I Love to Write Day 2011

Today marks the tenth observance of I Love to Write Day. The official website lists a number of suggested activities for the day.

I can think of no better activity for I Love to Write Day than simply to write! Start your novel, meet your quota for NaNoWriMo, compile a blog post, pen a letter, compose a poem or essay or short story, write something from your heart.

It is said that an individual has to write a million words before he or she is a skilled writer. Today is a great day to write a few of those million words.

photo credit: juliejordanscott

NaNoWriMo: Overcoming First Draft Paralysis

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). According to the website:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Many writers have first draft paralysis—just the thought of starting terrifies them and paralyzes their ability or willingness to write.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned early in my writing career is that the first draft is supposed to be “pure green dreck.” The only writers I know of who can write a great first draft are published authors who have written dozens of novels over many years. If you haven’t done that, chances are pretty good—in fact, close to 100%—that your first draft is going to be terrible. But until you have that “pure green dreck” as a starting point, you have nothing to polish into a masterpiece.

I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo, but I’ve always been an advocate of the writing method used: sit down and write … something. Give yourself permission to write badly. Tell yourself it’s okay if you cringe repeatedly when you re-read what you’ve written. Expect to have to revise, rewrite, and edit over and over again.

Do you know someone—maybe even you—who has been working on the first chapter of a novel for months, even years? They—or you—never finish anything because they—or you—want to produce a finished product. The only way they—or you—will ever produce that finished product, though, is to produce an unfinished product first, then finish it later.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Have you done so in the past? What has been your experience in writing a first draft that is “pure green dreck”?

Changing Styles

We all know styles change. What’s fashionable today—in clothing fashion, home decor, and even writing—is passe tomorrow.

Most of us would agree that some of the great classics of all time probably wouldn’t be published today because the writing style is too different from what publishers like now.

But did you know that you might have to change the way you write, depending on the preferred style of the publication? If you write for a newspaper, for example, you will probably be required to use AP (Associated Press) style for your article or column.

Students writing academic papers will use specific style guides assigned by their school. The APA Publication Manual from the American Psychological Association is used in the social and behavior sciences, along with education. The Modern Language Association Handbook is often required for papers in humanities classes.

And in the book publishing industry, the style guide used most often is the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), published by the University of Chicago Press. As you might imagine, this is the style I generally use since most of my work is with books.

You’ll find more about style guides in What are style guides and why do I need them?

A few months ago, the 16th Edition of the CMOS was released simultaneously in hardcover and as an online subscription. Since then, I find myself referring to the online manual far more often than I did before to make sure I’m following the current style.

The purpose of using a style guide is to ensure consistency in written documents. Do you use a serial comma (the comma before the last item in a series)? If you using AP Style, you don’t use the serial comma unless the meaning is unclear without it (red, white and blue). If you’re using Chicago style or most of the academic styles, you always use the serial comma (red, white, and blue).

Consistency is threatened when the style guidelines change. For example, Chicago used to spell Web site as two words, with Web capitalized. In the 16th Edition, the preferred spelling is website (one word, all lowercase). However, web page is two words, all lowercase. The abbreviation for United States is now US, not U.S.

Maintaining consistency in  a book or similar publication is easy when styles changes. Just stick with a single edition, preferably the 16th Edition unless the project was already far advanced when the latest edition came out.

But what about my blog and website? Posts and pages written in the past use 15th Edition style. I’m gradually making the transition to the 16th Edition as I discover changes. So you’ll find Web site in older posts, and website in more recent posts. It’s not that I can’t remember which to use—it’s that the rules have changed.

Do you follow a specific style in your blog? If so, what style do you use and why did you choose it? How do you handle evolving style rules?

David Bowles recently wrote about a related topic: the changing meanings of words. He asked the question if the dialogue in his historical fiction should use words that are no longer used or that have different meanings today than when his characters lived in the eighteenth century. You may want to drop by his post and give him your opinion.

