A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

writing

Writing is Discovery

By Leave a Comment

Did you know I have a neice that is a writer?   I wish I could do the same thing with words that she does!  🙂  She maintains a blog over at Inkwyrm and I like going over there sporadically, commenting on everything.  Nicole often makes me laugh or think, and sometimes even both!  I am immensely proud of her. Anyways, we were talking one night about how sometimes she’s writing and she wants a character to go a certain way and it ends up being another way that suits that character better. It’s a struggle to balance the what you want with the what you discover.  Anyways, that conversation was recalled to me as I read through this chapter on discovering who you are as you write, that what we write is based on aspects of ourselves.

writing is discovery

Writing draws words out of you. Think about it… in every character you write you need to research, watch, learn, discover new things.   If you talk about a father figure you will naturally be caused to think about your own father, memories for good or ill.   When we write about a best friend, we’ll be drawn back to friendships we’ve had in the past or still presently maintain.   Sorrow, heartache, joy, anger … all these things will come from the weal of experience that is our own lives.  From what we observe in the folks around us, to the research we do, everything we write comes from something we have interacted with and then somehow make our own as we write. 

annie dillard quote

And so as we write we learn more about ourselves and become more deeply in-tune with who we are. Reading and working through books such as Observe, Collect, Draw are tools we can use to deepen our understanding of ourselves. This process can fuel our thought as we write.  Paying attention to our emotions and attitudes as we work, play, or rest.  Watching out own interactions with people and the way others interact.  Listening to challenging talks, confronting out fears and minding our hopes.   All these things feed into our ability to write and share our thoughts with others.

Taking the time  to work

…muscles straining, brains thinking, pondering, connecting, being part of a team.  Interruptions, people around us, meetings, and smells, sounds, actions taken.   All these things become a part of us and therefore part of the world we write about.  Observe it and remember it.  

Then write.annie dillard quote

Taking time to play

… find whatever it is that you want to do just to have fun, be it playing playdoh with a little buddy, walking a trail, jumping off a cliff (or out of a plane) or rummaging through a thrift store for undiscovered treasures.  Listen to the joy of your heart as you play and put that in your writing.   Dwell on the sorrow of death, or a hard diagnosis, or job loss.  

Then write.

Just write.

Whether for an audience of one (yourself) or a larger audience.   Give voice to your words, your thoughts, yourself.   Become more of yourself as you truly discover who you are.  Write as if what you say matters.  “Write as if you are dying” Annie Dillard would tell you.  Give eloquence to your words, as if they are the last words you’ll ever write and keep writing until they are. 

Keep on discovering, discover aspects of yourself you didn’t know, broaden the ones you do know… just keep writing. You’ll make a better you in the end.  🙂

If you would like to follow along I’m reading from this book.

Promote Your Work

By Leave a Comment

If you write, do you believe that you have a message?   Do you think that YOU have something to say to those around you?   If not, why do you write? Seriously, if you have nothing truly to say, then don’t write.  On the otherhand, if you do have something to say, be clear about it and write.   Once you have written it, don’t be shy about it, say, hey, I’m a writer and this is what I wrote. Otherwise, what’s the point?  If no one knows you have written anything, then how will your words be heard?

This is where promotion comes into play.  Will you do what it takes to promote your work even if it takes you out of your comfort zone?  Do you even know what it takes to promote your work?  Today I am reaching out to give some ideas. 

Promote your work text over picture of books with glasses
Photo by Nicole Honeywill on Unsplash

Regardless of how you have published your work, or plan to publish, you need to do the leg-work in promoting your work.  You need to do this before, during and after the process of publication.

Things you can do:

  • Write articles for your local paper
  • Speak in local groups 
  • Write a blog
  • Have a website promoting your work
  • Be active on social media
  • Write articles for your church newsletter
  • Participate in Blog tours with other writers
  • Submit ideas to magazines
  • Guest post on sites that you follow

The thing is, start small, work your way up.   Market yourself and what you have written.  Help your words to have a broader audience.

