07.31.09
Posted in Newsletter, Writer's Resource at 3:35 pm by Administrator
Sometimes the richest resources are the ones you create for yourself. I think every writer needs a notebook in which to record and develop ideas for new writing projects. This can be anything from a pocket-size spiral notebook for quick notes to a thick loose-leaf binder. I prefer the loose-leaf option because it allows me to easily move pages around or add new pages right where I want them. Whenever you have a flash of inspiration for a writing project, write the idea at the top of its very own page in your notebook. Even if you think it might be crazy or you think you won’t be able to work on it for five years, write it down. You can add supporting notes, titles and locations of source material, names of people you need to interview, possible publishing outlets, etc., on the lines below. Newspaper or magazine clippings, brochures or photos can be paper clipped to the page. It’s your notebook—do whatever you want! Most importantly, don’t just let your ideas sit there once you’ve written them down. Flip through your notebook’s pages once in a while and pick out something to work on right now.
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07.29.09
Posted in Newsletter at 2:01 pm by Administrator
Some writers swear by outlines and enjoy mapping out the details of their writing projects in advance. Others detest outlines, finding that such an orderly plan impedes their creative process. Personally, I fall somewhere in between; I usually have a sort of outline prepared before I write, but the outline exists mostly in my head and I am always prepared to scrap it if I suddenly have a better idea. I find that a little organization is helpful and keeps me on track, but too much becomes paralyzing and drowns me in details.
Do you need an outline? To help you decide, think about these two questions: What kind of organizer are you? and How complicated is your writing project?
Let’s think about organization first. Do you fit into one of these categories?
1. Meticulous organizer—You organize everything, all the time. Your desk is tidy and you always know where everything is. You like to stick little labels on things.
2. Creative organizer—You organize information easily and “on the fly.” Your desk is messy, but you can always find everything. Labels annoy you.
3. Totally unorganized—You dislike organization generally. Your desk is cluttered with expired coupons and last year’s mail. You suspect labels might help you, but you don’t know where to put them.
Now, how does any of that relate to writing and outlining? Well, the meticulous organizer will feel most comfortable outlining everything they write, from dissertations to shopping lists. If you’re meticulous, you probably already work from some sort of outline.
Creative organizers will use an outline only when necessary, and even then the outline is likely to exist only in the mind, or possibly scrawled in green ink on the palm of the hand. If you’re creative, you consider any outline a temporary map to get you where you need to go.
Unorganized people generally dislike making outlines, and their writing will often suffer for it. If you’re unorganized, consider forcing yourself to outline your thoughts before you write; your readers will thank you.
Our second question was How complicated is your writing project? If you’re writing a short article or story, you may not need an outline. For a novel with a complex plot, a longer article or report, or a long research paper, you’d better plan on creating an outline. Do you need to outline every single little thing? No (unless you are unusually meticulous), but make sure you include your major points and enough supporting information to jar your memory or lead you to the proper source or place in your notes.
So, to determine whether or not you should take the time to create an outline, you must first know both yourself and your work (always good advice). Next month we’ll look at some different ways to create your outline.
Write on!
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07.28.09
Posted in Newsletter, The Word at 2:45 pm by Administrator
One little letter can make a big difference in meaning.
Seam is a noun meaning “the line or junction of two edges, esp. of edges of fabric sewn together” or “a layer of mineral matter.” Seam can also be a verb meaning “to join by or as if by sewing.”
Rusty tore the seam in his pants while he was digging out a seam of coal. He cursed because he didn’t have a needle and thread to seam the edges of the tear.
Seem is a verb meaning “to appear to the observation or understanding” or “to give the impression of being: Appear.”
Suddenly Rusty’s backside seemed awfully cold.
And putting it all together:
Rusty was working on a seam of coal when he realized his backside seemed awfully cold. Upon further investigation, he discovered he had torn the seam in his pants.
