365 Blank Pages for Writers

We're almost at the end of the year 2024. My last post asked you to answer some questions about what you have done in your writing world this year. Today, lets' look forward and consider what you hope to accomplish in 2025 as a writer. 

I like to turn the page on my calendar to a new month. It feels like a fresh beginning, and opening a brand-new calendar is even better. There are twelve months, 365 days waiting for me to accomplish something as a writer, as well as appointments and social engagements that I mark on each month's calendar page.

What I hope to do this year: 

A.  Continue to write my blog posts two to three times a week. 

B.  I'll seek out new places to submit my unpublished work. 

C.  Revise my middle grade novel one more time.

D.  Propose a possible book about writing to a publisher I know

E.  Spend some time writing every day

F.  Act on ideas that swirl in my head, instead of merely thinking about them

G.  Write more poetry

H.  Continue subbing and critting at my online writing group

That's quite a list, isn't it? Try making up a similar list for yourself. Consider what you didn't get done in 2024 and make that part of your goals for this new year. 

My list consisted of eight things I hope to do in this new year. Maybe it's too long, or perhaps too short. I'll be a happy writer if I accomplish all of my goals. Writing goals is the easy part, achieving them can be a bumpy road. It all depends on how serious you are about working toward each one. As always, it's up to you to work on your goals. No one else is going to do it for you.

Writing is a solitary game most of the time. There are also moments when we interact with other writers, attend workshops and conferences, and even ask another writer to critique our work. Maybe this is the year you join your state writers association, or a local one. 

When you open your new calendar, think about the 365 blank pages that are all yours. It's up to you as a writer to fill them in the best way you can. 
 

Book Review: The Spy Coast

 

Acclaimed author, Tess Gerritsen, has written another suspense thriller that kept me turning pages when I should have been doing other tasks. 

Maggie Bird is a retired CIA agent, living in a small seaside town in Maine. Four of her best friends, also agents who are retired live there, as well. In fact, they were the ones who suggested she make the move to a more quiet life. Maggie bought a small farm and is perfectly content raising chickens, being a good neighbor to an old man and his teen-aged granddaughter, and sharing dinner and drinks with her longtime friends, who call themselves The Martini Club. 

A young CIA agent is an unexpected visitor, asking Maggie to help her locate an agent she'd worked with years earlier, who has disappeared. Maggie wants no part of it and sends the agent away. Only to find her body dumped on the driveway a short time later. Now, Maggie knows her own life is in danger, and that she must face the difficult times from many years earlier. 

She shares her fears with the other four retired agents, who may be slowing down physically but are still mentally alert. They put their heads together in an attempt to sort out Maggie's problem

The town's acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau, is trying to solve the murder but getting little to no information from Maggie or the others in The Martini Club, despite her continued questioning of The Martini Club.

Maggie is forced to revisit her covert career as she hunts for answers. Once again, she must visit Bangkok, Istanbul, London and Malta, facing the ghosts of her past and searching for the truth of what occurred so many years before. 

It's easy to keep track of the story, despite the chapters jumping around with a few of the characters and flashbacks because of the clear, concise writing. Well worth a read. Find it at your favorite bookseller or library. Warning: the reserve list at most libraries will be lengthy. 

Editing Polishes Your Writing

 

I've often made the comment that the writing is easy while marketing your book is the tough part. Well, that was said with several grains of truth, but let it never be said that writing is easy. Anyone who has tried it will attest to that. I'm a person who likes to get a project done and then move on to the next one. I could do that when making a quilt or sewing a dress for a little daughter but not so with my writing projects. Those must be revisited many times before I can call them finished. Don't forget to let the project simmer a few days or more before you do the editing. That's key to the process.

Newer writers might wonder if editing their work means only checking for typos, punctuation, misspelled words and proper capitalization. While all those things should be looked at, there are others to be added to the list.

1. REPETITION:  This is bigger than you think. When I critique in my online writers group, one of the things that jump out in someone else's story is repeating words or ideas. If you use the same word in two consecutive sentences or, gasp, even three, you risk boring your reader. It may sound foolish but it's true. Same with ideas that are repeated even though you may use different words. Most readers will pick up on the fact that you're telling them the same thing twice. Writing book authors will tell you not to do it, they'll say you must respect your reader's intelligence.

