Language Arts

You know what an adverb is right?   An adverb is a word that helps define a verb.  Do you want to change how you write?  To make your writing better?

Then watch what you do with your adverbs.

Most of the time when people use adverbs all they are doing is making the verb more defined.  Doing this doesn’t really add anything to the sentence.  It just makes the verb stronger, and does that verb really need that strengthening?  Generally not.  Consider these:

        She smiled prettily.
        He laughed heartily.
        The boat swiftly moved across the waves.

What would happen if you changed the adverb to either a stronger, better verb or used an adverb to change the meaning of the verb?  Changing the meaning, changes the punch of the verb.

           She sadly smiled.
          He guffawed.
          The boat dashed across the waves.

When you do this, you tighten up your sentences giving them more punch, and create elbow room in your sentences.

As you write, pay attention to what you are doing with your verbs and adverbs. We’ve already considered what this means for adjectives.  Replace weak verb/adverb combinations with strong verbs. For instance consider these sentences

          The rabbit went quickly through the garden.
          The rabbit raced through the garden.

         Djedet listened, his expression changing slowly.
         Djedet concentrated, his expression deepening.

Which works better? Which describes action in a way that is brief and descriptive with room to grow?

As you write, consider well the verbs and adverbs you are using.  How can say what you want to say, better?  Can you become more clear, in a succinct, descriptive manner?

Write well!

When you are writing… do you listen to what you are writing?   Do you hear the sounds in your words?  Especially if you write poetry… are you continuing the oral tradition of telling a tale that wants to be told?

Because writing … whether in prose or poetry, it all started as an oral tradition.  Around before reading and writing was even considered.  It was how carpenters learned to work, how children learned their history, how adventures were shared, in word and song.  This is how life progressed before writing became common place.  Therefore I ask, when you write, do you listen to what you are writing?

Recently I read these lines to my non-poetry loving lad and he chortled: 

Like that mouse captured by Miss Lizzie
With a squeak and hop twisted out of her grip.
Like the spider.. caught between a wall and a tall menacing woman
Found a crevice to slide away into.
Run mouse. Hide spider…
 

He laughingly responded “Mom!   That spider would never hurt you!   Why do you have to threaten him?!”   This tells me that he heard me well, that my poem was worth listening too.   That’s a good thing no?

For when you write poetry, you want it to be memorable.. to be something others can share and pass around.  You want the lyrics to flow well, for the rhyme to stick in your ear.   Consider the poem  Baa Baa Black Sheep.

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full;
One for the master,
And one for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

Do you hear the rhyme when you read it?   Doesn’t it flow off your tongue?   The rhyming patterns that help you remember the ebb and flow. Do you hear any other sounds?   The near rhymes, the alliteration, the repetition, and similar sounding words and nouns?

How do you learn to listen for sound?

Just how do authors learn to listen for sound in the words they write?
Practice of course.

• Just keep practicing and playing around with words. 
• Make a list of words you enjoy.
• Write a boring sentence and see how you can change the words to mean the same thing but just sounding better and/or more interesting.
• Try out different phrases, play with the timing and the rhymes.

You don’t just want to use the first words that come to mind, but you want to play round with sounds (alliteration, assonance, consonance, repetition, rhythm and rhyme) until what you hear is memorable.  Read it out loud and let it flow off the tongue until it pleases you. Then test it out and see if it pleases another.  

Let  your words flow, tell your story, and tell it well. 

I made a printable to help learn these skills.  Click on image below to download. 

Shut your eyes, think back, think back as far as you can to when you started.  Can you remember what it was like when you first started writing?   What was it like for you?  Did you write because it was a natural extention of who you are?   I remember writing my mom notes when I didn’t have the words to talk to her.  Some of my notes were words of love and appreciation, and sadly…some of them weren’t.  Notes of anger and condemnation.  But my mom, she read them all.  And took her time in answering me when my notes must have been none to pleasing to her. She kept a lot of those notes eh?  The ones of praise and questions, where the notes there were less positive found their way out the door. 

