Mike A.
- Roanoke, VA 24015 ( 4.1 mi )
- Expert Creative Writing Tutor
- Male
- Member since: 08/2018
- Will travel up to 10 miles
- Rates from $50 to $60 /hr
-
On-line
In-Home
In-Group
- Also Tutors: Language Arts, Writing, Spelling, Poetry, Grammar
My comments on tutoring Creative Writing : I specialize in Creative Writing tutoring and have been tutoring it for over 20 years now. I am very good at breaking down the process and making it easy to understand. First, I'll show you how to write a dynamite opening that grabs the reader's attention: "Jesus!" Fubar exclaimed as he recoiled, trembling in horror. "I didn't know the gun was loaded." Then, I'll show you how to write to avoid wordiness like Hemingway, to be more descriptive, and to keep focus and relevance! As Dr. Seuss says, "The writer who breeds / More words than he needs / Is making a chore / For the reader (who reads)…" I promise that your writing will flow naturally and that you will get top grades. Your reader won't want to put your story or poem down once he or she starts reading! I'll also show you how to get more length out of your writing the right way -- by being more descriptive. For example, many students make plain, simple, undescriptive statements like "The narrator thought about the events in his life." Pretty dry, right? Something like that may vaguely suggest to the reader that a chapter in the narrator's life is ending, or that the narrator's life is about to end. It's a bit more descriptive if we introduce some imagery: "The narrator watched the sunset as he thought about the significant events in his life." Now the sunset symbolizes that the sun is going down on his life and that he doesn't have much time left. But we can still be much more descriptive with our word choices. Adverbs describe verbs, and adjectives describe nouns, so we can skillfully choose words to convey regret and anger and get the point across for the dying narrator by describing the key nouns and verbs in the sentence: "The narrator wistfully watched the crimson sunset as he thought about the significant events in his life." The pictures we paint are worth a thousand words in Creative Writing. There are words for all writing occasions, and I will help you discover how to convey just the right tone and say just what you want. I don't just write your papers for you -- we do that together -- and you learn how to write for yourself -- a skill that serves you over and over in the years to come. Your first hour of tutoring with me is free (even if you don't continue) so you can see how much tutoring is really going to help you.
If you watch me closely during our sessions, you can see me secretly paying keen attention to you and how you learn best. For example, you might say, "It LOOKS like they want me to factor here." And I'll think, "Aha! LOOKS. Maybe you're a visual learner and like to SEE things explained and SEE examples. (About 80% of students are visual learners.) On the other hand, you might say, "It sounds like they want me to factor here." And I'll think, "Aha! sounds. Maybe you like to HEAR things explained, and you're a keen listener and like to hear things described clearly and specifically. Or maybe you'll say, "I FEEL like they want me to factor here" (as you tap the problem with your pencil). And I'll think, "Aha! FEEL. Maybe you learn by intuition and need to just jump in and work a problem or two with me step-by-step and discover the pattern of what's going on and pick up the FEEL of it. So... ... read more
