newspaper editorials/articles [this would be new for me… I don’t think anyone in my family reads the newspaper, lol…], critical reviews, essays, and journals. Wow, such a large variety; to be honest I’ve mainly been reading a few nonfiction novels (“The Universe in a Nutshell”), YA, and some adult novels [is it just me, or do 99% of these books start off with a murder]. I’m trying some Charles Dickens - it’s not usually what I would read, but I thought I’d give it a try. Never gone beyond books, so I think this will be a good idea/change. Nonetheless, any particularly good books you guys recommend?</p>
<p>Now, editing, that sounds like something I should practice, since I rarely do any of that after I finish writing a piece. @emeraldEvi, yeah that’s one of the problems for me - being a perfectionist while i’m writing so I take FOREVER. Sometimes it pays off… sometimes not so much. I found when I was writing my SAT essay, getting the ideas is the hardest part. Second hardest part is not being a perfectionist while writing… I hate it when you have a good phrase/wording for a sentence on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t quite get it out, so I usually waste a few minutes just thinking about how I want to phrase it <=waste of time. And lastly, write whenever I can. Got it. Thanks guys, super helpful, really. </p>
<p>&Yes, I absolutely love browsing deviantART. I haven’t actually used it as a source of writing inspiration; mainly for drawing - but i’ll try taking a different approach and use it for writing. I think I’ll start off recovering my writing skills by typing some sort of story today.</p>
<p>So what do you guys like to write about most often? [original stories, vignettes, memoirs/describing experiences in first person, essays, etc.?] I know I used to write a lot of stories (i especially love describing emotions during dramatic moments), but this year, when our english assignment called for us to write from our point of view… well, I actually felt it to be challenging. I didn’t really like my writing style =/</p>
<p>I think I have a terrible habit of writing too much in a single post. -_-</p>
<p>… and I have a habit of not capitalizing my I’s. /edits everything</p>
<p>@upinflight: Some good books that I’ve read in general are A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Not only are they good reads, but they have some pretty good examples of how fiction and nonfiction writers usually write.</p>
<p>@upinflight -I like to write original fiction. It’s the easiest for me, plus the funnest. Not saying it’s easy-just easier than book reports and the life. 
</p>
<p>For my AP Lang class, my teacher has me reading alot of books:
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Cry the Beloved Country, Beowulf, The Importance of Being Earnest, Hard Times, Canterbury Times, and Wuthering Heights.</p>
<p>Man! Is that alot? I also have practice exams, analysis’s of short stories, and side papers…</p>
<p>I think I’m gonna die :P</p>
<p>^You’re so lucky that you’re able to take AP Lang sophomore year. It’s a senior class only at my school. </p>
<p>I too enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird. My favorite read of the year, though, was Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. I’ll admit to shedding a few tears during the final pages. :D</p>
<p>Of Mice and Men was fantastic. Only few authors could twist a leftist agenda into an extremely touching and emotional book.</p>
<p>Mice and Men sucked :/</p>
<p>I predicted that the ending was that Lenny is going to be either killed, or abandoned by his partner. I was right…</p>
<p>The Odyssey was beast however.</p>
<p>I also read Lord of the Flies.</p>
<p>^I’m sorry you feel that way. It’s widely considered to be an American literary masterpiece. Also, being able to predict the ending doesn’t diminish the quality of the book whatsoever. I was told the ending by a friend after reading the first chapter (I was not happy about that). Even so, the stark change in the latter half of the book from the characters’ overflowing hopefulness (when Candy, Lennie, and George realized that they could afford the house collectively) to their bleak situation at the end was so jarring that it still resonates with me today. To me, it was portrayed with a gritting and yet satisfying raw quality. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if you were forced to read it in your English class, I can see why you might have been resistant to embrace it as something you’d actually want to read.</p>
<p>Let me elaborate on what I meant by “sucked” lol. As a book, it was great, however, I am not really a fan of the plot. I think I slept behind the book in class plenty of times while the teacher was imitating the voices of the characters while reading the book. It was pretty boring. </p>
<p>I am a fan of action, adventure, discovery and sorts. Non-fiction or fiction. That’s why the Illiad, Odyssey, and many Greek Literature appeal to me. In my opinion they are the real “masterpiece” of literature.</p>