Do you know in those notes to my mother I didn’t care about sentence structure, or fluid sounding sentences, or how it would look or what mom might think?  I wrote because I had things to say and not the ability to say them out-loud. Seems a bit foolish to me now looking back but you know what?   I still have that, the ideas the float around in my head and that lack of ability to put those words on my tongue.  It’s so much easier to write than it is to talk.  

The Problem

The problem is this now though.  Now when I write I find myself concerned about what people will think.   Will they like what I write?   Will the SEO come through okay?  Who might see and find a reason to complain? What if I mess something up, will people only focus on that, or will they see my heart?   In my devotionals, will they see the Lord come through or will they only see the words I write and how I falter at times?  So many thoughts and concerns flood my brain that sometimes, just sometimes, the words don’t want to come through and out.  And I want, no rather… I NEED those words to come out.  I need to share what I’m learning and what I think about the topics that enter my life.  Keeping my words bottled up doesn’t help me at all.. and doesn’t allow my readers to learn either you know?

The Solution

It begs the question: what does a writer do when concerns about form and function stifle?  When concerns about the reactions of people slow the pen?

Go back to the beginning.  Take on again the mind of a beginner when the possibilities are endless?   Before you preconceptions, expectations, judgements and prejudices settle in.  Go back and regain your eagerness.  Be willing to start anew, to find a fresh perspective.

Like today.. I have to admit, today was not an easy day, and I called a friend and she graciously came over and shared a cup of tea with me.  We didn’t talk as deeply as I would have like as 12 year olds have big ears and he doesn’t need to know everything that troubles my heart.  As we talked, I shared briefly that thoughts that the Parkinson’s book had on my thinking.  How changing one thing can make another thing better which can have this massive trickle down affect that can be mind-blogging.  How one has to FIGHT, actively fight against letting a disease or a situation get the better of you.  As we were talking I could feel myself resetting myself.  To acknowledge that right now things are tough.  THEY ARE.  No way to change that.  But I can change how overwhelmed I feel about adjusting to changes in routine, about supporting my family through this change, about thinking outside the box for possibilities in how I can make an income and make a difference here. 

So to, it is with writing.  

It can so very easily, become overwhelming, when one considers all the things one can write about, and then the desire to write about them well.

A beginner is not bogged down by that.  They only see the possibilities and they set out and write.  Just as I used to just write letters to my mom, and write stories just to please myself, if I remember those days, and seek to go back to that freedom… oh.. it’s a lovely thing indeed. The freedom that sets loose in my mind.

My recommendation

Don’t worry so much about your writing.  Just write.  Let it come from your heart.  Find a way for those words inside of you to just spill out.   Don’t let your expectations, opinions and stresses drown out your words.  Remember your heart when you first started to write, remember that urge that welled up inside to write and share.  Write like no one is watching.

What do writers do?

They write!

How do writers get better?

By continuing to write.

I know it seems simple eh?   To think about what writers do and how they improve.  But as someone who writes… trust me.. IT’s NOT that easy!   It isn’t.  🙂   So many things distract.   but as W.H. Auden says

How to Master Writing.

The only way to master writing is to do it.  To stare at the blank page and just write.  

Why?

1. Only we can say what we have to say.  Someone might say it to, but only you can say it the way that you will say it.   So write it down.   Be bold and put down the words that you have in you, whether it be story form, poetic, or non-fiction.  Say it.  Share your perspective on the matter at hand.  It’s an odd thing that happens, as we sit down, our perspective will spill forth, sometimes surprising us as it does so.  Be surprised, share your words.
2. It helps us not worry about our own perfection.  It’s one of the reasons why I love doing Five Minute Friday posts.  They remind to just write and not worry about everything coming out just so.  So often the way a word spills out of me surprises me and turns out be a good thing for my readers…and that is a great thing to have.  The more often I write them, the more of bits of my life spill out as well. This added perspective is a good thing to have not only for my readers, but also for me as it helps me realize that I do have life to share with others, and shows how I’ve matured over the years.
3. The not worrying about perfect work, helps me to realize as well that I can just write and not worry about having everything just so.  Just write and there’s time enough to make it just so.  Getting to words down on paper (or computer screen) is enough to get the process going.  The process of writing and then editing and producing a final draft. 

What steps can you take to help you write?