Added 2/11/11: Based on comments received on this post, I am now planning two additional posts—one on style sheets and one on whether to use a style guide for blog posts. On the last topic, read Matt Keegan’s How to Maintain a Consistent Writing Voice.

Overcoming Writer’s Block

Web Design Schools Guide recently posted ”20 Creative Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block.”

I seldom struggle with writer’s block, especially now that my fiction-writing has been set aside for the time being. When I experience writer’s block in fiction, it’s usually because I’m stuck on where the story should go. Asking “what if” questions usually helps. What if the hero did this? What if the villain did that? What if x happened?

Have you experienced writer’s block? If so, did any of the 20 techniques described in the blog help you or have you come up with something else that works for you?

photo credit: iantmcfarland 

The World’s Biggest Party for Writers: I Love to Write Day

Today is the 9th annual “I Love to Write Day,” aka the World’s Biggest Party for Writers.

I written before about my love affair with writing, and I believe writing is good for our health and well-being.

If you haven’t yet experienced the joys of writing for yourself, today is the perfect day to write something—an essay about a cause important to you, an article about something you know, a resume for a new job, a blog post, a character sketch of the main character of the novel you want to write, the opening of your memoir, or even a short journal entry.

If you, like me, are already passionate about writing, today is the perfect day to indulge your passion and write something—an essay about something you believe strongly, an article about something you’d like to learn about,  a news release about an upcoming event, a blog post, an action scene in your novel masterpiece, the middle of your memoir, or even a short journal entry about how much you love to write.

Or you could write a short story or a poem or a how-to guide or a letter to a loved one. If you love to write, then do it today.

Encourage children and teens to write something today. If they don’t already love to write, they will probably learn to like it better and certainly become better at it.

And if you love to write, leave a comment to let us know.

Writing, Health, and Well-Being

Joanna Paterson at Confident Writing asked the question, “Can writing keep us well?” She’s running a group writing project through the month of July and invites bloggers to post about writing, health, and well-being.

As I described in a post about my love affair with writing, I always dreamed of writing “someday,” but it took a stroke to motivate me to actually start. While I was still recovering, I started a romance novel—about a woman who had a stroke. Although the story was fiction, many of the heroine’s experiences were things that had happened to me.

I owned an interior landscape company with more than a dozen employees. My brother and my sister worked for me as department managers, and with the help of my husband Jack, they kept the business functioning during the time I was hospitalized. Since I was the only salesperson, however, no new business came in while I was out. As we lost accounts through normal attrition, income was down, but expenses were up.

After I was released from the rehabilitation hospital, I returned to work immediately though I was still going through therapy several days a week.  I was still in a wheelchair and had little stamina. My doctor said, “Normally I would  never allow a patient who had suffered a stroke as severe as yours to go back to work so soon. But in your case, working will be be better for you than staying idle.”

The combination of the financial situation of the company and my physical condition made me wonder if I could rebuild the business. Of course, I had to appear confident in front of my employees and customers. If I had shown my doubts, they would have lost confidence—workers would have looked for more secure jobs and clients would have looked for a more reliable vendor.

My husband was supportive, but he never took my doubts seriously because he always knew both the business and I would recover.

So all my doubts and worries and frustrations went into my story. As I wrote about Debbie finding it difficult to muster enough energy to supervise employees, call on customers, and solicit new business, I seemed to gain strength to do those tasks. As I shared Debbie’s fear that she would fail, I became more confident that I would succeed. As I wrote the happy ending to Debbie’s story, I envisioned my own happy ending.

Most of my employees were avid romance readers—even the tough-looking mountain man who was our installer. We had been sharing books for years, so when my novel was published, everyone was eager to read it.

When they did, they all expressed surprise in statements such as:

• “Were you really that worried that the business would fail?’
• “I never realized how hard it was for you in those early days.”
• “You mean you really went through all that?”

It amused me when they couldn’t tell which events in the story were my real experiences and which were ones I invented.

