A Net in Time

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Language Arts

Simplification is Best

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I have a niece that I really like talking to.  She wrote an art piece for the blog a bit back, and she’s a burgeoning author.  She’s an articulate young lady and recently she is needing to put together a one page synopsis of her book.  Taking ALL that information, and finding a way to put it on one page.  She’s needing to simplify, and as I read this chapter in Writing Tools, I am learning that simplification is best.

Simplification is best - making complex writing easier

We have a new Brazilian student living with us this week.  He’s a nice boy, but like the one who just left, his English leaves something to be desired, but UNLIKE him, he has a better command of written English.

Whenever a new student arrives I am reminded that using small words and slowing down the cadence of my speech, assists in understanding.  (and when all else fails, Google Translate is our friend).  🙂  There is so much that is new that it can be overwhelming.  Canadian society and mannerisms is a complex organism that takes time to digest.

It’s the same when we write.  When we have a complex situation or problem, making it simple helps your reader.

Prefer the Simple over the Technical

Assuming that you are not writing for a technical audience, clarity with simpler words and shorter sentences, better helps your reader understand the material.

Rather than using longer words, use shorter.  Make your points plain.   Doesn’t mean you need to talk stupid, or down to people, you are just using the words you need to make it plain, and therefore easier for your readers to understand. 

Simplicity can also be conveyed, through the use of words that spark the imagination.  A careful, complex crafting, using plain english, that melds the imagination into a complex whole.

Remember your first decision…. you want to inform people of something, whether it’s fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or prose.

What you are doing now is using your words, your short, concise, imaginatively complex words, to convey your thoughts.  You are helping your reader understand your words in as clear a manner as you can.

How to do that?

The more you know your topic, the more time you spend with it, making sure you know all the minutiae of it.  The clearer you can be in writing it.  I saw this often when my hubby was putting together a sermon.  He’d complain that it wasn’t coming together and then say… I need to study and research it more.

It’s hard work to do the reporting, researching, and critical thinking. It’s impossible to make things clear to your readers if it’s not clear in your own head.   Do the work and then tell your readers “here’s the message”.

Then What?

  1. Revise your work.  Study the words you use, can they be shorter, more concise?
  2. Any complicated passages that you can rewrite?
  3. Is there additional research that you need to do to make the matter more clear for your readers?

Make Your Work the Best it can be: Revise!

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As I continue to learn more about writing, today’s topic is Revision, or rather editing your own work. 

Now I haven’t a written book, I don’t even write hugely long blog posts. 🙂  So for the most part, to me editing is making my sentences run smoothly and watching my spelling.  Occasionally though, I have a longer review, or a sticky post that takes me time to write.. and then the skills talked about in this chapter of Writing Tools comes into play.

What tools?

The ability to be mindful of the words you are using.  For instance… Do you have to use that adverb that merely shows emphasis?   Is it really necessary in your book/article/blog post?

Do you have a paragraph or chapter that doesn’t truly advance your theme/idea/storyline?  If it doesn’t advance it…cut it out.   Why have more words for your reader to wade through for no reason?  You generally want to make it easy for readers to make their way through your words. 

Cut out the needless words and phrases, replace weak quotes with strong ones, and pull out anything that doesn’t truly fit.  You aren’t here to please your English teacher, but to satisfy the needs of your readers.    Focus on the job at hand, not on what you think aught to be doing.   Do you know what I mean?   Look to what your readers need instead of thinking primarily of language lessons learned.

Make the cuts yourself.  It’s hard because we do so fall in love with our words and characters, but it’s necessary to learn how to edit and revise our own work.   To see the potential that awaits when we make our work more succinct.  

Make your work the best it can be, cut the unnecessary and make reading what you write the easiest you can make it for your readers.  They will appreciate you for it!

