The "What if...?" Exercise Can Be Fun For Writers

What if I shrunk to this size when I went on a Super Diet? 

One of the best plotting and planning exercises for fiction writers is simply title What if...?  Asking this question can trigger myriad thoughts or possibilities for a story. 

Sometimes we see something that catches our eye when we're out walking or shopping or at a ball game. Try the What if...? prompt silently. Have a small notebook with you? All the better. You can write your thoughts immediately. What if you saw a woman running on a jogging trail but who was wearing a cocktail dress and high heels. What if she was being chased? What if she was having a breakdown of some kind? What if she was just a kooky girl? What if she had a jogging date in the morning but had only gotten home from a date minutes before? There are all kinds of scenarios to dream up with a scene like this one. 

Here are some questions that might trigger some possibilities for stories. Make them about first person singular or about a character you name. For practical purposes I'll use 'you' in many of these.

• What if you fell into a lake wearing heavy clothing and shoes?
• What if you joined the circus when you ran away from home at age 14?
• What if you hopped a freight train while running from a gang?
• What if you ate a possibly poisonous mushroom?
• What if you adopted a shelter dog that was so ugly no one else wanted it?
• What if you got locked in the zoo grounds at night?
• What if you got on the wrong plane?
• What if you saw a fight between two men and tried to stop it? 
• What if you ate yourself into the worst shape you'd ever been in?
• What if you were a victim of road rage?
• What if you used road rage to a little old lady in a slow car?
• What if you won the lottery?
• What if you wanted a child and ended up having quadruplets?
• What if you found the love of your life only to discover he was married?
• What if you only joined the army to spite a girl you were dating?
• What if your oven blew up while you were on the back porch?

Start with one What if...? keep going. Ask what if...? this happened. Then,  what if...? this occurred next and so on. Before you know it, you could have a complete story outlined. Try this exercise. It's kind of fun.

5 Things Writers Can Work On

Are you guilty of any of the five human problems above? None? Any? or all? They're good problems to work on in our everyday life but they can also apply to our writing life. Let's take a look at each one. 

1.  Trying to please everyone  It shouldn't take us long to figure out that this is nearly impossible. We cannot write to please our instructor, our writing group, our readers, our editors and ourselves at the same time. If I had to choose one, I'd go with writing to please myself. If I can do that, I will also please some of the others, as well. We've all heard that phrase Do your best. It's pretty simple but good advice. It's one step in pleasing ourself and some others, even if not everyone. 

2.  Fearing change  Change is not in our comfort zone. It makes us itch and squirm and sends butterflies fluttering in our tummies. If we want to move forward in our writing journey, we need to meet change head-on with a positive attitude. Maybe this change will be good for my writing. If it isn't, you can always 'unchange' whatever it was. Step our of your comfort zone and see what awaits.

3.  Living in the past  As people age, they tend to live in the past because they really aren't too thrilled with the present and they fear the future. The past is safe and so they prefer to stay there. What if you did that with your writing? Just because something worked in the past, it doesn't mean it will now, or later. There are trends in writing and writers need to keep up with them. I remember when children's picture books were featuring one mood kind of book after another. They were hot! And then they weren't. 

4.  Putting yourself down  This is so easy to do. Some writers do it internally with thoughts like I'll never write well enough to be published. or  The editor won't take work from someone like me. or I can't write worth a darn! Stop the negative attitude. Turn each of those thoughts into a positive with thoughts like If I keep working at it, my writing will improve enough to be published.  and Editors like to give newcomers a break now and then so I'll submit my work. and I know I can be a good writer if I keep working at it.

5.  Overthinking  For writers, we might term this 'overwriting' or putting too much thought into the revisions and editing process. Important as it is, there comes a time when you have to call it done. Keep doing it over and over and over and you could wreak havoc with the good things you'd written in the first place. Think about more than once but know where and when to draw the line and call it finished. 

Every State Has A Birthday

Kansas became a state in 1861. That's 157 years ago. She looks pretty good for having survived so long. 

I learned the date of our state's birthday, 2 years after we moved here. My daughter was in kindergarten and on January 29th, she arrived home from school with all kinds of information about Kansas and its birthday bubbling up and out. Nonstop! She showed me a picture she'd colored of the shape of the state. "Look," she said, "Kansas is a rectangle with a bite taken out of the top." She pointed to the far northeast corner, and sure enough, it did look as though someone had bitten a chunk out. She was excited about her state having a birthday just like she did. 

Kansas does a good job of making people aware of its birthday. It will be noted in the newspapers, on news shows on tv, and the teachers in the schools do a good job of teaching their students about our state and its inclusion into the United States. Missouri and Kansas were both ready to become states just at the drums were beating at the beginning of the Civil War. Would they join as a slave state or a free one? Missouri went slave state and Kansas chose to be a free state. 

