It’s a Grammar check
There are certain mistakes that are frequently made even by those who know better. We all learned our grammar lessons way back when, and yet we get grooving on the copy and things slip by us. I bring this up not to be preachy but to highlight common errors by way of helping people like me remember to avoid them. Take the simple three letter combination of i-t-s. This confounds us with good reason: the rule violates grammarian logic. Jack’s beer should be here, but its bottle broke. The fact that the beer belongs to Jack is clearly...
read moreGetting Active
A challenge for you: try writing three paragraphs without using the word “is.” This tiny word has such a powerful role in our language that nearly nothing can be said without it. It can, however, become a crutch or even worse a blockade to the creative imagery needed to make a piece come alive. Falling back on it over and over precludes the use of more interesting and descriptive words that add color and depth to a sentence. He is weary. He grew weary. He is sick. He sounds sick. The chocolate cake is delicious. The...
read moreBack to Basics to Break Up Writers Block
There are times when the words just won’t come. The idea is to big or the story too long and it seems impossible to even get started. You try a lead and then another and then another and nothing seems interesting enough. Or worse, you can’t even find a place to start and you’re starting to wonder why you thought you could write in the first place. That’s when you wonder if it wouldn’t be more fun to clean toilets for a living. At least then you would have clear direction. You need a map. But how do you make a...
read moreWriter’s Block Solution: Find the Flow
My typical technique when it comes to writing is to slam through a story pushing on until I’m done and then going back to fix it. A few years back, however, I had the privilege of working with a colleague who happens to be a great writer and employs a much different style that I have come to greatly appreciate. She took a very methodical approach that can be useful anytime but especially when faced with writer’s block. Like many of us, she starts with the lead. Then she would write a bit more and read through the entire piece out...
read moreSetting the Stage
There are times when you have to sit down and slam out your copy all at once. You have a tight deadline or you just have so much to say that you have to get it all out at once and quickly. If you have the time, there’s another trick to working past the writer’s block. I call it setting the stage. If I’m working on a non-fiction story, I try to do this as soon after the interview or event as possible while things are fresh in my mind. If it’s for an opinion piece or essay, I mull things over in my mind until I have some...
read moreOne way to get writing
It is much easier to say that writers write than it is for writers to write. A blank page is overwhelming and sometimes the ideas are so unwieldy that the refuse to be corralled long enough to be put on paper (or computer screen). That’s when a writer needs tricks to get things moving along. All good writers have their a few to trot out as they get stuck. Collect as many of these tricks as you can find to have ready as needed. One of my favorites, especially when I’m tight on time, is the outline. This is not the strict,...
read moreIf you want to write, you have to write
The most obvious piece of advice that successful writers give to wannabe writers is that if you want to be a writer, you have to write. It seems that is something that go without saying. And yet, I know from personal experience, that it doesn’t happen. People get intimidated about putting things down. It has to be grand. It has to be mind-boggling. It has to be perfect. Here is the secret that all great writers know: None of that is true. And in fact, it in all likelihood will be a mess. But that’s okay, because it’s a...
read moreBrevity
There is a poignant scene in the movie The River Runs Through It when ‘ is home schooling him. He turns in an essay and his father frowns a bit and tells him to cut it in half. The boy returns with the assignment and the father tells him to again cut it in half. He does so again and is finally released to go fishing. It may seem torturous and unnecessary, but the father was giving his son an incredible gift. The one thing that will hold a writer back more than writer’s block is writer’s verboseness. Yes, I’m saying...
read moreRain Dance
I did something I thought I’d never do this morning: I ran a 5K race in the rain. Pouring rain. Buckets of heavy rain. I wasn’t the only one, but there weren’t a lot of us. Here’s the thing – I thought it would be awful. I thought I would hate it. I thought I’d have my worse time ever. So why did I do it? Well, when I woke up and heard the rain I thought to myself that it was pretty comfortable where I was and that no one would hold it against me if I didn’t get up. The whole day I could say, well I...
read moreMountain Bike Fun?
About the closest I get to biking these days is walking my bike along side my 4 year old who is still on training wheels, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when DH suggested mountain biking through the woods. We decided having not done this for years that we would stick to what looked on the map to be the main trail. If that was the main trail, I shudder to think about what the off road looked like. The path was a decpetively smooth bed of pine needles climbing slowly through a sunlit forest next to a shimmering lake. Then we...
read more