Finding a Writing Mentor

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My current chapter in Pep Talks for Writers, talks about the benefits of having a mentor.  It makes sense, doesn’t it?  Mentors are a vital part of any position in life.   Business, sports, bunnies, showing, you name it… add writing to the list.  Having a mentor to show you the way is a huge benefit.  Finding a writing mentor will only be of benefit to you.  

finding a writing mentor
Photo by Himesh Kumar Behera on Unsplash

Differences between a colleague & a mentor

A colleague gives you advice on the day to day, or perhaps occasionally on the long-term.  But mostly, a colleague is there to make sure the job gets done.  That’s it.   There’s no long-term goals or help in the plan.   A mentor, on the other hand, has a goal of helping you discover yourself, so you go on to shine in the future. 

Benefits of Having a Mentor

Oh, the benefits of having a mentor are numerous.  These work across disciplines.   Doesn’t matter if you are a writer or a ball-player.  Having a mentor helps you in so many different ways.

  1. You get to learn from another person’s vision, experience and learning.
  2. The option to get career advice.  WOW.  HUGE that can be. 
  3. Increase your skill level, sometimes in areas that you hadn’t even considered.
  4. A different viewpoint.  It can be so easy to just see things from one perspective.  But talking things over with another person can give a different perspective on an issue.
  5. Teaches you more about yourself.
  6. Friendships gained.
  7. Develop your skills in communication.  Learn how to show your voice better.
  8. Discover the fine gift of encouragement and support.
  9. Learn how to balance your personal and professional life.
  10. Develop your confidence.

Photo by Himesh Kumar Behera on Unsplash

Mentored as a Writer

Imagine you love writing in prose, and you write a story with words of poetry in them.  Your mentor sees that and then encourages you to include more poetry, or perhaps to start your next book off with a poem central to the storyline? 

Or you are a poet like William Faulkner and your mentor Sherwood Anderson encourages you to write a book of prose about Mississippi.   A mentor can suggest new storylines, a different writing style, places to look for publishing and more.

A good mentor won’t just tell you what you WANT to hear, but rather what you NEED to hear. They will not only tell you what they did but why… the good and the not so good.  A good mentor will want to connect with you, enriching both of your lives.

Where to find a Mentor?

It’s not always so easy to find a mentor.   It takes time and commitment to agree to help someone along the way.  Look at The Sharks from Shark Tank.  They don’t help everyone who crosses their path.  They look at what the person needs and see if it matches up with their skill set.   So it goes with writing mentors.

Not everyone you approach will have the time, inclination, or resources to mentor you.  All you can do is approach people and ask.  If they can’t, but they offer you some type of advice, take it, thank them and continue your search. 

Search for one, or if you must, make yourself one.  Follow a writer you admire immensely. Read their interviews, follow them on social media, devour their writing, and reach out to them asking for advice.  Take those snippets and use them for good. 

Other writing posts in this series can be found here.

Show Your Voice with Punctuation

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As a grade eight student, my son is starting to write more and more.  As he writes he’s learning several things: like the need to spell better, sentence length, sentence structure and punctuation.   Today I thought I’d talk about the best use of punctuation. 

Punctuation is our use of a variety of dots and dashes.  We use them to point the way for the reader.  Pointing the way through our use of voice (the pace at which we read) and to divide our words, phrases and ideas into manageable pieces.   How we use periods, commas, exclamation points and what not, shows our voice and helps the reader follow our words more clearly.   This makes proper usage important. 

One of the things I tell my son as I review his work is … how would you say this.  As you revise it, read it over and everytime you pause, you need punctuation.  Usually, it will be a period or comma, but sometimes it will be different.  So stop, read, think, jot it down.  If you are reading and there’s punctuation where you aren’t stopping, ask yourself why it’s there. 

What is all this punctuation anyway?

. (period) ends a sentence

, (comma) most versatile of all your punctuation.  It shows the author’s voice, shows continuity or the need for a break.

; (semi-colon) divides and organizes big chunks of information

: (colon) announces a word, phrase or clause

– (dash) sometimes is overused.  Is best used to set a phrase apart or add punch to a closing line.

( ) parentheses are like a side trail that need to be manoeuvred around.

All other punctuation  such as {}, !, ?, [], ABC all gives voice to the author.  They show the pitch, tone and voice of the author.   Each author will find their own path to how they use punctuation.  After all, it’s OUR voice that we are sharing.   Some will use commas and periods almost exclusively, and others will frequently toss in dots and dashes.  It’s all part of making your writing your own.  Just as you need to watch your adverbs and adjectives, you also need to watch how you use your punctuation.