I am profoundly grateful for the therapy of writing, which hastened my emotional recovery and quite possibly my physical recovery. Several times, I have re-read parts of Stroke of Luck and thought I should really revise it. I’m a much better writer now—at least I hope so!—and I can see much room for improvement. But the book came from my heart and filled a need in my life when I wrote it. Revising it would be like negating its healing experience.

So, in answer to Joanna’s question, I say: Yes, writing can not only keep us well—it can even bring healing.

Making a Way and Other Overused Expressions

Most of us tend to overuse certain words and phrases. Sometimes we recognize the problem.  I often reply to comments with “I’m glad you found the post helpful/useful/valuable.” I know I’m repeating myself, but few blog visitors read comments and those that do probably read the comments on a single post rather than on multiple posts. So readers may not notice the repetition of an expression that I use a lot because, unlike many overused expressions, it says what I mean.

Often, however, we don’t even realize we are repeating ourselves. Someone else can pick up our overused expressions easier than we are ourselves—that’s one of many reasons having other people read your work can improve it. A couple of  advance readers of Dream or Destiny pointed out how often I used the word “rage,” often when it wasn’t a good description of the character’s emotions. I searched for the word and was amazed at how many times I’d used it. Replacing that repeated—and often inaccurate word—with a variety of other words made the book much stronger.

Lately, I’m seeing “making [a] way” overused in almost everything I read. Just as you may never have noticed blue cars before, as soon as you bring your own new blue car home, you see blue cars everywhere. Since I’ve been paying attention, I see “making [a] way” everywhere.

I first noticed it in a popular novel written by a best-selling author and published by a large, traditional publisher. It went something like this:

She made her way down the hall to the kitchen for dinner. After she ate, she made her way to the study to think about how hard it was for a single mother to make her way in the world. She had to make a way to earn more money. Her thinking didn’t produce any good ideas, so she made her way to the bedroom to get ready for bed.

Of course, this is what my husband Jack calls “embellished for effect.” However, “make a way,” “made her way,” or some variation appeared every few pages. The story was great, but I almost quit reading the book because the repetition of that phrase distracted me so much. How did the overuse of that phrase escape the editors?

After I finished the book, I started to edit a nonfiction book manuscript. I found the author “making his way” repeatedly. So I took a break from that job to do a sample edit for a client wanting a quote for editing a novel.

Yep, in the five pages I edited as a sample, I pointed out nearly a dozen repititions of “make  a way.”

Am I seeing blue cars (“making a way”)  just because I saw so many in that first novel or is everybody “making their” way time and again today?

Whether it’s “making our way” or “rage” or another overused expression, we strengthen our writing when we eliminate repetitions of the same word or phrase.

photo credit: Paul Beattie

I Love to Write Day and My Best Writing Advice

Do you love to write? So do I, and today is our day, I Love to Write Day. According to the official Web site: 

November 15, 2008 will mark the seventh I Love To Write Day, a grassroots effort to have people of all ages practice their writing skills. Created by Delaware author John Riddle, I Love To Write Day is an opportunity for people of all ages to write something: a poem, an essay, a letter to the editor, a short story, start a novel, finish a novel – the possibilities are endless!

This post is filed under Writing and Publishing Advice because I’m going to share the two best pieces of advice I can give to any aspiring writer:

1. Read, read, read!
2. Write, write, write!

Writers are readers first. Why would anyone want to write if they didn’t love reading? You’ll learn a lot about writing if you read a lot. Certainly read writing how-to books, but also read poetry, creative nonfiction, history, biography, fiction—a romantic mystery titled Dream or Destiny comes to mind. You will learn as much from observing other writers’ techniques as you will from reading about those techniques in how-to books.

At some point, though, you have to stop reading and start writing. I Love to Write Day is a perfect day to write. If you’re already writing—maybe you’re halfway through National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)—be sure to write today.

If you haven’t started, take the first step. Begin a journal. Get a jump-start with a writing prompt. Write a letter to a loved one. Compose a poem or start a book.

What did (or will you) write today?

