The '-ing' rule.

So, StumbleUpon has been awesome recently. I click it and something completely random that I would have never thought to look at on my own comes up. Sometimes, I get sent to sites that will improve my writing if I read them. One thing has stood out to me so far, and by simply utilizing this one rule, I have improved the way I write a ton.

Cut down on the use of '-ing.' This might sound hard to do and you might wonder why, but after I read that I started to do it right away and it really did improve upon the quality of anything I wanted to write. It just makes whatever you write sound better. Like, even just now. I was tempted to write, "It just makes whatever you're writing sound better." But then I said it in my head and took out the -ing and felt satisfied that I had a much better quality sentence. I'd write more examples of this, but I'm horrible at examples. Last night before I went to bed I had at least three ideas in my head. Now it is 9am and I have no ideas in my head.

5 Tips for writing like a pro.

That's the site. Good stuff, really. The '-ing' rule is number three. I'm sure that I should probably listen to the other rules, but those are all ones that I have heard before. Not that that doesn't make them any less important. I just found the '-ing' rule to be unique since I hadn't heard it before. So. There you all go. Try it out, it'll help.

Goals.

Why did I make this? Somewhere public to throw my ideas. Here's a list of goals:

• Become a better writer.
• Expand my genre's of interest. I'm a big romance junkie. I'd like to start delving into other things.
• Become more self sufficient. Right now my best writing happens during role play with other people. That is, I write a bit of my character's story, then my partner writes their part of the story. I want to be able to write something where I write all of the story.
• Focus on something for more than a week. I say this as if I have ever been able to concentrate on a specific story or plot for more than a day, let alone a week.

Short list, but a loaded list. Let's see how it goes.