If you're not from Kansas, you probably don't care much about our history or celebration. Nevertheless, you can gather facts and stories about your own state and write something about same. Write a short piece for your op-ed column in the local newspaper. Or for a state magazine. Or for an educational publisher. Or for a teacher friend to use in the classroom. 

I imagine many writers in the 50 states would have to do some research, that they would not know what day their state celebrates or how old it is. My home state is Illinois and I don't remember its birthday being a big deal anywhere when I was growing up. 

What information would be helpful?

• When it became a state--month, day, and year
• If there was any significance to it becoming a state at that time
• Peacetime or during a war
• How the state celebrates its birthday
• State bird, flower and motto
• What the state is known for

Writers are always looking for a good topic to write about. Put this one on your list.

How Deep Are You Willing To Go?

The wisdom in this poster needs to be tempered a bit, I think. The first part is fine. The second is one I would not consider universal in writers. For many, it most certainly is sharing a part of the soul with the world--your readers--but not for all writers. 

The writers who do this are the ones who dig deep and are willing to bare their soul to others. A piece of writing by an author who shares his soul is going to resonate far better with the readers than one who writes only the surface thoughts. That often turns our to be what we call 'shallow writing.' 

Memoir writers are ones who must reach into the depths of their  souls and 'tell all' if they want to have a successful memoir story. They must write, not only what happened, but how they felt and how they reacted. When you decided to write a memoir, whether it be a full book or a 1500 word piece, you're agreeing to let the world look inside at your thoughts and feelings. If you don't include them, your memoir will be nothing but a report that a journalist might put in a newspaper. Remember Sgt. Joe Friday on that old tv show "Dragnet?" He was famous for the line he used over and over again--Just the facts, ma'am. or Just the facts. Memoir writers need to share more than the facts. The more they share, the greater the story will be.

Poets share parts of their souls with the world. A published poet will usually expose his/her passion, deep thoughts and more. Surface writing, or shallow writing, in poetry will seldom draw accolades. 

Every writer must decide if he/she is willing to bare their soul, all those often hidden thoughts and feelings, with the world of readers. Lots of things will go through your mind when you consider this question:

• Will people still like me when they know what is deep within me?
• Am I willing to share my deepest thoughts with others?
• Do I want to produce the best piece of writing possible?
• Am I satisfied with skimming the top and forgetting what is deeper?
• Will 'shallow writing' have a chance of being published?
• Will sharing a part of my soul help others?
• Will sharing a part of my soul hurt anyone?

When you reach into the depths of your soul and share parts of it with your readers, you're going to have a much stronger, appealing piece of writing. Once you're able to write like this, it will become a habit and you won't need to ask all those questions above.

A Day For Saying Thank You

Today, I'd like to skip the usual kind of post and take some time to send my appreciation to my readers. 

Thank You to those of you who have signed on as Followers. 

Thank You to those of you who Share the posts here with other writers.

Thank You to all my readers.

Thank You to readers who take time to leave comments. They mean a lot.

It pleases me to be able to bring tips and encouragement to writers and to share a little about my own writing journey. 

If you'd like to read some of the back posts I've saved on Pinterest boards, go to this link. Click on a category, then click on one of the saved posts. Last, click on Visit and the post will come up. 

Reading Your Work Aloud is Eye-Opening

I've recommended reading your work aloud before, more than once actually. Why? Because it is a great way to catch problem areas in your writing, especially that all-important first draft.

You'll catch areas where something may not be stated clearly enough for the reader to understand.

Even spelling errors will be noted as you read aloud since your eyes register the words before they slip out of your mouth. 

One of the big things that you'll find is sentences that are too long. It's a common problem for all writers. We are such Word people that we tend to go on and on. If you're running out of breath as you read aloud, that sentence is way too long. As you read, consider whether you have shorter sentences balanced with longer ones. All very long, or all very short, becomes boring. 

What about using too many adjectives? You'll see that problems, too, when you read aloud. You might also catch punctuation errors. If you find the words running on and on, step back and see if the sentence would read better with some commas, or a semi-colon, or whether it should have a question mark rather than a period.

If you are writing a poem, definitely read it aloud. You'll see rhythm problems, perhaps repetition of words and more. 

Whatever it is that you've written, it could sound like a completely different piece than you originally intended after the 'aloud' exercise. On the other hand, it might sound even better than you thought. 

Do try this step in the editing process. I think you'll be surprised at how eye-opening  it is.

Dealing With Rejection

Did you ever write something that you felt good about? Did you think it was destined to be published so you submitted it to an editor after you researched a market for it? Then the big wait began. Two months passed when the rejection letter arrived. And you?

You sunk into the depths of despair. You were so sure that what you'd written was good, maybe even one of the best things you'd ever done. The whole episode put you in a major funk. For days, you moped around the house, felt no desire to write anything, snapped at family members. You deserved some time to get past the rejection, didn't you? Maybe.