1. Does setting a schedule for writing help you? Or does spontaneity work to your advantage? I know that if I want to get a number of reviews done, getting out of the house works to my advantage. 
2. Change your focus … instead of saying “I’m going to finish that paper”, say “today I plan to complete my first draft”. Or perhaps “The first paragraph will get written this morning”.
3. Perhaps it would help you if you worked in time chunks?  For instance, plan to write for 25 minutes, and relax for 10, or write for 30 and take 15. Breaking up your work into chunks can help you manage your work load better. Though some people work best if they just work straight through.  Experiment and see eh?
4. Think about what hinders your writing process. How can you help mitigate those factors? For me writing when people are around, even if they are totally ignoring me doesn’t work very well. When hubby goes to bed at night I get my most work done.
5. Getting bogged down?  Do something OTHER THAN writing. Go out, have some fun, spend time with friends and family. Get your focus somewhere else for a bit and come back renewed in mind and body. (like when I go for a walk or take a VERY long shower). It’s amazing how it works out. 🙂 Kinda like our need to spend time with what inspires.

My Intention this morning was to write a blog helps type post  on what I’ve been learning about plugins, but frankly… that’s not going to happen.   I am still playing catch up with some of the other blogging helps posts I’ve written.  🙂   THOUGH!!!  positive thing here.  I learned how to save to Amazon S3 so I’m not having to pay big money to save my backups to dropbox!  (I can’t afford that right now) but doing regular backups is kinda important with websites in case of some catastrophic or annoying failure happening. More on that another day though. 

Today I thought I’d how important it is as a writer to notice the world around you.   It is so good to fill our lives with the things that inspire us, but if we do that and don’t pay attention to those things, noticing the details, responses, facts and what not about them, what’s the point?

Just think of the authors that you read how bring into the life scenes they are describing, or characters in their book, how they use words to convey the sights, sounds, smells and minutia of what you are learning about.  How do you think they convey it so well?    They do this by paying attention to the details. 

How do you notice those details?

By slowing down and savouring the moment.  I was reading an article the other day about a lady who chose to “eat like the French” using it as a way to change how she ate.   She would take a bite of food and notice the flavours, texture, spices, smell, appearance.. everything she could.   As a result she found that she ate less, enjoyed her food more, and found eating to again be a pleasure.   She noticed everything she could about it.  As a writer we can do the same.  Taking our time to savour the things that inspire us.

Last night I was sorting through the commemorative quarters that the Canadian mint does.  Deciding we didn’t need to keep ALL of them, but only the very best.   As I did so I noticed things that normally I don’t pay attention to.  The little divots that come from use, how colour can wear off unevenly, the bit of metal chipping, the light or heavy scratches, and wearing away from use from the raised edges.   Sometimes I really had to look to see which of those quarters was the best to keep.  At other times it was readily apparent.  Not all quarters receive the same care in life and it made me wonder the story that each might have taken. 

Find those details. Pay attention to them.  Cement them deeply in your memory or jot them down so you can recall them when you need to.  The jokes children tell, the funny words they use as they are growing up, the look of surprise on a rabbits face as you open a cage unexpectedly, the enjoyment on man’s face with a meal well made, the uplift of a face as a lad smells a favourite meal, the cat as it stretches out it’s claws to catch a favourite toy, the burnished look of copper on a well-loved antique, how dust settles on a precious moment figure even as it sits behind a dust cover… pay attention to these details.   They will help your stories come alive.

How will you keep a record?

We all have our favourite ways to keeping a record of what we see.  These record keeping ways may vary depending on where we are and what we are doing.

You might find these methods helpful:

1. a small notebook
2. tablet/phone using evernote, simple note, one drive, keep, 
3. 3 x 5 cards
4. stick it notes
5. audio recording
6. video recording
7. scrap paper

Do you want to practice how to pay attention, how to notice the details?   I have made a printable to help you.   You can find it here.   Or by clicking on the image below.

Questions to ask yourself:

How do you like to record the details of your life and the things that inspire you?

What details most easily recall experiences for you?   Is it sight, smell, hearing, taste, or touch?

How will you develop your ability to pay attention?  What moments can you find to savour?