Evoking Sensation In Your Reader

 Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader--not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling it is being rained on.

The quote above could be reduced to three words--Don't tell. Show. If you tell your readers that it is raining, they are not going to have any sensation of rain. Show it and their memory bank will be pricked and the thoughts of rainy days they've experienced will slip through.

If we've ever gotten caught in the rain without raincoat or umbrella, we know the feeling of raindrops on skin, the wind making us cold and wet and goosebumps rising on our arms and neck. We know the way our wet hair droops and falls over our forehead letting rain run in rivulets down our cheeks and nose. We remember how our wet clothes clung to our bodies and dripped down our legs onto our feet. We think about the way we splashed hurriedly through puddles to get home where it was warm and dry. 

Write that It was raining when Jill left the park. and all you think about is that it is raining, none of the above. 

Show me that a man named Jim has the flu and my own memories of times when I suffered through it are going to rise to the surface. Tell me that Jim had flu and felt awful and I will slide right by and not think about his feverish body, his runny nose, his throat that hurt so bad he kept rubbing his neck to make it better, that his eyes burned and watered and on and on. We all know how really crummy we feel when we have an illness like this. 

Yes, good writing should evoke sensation in the reader and good writing will almost always choose show over tell. Once in awhile, we can get away with telling but keep it minimal.

Why don't we forgo telling and choose showing in nearly every instance? That's not hard to figure out. It's ever so much easier to tell than to show. It's one more symptom of lazy writing. Your mind has to work harder to show but, create a habit to do so, and you'll soon find that you don't have to think about it, that you show as your way to write. It becomes automatic. 

No Fee, No Pay! Hmmm!

 H U H?

I was skimming through a lengthy list of journals whose closing dates were looming. Many were published at universities, some were in print, others online. As I scanned the list, something jumped out. So many said No Fee and No Pay. Others charged a fee to submit but also said No Pay. Very few in this long list offered payment, but a fair number charged a fee to submit. Most of those were also No Pay. 

As writers, we do want to pay to have our work published. Isn't it supposed to work the other way around? We write, we submit, they pay us. Not so much in the literary journal world today. 

I am fully aware that many publications charge a fee to help offset the expense of publishing, and many are fairly nominal. $3, $5, some even less. So, that shouldn't be a problem for writers wanting to submit, should it? Maybe it can be if they submit frequently. Those $3 and $5 fees begin to add up to a fair amount, especially when the writer receives No Pay and also stands a good chance of being rejected. On to another submission and another fee. 

There are two schools of thought when it comes to writing for No Pay. One group of writers swears they would never, ever write for No Pay. The other group is willing to write for No Pay to beef up their resume, to become a name that readers recognize, to be able to let other publishers know they have been published numerous times. It's a personal choice.

Paying an entry fee for writing contests is a completely different situation. The fees collected are often used for the prize money. That is a bit more acceptable, although there is a wide variation in the amount of the entry fee for contests. If you pay $25 to enter, and your chances of winning are pretty small, should you take the chance on spending that money? Is it like standing on a bridge and flipping one dollar bill after another into the swirling waters below? Some contests charge more minimal fees like $3, but if you enter six categories in one of those, you're spending $18. Again, there are two groups of people here. Those who want to take a chance, and the ones that are reluctant to spend money unless it is a sure thing. Nothing in the writing world is a sure thing, so those people are probably never going to win a contest since they refuse to enter.  

Starting with January 2024, keep a list of the fees you have paid for both submissions and contests. Below that, make another list of the money you have earned through those submissions and contests. How do they compare? Hopefully, money earned will be the greater amount. If it isn't, you may need to do a bit of soul searching. 

Paying a fee to submit when there is the promise of payment is one choice. Paying a fee to submit with No Pay is another. We each have to give thought to which direction we'll take. 

A Writing Exercise with Words

 

 It's been a while since I sent you a writing exercise. Today, I want to concentrate on replacing mundane words with ones that have a little pizzazz. Those 'to be' verbs like is, are, was make up the worst, but there are others we can also replace, those that show something but are a bit boring. Doing so will make your writing come alive and be more publishable, as well. 