One rejection should not merit days of moaning and groaning and feeling sorry for yourself. Of course, you were disappointed but that piece you subbed is only one of many you have written or will write. Don't ever let failing on a first submission completely undo you. Remember that it was not you, personally, who was rejected. Maybe they'd already published something similar within the past several months.There are many reasons for rejections besides your wondering if it 'just stinks.' 

When you sent the story to the editor, you did it because you felt the story and the place were a good fit. Did you make a list of other places that might work, too? If you had, the first thing you should have done after receiving the bad news is to send it out again. And again. And again, if you keep getting rejected. 

You should also do another editing job on the piece before you send it out again. Try to look with objective eyes. Ask another writer to critique the piece. They can be far more objective than you can. Maybe they'll find a major flaw or a few minor ones. Or perhaps they'll tell you that, yes, this is a good piece of writing and you should submit again soon. 

It's a fact that writers receive far more rejections than acceptances. With that in mind, don't let yourself sink to the bottom of the writing barrel when your submission comes back to you. Move on. I was once told that the average is 1 acceptance for every 12 submissions. You know what? That means 11 rejections. 

I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't be disappointed. You will and you should when a sub doesn't work. The key here is to allow yourself a little time to be disappointed, then move on--either to re-subbing elsewhere or writing something new. 

New writers take rejection harder than the seasoned ones. Those who write and have subbed over and over again grow a hard shell. They learn to deal with the disappointment and move on more quickly. 

The poster above gives us some good advice. Ponder on it awhile. 

A Habit For Writers To Develop

What do you think the most important 'one step' a writer can take every day? 

I would say that writing something every day is of great importance in realizing your dream of being a published writer. It's not all that difficult. You do myriad things every day because they are a habit that you formed long ago. Brushing your teeth regularly is a habit that is beneficial to you. Reading the newspaper first thing every morning is a habit, at least for me, it is. Having your morning coffee is a habit. Thus, there is no reason that writing on a daily basis cannot become a habit, as well. 

It's up to you to establish the habit. You don't need to write 3,000 words or even 1,000 words seven times a week. 500 or even 200 would be alright. Of course, the more you write the better off you'll be and the better writer you'll become. You need to discipline yourself. No one else is going to call you on the phone each morning and tell you to write something. 

One of the reasons I've continued this blog for over nine years is that it forces me to write five times a week and I usually write something the other two days. Are there days that all I write is the blog post? Sure, but lots of other days I write for the blog and then on to another writing project. 

Writers who journal develop a habit of posting in their private journal daily. Before you ask--yes, that is considered writing every day. 

We all dream about the day when our writing will be in demand, when editors come calling via email and ask for your work, when our name is recognized by many a reader. You cannot achieve that or anywhere near it by only dreaming on a regular basis. Nope. It's the writing that you must do over and over and over. That is the best way to achieve the dream. As the poster above says, you need to take one step every single day.

Write for an hour, all afternoon, or twenty minutes. Needless to say, the more the better but even that twenty minutes is worthwhile. Developing a habit takes persistence, time, and self-discipline. How important is it to you to achieve your writing dream? If it's high on the list, start writing something every day.

Simple Changes Make A Difference

Word choice in a sentence can make a great deal of difference. A sentence can go from boring to bright and beautiful by changing words.

A few examples below. The A sentences have ordinary, or generic, words that tell us something but not a lot. The B sentences show us more and use better verbs. 

A.  Johnny lifted the barbell, breathing hard.

B.  Johnny hoisted the barbell, panting from start to finish. (this shows the effort he needed to do it)

A. The girls ran to the corner.

B.  The girls raced to the corner. (gives us the way they ran)

A.  Susan mixed the batter to get the lumps out.

B.  Susan beat the batter to get the lumps out. (tells us how she mixed)

A.  Peter looked into the old box.

B.  Peter peered into the dilapidated box. (peered and dilapidated are more interesting words)

A.  Ellen went into the swimming pool.

B.  Ellen dived into the swimming pool. (dived lets us see exactly how Ellen entered the pool)

A.  I ate my sandwich and ran out the back door.

B.  I devoured my sandwich and flew out the back door. (here, we see how hurried the person is)

When you edit those first drafts, search for the common verbs and replace them with more interesting, more active verbs that show the reader something. 

The Importance of Proofreading

Thank you to all who commented on yesterday's blog post about celebrating my mother's 100th birthday, even though she passed on some years earlier.  

I found a great photo poster to head today's post but I have had trouble getting it to upload. There are days when I think I am pretty good figuring things out on my laptop and other times when I know the gremlins are out to get me. This is one of them. If you see the photo above, know that I conquered the problem!

The topic for today is Proofreading. In the photo, a chimp  sits at the computer and he says that he does his best proofreading after he hits Send. Hasn't that happened to all of us at one time or another? 

When and how do you proofread? I sound like a broken record sometimes, but I can't emphasize enough how important it is to set aside that first draft for a few days before you do anything more to it. 