<p>I haven’t read Of Mice and Men. The books I’ve read for English (either for class or a report) are The Pearl by John Steinbeck, Great Expectations by Dickens, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, Looking for Alaska by John Green, A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Angel by James Patterson. They were all amazing in their own ways. The Pearl was short but suspenseful. Great Expectations was boring in the beginning but it got better once Pip got to London. An Abundance of Katherines and Looking for Alaska involved common teenage problems (death, identity, relationships). A Hope in the Unseen saw someone from rubble make it to the top (recommended for anybody and everybody!) To Kill a Mockingbird was amazing (a must read for anybody in high school). If you read the Max Ride series, Angel is a page turner and I think it’s one of the better books (love the ending, but not giving any spoilers)</p>
<p>Of the titles you guys suggested, I’ve read to kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, the Great Gatsby and the Odyssey. I dunno, why, perhaps i’m not appreciative of that kind of literature… but I found them rather… dull? Well in comparison to the faster/more drastic plots and writing style of Maximum Ride. I didn’t think they were horrible at all, but they never really stood out to me. We went through all the themes, reading-in-between the lines, essay writing, etc. but it still seemed like a very average book. Am I not a good enough reader to appreciate it? =/</p>
<p>In comparison, I absolutely loved Ender’s Game (I read it in 5th grade, and reread it again last year, STILL one of my favorite books, which is really surprising). Great Expectations is okay/average for now, but i guess that’s because I have yet to reach the more exciting part when pip is in London, as Evanb said. :P</p>
<p>Well, I think that older, classical books need a different mindset, a different type of interpretation. The surface of the plot may seems so similar to other boks of its generation, but when you delve into the specifics of the book, it’s another world.</p>
<p>You have to change your expectations for older books and appreciate the subtleties therein. Maybe since you were ‘force fed’ the books in class, you didn’t really have the time to absorb the literature. However, you may just be the type of person who doesn’t enjoy slower-paced books, and that’s okay.</p>
<p>By the way, Ender’s Game is my favorite book. Have you read Ender’s Shadow? It’s just as good. Orson Scott Card is a genius.</p>
<p>Has anyone read Beowulf? How did yall like it?</p>
<p>@upinflight: It could easily just be personal taste! I’m sure you’ll encounter other classic works of literature you enjoy. For one, I absolutely LOVED The Great Gatsby.</p>
<p>You guys get cool books for English! My Honors teacher is literally the EASIEST teacher at school. We read The Outsiders, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Romeo and Juliet, and snippets from The Odyssey and a couple of short stories from Poe (Cask of Amontillado and Tell Tale Heart).</p>
<p>To give you an idea of how easy she grades/how easy the class is: we had vocab words that were ridiculously easy, we wrote a max of five papers and only had to answer questions about the texts we read. Whereas sophomore year honors English is one of the most difficult classes we have, just because freshmen teachers don’t prepare you for anything.</p>
<p>Romeo and Juliet was incredibly boring. While I enjoy other works by Shakespeare like Midsummer Night’s Dream, R & J just didn’t do it for me. The language was, of course, brilliant (it’s Shakespeare), but the plot was so dull I could die. The whole undying love at first sight was so unrealistic and really turned me off to the whole play. The vague nature of the family feud between the Montagues and Capulets was annoying as well. Maybe someday I’ll learn to appreciate it, but it just seems like a cheesy, romantic ‘tragedy’ with less-than-compelling characters (Romeo dies? Who cares?!).</p>
<p>Edit: My English class was incredibly easy as well. I had an A plus all year without really doing any work (except reading the books, which I enjoyed).</p>
<p>My English class was very hard. We always had major assignments that had to be done and we had a quiz everyday. Plus, everybody had to adjust from having horrible 8th grade English teachers. But, it was very rewarding when I passed the state exam with a 99th percentile. Everyone in my class loved the teacher and we know that we are ready for Honors English 2, which is very writing intensive.</p>
<p>I’ve never really read Shakespeare. I agree with StudiousMaximus about Romeo and Juliet. It was very cheesy and unrealistic. Maybe it is just a guy’s perspective about it, but I knew that Shakespeare wasn’t for me (even though I’ve read Nights in Rodanthe and The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks).</p>
<p>@tofugirl: I haven’t read Beowulf, but it is a required read for 12th grade in NC.</p>
<p>Agreed with the Romeo and Juliet thing. I wasn’t really a fan of the plot at all. Next year, we read Hamlet, and I really hope that is better.</p>