Let's concentrate on what would appear to be active verbs instead of the passive ones mentioned above. These are perfectly good verbs, but they could be better. For each word, make a list of words that show more, give a better mental picture for the reader. I'll do the first one, and you can carry on with the rest. Use a thesaurus if you must, but do try to come up with as many as you can on your own.

A. walked: strolled, strode, sauntered, shuffled, trudged, meandered, ambled, hiked

B. laughed: 

C. cried: 

D. want:

E. love: 

F. made

After you have made your lists for the words, write a sentence using each one. Notice how the new words show more than the original

Writing exercises help us stretch those writerly muscles, make us more aware, and can enhance our writing. Give this one a try!

Writers' Past Hurts and Lessons Learned

 

So many past hurts haunt us for decades. A grade or middle school teacher's casual, unkind remark about a project you worked hard on might keep you from ever wanting to try again. I once interviewed several writers who started writing later in life. More than one mentioned 

a teacher squashing their desire to write. 

The teacher who praises a child's writing boosts their ego and gives that child the desire to continue writing. The one who makes a cruel remark about the quality of a child's writing is sure to extinguish any flame for writing that child might have had. Sadly, those teachers whose remarks are hurtful might not ever realize what they had done. Encouragement is always better. Even if they say something like, "You've made a good start here, but perhaps you can add ..." 

Let's consider that you continued writing as an adult, and you've submitted multiple times with no luck in getting published. Your submissions are either lost somewhere in an editor's delete box or come back to you with a 'Sorry, but...' We all know rejection is a part of this writing game, but it doesn't mean we have to like it. It hurts and disappoints us.

We must learn to evaluate the rejection. Maybe not on the day it arrived, but a day or two later. If you're lucky, the editor added a note giving a reason for the rejection. Those added notes can help you learn something. What if you had an editor tell you that he/she liked your topic but felt you'd only skimmed the surface, that you needed to dig deeper? Your options are to send the piece as is to another publication or spend some time adding more depth to the article or essay or short story. Which way will benefit you the most? One is going to take more time and effort than the other but will also give you a better chance the next time you submit it. 

Even those rejections that don't come with any explanation or are never answered in any way can help you learn something. Once you get over the disappointment, take a step back and give an objective look to the submission that didn't make it. It's not always easy to be objective about your own work, but you can do it. Do try to submit to another publication.

Another way to make your submitted piece better is to ask a fellow writer to take a look at it. Perhaps someone in a writer's group you belong to, or a close writer friend. They can be objective more easily than you can. You do need to be willing to accept whatever criticism they give you. Keep in mind that they are trying to help you. 

We're humans who have feelings, and they get hurt sometimes. Writers need to work on pushing the hurt aside and concentrate on what was learned. No matter how many years we have worked in this craft of writing, we can continue to learn. 

Writers Who Do, Not Just Think

There's an ocean of difference between people who think about writing and those who actually do it. Myriad numbers of people have a desire to write, but the numbers dwindle when you count those who actually write a story, a poem, an essay or, unbelievably, a book! 

Many who want to be a writer start with that desire, but they aren't sure exactly how to begin. Maybe I'd better learn something about this craft, they think. And make no mistake, it IS a craft. So, they start reading books about writing. That's a great way to begin. One book leads to another, from books about general writing to ones that are specifically about one topic of writing, such as editing or dialogue, or using sensory details. 

Let's look at an imaginary wannabe writer, Her name is Olivia. She's always had the desire to write, but somehow never got around to it with her full time job, marriage and kids to juggle. One day, she thinks that maybe she could bring in a little extra money by writing and selling what she writes. She knows she can't start cold, she needs to learn a little more about the writing world.

Olivia goes to her local library and checks out a stack of books that will teach her all she needs to know about writing. She reads one after another. Then, she orders some newer books on the topic from her favorite online bookseller. She reads those and then finds articles about writing online that she reads. Wow! There's a lot of information about the writing world. 

One day Olivia notes a local writing workshop being presented in her community. She signs up and attends, eager to hear what the presenter has to say and to perhaps meet other writers. She knows that it's good to schmooze with other writers. She goes to the workshop and takes notes. But wait, she isn't a writer yet. Still a wannabe.

A month later, she hears of another writer's workshop in a town not too far way. She signs up and attends, notebook and pen in hand. 