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07.25.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:16 pm by Administrator
I’ve got some good news for cat lovers, especially those of you who live in the general Washington, DC, area. I am the brand-new DC Cats Examiner for Examiner.com. No, this does not mean I travel around the city inspecting cats. It does mean I am now writing about all things cats—news, health, behavior, history, and anything else I can think of.
So click on over, check out my articles, and subscribe to receive e-mail notification when I publish anything new. I promise it will be informative and entertaining.
Thanks!
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07.24.09
Posted in Editorial Musings at 12:04 pm by Administrator
If the title of this post makes sense to you, you are a very strange person (and I would probably like you a lot). But those of you who still insist on being “normal” will be wondering what it’s all about (as well you should), and I am about to tell you.
Today, July 24, is the birthday of Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda, who would become Scott’s muse, was born in 1900 and met her future husband in 1918. The couple had their first date on this day in 1918. Scott and Zelda became a great Jazz Age couple. By all accounts, they were more than a little wild. Zelda unfortunately suffered from schizophrenia and spent the last years of her life in and out of psychiatric hospitals. She died in a fire in a hospital when she was 47.
I bring this up mostly because the Fitzgeralds are buried in Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Rockville, Maryland. This is just down the road a ways from my home, and I have indeed visited the site. The visit occurred mostly by accident, one evening when a friend and I had an hour or so to kill in between dinner and a house concert. (If you have no idea what a house concert is, ask and I will tell you!) We were in Rockville, Mary (the friend) said something like, “Hey, let’s go look at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s grave,” and I thought that sounded like a wonderfully odd thing to do after a Greek dinner and before a folk concert. I should also mention it was dark out.
We drove to the cemetery and, after some minor difficulty, found our way through the gate. After a few minutes spent roaming around, our way lit by a wind-up flashlight, we successfully located the grave and gazed down upon it in a moment of respectful silence. I resolved to read The Great Gatsby again, because I read it once in high school and don’t really remember it. And then we turned to leave. It was then that Mary, in full stride, bashed into a low concrete marker and nearly fell down. I successfully did not laugh. She ended up with a lovely bruise on her shin to mark the occasion.
And there you have it: a birthday, a grave, and a stumble.
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07.22.09
Posted in Editorial Musings at 1:05 pm by Administrator
Anachronism 1: the error of placing a person or thing in the wrong period 2: one that is chronologically out of place
Writing historical fiction is difficult. It is so easy to let details of modern life slip into the story—things that are so commonplace today we rarely even notice them, like electricity (which was not used to power lights in homes in the 1700s). I know this is difficult not because I’ve tried to write historical fiction but because I’ve edited it and have seen some of the mistakes authors make.
Lights get “switched on” in the eighteenth century. Criminals escape in speedboats in the nineteenth century. Everyone has a cell phone in the 1960s. (This last one makes me feel really behind the times: I didn’t get a cell phone until 2004.)
Editors can hope and pray that authors do their homework before they write, but the hopes and prayers are often in vain. Often writers just write, expecting the editor to catch and solve any problems. Some fixes are easy. If a 1950s housewife answers her cell phone in the kitchen, I can just edit out “cell,” do a little more rewording if needed, and everything is patched up. But if that same housewife answers her cell phone while driving her car (hopefully using a hands-free device for safety), things are a little more complicated. And if she’s also heating dinner in the microwave and sending e-mail to her astronaut husband while he orbits Earth in the space shuttle, we have some major problems. Large parts of the book will have to be rewritten.
The message to authors: Research the time period you are writing about before you write that novel. Yes, it’s time-consuming, but the results—accurate period detail that will bring your novel to life—will be worth the effort. The message to editors: Keep your eyes open for anything that doesn’t belong—anachronisms can easily slip right by you, even when you’re being careful.
(Definition from The Merriam-Webster Dictionary.)