Authors and Magical Thinking

In the last post, I talked about magical thinkers, people with a sense of entitlement who believe because they want something, they should have it and who expect someone or something else (God, the government, society …) to provide what they feel they deserve.

Now, I’m going to bring the subject back to writing. My comments are not meant to be negative and critical. They are meant to make us take a close look at ourselves.

Many writers (especially novelists and writers of literary fiction) I’ve met through the years are magical thinkers.

• They don’t listen to good advice about their writing. Their consider their writing “art,” and they don’t want to listen to anyone who doesn’t have their vision. Certainly, writers must be cautious of whose advice they accept, but I believe every writer can benefit from objective feedback from other writers, editors, and even avid readers.
• They don’t think good grammar and writing skills are important. Either they believe their story is so good that grammar doesn’t matter or they expect editors at the publishing house who buys their book will “fix” any problems like spelling and punctuation. They don’t understand that their book will never reach an editor if it’s poorly written.
• They think their book is finished when they reach the end. They see no reason to waste time editing, revising, and proofreading their work. They haven’t learned that “writing is rewriting.”
• They don’t follow publishers’ and agents’ guidelines. I’ve heard stories from agents and acquisitions editors about writers who went to extreme lengths to get an unsolicited manuscript to the editor or agent of their choice. One writer followed an editor into the restroom and slid her manuscript under the stall door! They don’t realize that stalking editors and agents will get attention, but not the kind of attention they want.
• They believe “everyone” is their market. Even the most popular books don’t appeal to everyone. The Harry Potter books have sold more copies than most of us can even imagine, but still only a fraction of the reading public has bought and read the books.
• They don’t market their work if it is published. After all, they’ve written the Great American Novel so the world should beat a path to their doorway. They don’t know that marketing by the author makes the difference between failure and success of a book.

At one time, I was listed as a provider of editing services on the Web site of one of the largest subsidy publishing companies. Although I received a number of queries, I never got a client because the authors who contacted me didn’t really believe their work needed editing. They expected me to tell them their words were golden, and when my sample edits actually suggested changes, they didn’t agree.

One writer sent me the first chapter of a novel that was so unbelievable I found myself thinking, That couldn’t happen! The book began with a secret agent during wartime approaching a foreign woman alone in a bar in a country at war and recruiting her as a spy. I suggested he might consider whether it was realistic that a woman would be alone in a bar in an enemy country during wartime and that a secret agent from a third country would openly approach and recruit her without any previous knowledge or contact. (Note, I didn’t tell him this was a bad plot. I didn’t tell him he should change his plot. I simply suggested he consider whether readers would suspend disbelief while reading the story.) He informed me the book was fiction – that meant is wasn’t true, so it didn’t matter if it was believable or not. He couldn’t understand that fiction isn’t true, but it does have to be believable. Even if the plot is not realistic, the reader has to suspend disbelief and believe it could happen.

As far as I know, this writer didn’t hire an editor. He paid a lot of money for a subsidy publisher to print hundreds or thousands of copies of books that few people will ever read. I suspect he didn’t try to market the book, either, expecting hordes of buyers to order a self-published novel, written by a first-time author with no input from anyone else. And faced with a garage full of unsold books and a huge dent in his wallet, he probably found someone else to blame. Magical thinkers never blame themselves for anything.

In a post titled Will Your Book Ever Be Published?, Daily Writing Tips talks about the book 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might. The post lists a few of the reasons your book might not be published … and many of those reasons are the result of magical thinking.

If you want to succeed as an author – whether your publisher is a huge New York conglomerate or yourself, you can’t be a magical thinker. You have to take responsibility; learn the craft of writing and the publishing industry; write, write, write … revise, revise, revise; then once you’re published, market, market, market. Then you just might experience real magic – a successful book!

Answers to a Writer’s Questions, Part 1: Getting Feedback on Your Writing

In this series, I am going to answer specific questions posed by a reader in a comment to The Value of Writers Groups. Although the questions are specific to one writer, many other writers probably have similar questions.

