Idrees Patel | Writers' Treasure

Three ways to balance writing workload for high school studentsThree ways to balance writing workload for high school students

July 28, 2017| Idrees Patel| 12:55 AM

It’s a tough time to be a writer if you’re also a high school student (the latter two years of which are also known as junior college in India).

Your academic workload is high, regardless of your choice of specialisation.

Also, as a writer, you’re just starting out. You have no experience. You have potential, but you haven’t attained all the skills yet. You would like to get interested in academic writing, or creative writing, or content writing… but then you can’t decide which field to pursue. Should you pursue creative writing as your main field of writing, or should you look instead at content writing?

Even after you have decided the answers to these questions it’s not over yet. You decide to learn how to write well by gaining information from sources on the Web. A decision made with good intent, but filled with pitfalls. It’s because advice on the Web is often contradictory, confusing or at times not helpful for a particular use case.

Take for example the question of whether to write every day or not. Conventional writing advice for beginners recommends that you write every day. But new advice says that you should write regularly, but it’s not necessary to write everyday. What to believe?

Teen writers in high-school often get discouraged by seeing what a long way there is to climb in the world of writing. According to them, they can’t handle the combined workload of school / college, writing and extracurricular activities.

However, there are few easy tips to help balance the writing workload for these high school students. Let’s look at them one-by-one:

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Six factors to consider while writing an essaySix factors to consider while writing an essay

May 31, 2017| Idrees Patel| 5:09 PM

Essay writing is a crucial part of the modern academic system.

However, the thing is, just because a thing is ubiquitous doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. Anyone can write an essay, but not anyone can actually write a good essay. It takes time to learn. It takes practice to learn how to do it effectively.

The field of essay writing is a vast subject which can’t be covered in a single article. But what can be covered is the topic-wise approach, in simple lessons.

So today, let’s look at the topic, “Six factors to consider while writing an essay.” These factors are important as they affect the effectiveness and the performance of your essay. Let’s consider the first factor: the topic.

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How to write a thesisHow to write a thesis

May 3, 2017| Idrees Patel| 1:34 AM

In academic writing, there is one thing that is critical to your graduation. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a student of an undergraduate program or a graduate program.

Which requirement am I talking about? The requirement of writing a thesis / dissertation (for graduate students) or a final year project (for undergraduate students).

For some reason or other, a thesis scares students unlike other subjects. They think they won’t be able to write it. They think they won’t be able to do a good job in it. That they will lose their marks, and their grade point average will decrease.

Why do they think like that?

It’s because they don’t know the contents of a thesis and the procedure of writing a thesis.

It’s because nobody taught them how to write a thesis in the most efficient way possible.

It’s because they were pressured by knowledge from seniors, well-meaning professors, and others that doing a thesis is tough.

But I say: it’s not that tough. So here is the Writers’ Treasure article designed to bust the myths and impart real knowledge about the basics of thesis or dissertation writing. Grab some tea / coffee, and meet me after the break…

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Creative writing in 2015: here’s what you need to knowCreative writing in 2015: here’s what you need to know

May 5, 2015| Idrees Patel| 9:21 AM

There are few things constant in the world, and creative writing is not one of them.

Sure, it may not look like it on the surface. After all, creative writing is one of those things which stays evergreen, supposedly. Books on creative writing written decades ago still have relevance in the present. Creative writing advice from years ago is still useful today.

It’s the reason why I wrote Creative Writing 101 in 2010, and it’s the reason why that resource remains the most popular on Writers’ Treasure, as well as still being evergreen content. Outdated? Of course not.

But it’s been five years since Creative Writing 101, and as specified, it was a beginner’s guide. What about an upgrade? What about the next level? …..

So here you have it. Announcing Creative Writing 201 – a new series of articles, a new creative writing resource aimed to upgrade your creative writing skills to the next level. The aim is to upgrade a creative writer to become an intermediate and then an expert.

Intended as a proper successor to Creative Writing 101, this series of articles will be even more in-depth, more readable (like always).

We’ll start from a macro look at creative writing as it stands today, move on to the macro issues, macro tips and techniques, and macro examples of effective creative writing.

See the keyword? Macro? What does it mean? And our topic today: creative writing in 2015. Isn’t this topic contradictory to what I said a few paragraphs ago? The answers to these questions – and many more – are found in the full explanation below!

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Check out our writing servicesCheck out our writing services

April 25, 2015| Idrees Patel| 1:14 AM

Many tasks are difficult for writers.

As in, even many parts of the entire writing process are difficult. In fact, nothing is easy in writing. Not even the pros find it easy. All they do is make it look easy, but ask them whether they found it difficult in the beginning and the answer will most certainly be in the affirmative.

Content writing, editing and proofreading, and publishing. All these three tasks sound confusing, but they’re not. Broken down into small chunks, they’re doable. Millions are at least doing it.

Few, though, are doing it the right way.

The reasons for that run in the hundreds. One of the most true come down to time, or more precisely, the lack of it. Who has the time to even write these days, never mind the time to write well, edit and proofread it, and then finally publish it online for others to read.

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The #1 writing advice: write the truthThe #1 writing advice: write the truth

April 18, 2015| Idrees Patel| 11:03 PM

First off, this isn’t your typical Writers’ Treasure article. It’s even more brilliantly readable, and it has a completely different subject and tone. It’s not theoretical, and it’s not applicable to creative writers. But for all other kinds of writing, it’s the truest advice I’ve ever written.

Interested? Let’s start the session then.

It’s 2015, and although writers have improved the quality of their writing a lot, other aspects of it have fallen by the wayside.

You might be able to avoid the common mistakes and learn to write frequently. But in the end, none of that matters if you’re making not just a technical mistake, but also a moral and ethical one.

As in, you don’t write the truth.

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