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07.21.09
Posted in Editorial Musings at 10:15 am by Administrator
Here’s something I used to know but forgot at some long-ago point. The sheets of paper in a book are called leaves. One side of a leaf is called a page (that much I remembered). The front side of a leaf (the odd-numbered page on the right side of an open book) is called a recto. The back side of a leaf (the even-numbered page on the left side of an open book) is called a verso.
Why do you need to know this? Well, maybe you don’t need to know this, but don’t you feel just a little bit smarter now that you do? And I have just proven that you can find some interesting stuff by randomly leafing through the pages of The Chicago Manual of Style. As if you needed me to tell you.
(See Chicago 1.3 for this particular little tidbit.)
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07.17.09
Posted in Editorial Musings at 12:17 pm by Administrator
It’s happened already. Barely two weeks into my “freelance from home full-time” experiment, I showed up at my desk in my pajamas one recent morning. This was not a deliberate act—I just forgot to change clothes all the way. To clarify, when I rolled out of bed I exchanged my nighttime t-shirt for a daytime t-shirt, but somehow I forgot the daytime pants. Apparently I am becoming dissolute. Everyone told me this would happen, but I thought it would take at least a month. Perhaps I am precocious.
Anyway, I have discovered that I work just as well in pajamas as I do in my regular daytime attire. This finding surprised me. You see, I am one of those annoying “morning” people. I actually enjoy getting up early, and I normally get dressed right out of bed, chug some coffee, and get the day started right away. Why mess around? Wearing pajamas after 6:00 a.m. is just wrong. Or so I thought. Turns out it’s actually quite comfy.
Will I make a habit of working in pajamas? No. Several years ago, when I was a cancer patient, I spent day after day in pajamas. In my mind, wearing pajamas late into the day is something you do when you are too desperately ill to do anything else. I’d rather not be reminded of those times—at least not too often.
And so, even though no one’s looking, I will continue to dress for work every day—except when I forget.
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07.16.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:25 am by Administrator
Okay, I’m not really starving. I could use your help though. I’ve just started writing how-to articles for eHow.com, and you can help me get paid–I promise it won’t hurt. Just click on over and read a couple of my articles. Whether you want to learn how to write a letter of resignation or how to drive like a Buddhist, I’ve got some tips for you!
Thanks!
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07.15.09
Posted in Editorial Musings at 1:50 pm by Administrator
No one majors in English because they want to make a lot of money, right? If you want job security and a hefty paycheck, you head for computer science, business, maybe even chemistry or biology, but certainly not English. With a BA in English you’ll end up as a teacher’s aide or office assistant and read a lot on the weekends. That seems to be what people generally think. Twenty-some years ago, when I told my mother I wanted to change my major from biology to comparative literature, she took the news as a sure sign of impending doom. Surely I would end up tapping on a computer in some dingy office for very little pay. In the end, I did not go with the comp lit major (instead I dropped out entirely), and here I am tapping on a computer in a dingy office for little pay. Hmm …
I bring this up because of a comic strip. Take a look at today’s Speed Bump. I read this and laughed. An English major in business class—Ha! Never happens, probably not even allowed. Then I thought about it. What does happen to all those Jane Austen- and Shakespeare-loving English majors when they graduate?
Actually, many of them do quite well, thank you very much. Some go on to earn advanced degrees, and not just in English or writing. Some become well-paid writers or editors. I have a friend who was an English major and went on to a successful career in public relations. When she travels to the west coast later this month, I have no doubt she’ll be flying comfortably in business class.
Once upon a time (when I had my sights set on becoming an MD/PhD in as little time as possible), I thought the degree you earned was vitally important. I wanted to be able to put all those letters after my name to show everyone how successful I was; I wanted to be somebody. Now I know that just having a particular degree doesn’t guarantee success—or obscurity. Your major or degree doesn’t make you into a somebody—that’s up to you and what you do with the education and other resources you have.
So, are there English majors flying business class? You bet!
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