If you attempt to do a proofreading and editing job immediately, you'll miss all kinds of little things. They pop out at you when you read the draft days later. At times, I wonder how in the world I had written this or that when I see it in a fresh light. 

How you do it is up to you but I find that it is best for me to read the piece from start to finish first. Make no corrections. Little flags will pop up in this reading. Next, go back to the beginning and look for the obvious errors like typos, tense changes, misspelled words. Fix them. Set the draft aside for a few hours or a couple days and go through it again. 

This time you want to check for good opening and closing, reasonable transitions from one section to another, clarity, cliches, redundancy and the strength of making your work interesting to the reader. That's a lot, isn't it? Do your revisions. If you're in a writing group, send it at t his point to the group for a critique. Or ask another writer friend to look at it, offering to do the same for him/her. 

At some point in this process, it would be beneficial to read your draft aloud. Nothing shows up problem areas like hearing it instead of merely reading the words silently. 

Proofreading, editing and revising takes time but it's worth every moment to bring out your very best writing before you hit Send.

Celebrating My Mother On Her 100th Birthday

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY MOM

My mother was born January 17th, 1918 so today would have been her 100th birthday. She passed away almost twelve years ago. She loved birthday cake so I know she'd have looked forward to having one for this very special birthday--two layers and lots of icing. She often said, "Birthday cakes taste better than any other kind." 

The photos above show her at 19 and 80-something. Her name was Garnet Elizabeth Studham Julien.

She baked many of them for our family of six over the years we all lived together in a Chicago suburb. Having worked in her mother's neighborhood bakery, she was a natural baker. 

Some people have mothers who were highly educated, have done exciting things in the medical or science field, led a company or were a celebrity. My mother was none of these things but she achieved greatness in her own way over the 87 years she was on the earth. 

She grew up in a small coal mining town in southeast Iowa. Her father, grandfather and uncles were all coal miners. Mom told many stories about life in Melcher, often as we sat around the kitchen table. They sent her to first grade at age four. She was the youngest of five children and the only girl. Two older brothers died of diphtheria before she was born. You'd think she would have been the spoiled little princess under those circumstances, but that was not the case. She had a stern mother and a family who survived from pay envelope to pay envelope. She got in more trouble as a child than either of her older brothers. 

In 1929, her family broke up. The older brothers had moved to Chicago to find jobs and her mother took Mom to visit them. As they sat on the train, Mom said, "I'll have lots of things to tell Papa when we get home." Her mother made one reply. "We aren't going home again." No explanation as to why she had left her husband. What a shock it must have been for my eleven-year-old mother. She survived but never forgot the way she'd been informed of the separation of her parents.

The Depression years followed their move to the big city. Her mother started a small bakery in a suburb and Mom had to quit school after her Freshman year to help her mother. It wasn't so unusual during those difficult years but she loved learning and would have enjoyed finishing her education.

She married at twenty, had four children between 1939 and 1955. Until I was four, she helped in the bakery during the mornings, taking me with her. When my first brother was born, she became a stay-at-home mom. She cooked, did laundry, cleaned and took care of her brood but she and Dad had a full social life with friends and family. She read books and learned to love football on television once it became a staple in our home. 

Her storytelling around the table continued as her children married and she became a grandmother, and later, a great-grandmother, known as Gigi. 

She had a great sense of humor, an Irish temper that flared now and then, and a genuine caring for other people. She knew no stranger. Coming from a small town where everyone spoke to everyone, she continued the practice until the end of her life. She spoke to all she encountered, brightened the day of the mailman, the lawn mowing men, the clerks in the bakery and pharmacy. Her smile brought more smiles from whoever she met in daily life. 

She was widowed at 77. Her life changed drastically but she carried on, learned how to do many things in the house she'd never done before. Dad always controlled the remote for the television so one of the first things she had to be taught was how to operate same. One time on a visit, she admitted that it was kind of fun to be in control of that little 'remote thing.' She started taking the local senior bus to do her shopping. She told me there were a bunch of grim-faced looking, silent old people on that bus. It wasn't long before she had everyone talking and laughing and greeting one another. She read books and newspapers every day, kept up with political news on tv. Formal education? No. Instead, she was self-educated. 

She was also a great psychologist. She saw deep into the heart of soul of others and often knew what their problems were. And she kept on telling those family stories around the kitchen or dining room table when we came to visit. Is it any wonder that I urge everyone to write their own family stories? She didn't write any of them, but I have written many of them in her stead. 

She spent the final years of her life in North Carolina with one of my brothers and his wife, and, finally, the last fourteen months in a nursing home. My last visit with her proved to be a happy one, even though I knew it would probably be our final time together. 

Nothing would make me happier today than being able to bake a birthday cake for her, two layers with lots of icing. Birthday cakes taste better than any other kind. I know that because my mother told me so.

