Take A Break

We're going to spend the week-end at a lake with our daughter and her family. The temperatures have moderated nicely from the blistering heat we experienced all summer, so it should be a great time to be on the water. Our two youngest grandchildren are definitely lake kids after being there nearly every week-end since last spring. At 5 and 8, they're deep into swimming, fishing and boating.

I've got a long list of writing projects that I should be working on, but just like housework, they will still be there when I get home in a couple days. The one pressing job--a minor editing of a manuscript for an editor--I managed to get done. The rest will wait while I take a break from my writing world.

Taking a little time away from your writing world serves more than one purpose. It's good to have a change in your daily routine, good to have a bit of a rest and some enjoyment. But best of all, I've found that when I return home, I'm more than ready to tackle the list of writing chores. In fact, I can hardly wait to get goin

Take a little break from your writing world, even if you do nothing more than stay home and do everything BUT writing. It just may inspire you to unknown heights when you start writing again.

Books On Writing

Yesterday, I promised to tell you about some of the writing books I like.

One that has been a longtime favorite, and is not outdated, is by Nancy Kress. The title says it all--Beginning, Middles, and Endings. I don't have the book in my personal library, but I check it out every now and then and read it, so  again.

Write Away by Elizabeth George, the mystery writer, is one I picked up in England. It, too, is well worth reading to hone your fiction skills.

The Power of Memoir byLinda Joy Meyers is one of the newest I have in my library. It's an invaluable tool for memoir writers. One chapter on memory triggers is worth the price of the book.

Creative Nonfiction by Phillip Gerard is a good reference for those who write for anthologies like Chicken :Soup for the Soul. It, too, is a relatively new book.

I have a brand new book to read that is also by Nancy Kress. It's titled Characters, Emotion and Viewpooint, a self-explanatory title if there ever was one. Ms. Kress is an award winning novelist, writes a fiction column for Writers Digest magazine and has penned a number of writing skills books for Writers Digest. You can't go wrong with any of her books.

Writing and Publishing Personal Essays by Sheila Bender is another excellent source for those who write creative nonfiction for magazines and anthologies.

Spend some time in a bookstore browsing the shelves that hold books on writing to see what appeals to you. Go to www.amazon.com and read summaries and reviews of some of the titles you're interested in.
Then begin adding to your own personal writers library.

A Writer's Library

The other day, I was searching for something in my office. I'm by nature an orderly, organized person married to a clutterer. I fear that forty-seven years living with him has rubbed off. But only in my office! As so often happens, I found far more in my search than the one item I sought.

I have a small bookcase that holds photo albums, file folders and my writing library. Through the years, I've managed to collect a sizable number of books that focus on writing skills. It occurred to me that maybe some of them are outdated, so I started combing through them.

Outdated is an understatement. I began stacking those next to the bookcase, returning others to the shelf. Most of what I kept are newer ones, published within the last three to five years, a few even older. Several deal with writing personal essays and memoir, since that is the main thrust of my writing at this point in my life. I remembered that I had some more books on writing in a bookcase in our lower level family room. So off I went to weed out the ones that are now passe.

By the time I finished, I had quite a stack of books I no longer needed or wanted. Our state authors convention provides a table for books like this that anyone may take for free or they can leave a donation which goes to the state organization. And that's where these books will go. Perhaps someone else can find some useful information in them.

But now, I have some extra space on my bookshelves, which means I can go shopping for new books to help me sharpen my writing skills. There is a plethora of books about writing in the bookstores and on books selling websites. Many are written by top name authors while others are by those who teach writing classes.

Do you have a writer's library of your own? Do you read books about writing? If you answered yes to both questions, pat yourself on the back. If you said no, then you'd better get started reading and building a library soon. We never stop learning. There's always room for a little more knowledge in our field. Our writing world changes like a kaleidoscope--so quickly that it is sometimes hard to keep up. Treat yourself to a new book about writing today.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about a few of my favorites.

Sentence Structure Matters

Content takes center stage in our writing, but sentence structure counts, too.. The kinds of sentences you use matter in what we might call 'readability.'  Let's take a look at a few kinds.

1. Overly long I once knew a man who was a fabulous writer, but his sentence length had no rival. One sentence could go on and on and.... If he read his own work aloud, he would immediately see the problem.  He'd run out of breath long before he ran out of sentence!

2.  Short and choppy In the other extreme is the sentemce that appears to be missing something. The main idea is there, but it leaves no room for lyrical moments. Some writers use a lot of this type of sentence and when they do, there appears to be little flow to the writing. It feels harsh.

3.  Too many adjectives We're always being told to use descriptive words, add adjectives to nouns to bring them to life for a reader. Good advice, but some writers, especially beginners, can carry it to extremes. A long sentence loaded with adjectives, or one noun with three adjectives is over the top. In this case, less is better. Often less becomes stronger writing.

