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Alright, so, looking at the same journal every time I check my profile is getting kind of annoying, so I've decided to change it. I recently uploaded two of my short stories (Librarian and Green) from ENC1142, a freshman writing course. My professor definitely was not the brightest crayon in the box - actually, I think it's more appropriate to say he was leaning more towards black. So he was pretty much purple when it comes to the intelligence spectrum. Unfortunately, I had to dumb down my work a bit so he could wrap his mind around it and it affected my writing. I know these last two deviations are not the best, and they definitely need some work; I realize that now that I'm in a Fiction Technique course. Those classes are a lot of work by the way. And I'm pretty tired of journals.
I'll stop complaining now.
Anyways, here are some of the things I've heard/read in my class and from my professors that I thought I should share with the world:
[A piece of genius for every soul willing to take the responsibility.]

Words taken from my professor, Brandy T. Wilson of FSU:

* A bad draft is better than a good idea. De-mystify the first draft. Never be satisfied with a second. Or a third. Fourths can suck, too. Strive to step back and examine your writing with the cold, finicky, objective eye of a quietly confident master chef about to serve his first meal to the queen.

* Imagine your audience to be friendly, well-read strangers-90 percent of whom are at least ten years older than you, all of whom are as smart as you.

* Devote regular blocks of time to writing. Put yourself on a schedule. It will make this class much easier.

* Do not drink and write. Contrary to popular legend, it is possible to become a great American writer without also being a drunkard.

* Do not style yourself as a writer. Just write. Do not think at great length about what you're going to say, how you're going to structure things, what your story is about. Just write.

* If you must quit in the middle of drafting a piece, stop before you run dry: in the middle of a sentence, if possible.

* There's only one true rule in writing: you can do anything you can get away with. Everything elseeven spelling, punctuation and grammaris a guideline. Some guidelines, however, are to be ignored at your peril.

Words my professor ripped off from her professor, Mark Winegardner:

* Writing is a contract between reader and writer. As reader, you owe the writer the willing suspension of your disbelief. As writer, you owe the reader the creation of a vivid and continuous dream in his mind.

* Readers are doing you a favor by reading your stuff. Don't insult these nice people with trick endings or other smarty-pants devices.

* Show, don't tell. Only that's not right. Dramatize, don't summarize. Only that's not right, either. Learn when to dramatize and when to summarize. Only that's not right either. Learn how to balance summary and scene. Only no one can really tell you how to do that. Which is why "show, don't tell" is such damned good advice.

* Avoid directly reporting the emotions or judgments of people in your stories.

* Write with strong nouns and verbs.

* Passive voice should be avoided. (Get it?)

* Avoid "-ly" adverbs assiduously. (Get it?)

* "Very" is the least very word in the language.

* Avoid sentences beginning with "There is" or "It is."

* Place periods and commas inside quotation marks (punctuate your dialogue)

* Limit your attributions to "said" and "asked."

* Stories that begin with you waking up are likely to suck.

* Stories that begin with you getting bad news over the telephone are likely to suck.

* Stories where you - as a character - are essentially passive are likely to suck.

* Stories that spend lots of time inside your head are likely to suck.

* Avoid "flashbacks"; be wary of breaches in chronology. The reader needs exponentially less background info than you think. Strive to provide that info not via flashback but in the present of your story.

* Keep the size of your cast small (at least for now).

* Keeping the time scheme as brief and linear as possible (until you have some basic mastery over writing fiction).

* Learn to read like a writer.

* Rip off your heroes. Until you're fairly well-read and already writing capable stuff, it's absurd (and egomaniacal, anti-intellectual and doomed, if also entirely understandable) to worry about "developing your own voice" or, worse, "being original." All great jazz musicians went through a derivative stage; until you do that (as a writer, that is), you may luck out and be an idiot savant, but you have no hope of becoming a distinct talent.

* Develop your own voice. Be original. Become a distinct talent.

* Write what you'd want to read. Be honest.

* Read every good book that's ever been written. Learn the tradition; respect the tradition.

* Eventually, overthrow the tradition. Remake the tradition. Emend the tradition. By God, become the tradition. Best wishes.

And some from Samuel Beckett:
"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."