Good Writing Is Not Guaranteed With Every Try

If we're honest with ourselves, we know that not everything we write is going to be great. Or publishable. I'd guess that a good many successful writers have stacks of stories/essays that have never seen publication in their files. 

Even the 'good guys' write not-so-hot tales at times and so do we who are still working hard to be one of those often published writers. Why? 

• an idea comes and we write too fast and carelessly
• we don't let that first draft sit and simmer for a few days
• we don't edit carefully
• we're too hurried to consider major revisions
• we're tired
• we're in the I'll never be a great writer mode at the time
• we write with surface thoughts; we don't take time to dig deeper

The more we write, the better writers we can become if we pay attention to all the little do's instead of the don'ts in the writing world. We also have to have a mindset that not every single piece we write is going to be super. Even if we're good, we're not perfect.

The positive in writing many pieces is that the writer can go back later and improve on the ones that were not picked up by an editor. That is reason enough to keep the ones you consider 'bad.' 

I have written a few fiction stories that I thought would turn out pretty well. The idea I had for the story was a good one. After reading what I'd written, I thought something like What a bunch of drivel this is! When we read our first draft over, we know if it has potential or if it is one to file and forget for awhile. Some of them should be forgotten for a long while!

All of the above is a good reason to write regularly and produce myriad stories, essays, poems or whatever your specialty happens to be. Make writing a habit, not an occasional pastime.

Say It In A New Way

It's not only new writers who worry about creating something that seems to have done before. There are just so many plots for a novel or only a few perspectives on divorce, marriage, or childbirth. So, it's inevitable that you're going to choose a subject sometime that has been done again and again.

Don't you get sick of reading the same story over and over again in the newspaper when some scandal hits Washington DC or Hollywood? Journalists around the world write about the event and they get published so what's the difference you might wonder. I tend to tune out when it's the same story running like a hamster on his exercise wheel. 

What you can do is write something that has been done before but put a new twist on it. Bring in a viewpoint that no one else has done. There are lots of poems about stars. That's fine but, when you write a poem about stars, consider a new angle. No more "Star light, star bright..." 

Medical magazines have myriad stories about people having a heart attack. I wrote one, too, but mine highlighted what happened when my husband had a heart attack on a chilly February day on the golf course. Few golfers were on the course that day and the group he was in had no carts. They walked for exercise. A bit ironic, I know. One of the men spied a cart on another fairway and he ran faster than he'd ever run in his life to commandeer it for his buddy laying on the 14th green in great pain. He told the man who was driving the cart to run to the clubhouse and call an ambulance. Then he drove faster than any golf cart had a right to be going to pick up my husband. The three men got Ken into the cart and sped to the clubhouse. The man who called the ambulance was a military man who had been a medic so he did all the preliminary things needed until the paramedics arrived. The story was sold to the first magazine I sent it to. Why? Because it was a little different kind of heart attack story. By the way, Ken ended up with a stent and has been fine in the 16 years since that happened.

So, write about a popular topic in a different way and you'll catch an editor's eye. 

No Time or Making Time For Writing

Time looms over us as the great enemy. How often have you said If I had more time, I would.... and then lamented whatever it was you thought you couldn't get done? 

Yesterday, I was in the library when I overheard one woman say to another "I'd read more but I don't have time." I stopped reading the book in my hands and looked up at the speaker. She was in her mid-eighties. I wondered what kept her so busy that she didn't have time to read. I watched her turn around and leave without a book in her hand.

Many writers claim they don't have time to write. Too many other things are calling them, especially those who don't write as a full time occupation. I don't dispute the claim at all. Writers all have other things in their lives--spouses, children, homes to care for, jobs or part time jobs, social activities, exercise, grocery shopping and more. You have many on that list and so do I. 

If you truly want to write, you will make time. Two small words--make time--but important if you have a real desire to write and be published. 

Consider how many minutes a day you actually waste. The TV or radio distracts you. You spend far longer on the phone with friends than is necessary. We are all guilty of wasting parts of our day. 

So, how do you make time to write? There are different solutions for all of us. What works for a retired person doesn't for a young mother. We each have to figure out what is possible for us. Take a look at the list below and see what suits you best:

• Get up an hour earlier than usual
• Stay up an hour later (You can get a lot done in an hour)
• Make baby's nap time your writing time
• Keep a notebook with you to write on your lunch hour
• Say NO to an overabundance of volunteer activities
• Turn down a social invitation now and then 
• Ask your spouse to take over the kids for an hour
• Take a notebook with you to the laundromat
• Have a notebook with you when waiting in airports, medical offices etc
• Watch less television
• Use half of your usual reading time to write

Anyone have other suggestions on how to create writing time? Send us your comments. If time is our enemy, we must learn how to fight and conquer.

Writing With Clarity

One of the big problems writers have is to write with clarity so that their reader is not confused.  

As writers, we know in our mind what is happening in a scene, whether it is fiction or memoir or personal essay. Or even poetry.  Because we see it so clearly, it's all too easy for us to skip over details that help the reader also 'see' what we are writing about. 