2. SENTENCE LENGTH:  When you look at your first draft, pay attention to how long or short your sentences are. Too many lengthy ones make the reader wear out and maybe even give up reading. Alternate short sentences with long ones, and I don't mean exactly every other one. Do consider tossing in a short sentence between a couple of long ones. Occasionally, a writer will use several very short sentences together for emphasis, and that's fine. There are exceptions to every rule or method. Think about those many short sentences in early reading books. As an adult, they'd irritate you if all the sentences were only a few words each.

3. CLARITY: When I write a story, especially a memoir piece, I know exactly what the situation was, I know the backstory, I know the setting. Readers do not know these things so you must be certain you write in such a way that all those things are clear. As you journey through the editing process, ask yourself if things are as clear as they should be. This is one thing that having another person go through the manuscript is invaluable. Anything not clear will jump out at them immediately. A good case for editing on your own, then asking someone else to do another edit.

4. UNNECESSARY WORDS:  Once upon a time, I was dubbed the Queen of Unnecessary words. I awarded myself this honor (or dishonor) early in my writing world. In the first online critique group I belonged to, using too many unnecessary words was the item marked most by those who critted my work. The moderator of the group did not use the finesse others did when pointing it out. She acted like a mother who had been disobeyed and read me the riot act more than once. It was good for me as the importance of not using words like just, very, that is, why, who is, which was and others (depending on where they land in your sentence) appeared very clear. By getting rid of these redundant or superfluous words, your remaining sentence will be much stronger. We use a lot of those unnecessary words when we speak to one another, but in our writing we need to be more concise.

5. PASSIVE VERBS: Watch carefully for overuse of passive verbs--those that show no action--words like was, is, are. They're used by a lazy writer. Make it a habit to find active verbs, words that show us what someone is doing. Jump, run, batted, smashed, darted are words that bring the reader an instant mental picture. They are also far more interesting. I once pointed out in a critique that the writer had used a passive verb in every sentence in a lengthy paragraph. Boring! Practice using active verbs and it becomes a habit. You'll find that passive verbs are 'telling' while active verbs 'show'.

These are only some of the things to look for when you do an edit. Plot changes deserve another special editing process. Doing the ones I've listed will strengthen your writing, will make it more interesting to the reader, and make it more likely to be published.  

Writing is a step-by-step process. If anyone ever told you it happens easily, don't believe them. Capture the publishing prize by working through the process until you deem the work ready to market.

Writers Face Many Kinds of Days

 

What good advice our poster quote has for us today. Four places we've all been and a positive reason for each. Let's look at them, one by one.

1. Good days give happiness:  In our writing world, happiness prevails when our writing runs smoothly. Also when we get an acceptance letter or email from an editor. We zoom up on the Happiness chart. Elation is our friend when we receive the publication that our work in which our work is published. Any one of these things will bring joy. If only we could bottle it and use some on days that are not so good.
2. Bad days give experience:  We all have bad days as we move down our writing path. There are days when nothing goes right. You get stuck in a story. You try to revise a draft and it looks like an impossible task. Words fail you when you need them the most. I don't know about you, but when things start going wrong in the morning, it seems like the problems last through the day. Maybe it's a bad attitude that makes it feel that way. Someone should do a study on this.
3. Worst days give lessons:  Whenever we hit one roadblock after another, we should step back and look for the lesson. It's there, but very often, we are blind to it. We do have to search sometimes to find the lesson we should learn when our writing day goes into a deep, dark well. Don't give up. Keep asking yourself what you should or could learn from what happened. Be sarcastic if you must, but keep searching for something you can learn. 
4. Best days give memories:  Now here's a positive that we can benefit from. We keep the best days in our memory bank for a long time. Every now and then, it's helpful to ponder on the memory of one of the best times in your writing life. Maybe you won an award or a contest or landed a great contract. Those are experiences we'd like to live over and over. Maybe, if you're having a bad day trying to write, you should reach for those memories of the good things that you experienced to give yourself a needed boost. 

Did you notice that the word 'give' appears in each of the four points? 'Give' and 'gift' are related. Consider the four points as a gift to help you move on your writing journey. Now, look again at the opening of today's quote Never regret a day in your life. I'd insert the word 'writing' before life since we're visiting about writing on this blog. 

Selecting Your Writing Name

Toss them in the air and see what you get!

