May 23
My biggest pet peeve is when I hear somebody say writing can’t be taught. Of course it can. Maybe it can’t be taught like brain surgery–follow a certain protocol and you’ll have success. But through consistent effort and learning from our mistakes, we can become better writers.
One of my favorite quotes from Terry Gilliam, writer, director, and member of the comedy group Monty Python, reminds me of this fact: Read more
Writers are apprentices. We are constantly trying to polish our craft. I know some writers who’ve written for years, are best-selling authors, and still strive to learn and grow as much as they can.
You can’t teach writing like you can brain surgery–there are just too many variables but you can head the advice of those best-selling authors. Everybody has their own method but here are a few tips from the pros:
George Orwell’s Five Rules for Effective Writing
Robert Heinlein’s Rules of Writing
Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing Plus Some – this post includes Leonard’s rules plus other authors, including Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, and Neil Gaiman.
Exercise: Create your own “rules” list and hold yourself accountable to them for 30 days. I’ll post my list soon.
Writer’s write. We know this. But sometimes life happens. Lately, my life has been one big interruption. In February, my mom passed away, two days before her funeral our bathroom flooded, and since then we’ve been living in the midst of a remodel.
We live in a hundred-year-old house, so one thing uncovers another and it never seems to end. A person could get bleak. A person could give up writing for the interim—especially considering that I have two (small) useable spaces in the house fairly clear of sheetrock dust, contractor tools, and supplies. When you work from home and have nowhere else to escape to, it can be a problem. Read more
Writers are some of the most avid learners I know. We want to know about everything. That’s why I love reading other writers’ posts. This week, these three posts taught me something new. Enjoy!
Finding Your Natural Writing Voice by Charlotte Rains Dixon. Some great ideas on finding the “voice” of your story.
Keep ’em Hooked by Laura Griffin. Are you making these mistakes in your chapter endings? If so, try these fixes.
Realistic Expectations for Writing a Memoir by Bill Roorbach, with Kristen Keckler. My favorite part of this short article is the last paragraph on polishing your work.
The internet can be distracting. I often feel like Alice slip-sliding through the rainbow-colored world of the internet when I should be writing. But, sometimes, it’s good to drink from others’ Kool-aid. Especially, if it gives you some great ideas like these posts below written by writers for writers.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
“Enough,” by Kathie at cast-light.com. This post is about taking time to rest and honor ourselves. With all the recent stressors in my life, I needed to read this.
“Assess your novel as a screenplay,” by R.P. Kraul at rpkraul.com. A great idea. Even if I don’t go through the entire process of turning my book into a screenplay, I can think about the differences it might create in my manuscript if I did.
“Prayer–or Plan?” by Denise Shekerjian at www.soulofaword.com. Do you plan your story before writing? This post gave me some good reasons why I’m going to spend more time planning my next book.
I have a confession to make. I’m a journal-a-holic. It’s serious. It’s bad. I should be ashamed. I don’t always write longhand–often I use my laptop–but when I do write in a notebook or journal I want it to be special.
I’ve always liked bright, shiny things. They make me feel happy. So, naturally, I want a sparkly writing journal. And, because I have several journals going at once for various projects, I use my label machine to make a label for the front cover. (It satisfies my O.C.D).
Below are a few of my favorite journals:
The Spirit of Flight Journal. I have two of these — one for poetry and one for my fantasy book. I like the picture on the outside cover. It reminds me of the protagonist of my next book. Read more
For years, I wrote poetry, legal briefs, and Christmas letters, but never prose (except that one short story in college that was so bad I vowed never to write prose again). But circumstances and people change. I remember exactly what propelled me into writing stories.
In 2003, I had a serious flare-up of an existing thyroid condition. I spent six months in bed and another six months regaining my strength. Often, before drifting off to sleep, I prayed I would wake in the morning. During this time, my life changed in many ways—I became more appreciative of family and friends, of sunlight, of the ability to walk, of grass and birds, of anything that made me laugh.
I also realized I was not 100% happy. I’d been ignoring my creative side for too long. I’d made a lot of progress in my life—overcoming childhood trauma and a failed first marriage. I’d been an excellent mother and provider for my son—home schooling, meeting all his needs–including piano lessons and helping him fulfill his gift of touching people’s souls with music, but somewhere in the process I had neglected my own soul’s needs. For me, writing was like breathing. And I’d been holding my breath too long. Read more
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