So Get Out There

Write as you write.  Mind you be reasonable about it.  For instance, I’ve read people who insist on not using capitals, who won’t use periods, or who have odd gaps that leave you wondering where to read next. 

So don’t be silly.   You do need to follow punctuation rules.  Remember, the goal is the HELP your readers find YOUR voice.  Therefore USE the writing rules but make your writing your own.  Pause when you would pause, hurry when it seems best to do so.  Use excitement, and tension, and slowness.  Make your words YOUR words. 

Other writing posts

Parallelism with a Twist

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Parallelism.  Do you know what it is?  Have you figured out how to use it effectively in writing?   Do you know how to give it a bit of a twist to give your words more punch?  Walk with me through this chapter of Writing Tools.   Let’s become better writers eh?

 

Parallelism with a twist

What is Parallelism?

Parallelism is the use of identical phrases, words, clauses, and grammatical structures in a sentence or paragraph.

What you do is set up a pattern.  Can be any sort of pattern.

For instance: Rabbits are known for their cute faces, wiggling noses, and fluffy tails.  Rabbits are a common pet, ranking fourth after freshwater fish, cats and dogs.  They provide companionship, therapy, meat, wool, fur and sports partnerships.

Why use Parallelism?

The reason you want to set up pattern is for several reasons:

  1. Lists and sequences. Keep the grammatical structures the same.
  2. Nouns joined by coordinating conjunctives
  3. Phrases joined by correlative conjunctions (either/or; neither/nor; both/and; etc)
  4. Chronological events
  5. To remove needless repetition
  6. Clarity

The advantage in using parallelism (use of identical grammatical structures for related words, phrases, or clauses in a sentence or a paragraph.) is that is makes your writing more forceful, interesting and clear.

Not only that it helps to link ideas that are related, and to emphasize any relationships between them. Once you have that pattern put into place, your reader doesn’t have to work as hard to understand your thoughts and meaning.

I turned to the world wide web in order to gain more understanding, and one website I was at said that a sentence like this : Adam enjoys jumping, skipping and dancing. That sentence is using parallelism, whereas if I said “Adam likes to jump, to skip, and loves dancing.” then that is a faulty parallelism.  What I know is the first sentence reads better than the second, that very fact, that you can read it better, makes it a better sentence. 

You can add a twist

Then you can add a twist, for clarity, shock, or emphasis.

So I tried another:

I found a car, a lovely car
I thought it would go fast
I found a car, a lovely car
It should be such a blast
I found a car, a lovely car
and then it fell apart.

Use structures where you can, and then… add a twist.   This twist that you add gives emphasis and makes what you say more memorable.   (This honestly is where I got lost).

Some examples

One of the examples give was how Superman doesn’t stand for truth, justice and patriotism, but rather for truth, justice and the American way.   I DO NOT see the parallelism.  I do see how the second sounds better than the first

Another example used was Martin Luther King Jr. did his let freedom ring speech, this one section:

And I say to you today my friends, let freedom ring. From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the mighty Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snow capped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only there; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain in Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill in Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

He repeatedly used “let freedom ring”.  Then the last three lines he switched it up, moving from general regions to specifics.   There he  pointed out specific locations of racial injustice, thereby bringing clarity.   I kinda get it with this example which is why I showed it to you.  🙂   The other examples….. well .. go read the book!  🙂

But seriously here.   It makes sense doesn’t it?   To use parallelism.  It will save you words and time and it reads better.   Aaron likes to hunt, fish and swim.  That sentence reads much better than  Aaron likes to hunt.  Aaron likes to fish and also swim.  Or to read Aaron likes hunting and fishing but dislikes swimming.  Parallelism is just another way of using your words in a way that helps your readers better understand and be impacted by what you have to say.   It’s worth learning don’t you think?