Some How-to’s

It’s not an easy thing you know to promote oneself, you need to be careful you don’t cross the line from promoter to seller.  People will often get annoyed by people JUST trying to sell their book and therefore those that only flog their book will find themselves ignored or unfollowed (on social media).

When you are on social media, do your best to be original. Have an author bio to help people connect with who you are. Don’t write what everyone else writes. Pull up something original about yourself like “Loves her cats and finds herself inspired by their quirkiness way too often” rather than “writes detective novels with cats as a focus” or “international best seller”.  Be original, be you. 

If you maintain a blog where you promote your work, write about topics found in your book.  Pull up interesting articles, write about anything that relates to what your book is about. This way you aren’t just talking about your book, but the things that would interest your readers and draw them in to learn about your book.  

Part of being active on social media can be to use videos, podcasts or live feeds.  Again, talk about things of interest to your readers.  

I found these sites loaded with information:

 

Watch the “ings”

By Leave a Comment

Have you ever thought about your “ings”?    How do you use them?   Do they strengthen or weaken the verbs that you are using?  Do you use the right amount or do you need to modify them?

write better, watch the ING words

English is a language of inflection.  Adding an -s or -es to a noun makes a plural, whereas adding an -s or -ed to a verb distinguishes present action from past.  Adding -ing changes the verb to progressive as in they began shooting the film, the wave washing across the pavement, etc.

Consider this passage: 

Wilting under the strain of weeks of blistering heat, the children set about complaining to family members that their was nothing to do and would school ever start again, and rallying their moms and dads to send them off to summer camp or letting their friends come and visit. 

How many ING words do you count?   Are they making the sentence better or weaker?

Are they weakening the verb or strengthening it?

Consider these problems: 

  1. Adding “ing” adds an extra syllable to the word, this can change the sound of the word, almost making it different than what it really is.
  2. After a while all those ING words start to look and sound the same.  They lose their punch. 

What happens in you change that sentence?

The children wilted under the strain of blistering heat.  With no energy to run around and discover their own activities, they have complained to their family members that they needed more to do.  They rally to their parents for summer camps, visits with friends or other activities to do. 

Which sound better or makes more impact?  Don’t you find the second cleaner and more precise?

This isn’t to say you can’t use -ing words, just play around with them a bit, see what fits better.  Use them judiciously, use them when needed to make your words more precise, clean and definitive. To call attention to action when it’s needed, not just for the sake of using them.  🙂

 

Want to practice?   Check out my free printable won’t you?

 

 

Keeping the Mystery

By Leave a Comment

You know how you can read poetry and feel like the author is right in the room with you, helping you to see exactly the point they are trying to make? It’s not always a bad thing that, but something you might want to consider when you are writing poetry is to leave a bit of the mystery in there.   Write for the concept not the lesson.

It’s not an easy thing to do though.  It’s so natural to want to say it all, you know?

In fact I went to my poetry page searching for a poem so I could show you what the author of “How to Write a Poem” was talking about and found that I don’t leave a lot of mystery in my poems.   It’s a good thing for me to think on.

picture of forest with words "keeping the mystery"

How can I convey a thought, but do it using images, allowing people to draw their own conclusions or to float of waves of memory and wonder? So here’s my first attempt eh?

I remember
Rising majestic
Towering high
Everywhere I looked
They hollered their height
Starkness surrounding

Whistling wind joined them
Rejoicing in their freedom
Leaves swooping and soaring
As they rushed hither and yon
Mindless

Alone
I watched, waiting,
Insignificance settling

Wounded I turned
Surprised, reality sinking

It’s hard, harder than I thought it would be.
To give words voice, to not say all that can be said as memories found my mind. Memories that rise so stark in my mind. I remember well the surprise and aloneness I felt that day walking through the forests in B.C. It totally caught me off-guard how I felt walking that path. I almost bolted the feeling was so intense. But how does one write about that? How does one convey that thought without teaching it… letting people experience it without the actual words? I’m still learning (and that’s a good thing eh?)

I will keep trying, because I want my poems to have a life, even if I am not there.  Join me?

