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Jan 27

The secret weapon to writing better stories: Make mistakes

I’ve concluded that to be a better writer, I need to make more mistakes. The more uptight and worried I am about, “getting it right,” the stiffer and less creative my writing is.

I’ve been working on revisions and I’ve found I wrote better pages when I was half awake and less tense about the sentences. Or when I worked fast and furiously as I wrote 750 words for the day. Or when I wrote with the abandon of a 5-year-old.

It’s just not effective or efficient to edit and create at the same time. If you edit while you’re creating, your brain can get a little too judgmental and suck the creative mojo right out of your story.

So here are a few ideas if you want to make more mistakes in your writing and open the door for more creativity. Read more

Jan 26

5 Comments

How to put together a poetry manuscript, part 1

I’m putting together my first poetry manuscript: gathering and editing poems, organizing and reorganizing them into some kind of order. Since I’ve never done this before, I wanted a little help.

I found an excellent article by Jeffrey Levine, an award-winning poet, and Founder, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Press. In Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Poetry Manuscript: Some Ideas on Creation and Order, Levine gives an overview of the entire process from what font to use to how to find an effective title to tips on ordering the poems.

For me, ordering the poems was the biggest challenge. What seems as if it should be so simple, is not.

Levine advises: “Spread all of your poems out on the floor, a floor that does not need to be disturbed, and look at them. Read them. Live with them. See what relationships seem to be developing between the poems. Which poem wants to talk to that poem?” Read more

Jan 25

2 Comments

Revise by retyping your manuscript

I once read an interview with Australian writer, Blanche D’Alpuget, who said that when she was finished with her first draft, she would print it out, take a deep breath and delete the original file from her computer. Then she would make herself type the whole thing again from the printouts.

I’m doing revisions myself right now, but I don’t have the guts to delete my draft. However, I like the idea of starting from the beginning and retyping it. I think D’Alpuget’s strategy forced her to justify every word by reading and “rewriting” the whole manuscript. It’s easy to get attached to your sentences, gloss over what is on the screen, and fail to make full-out changes the manuscript needs.

As I’ve been rewriting my memoir, these are a few things I’ve noticed: Read more

Jan 24

1 Comment

Ask this simple question to get a new perspective on your writing

Last week, I had two lessons about the benefits of looking at things in a different way.

First, we had a tremendous (for us) snow storm here in the Pacific Northwest. Normally, we get a dusting of snow once or twice a year which is usually gone within a day. Last week, we had six inches and it lasted three days. Since we’re surrounded by hills, we were snowed in. The first day was fun but by the third day, the snow was interfering with our business. Since Fed Ex couldn’t get to our home, we walked our boxes to the drop-off location about a mile away.  No big deal. We like to walk in the snow.

As we headed toward the road we normally take to Fed Ex, my husband said, “What if we went up this side street? The hill isn’t as steep and it may be shorter.” So we tried a different route and along the way we met a new neighbor out shoveling his sidewalk. Read more

Jan 23

6 Comments

Write your book 750 words at a time

We can think about writing, talk about it and even read about it, but typing word after word is the only way it’s going to actually happen.

The fact is, I know I have to write every day to eventually produce a finished novel, and this year, I’m more committed than ever to maintaining a daily writing practice.

So when I saw a blog post by Darcy Pattison about 750words.com, I was intrigued and immediately signed up. Buster Benson, of Seattle, Wash., built the site to make a place where he and other writers could commit to write 750 words a day, the number of words it takes to fill about three pages. Read more

Jan 20

2 Comments

How to introduce conflict or change in your very first sentence

Nancy Kress, author of Elements of Fiction Writing – Beginnings, Middles & Ends,says writers have about three paragraphs in a short story and three pages in a novel to catch the reader’s (or agent’s or editor’s) attention. She explains how we can make our openings interesting and original through character, conflict, specifics, and credibility.

In our very first sentences, we can hint at some future conflict or change in our story.

Kress says that we don’t have to have a body hurtling from a window—there are many subtler ways to introduce conflict. Randomly choosing a few of my favorite books from my bookshelf, I’ve copied their first sentences below:

“Running with the Demon,” by Terry Brooks.

“Hssst! Nest!” His voice cut through the cottony layers of her sleep with the sharpness of a cat’s claw.

I like the specifics here and the contrast of “cottony layers of sleep” with “sharpness of a cat’s claw.” We have the feeling that something interesting is going to happen. Read more

Jan 19

Have you been knocked out of your groove? Write a letter

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy finding a letter in their mailbox from a friend or relative. But in this age of e-mail and text messaging, writing letters has become a lost art. If you’re feeling self-conscious about your writing, distracted, or out of your groove, penning a letter or two is one way to warm up your writing muscles.

If you frequently talk to or e-mail the person you’re writing to, you might think you don’t have much to say in a letter. And who wants to talk about the weather, unless there’s something drastic about it? Instead, think about how you might tell your friend a story about what’s happening in your life. Maybe you met an interesting person when you were out and about, experienced something funny in your workplace, or observed something odd on the way home from work. Be poetic. Think of just the right words to tell your stories. Read more

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