Patti McQuillen wrote:

I am the webmaster of Gaslight Writers, a writing group for adults in the Louisville, Kentucky area. I am also a beginning writer and would like to know the best way to proceed. I have some short stories in the works, yet do not know how to get them reviewed to see what changes are needed. I am letting members of the writing group read and offer feedback, yet I really hope to get the feedback of other published writers.

The name of the writers group caught my attention because I work with GASLight Publishing, LLC, owned by friends Ken and Grace Anne Schaefer. But Patti raised some good questions, and I would have answered them even if I didn’t like the name of the group so much.

Having fellow members of the writing group read and give feedback is a good first step. Here are a few more ideas to consider:

• Form a critique group of a few writers who meet regularly to read and critique each other’s work. For several years, three other writers came to my house once a week. We each brought three copies of a chapter of our current work-in-progress and distributed them to each of the other members. Then we talked about the chapters from the previous week. We went around the table and gave our feedback, and we returned the copy of the chapter with our comments. This worked because we all wanted honest feedback, and we trusted each other to give it. Each of us had different strengths, so together we gave a comprehensive evaluation of the work. If one person didn’t like something, the writer considered her suggestion and decided whether it had merit or not. If two people commented on the same thing, the writer considered the suggestions very carefully. And if all three pointed out the same concern, the writer knew she had to change it. It’s not easy to get the right group of people together – I’ve tried some other groups that didn’t work so well. Thomma Lyn at Tennessee Text Wrestling offers excellent advice on critique partners. Patti, you might suggest starting such a group to some of the other members of Gaslight Writers on a trial basis for a specified time period, maybe three months – long enough to get familiar with each other’s work and to become more confident in sharing, but with a finite evaluation point so you can dissolve the group if it’s not effective. Establishing some guidelines at the beginning will make success more likely: when and where you will meet, how you present work for critique (a copy for each member to read at home, reading aloud, etc.), and what you expect from the critiques. It doesn’t have to be only short-story writers in your case – members could either bring a short story or a chapter of a novel for critique.

• Look for an online critique group or partner. Writing World’s Critique and Discussion Groups page is a good place to start. Unfortunately, many of the links are no longer valid, but there are several sites to consider. The list of articles about critiquing at the top of page (though some of these are also obsolete) includes some good resources on how to critique as well as how to find or form a critique group. Writer’s Digest also offers a list of online critique groups, again with several dead links, and advice on finding the right online critique group. You can find more information – primarily aimed at children’s writers – at Writer’s Critique Groups: Where to Find Them, and there’s a link to another article on forming your own group. You can also join online writers communities and when you meet another writer that you think is a good candidate for a critique partner, ask her if the two of you can partner to read and critique each other’s work.

• Create a one-time (or periodic) critique exchange. One Christian agent recommends that before submitting to an agent, several writers get together and find people in their church to read their manuscripts and the manuscripts of the other writers in the group and give feedback. Obviously, this specifically applies to Christian books, but a similar approach could be taken in other genres as well – perhaps a reading group would be interested in reading an unpublished work and giving feedback. They might enjoy feeling like they are part of the process of getting the story or book published. While not published writers who can give you advice on specific techniques, readers can tell what they like as a readers. After all, a writer’s ultimate goal is to please readers. Patti, you might check with local libraries and bookstores to find out about reading groups and see if anyone is interested.

• Hire a professional editor or book doctor or offer to compensate a published author for a manuscript evaluation. Although I don’t recommend spending money for professional advice in the early stages of your writing career, at some point, you may want to invest in feedback from a professional. This can range from a simple manuscript evaluation pointing out the strengths and areas that need to be improved to a full edit. You may learn enough from having one story edited that you can improve all your stories.

I hope these suggestions help Patti and other beginning writers as well.

In the next post, I will answer Patti’s question about the children’s book CD she published.

Related Posts:
About Critique Groups
Beware of the Wrong Critique Groups
The Value of Writers Groups

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