Share a moment in verse, of a memory you hold dear. How would you describe and yet keep the mystery and wonder of that moment alive for your readers. I’d love to read it. 🙂

Getting Published or Not

By Leave a Comment

In the book On Being a Writer, I recently read a chapter on getting published.   Seeing as it was a goal of mine at the end of last year to get published SOMEHOW by the end of the year, it got me thinking.  I got to thinking about how life gets in the way sometimes of dreams, and that sometimes you have to be reminded of dreams.  I think I needed that reminder.

I found this to be an interesting chapter….showing two (well okay I don’t know if it’s two) It just kinda seemed like two.  The question is Should one work toward getting published or not?  The two halves:

The first being … don’t worry so much about being published, work at improving your skills.

The second being… if you want to be published, suss out opportunities and work toward them.

graysacale image two people fighting with sword
Photo from free stock

It’s like writing is a two-edged sword right?  You want to be published, but if you write only with the end goal of being published you are not doing yourself any favours, you need to focus on improving your skill set. On the other-hand if you only write without having the end goal of being published, then you aren’t pushing yourself to be the best you can be. 

Improving your Skill Set

The deal if you wait to be published is this:

You get to focus on what you need to focus on.  Could be a career you are building, raising your littles, getting a degree or whatever.   AND as you have time, and a chance to work on building your skills, you build your skills, and test the waters, without the pressure being there that you MUST GET PUBLISHED.   Who needs that pressure when you have other things you need to focus on. 

This gives you the time you need to form a writing community, hone your skills, test out different waters, see what passions mesh with your writing skills and styles, Learn and grow and live out your passions and research your loves as you work through what you also need to focus on. 

Wanting to get Published.

If you want to get published, you need to take steps to that end.

  1. Research opportunities for paid work.. magazines, papers, websites and more.
  2. Finding your passions: what do you like to write about?  What do people like learning from you?
  3. Honing your skills, ask yourself “Would I publish me?”  Get friends or a group of readers to help you fine tune your work, to see your blind spots to make your work better. 
  4. Write for where you want to be published, consider what the publication is like and what style they use.  Do you have a favourite magazine?  Why not consider submitting a piece to it?
  5. Learning how to make a pitch, or how to submit an article, or a book proposal.  It’s all research and work eh?  
  6. Be prepared, rejection will happen, acceptance will come.  Roll with it as it comes. 

 

Finding the “ah ha!” Moment

By Leave a Comment

You know when you are reading a poem and you hit a line in the poem that makes you go “ah ha!”?  You find a line that causes you to see the entire point of the poem or line of thought the author is trying to convey?   It’s like a touch of magic, is it not?  Stay tuned for free worksheet attached.

Boy looking surprised, needing to find the Ah ha moment in poetry

When you are writing, don’t forget to look for that line, the line that causes you as the author listening to your own poem to go “AH HA!”.

What causes that moment?

  • sensory detail that surprises the reader
  • a lingering note, a sound that rings
  • an odour that brings a memory
  • a change in the structure of the poem
  • a detail described in an unexpected manner
  • the unexpected that cements a thought

But how does one prepare for the unexpected as an author?   How can you build that into your verse? Can it be learned like how one used adjectives or adverbs better?  How can you find those moments (which can be different for individuals) that turn the light on in a poem?

You prepare by reading verse looking for what hits you emotionally, surprises you making you say “NO!”, changes the way you think, gives a picture you won’t soon forget and/or rings true in your heart.  Look for it, and in that looking, you’ll learn how to write it. Or if not HOW to write it, to at least be willing, to take risks in your art, to experiment with a new style of writing, and to be willing to even surprise yourself.

Don’t force it… just read, and write, and practice.   Bring out your own true thoughts and play around with how you put them on paper. have your moments be so real, so poignant that the memories linger in the minds of your readers. Write your words down, re-read them, bring out the emotion and paint your pictures, and let the surprise and wonder and lingering memories happen. 

Other writing posts can be found here.  The photo courtesy of  Ben White on Unsplash.

To practice this skill I’ve put together a worksheet that you might find useful.

 

Watching Adverbs

By Leave a Comment

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.

Watching adverbs, a writing tip to improve readibility

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!