If I'm writing a short memoir piece about my childhood years, I have a mental picture of the big apartment buidling where we lived. I know there is a brick street that runs in front with the tires of cars bumping along. I know that across that brick street, two sets of railroad tracks allow both commuter trains and freight trains to rumble by. If I don't add those pertinent pieces of information, the reader can't tell what kind of neighborhood I lived in. 

When I write about my grandmother, I know that she wore her hair in a braid wrapped in a crown atop her head. I know that she wore rimless glasses, orthopedic shoes and an apron when she cooked or baked. I know that her expression was often stern and her words sometimes cut straight to the heart but that she had a soft spot, too. My reader doesn't know it unless I include all that in my story. I don't mean writing a paragrpah 'telling' it either. 'Showing' is going to bring a clearer picture of her. 

Use too many pronouns in your writing and the reader can become confused over who you're referring to. When you edit, watch for that. The same goes for dialogue tags. We don't need to use them in every piece of dialogue but if the conversation goes on too long, the reader can become befuddled so use them enough to make sure the reader is aware of who is speaking. 

The poster at the top left makes an important point in a few words. Many writers have marvelous ideas but transferring from mind to the printed word is not always easy, just like the poster on the top right tells us. 

When you edit a first draft, go through the entire piece with one question in your mind--Is this clear to the reader? Don't consider anything but that question for the first time through. Then check it again to catch other problems like redundancy, poor grammar, typos--the mechanical errors. 

Whenever you write, be conscious about making sure you have written clearly enough so the reader is not scratching his/her head wondering about this or that. 

Cut and Snip Words From Your Writing

                 

Writers love words. The more the merrier is often our attitude but too many words can ruin what could be a good piece of writing. Don't cover up all that is good.

When we start writing, we want to make full use of all the adjectives we can gather from our busy little brains. Use too many of those adjectives and adverbs and you're liable to cover up the really fine part of your story or essay. The longer we write, the more we understand that less is usually better. 

Consider a woman who puts on a stunning, but simple, dress for a night out. The dress fits her well, is cut to show her figure to advantage. She looks in the mirror and thinks This dress is nice but maybe it's a bit too plain. So, she turns to her jewelry box and pulls out a few necklaces, dangle earrings a couple of pins and three bracelets. She dons them, one by one, and turns to the mirror. She thinks That looks better.  What she's done is bring attention to all the jewelry and covered up the fine dress beneath all of the necklaces, bracelets etc. Too many adjectives and will do the same thing to your writing. 

Does this mean you should dump all adjectives? Not at all. The key is to use one, not three at a time. 

We also tend to use words that are quite unnecessary to the meaning of what you've written.  Words like just, quite, that and really are a few that we add to our sentences even though they add nothing to the meaning. They're extra and unnecessary. 

  A.  I would just like you to answer me.

  B.  I would like you to answer me.

Nothing was lost in the meaning of the sentence when you cut just.

  A.  I am quite angry at the boys who broke my window.

  B.  I am angry at the boys who broke my window.

Nothing was lost in the meaning of the sentence when you cut quite.

  A.  This is the house that I bought three years ago.

  B.  This is the house I bought three years ago.

Nothing was lost in the meaning of the sentence when you cut that.

  A.  I really dislike liver and onions.

  B.  I dislike liver and onions.

Nothing was lost in the meaning of the sentence when you cut really.

When we write with a maximum word count, it is to our benefit to cut all the unnecessary or overdone words we can. When you edit your first draft, look for these two problem areas and snip, snip, snip. 

Write More Than Once

When I first started writing, I didn't do much revising and/or editing. I felt pretty sure of my grammar and knew I'd said what I wanted to say, so when the first draft came to an end, I foolishly thought it was finished. Off it would go to some editor and it bounced back just as quickly. 

It took the reading of several books on writing, some conferences and lastly, some common sense to convince me to not be in such a hurry. I hated to admit that once I'd written that first draft, I should do more to it. It's my nature to do things in a hurry. Maybe I should blame my mother. When I was a child, her rule was that I had to do whatever household chores she had lined up for me and then I could out to play or read my books. Of course, I learned to do my chores with lightning speed. I also came to realize that I'd better do a decent job or she'd make me do it over again. 

I did finally understand that my first drafts needed to be set aside for a matter of days, or weeks, and then looked at again. Believe me, the first few times I did that, it shocked me to see all that could or should be done to make a better piece of writing. 

I figured out that revisions and editing are as important as writing that first draft. Maybe more so. 

Revision usually makes for a piece of writing that is more clear for the reader. A point can be made without rambling on for paragraphs. Editing catches all those passive verbs, misspelled words and more. 

So, no, you don't have to get it right the first time. In fact, you won't get it right the first time. Some writers revise and edit multiple times. The trick here is to know when you've done enough and to stop. 