Banish Writer’s Block

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Oh, this chapter in Pep Talks for Writers made me smile.  Why did it make me smile?  Oh.. it brought me back to the joy of my Five-Minute-Friday writer’s community.   If you’ve visited my blog any Thursday or Friday you’ll almost always find a post written for them.  I find them fun and…. more importantly, they stimulate my thinking. Stimulated thinking is what helps me to banish writer’s block.

Banish Writer's Block

You see Writer’s Block doesn’t have to exist.  You can have moments of not knowing what to write or times when your creativity seems to lag, but if you figure out some tricks you can negate those times.  Every writer needs to have a few of these ideas up their sleeve for when times get a bit ragged in the creativity department. 

Ways to banish Writer’s Block:

  • Ray Bradbury would write out list of nouns and see how they connected to each other. 
  • Get out in nature, look around and just be out there.
  • People watch in a mall or well.. anywhere. 
  • Stop allowing yourself to be distracted.. turn off the tv, the cellphone
  • Allow yourself to become bored.
  • Become physically active.. run, garden, work out, go fishing anything…just get physically busy
  • Do something fun… play a game with your kids, build with lego, colour, solve sudoku puzzles etc.
  • Go away for a day or weekend, get out of the ordinary.
  • Read a book.
  • Join a writer’s community and talk with other writers.
  • Do some freewriting, either on your own or with other writers.
  • Listen to music, perhaps even a type you aren’t in love with.
  • Play with letter art, doodling or calligraphy.  Have fun with words artistically.
  • Figure out if having a routine helps you to write.
  • Get together with a friend either in person or over the phone, perhaps text a good buddy and chat for a while.
  • Make a bullet list of ideas or places.   Anything that remotely connects with a character, place or idea. 
  • Go to an art museum and muse about what you see in the photos, or wonder about an old coin.
  • Walk in a cemetary…not the modern new day ones, but one with graves from the past, and let your curiousity lead you. 
  • Read blogs, poetry, good books, bad ones (they might inspire you to do better), cartoons and cereal boxes.  You never know where inspiration might start.
  • Have a friend challenge you to write on something.  Currently I’m listening to a book where an author was challenged to write about a lost roman legion and pokemon.   It’s turned out pretty good!
  • Use a device like story cubes and pick out three pictures to base a short story on.
  • Teach a class or take part in one.
  • Spend time with a group of children and just kick ideas around with them about what they are interested in or what questions they have about whatever. 
  • Write a letter to yourself, or pretend that a long-lost friend is writing one to you describing their life’s explorations.
  • What can you think of?

Writer’s Block is only a problem if you THINK it is a problem.  Don’t let your momentary lack of creativity, or fear, or needing to take a breather be what stops you from writing.  Work around it and just move forward.  Something will click, it always will.  Just go on… stretch a little.  You’ll be glad you did. You will find that you too can banish writer’s block.

Use Boredom For Good

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You know how letting kids be bored isn’t a bad thing?

It’s the same thing for writers.  We need to learn to use boredom for good.

use boredom for good

Just as a child who is bored, who doesn’t have their time or brain filled with things to do, finds something to do, usually something with a creative bent.  A writer who is bored will find something to think about and eventually to do or at least write about.   I know when I have nothing to do my mind immediately fills with a storyline.

So utilize boredom.  Don’t treat it like an enemy but rather is a friend and helpmeet.

Shut off the devices.  Close the doors.  Don’t read a book, or chat with friends. Perhaps you need to get outside and just be alone in your own space.  Let your mind have the freedom to roam unimpended or distracted. Let your body be busy if necessary but let your thoughts be free to mull around and come up with their own ideas. 

quote by louis c.k.

Next time you are sitting at a doctor’s office mindlessly waiting don’t pull out your cell phone. Pay attention to your boredom, what is it teaching you? So many stories and ideas might be surrounding you.  The elderly fellow using a cane with a pin in the lapel of his vest. The youngster hanging off his momma’s leg.  The lady in the business suit tapping her fingers impatiently.  What are their stories?  That interesting fabric, could it be important?   Who designed that purse?  Could there be a world ruled by spiders? What thoughts are inspired?   Any interesting worlds that might be imagined?  What research could be spurred on?Â