4.  Try a blend  Instead of all short sentences or lots of very long ones, use some of each. A short sentence in-between two long ones helps create a balance.

When you're ready to look at a story with revision in mind, look at your sentence structure as well as the content. Read it aloud. It's the best way to catch problems of various kinds, but particularly sentence structure.

If you want some detailed help, google 'sentence structure' and you'll find enough to keep you busy into next Tuesday!

There's A Dragon In The Library

Happy Labor Day! A holiday for many and the day we usually consider a book-end to summer, with Memorial Day being the matching book-end to say summer is beginning.

Just a short post on this holiday. A children's story I wrote some time ago has been publsihed at Knowonder! ezine. I wrote about the assistant editor contacting me last week about the story, which I'd submitted to them over two years ago. The ezine/magazine--they had both an online and print edition--had gone out of business. Then, additional funding made it possible for them to get going again. The online ezine offers children a story per day.

Readers are invited to vote for the one they like best each month. The story receiving the most votes gets $100.It's the only monetary compensation. As much as I think all writing should be compensated, I make an exception for children's ezines like this one that encourages reading.

A comment left at the end of the story counts as a vote. So, if anyone would like to read "There's A Dragon In The LIbrary" at Knowonder! and leave a comment, I'd be most appreciative.

If you write children's stories, check out the submission process at www.knowonder.com and send your best story in. With a story per day, they are looking for stories. It's a great opportunity for those who write for kids.

Time For Some Football!

A website called Our Echo has as its slogan--Everyone has a story. What's yours? I have lots of stories in my life. One of them is my love for the Kansas State University Wildcats. Football season begins here tomorrow evening. Our mascot, Willie the Eildcat, pictured above, will be whipping the fans into a frenzy before the first kickoff occurs.

When you live in a college town, you get caught up in the sports world pretty fast. It happened to us when we moved here more than 36 years ago. K-State football was so terrible then, but people still supported the team, counting down the time until basketball season would begin. That's where the Wildcats took center stage. The football program jumped by leaps and bounds when Bill Snyder took over as coach, went down again during the three years he was retired, and now is moving back up under his guidance. He's a man who would have a whole lot of stories to tell, but he's far too busy.

We'll drive the three to four minutes to the stadium where we'll tailgate with old friends. The 52,000 seat stadium is sold out, so the parking lot will be filled with fans cooking, eating, drinking something cold and satisfying, and kids tossing footballs around. Purple flags will be flying throughout the parking lots and music blaring. Cheerleaders, the K-State Band and other students selling things will be mingling amongs the fans. We;'ll all be wearing purple, sunscreen and sunglasses. High for tomorrow will be 94, which is better than yesterday's 109. Still gonna be hot.

Shortly before game time, we;'ll head to the Bill--that's what the students call The Bill Snyder ?Family Stadium. The minute we walk through the gate, our excitement builds waiting for that moment when the pre-game activities are over and the football is kicked high into the air for the first time in 2011. I can hardly wiat.

I've writen several stories about things that have happened at games or my thoughts on football. Whateve you enjoy in your own life can be the baiss for something you write. Whether it's a sport or quilting or playing pool. There are stories everywhere. Pick one and start writing.

Hear This--Another Longshot Worked!

I think one of the reasons I like my writing life is the many surprises that come my way. Yesterday, I urged writers to take a chance and send in a story. Your odds of winning acceptance are better than when you buys a lottery ticket.

This morning, a message arrived from an assistant editor of a children's magazine. I'd had a story published in Knowonder! a couple of years ago. "The Boy Who Wanted A Tail" was one I'd written some years before but had never found a home for it. I was really pleased with the quality of the magazine when my issue arrived. So, I sent them another story, also written some years ago. "There's A Dragon In The Library" won a contest but it had never been published.

Soon after I sent the story, word arrived that the magazine would cease publishing. I was sorry to see it go but with the cost of publishing in today's world, it happens to many new magazines. A month of so ago, I received a message that Knowonder! was back in business again.

This morning, I learned that the assistant editor liked "There's ?A Dragon In The Library" and wanted to recommend it to the editor for acceptance. I'd actually forgotten that I'd even sent them the story, so this came as a real surprise. She wants to discuss some editing of the story with me and suggested we do it via a phone call. I think this is the first time I've been asked to discuss a story via phone. So, I'll set up a time to talk things over and hopefully, this old story, one that I've always liked, will soon find a home.

At the risk of sounding boringly repetitious, I'm going to say this one more time--Send your work to an editor. Even if nothing happens right away, you may get a nice surprise later on just as I did.