Follow these steps in all your writing:

• Write the first draft
• Set it aside for a few days, even weeks
• Revise
• Edit
• Set it aside for a day or two
• Revise and edit once again

The Perfect Present

I ran across this poster telling us that one of the best presents we can give is memories. The big gift giving season just finished but there are other times of the year that we can offer a gift to a friend or family member--Valentine's Day, birthdays, anniversaries--to name a few. We can even give a gift for no reason at all.

Around Thanksgiving, I used a piece about November in Chicago during my growing-up years. I then shared it with a childhood friend who wrote that she enjoyed it so much as it brought back myriad memories. Writing about your memories can be the perfect present for someone you care about.

I've often suggested that we all keep a Family Memories Book. Write one story at a time and put it in the book, something like a three ring binder so that you can easily add to it. It's overwhelming if you try to write about your entire childhood, family stories and characterizations of family members all in one big piece. You'll start and give up before you get very far. 

But single out one person or one story or one specific memory to write about and you'll feel a sense of accomplishment. You can divide the notebook into sections any way you like. It might be by the age you were at the time, or relatives names, or places where you lived. Your choice.

That book will grow as you add story upon story. Consider what a treasure it will be for your children and grandchildren in the years to come. It will be one great big gift!

Besides doing one big Family Stories book, write one story or a musing about a period of life or how you felt about a friend. Make it 500 words, 1,000 or more. Again, it's your choice. Then send it as a gift to whoever can relate to it, whether friend, cousin, sibling or other family member. They will feel pretty special to have been singled out to receive something you wrote. 

Memories are gifts to ourself, as well. Have you ever sat down with a cup of coffee or tea and mused over some long ago memory? It's a pleasant pastime and one memory often triggers another. They give you story ideas. Base a fiction story on a real happening rather than creating it from scratch. 

As the poster says, memories don't need to be returned, don't take up room, have to be replaced and they fit just right. Besides all that, they never have to be dusted! 

Be Responsible With The Words You Write

As writers, we sometimes wonder if what we've written makes any difference in the life of any of our readers. How nice it would be if every reader offered a written note to the author to let them know how the written words had affected them. Nice, yes, but we know that seldom happens. 

We have to go on the assumption that some of what we write stays with the reader, or comes back to them later. In my first year of teaching, I carefully prepared for parent-teacher conferences, making sure I had something positive to say about each child, hoping to soften some of the negative comments made for a few. I wanted to help the parents learn more about their child. Instead, I learned a great deal about myself. Many parents commented on something I said in class, weeks or months earlier, that came home with the child and was discussed at the dinner table. Nothing earth-shaking, but a comment that resonated with that child, made him/her remember and relate it at home. One thing it made me aware of was to be careful in what I said in the classroom. A flippant remark could be construed in a different light than it was meant. 

It is the same when we write. Even if readers take away only one idea, or statement, we make in a 2500 word story, we've accomplished something. Our words are like seeds. We plant them in a story or poem or essay and wait for them to grow into something a reader will remember. Words have power and we writers are the force behind them. Consider it a responsibility as well as a means to entertain or inform our readers. 

When we write a personal essay, we try to get a point across to the reader--a lesson learned or something they can relate to in their own lives. If we don't do that, there's little point to writing the story part of the personal essay. Your reader wants to know how whatever happened changed you or what you learned. 

Readers might tell you that they read only for the pure enjoyment or as a means of escaping from the everyday routines and personal problems they might have. Truth there for sure. Few will tell you they read a novel or book of personal essays in order to learn something. That is not their initial intent but most readers do take away something, even if they do it subconsciously. 

When you write, use your words responsibly and know that they will have meaning for many readers. 

The Magic Of A New Writing Project

We talk about new beginnings at the start of every new year. For writers, the feeling that it's time to start a new writing project can come at any time--June or October--it doesn't matter.

You might have been mulling an idea over and over for weeks--or longer. Then one day, it all comes together and you're inspired to begin the project. You're eager, can hardly wait to get your routine chores done so you can write. The opening line has been dancing in your head for days. It's time to begin.

All we need is the beginning to inspire us to continue writing. We've all read many times how important that opening line or first paragraph is. It sets the tone for what comes next. It's got to be something that grabs the reader and spurs them into wanting to continue reading. Facts and figures, unless they are pretty startling, aren't going to do it. Your beginning needs to reach the human side of your reader. 

Once you finish the piece, it's possible that you'll write an entirely different beginning but that's alright. We have to get something down in print to jump start the project. It's also possible that your opening paragraph is the magic mentioned in today's poster. If so, consider yourself ever so fortunate. 

Once we have the opening lines written, it's much easier to continue. I try to keep writing that first draft right to the end before I go back and look at the beginning and rest of the piece. Let what you wrote first stand as is until you have time to put the draft away for a few days. Then, take a look at it and try to be objective. Hard as it is for us to do that with our own writing, it's worthwhile. 

