Writer Thoughts

Until my dying day, I will remember the fear that swam through my veins as I watched them hatchet my work with X’s, lines, scrolls, and deletions they believed I should make. Their changes may have been constructive, but I wasn’t on the same planet anymore. I was on the planet where my article was living, breathing, alive, and they’d just damaged it beyond repair. I still have those seven chop shopped copies of the first article I’d passed by my friends at the Critique session.

Those seven dastardly beings killed my baby!

I was in love with my work and anyone who didn’t love my work exactly as I wrote it was no friend of mine. It took me all of ten minutes to realize that they were helping my precious creation, not hurting it. (All of them except the politically correct editor of the local paper who had her red pen in hand scratching at the existence of my being and deleting my DNA. She was still destroying it.)

The article began to flow, it rippled over the rocks and smoothed out the landscape rustling along the valley floor as if it knew which way to run, when they finished. My article gasped a sigh of relief at the loss in extra verbiage, the toning up of tense, and the sudden burst of energetic action that spawned vibrant new life. The peal of joy I heard at the abundance of authentication revealed yet another dimension of perfection.

Would my article have been published prior to the editorial massacre? Perhaps. No doubt, there would have been readers. I’m a writer. People like what I write. People obviously (you’re still here) read what I write. But… The edited version of the article was so much better. It sang, where the original simply hummed.

Critique groups offer many purposes. A good solid group of critiquers improve your writing, because they offer solid, sound revisional results you can count on for publication. These people get to know your voice, recognize your work, and passionately challenge you to improve. They learn to value your image as much as you value your presentation and they protect you from yourself. The bad news is, they still need you to have confidence in your work and pick and choose the changes you desire to make in your final work. Without your own confidence in your work, nothing they do is good enough to build confidence in you.

The limitations and restrictions you may feel when you first start working with a critique group lift off and give you wings after you’ve been there a while. Finding a critique group whom you can trust to be both honest and caring, may be the most difficult part of the critiquing process. But once you find a good fit, you’ll be happily trusting them with your work for years to come.

Tags: critique, critique groups, Writing

“In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.”

~ Pearl S. Buck (American Author, 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1892 - 1973)

Tags: Add new tag, Pearl S. Buck, Writer Quotes

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”

~ Richard Bach (author of “Johnathan Livingston Seagull”)

Tags: Richard Bach

Are you still trying to fit  your words into someone else’s book?

I remember when I started writing, I kept trying to put my voice into the book styles I’d read and they just didn’t fit. I knew I had to find my own style of writing and perfect what came from inside of me.

It wasn’t until I’d actually written a few thousand articles that I realized my voice was right there in everything I wrote. It was the verbally active and energizing difference that made my work stand out from the rest. It was what I did and said that made my words more effective when *I* said them.

My own style was one of sassy independence that simply made me feel good, got the point across and rocked the worlds of my readers even when I was writing documentary genre. My version of reality ripped new threads in the standard version of functional existence. I knew what I wanted to say and as long as I pounded it out fast on the computer and got it said, I was doing okay.

But what about editing?

Oh, my gosh, editing. There’s that one chickie that edited my work and made it look like Oris was plucking headless hens on the writing table. Then there were those who were afraid to offend me. And one, the one who wanted to argue with every concept I wrote in my book. She took the proverbial cake!

But I learned that a true editor will not only read your voice but leave your voice in tact and allow you to speak through the stream of words that flows through your brain. I’d found a real editor. I’d found an editor who understood the way I wrote. She ‘got me’. That was true satisfaction. I loved the voice I captured during those days.

So how can you too find your voice and develop your style?

1.  Sit down and write in first person about an event in your life. Don’t edit. Just write. Tell the story and see how it comes out. That will be the voice you’ll want in the majority of your writing.

2.  Look over the story you just wrote and see how you can improve it and still feel as if you wrote it yourself. Don’t change the tone, just look at the words and see if you can improve on what is there.

3.  Read the story outloud and see what happens to the voice then. Does it sound like you? Is it your style? Is it easy to read? Are the words common, used frequently, and do YOU use those words?

4.  Let people who are not part of the story read it and see if they recognize you in the story. Listen to their suggestions, but do NOT change your story. This is yours. If you want to apply their suggestions, try it and see if you like it better.

5.  Let it rest a few days and see what it looks like after a week or two. If you still believe you wrote it, it still sounds like you, and you still want it left exactly that way.

Now write…

Tags: Style, voice, writing methods

“Whenever words fly up at me from a printed page as I read,
I intercept them instantly, knowing they are for me. I turn
them over carefully in my mind and cling to them hard.”

– David Grayson

Tags: Quotes

Are you lagging behind in the sequence of story writing? Everyone has a different methodology for writing a book, and each one is better than the others, for someone. If you’re still trying to figure out what style is yours, try this simple Story Builder for a quick write and a great read!

1. Primary Plot —- Murder at Wiley Mansion
2. Secondary Plot —- Romance of the Ghost
3. Multi-threads —- Virginia Shrewd hosts a party at her childhood home, Wiley Mansion, including family members and former employes of her father the Mayor of Wiley. Her guests have lived torrid lives in this sheltered frontier town, but one of them committed a murder. Virginia sorts through their devious trails as she searches for the killer. The Ghost, who may or may not have been the victim of the murder, plays on their sense of guilt to help Virginia determine which is guilty, but will the find the murderer before he (or she) kills again?
4. Characters —- Vicarious members of the Shrewd Family and the community of Wiley.
5. Setting —- Plot directed settings in the rooms of the Wiley Mansion, including a few precious views of the Gardens surrounding the prestigeous mansion.
6. Hook —- Virginia seems to be forever on the tail of the next murder, but where are the bodies going?
7. Ultimate Ending —- Is there life after death?

Join us next week for “As the Plot Turns”, a weekly preview plot for story writers who need a bit more motivation to put their pen to paper.

TIP: The Wiley Mansion Ghost really isn’t famous, but he’d like you to make him so. (Or is it a her?)

Tags: Adventure, Ghost, Murder, Romance, Writing a Novel

Writing is the ultimate communication resource. Although we often think of speaking as the national pastime, we do love to talk, writing offers so much more…

Generations of communication available year after year, centuries down the road. Shakespeare was a popular writer in the 1400’s and his work is still prevalent today. If you want what you say to go down in History, may I suggest you pick up a pen and paper? Of course, there are those who should never put their Thoughts in Print. And there are those whose thoughts are treasured beyond all.

When Jan Verhoeff began writing, her thoughts were simply a collage of the day. Sunrises, sunsets, and other daily events were carefully noted in splendid, vivid color for the world to read. Then something more happened and her words became explosive founts of expression deliberately shared for the world to read and understand.

“If there’s ever a point of value where you know you want to write, it’s when you realize that not only do you have something of value to say, but others want to hear what you have to say.”  Jan often shared her work with family, until one day a family member said, “You really should put all that in a book.”

Written Word - Effective Communications for anyone who wants to put their words in print.