A year goes by, and Olivia has not written one word. She tells herself time is a problem. That's why she can't get anything written. She convinces herself she needs to learn more about this writing world before she begins. What it all comes down to is that Olivia's desire is there, but she lacks the drive needed 'to put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, and actually write'.

She's done everything she should except actually write something. She finds excuses--all legitimate in her estimation. Part of her reluctance to actually write is fear. It's Mr. Doubt who visits writers on a regular basis. He'll push back whenever and however he can. She should push him out of the way. Better yet, send him flying out the front door! Another reason Olivia doesn't do the actual writing is that she's become enamored of the idea of being a writer but is reluctant to do the heavy lifting it takes.

If you see yourself in any of the above, it's time to take a hard look at your hope to become a writer. Ask those tough questions of yourself. Am I willing to give up other things in order to write? Am I willing to do writing exercises? Am I willing to write and revise and rewrite? Am I willing to accept rejections and criticism? 

You'll never be a published writer if you don't sit down and write. Actually write something. Many somethings! Olivia's first efforts are sure to leave room for improvement. Practice makes perfect is a definite cliche, but believe me, there is merit to it. All I have to do to know that is to go through my files and read some of my earliest efforts. They make me cringe at times. But I know that my writing improved over time, over reading more about the craft, over attending workshops and conferences, and most of all, by writing as often as possible. 

 

Writers Need Determination, Passion, and a Tough Hide

There are many writing groups a writer can join online. The ones I'm thinking of are not for submitting and critiquing but rather for schmoozing with other writers, for soaking up info about writing and also entering contests the group runs. 

Some are for prose writers, others strictly for those who pen poetry, and still others consider a little of each. 

They're fine for beginners and some intermediate kinds of writers. The contests don't give a great deal of competition mainly because of the fewer numbers of entries than a national contest would have, so winning is a better possibility than if the writer submitted to a poetry magazine or a literary magazine that has a low rate of acceptance. Is it wrong to try to win these group contests? Of course not. They give you the experience of entering, and perhaps placing, in a contest. I look at them as a preparation place. Somewhere to help you be ready to submit to magazines and journals and websites that are more competitive. 

Many of the groups I am talking about here are membership only groups which means you must pay an annual fee to belong and to be able to enter the contests they run on a regular basis. Some writers join more than one of these groups, and that's fine. It's a personal choice. 

The one thing that concerns me is that it becomes a safe place for submitting your writing, be it prose or poetry. Perhaps too safe. It can be scary to start submitting in the big pond of magazines, journals, contests, and writers' websites. You're more likely to get a rejection than an acceptance. You feel like such a little fish in that big sea of hopeful writers. 

Still, you'll never know if your work is good enough to be published by some of the better publications unless you try. You must try and try again. We know that many rejections are for reasons other than you sent a boring piece. Some places close for submissions on a temporary basis. The editors may have recently published something very close to what you sent. They take only a very small percent of the submissions received. There's also the possibility that your idea was good, but the mechanics of writing was poor. There are multiple reasons for receiving rejections. Getting rejections is all a part of this writing world.

One thing you need in submitting your work is determination. You shouldn't give up after a few rejections. You'll also need a passion for writing, as well as a tough hide. 

It's fine to start with smaller publications or to submit only to the groups you've joined, but you do need to climb to the next rung of the ladder now and then. 

A Different Kind of Writing Exercise

 

Oh, look! There's a story here, but what are all these people saying or thinking? We can't tell according to the picture, but we might get a clue by looking at the way they are standing. I see four with their arms crossed. Is it with impatience? Anger? Or something else? 

I see two with hands folded in front of them. One with hands in his pockets. Three carrying some sort of bag. Two with arms at their sides. But, I still don't know what the story is or what they are saying. Maybe even what they are thinking. 

So, how about using this picture as a writing exercise. Do one, or more, of the following:

A. Write a few words that each person is saying or thinking that would go in the cloud above their head.

B. Create a situation to show why these people are standing together.

C. Address the group as though you were a teacher, a boss, or a Dorm Assistant.

D. Write a complete story showing why these people are standing in a group and what they are waiting for.

E. Using the picture, write using as many sensory details as possible. 

Take time to study the picture and the way each person is standing. That might give you some inspiration.