The following is a post from a few years ago. I recently was reminded about the importance of the writing name one chooses, so I thought it was worth repeating this post. I started reading a book last week, turned it over to see if there was a photo of the author. Sure enough, there was a photo of a nice-looking man whose author name on the book was a woman's name. Many write under an assumed name, but I wondered why this person wrote as a woman, then added his own photo. On to the post on choosing your writing name.

Have you ever given serious thought to the name you use in your writing world? If you haven't, you should.

Are you thinking All I care about is being a good writer? Or I want my work to be published. Maybe My name is not as important as what I write. The first two are what most writers consider to be important. It's that last one that many slide right by.

So, why is your name that's tacked onto your writing of importance? It's your identity in the writing world. It's what you will become known as by your readers.

In my non-writing life, I am Nancy Kopp. In my writing world, I am Nancy Julien Kopp. I didn't start using my maiden name in the middle until the day I discovered that there was another Nancy Kopp who was a writer. She wrote mystery novels, completely different from my kind of writing. Even so, I didn't think there should be two writers with the same name.

I had some choices. I could have chosen any of the following:
N. Kopp
Nancy J. Kopp
Nancy Joyce Kopp
N. J. Kopp
Nancy Julien Kopp
I spent some time writing the different versions of my name and finally settled on the last one in this list. I decided it might stay with readers more than the others. And I felt like it had a little more sophistication.

I always use the full three names when I submit work to an editor. You would think that they would automatically use that name when publishing my work but that's not always the case. I recently had a story published in a magazine with a large circulation. I was thrilled to be in this publication. When my author's copies arrived, I turned right to my story, and there was my name Nancy Kopp. Why? I used all three names in my correspondence with the editor which entailed several letters, also under the title of the story I submitted. You would think that it was obvious what name should be used with the story. Sometimes, I will mention that Nancy Julien Kopp is my writing name, so please use it. This time, I did not but wish I had.

When I attend my state authors convention, I am listed as Nancy Julien Kopp and I am introduced with that name when conducting a writing workshop. When you register for a conference, use your full writing name.

Take some time to think about the name you will use in your writing world. Make a list of all the possibilities and then select the one that appeals to you most. Consider the pros and cons of each.

If a woman is writing for a magazine geared to men or boys, she might consider using just initials. That should be the decision of the writer but perhaps discussed with the editor. Other than situations like this, be consistent with the name you use when writing.

Your writing name is important. If you've been using one form for a long time and fear changing it now, go ahead and do it. Once a little time has gone by, your 'new' writing name will become familiar to your readers.

July 20, 2020

Writer's Block--Real or An Excuse?

Writer's Block! Is there such a condition, or is it a poor excuse for writers who don't want to work very hard? I'd probably answer no to both those questions, with reservations. 

Like all arguments, there is rarely an 'all no' or an 'all yes' answer. There are definitely times when we lack inspiration or don't feel like writing. That isn't necessarily 'writer's block.' The dictionary defines it as: 

the condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing.

If that's how the 'condition' is defined, we've all experienced it, some of us more than others. When did it first hit? Maybe when you had an essay test in high school, and you sat there staring at the question for so long that you felt your eyes beginning to cross. Now, in your writing life, there are moments comparable to that. 

Another term for writer's block is Blank Page Syndrome. I rather like that one because it is not so cliched as writer's block. We've seen WB over and over again. There are those who staunchly believe that there is a condition that keeps writers from doing what they do--write! Others think it is merely an all in the head situation and that lazy writers use it as the perfect excuse. I suppose there are a few who exercise the excuse but very few. 

We've all had times when writing something new is hard, Terribly hard. The question is not "What is writer's block" but rather what causes writer's block?"

I think the majority of the reason is one small word that carries great weight. Fear  Do you think it's silly for adults to have fears? It isn't a bit silly or foolish. It's quite real for some writers. They can harbor several. To name a few types of fears writers have:

• rejection
• not being good enough
• failure
• not having enough time
• lack of structure resulting in fear

Exhaustion can result in being unable to write. When that happens, give in to the fact that you need to take a break. Whether it's a day, or a week, or more is up to you. We're aware that walking away, whether from exhaustion or something else, is a good way to get back to writing the way you want to. One situation to be aware of and avoid is to walk away for so long that going back to writing feels like climbing Mt. Everest. 

Look for inspiration wherever you go. If a story idea comes to you, jump on it and start writing the first draft. Don't only think about it. Act. 

Maybe if you talk yourself 'into' writer's block, you can also talk yourself 'out of it.'