Ask yourself what the reader will see, what the reader will take away, what the reader will enjoy. Even though we say we write for ourself, anyone who hopes to be published is writing for the future readers. It would behoove us to keep them in mind at all times. 

And yes, there is some magic in beginning a new project. It's fresh. It's open to myriad possibilities. It's stimulating to you, the writer. It makes you want to write and write and write until you have a finished piece. I wish you all new beginnings very soon.

Books I Liked In 2017

Most writers are also avid readers. I have been one since the days of Dick and Jane in my first grade reading book. Bookworm is probably an apt description of me durng my growing up years. It still fits today. I finished reading the last of my library books on Monday of this week but the library was closed for New Year's Day. I almost felt panicked! Tuesday, I was at the library and brought three books home. 

I read a few books in 2017 that I especially enjoyed. They are ones I'd recommend to others. The first three are historical fiction and other two are mystery/suspense. I have included links to Amazon for each one.

• News of the World by Paulette Jiles
• The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
• The Address by Fiona Davis
• Glass Houses by Louise Penny
• House of Spies by Daniel Silva

How about you? Can you recommend a few titles that you particularly like in 2017? 

The Writer As Artist

I've never had any artistic ability. None whatsoever. When in college, I had to take a class called "Art For The Handicapped Child." It was a required course for Special Ed majors. The instructor was an older woman who rarely smiled or had a kind word. We were working with clay, creating animals, I think. She walked by me, stopped and said, "That would be fine if a blind child had done it." Cringe! What I needed was help not criticism. 

I could not draw or paint or model clay very well but I could paint my world with words, and I did. Unlike most college students, I reveled in writing papers for my classes. I didn't start writing other things for a good many years but I always had the desire to write. I tell young would-be writers today to act upon that desire. Don't let life get in the way as I did. 

Artists of all kinds--sculptors, painters, musicians, writers--bring so much to our world. Think of the many hours of pleasure you have had when admiring paintings and sculptures in a museum, or at a concert or in reading myriad books. These many artists enrich our lives and soothe our souls. It always saddens me when I see budget cuts needed and the arts is one of the first groups to have funds slashed. Granted, they are not a necessity but they offer so very much. 

I once wrote a poem that placed in a writing contest that speaks to the part the arts play in our lives., especially writing. Read it and think about how all of these artists have touched your own life and, if you are a writer, how you have made a difference in the lives of readers. All artists speak with a different voice. As writers, ours is with words. 

Artists All

Painting with oils,

watercolors brushed across paper,

clay molded by loving hands, 

marble chiseled to exquisite form.

Artists ply their trade
by the golden light of day,
by the velvet depths of night
with passion and joy.

One more artist joins the ranks.
The writer brushes words over paper,
molds a story bit by glittering bit,
chisels a novel to survive the ages.

Life stories are gathered
from country roads to city streets,
written from the depths of a heart
bursting with intensity and rapture.

Artists all, masters of creation,
be they painters, sculptors or writers,
leaving footprints on canvas, marble and paper--
heartfelt tributes embraced by mankind.
                                           ---Nancy Julien Kopp

And So It Begins...

I love starting a new year. I also enjoy turning my calendar at the end of each month. It's on to new things in both cases. Sure, we do bring some of the old baggage along with us but we look to the horizon ahead and consider what we can do in this next twelve months.

Goals

It's a time to consider what our goals for this year will be. Some writers set goals on a regular basis. They like to keep a list and check each one that comes to fruition. Others have a mental list. Still more never set any goals at all. Should they? I think setting a few goals for ourself is like getting a nudge each time we see the list. It helps to spur us on, to inspire us. 

If you don't accomplish every goal you set, it doesn't brand you a failure. Keep your list relatively short. Set too many goals and it might be a wee bit overwhelming. You're likely to do better with a shorter list.

clean and Organize

The beginning of a new year is also a perfect time to do some cleaning and organizing in your writing world. Start with your writing space. I see a few stacks in mine that I need to go through. It's save or toss time. Next, consider the files in your computer. You know there are things you've saved for a long time that no longer have any relevance. Get rid of them! 

Records

What about the records you keep of your submissions, rejections, acceptances and pay amounts? Now is the time to go through all from 2017. Take a good look. What kinds of things did you submit? With what types of writing were you the most successful? Maybe that's an area that you might concentrate on in 2018. 

New Projects List

As we go about our everyday chores, snippets of what we'd like to write someday flit through our minds. If you've been vigilant about jotting them down in a small notebook, now is the time to expand on those notes and make a list of what you'd like to write this year.

Conferences

Are there conferences that you attend regularly? Check to see what the dates will be this year and start planning now. Set aside a little money each month to pay the fee when the time comes. Write the dates on your calendar and work other things around them.

May we all have fewer rejections this year. To do that, we need to put forth our very best writing. Maybe that should be Goal #1 for 2018.