What ideas do you have about practising writing?

[Sympathy]

Hi,

I love writing but don't know how to write well. English is not my first language, and my writing skill is very bad. But I wish that one day I could write English essays like a professional journalist. What are the ways you practice writing English, and writing skills in general, by yourself? I have been practising writing but I ran into many problems. Some of them are:

- I have a good idea but don't know the English words or phrases to express it. Often I try Google using advanced search option and the asterisk which stands for a word. For example if I want to find adjectives to describe a love story, I just need to search "one of the most * love story" (quotation marks included). The second solution is to remember a context where I know the similar words, phrases, and ideas have been used. Then find that essay, website or article to look for the words. But these 2 solutions are very costly, I mean time-consuming, and the time-consuming process will somewhat distract me from the focus on writing and diction, and I will just forget the words I found.

- I don't have any instructor, who will point out your wrong word choice, unidiomatic phrases, and inappropriate verb tenses. No native speaker checks if the words and sentences in my essay are consistent in style and tone. Using the words I learned from various sources such as movies, journals, newspaper and Internet, I fear that my content will change from a too formal beginning to a everyday-language ending, which is terrible.

What ideas do you have about practising writing?

[Kitosdad]

Sympathy, Just post one of your essays on here. We will help you with your weaknesses, if any.

Kitosdad.
_________________
Englishman living in Germany.

[Prezbucky]

Sympathy,

Good writing is verb-driven, not adjective-driven -- master the verbs and use simple adjectives (good, bad, awful, great, etc.).

Tell me which sounds more powerful:

1) I devoured the catfish and then ripped my pants.

or

2) I ate the beautiiful catfish and then tore the seam in my silky blue pants.

Do you see the power -- POWER -- of verbs?

Master the verbs, the words that represent work, and they will work for you.

Walt Whitman was great at effectively using verbs. I'm not a fan of his: he wrote poetry that did not rhyme but it was powerful anyway, because he kicked ass with verbs.

He would say something like:

I sing myself
And bathe myself
And I thwart he who would thwart me

I prefer Frost's dual mastery of verb and adjective, but if you must learn one, it has to be the verb.

If you need adjectives, buy a thesaurus. If you want to write powerfully, master the verbs.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Prezbucky]

This may be the simplest example of the difference between verb-driven and adjective-driven writing:

You see a pretty girl. What do you say to her?

Verb-driven: I want you. Be with me.

Adjective-driven: You are pretty, sumptuous, wonderful. We would be wonderful together.

And, even simpler:

Verb: I love you

Adjective: You are cool.

Verbs, verbs!
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Kitosdad]

LOL, I liked that Prez.
_________________
Englishman living in Germany.