Passive vs Active Verbs

Exercising is Action

I noted a comment on Facebook yesterday that made me stop and ponder for a moment. A memoir writer, new to writing I'm guessing, asked a question about verb tense usage and then added that she noticed an awful lot of the word was in her writing. Let's take a look at verbs like was.

The use of the passive verb was and others like is, was, are were is pretty common while writing a first draft. When we're trying to get the main idea down in an initial draft, we aren't thinking about the kind of verbs we use. The very experienced writer will automatically steer to the more active verbs because--well, because of long experience. More of us have to give serious thought to the kind of verbs we use, and it's a very good reason why we must, must, must proofread and edit those beginning efforts.

In our clipart above, we take note of a person performing a series of exercises. He is active. Consider some of the verbs you might use to describe his exercising:  bend, tilt, stretch, rise, pull.  The man is active and your verbs should follow his example. 

In Gary Provost's boo 100 Ways to Improver Your Writing, he says "Generally speaking, verbs are weak when they are not specific, are not active, or are unnecessarily dependent on adverbs for their meaning."  In this instance, he was discussing strong verbs vs weak ones. 

Take a look at these examples:

                      Weak                                                                Strong

There was a curio cabinet in the corner.                    A curio cabinet towered in the corner.

There are two men on the curb.                                Two men sit near one another on the curb.

In the first example, using the verb towered in place of was gave a much better picture. It tells us the size of the cabinet. Note in the second example that the stronger sentence tells us exactly what they are doing, sitting not standing. In order to use a different verb in this sentence, I had to change the order of the sentence a bit, and I added a little more.  

Sometimes, you need to change the order of a sentence when changing to a more active verb. And that's fine. You can't always pluck the weak verb from the sentence and plop a better one in the same spot.  Did you notice that was is often accompanied by the word there? Some writers get in the habit of using There was, There are, There is, There were and it becomes habitual. 

Some writers might say Who cares about passive verbs. I use them all the time. No big deal. You can use them; we have no law that says you're forbidden to use passive verbs. However, if you change as many as possible to active verbs, your writing will be stronger and more interesting. We're always advising writers to show rather than tell. Those active verbs will help you do more showing.

Just for fun, get one of your stories, essays etc out of your files and go through it, marking all the passive verbs. Underline each one with a color that will stand out. You might be surprised at how many you find. Then, as a writing exercise, replace as many as possible with active verbs.                                            

Two Keywords During This Pandemic

I ran across this poster in my file this morning. It's simple but says so much. One thing we all need during this pandemic is patience. It's one of my keywords for writers, but right now, it's key for all of us faced with the many changes in our lives due to the pandemic we are experiencing nationwide, and across the world.

I started thinking about another keyword, and that is sacrifice. It's something the people in today's world have not had to do as a nation. People old enough to have lived through the Depression and WWII did sacrifice a great deal, and if you visit with any of them, they have never forgotten what it was like. I was a child during WWII, but I do remember rationing, people who had cars but could not buy new tires, so they sat idle at the curbside or in a garage, and women using leg paint to look like they were wearing nylon stockings. There were many more things that people sacrificed that I was not aware of at that time of my life. 

Now, here we are in the center of a pandemic and being asked by our governments--local, state, and federal--to change our entire way of life. Schools and churches are closing for various amounts of time. My state of Kansas has closed K-12 schools through the end of the school year. We are the first state to do so. It was indicated there would be some kind of educational thing via the internet, but all is so new, they have to figure that out. Proms and graduations are cancelled. Heartbreaking for teens and college students but a sacrifice to be made. Many adults are working from home and becoming a burden on the internet. Many are no longer working, one of the biggest sacrifices and not chosen by anyone.

For a writing exercise today, do a freewrite on the word sacrifice. Freewrite exercises release a lot that is dwelling within us. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Write the word, then start writing anything that it brings to mind. Don't stop until the timer goes off. (Keep going if you still have more to say.) Don't worry about spelling, punctuation etc. Let the words flow from mind to fingertips. I think it is possible that you will come up with the bones for an essay, even a poem, about these days we're living through right now. 

If you have the time and the inspiration, go ahead and do another freewrite exercise on the word patience, which is something that we need to have right now. 

You do NOT need to be a writer to do this exercise. Anyone can do it. 

When all this begins to get you down, take a look at this poster again. It may seem like a Pollyanna kind of outlook, but hope is something we all need right now.