Last week I posted this disclaimer at the bottom of my Monday column:
I am an amateur writer and not qualified to advise anyone on anything. Take these ideas as just that, ideas. If they work for you then that is wonderful. If they do not work, keep trying until you find something that does.
I apologize, I misspoke.
What I wrote is not completely true. I am fully qualified to do two things: pass along advice that works for me and share my experiences as an amateur writer.
This group has a lot of talent. We have editors. We have accomplished poets. We have authors, many of whom have published dozens of novels. We also have writers who make a living at it.
And then there are the amateurs – like myself.
Today... let's hear from the amateurs!
Let's hear from all the beginners who are taking their first wobbly steps at writing and need all the support they can get.
Let's hear from the novices who have landed hard on their rear and need a hand up.
Let's hear from the amateurs who believing they are better than that are headed for a stumble, for they are the ones who will hurt the most.
The reason I make this challenge is that I recently read a couple of my old Gather posts.
Those posts were so dreadful that I had to slam the lid of my laptop shut least anyone catch a sideways glance at the dreck I once wrote.
But you know what? As bad as it was, I doubt I have since had as much pride as I did when I posted those first articles.
And I know that is what holds a lot of writers back, the fear of not being good enough. But it is just something you have to go through because there is nothing so sweet as taking your first timid step from being a reader to being a writer.
And there is nothing so encouraging as your first complement or even your first serious critique.
So this week, let's hear from the beginners, the novices and the amateurs.
But let's also hear from those who encourage and nurture them.
***
On a typical week, this column has between 200 to 300 readers. Most of you rarely comment or respond to the challenge. Don't get me wrong, that's okay with me because you are here for your own reasons but I wonder how many GWE readers are beginning writers who are too shy to post.
Well, this is your week to join the cacophony that is Gather Writing Essentials.
This week’s writing challenge: write your first GWE post or if you are a regular, try something new.
Post your article to Gather Writing Essentials.
BE SURE TO TAG your submission with MWE. Note: I search for articles using the tag "MWE" If you don't tag it right, I will not find it.
- Include "Monday Writing Essential" in your title.
***
Here are the responses to last week’s writing challenge: How do you find your way into a stubborn piece of writing?
mwe 6/25/12 When the writing is stubborn by karen vaughan
MWE: Finding My Way into Stubborn Writing Pieces by Becca J.
When the words are silent, for Monday Writing Essentialsby Sheila Deeth
Creative writing, and word play.. Hello struggling writer.. by Ernie Howard
Digging Out of a Writer's Foxhole - Monday Writing Essential by Susan Budig - Mindful Poet
Weekly reminder: don't forget to recommend an article that you like (to learn why, read Ann Marcaida's article Attract More Writers and Artists to Gather!).. Also try to place a comment on at least one article and say more than you liked the piece. Tell the author what worked and what needs work.
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Comments: 12
What I find is helpful for me when I am stuck - I have been working on three applications - one for three months, making a blog, editing and polishing it, researching the area fuller by reading posts from people who work for that company, going to Montreal in May, taking photos. I am not too scared, but I have been putting it off. I am ready to sit down -- make time and sit down - and get this off in a few days. Have to finish the article.
Two other applications for the last month involve learning InDesign and Photoshop, as these two are the crux of online journalism from newspapers. I have to get these two off ...well, by mid July at the latest.
What I find is helpful is to write when a person first gets the idea. Write fast. Even if it is dreck. The spark of the new idea will produce gems, even if it also produces dreck. Sometimes a little wine helps to release a person's inhibitions and to let the emotion flow. Write fast, if it helps, scream of consciousness, if necessary. See what I mean? I meant to type stream of consciousness, but scream of consciousness is much better.
Put it aside. At least a few days. Or a few weeks. Work on other things in the mean time. Even six months or 18 months if it is a major life work.
The US is based on rapid turnover, but in artistic endeavors this is the wrong way to go.
I was educated in both the US and the Canadian schools of thought/ learning processes.
My essays in high school were always read in class. I just wrote them off the top of my head. Witty, funny, creative things.
In Montreal, the school of thought/learning was different. I wrote something that went sort of like this:
Today, people love to ....about...all sorts of things. Today, is not the same as yesterday and...
The teacher explained I had to follow a format called precis, to use specifics and not generalities.
McGill required original research, and lots of it, with lots of citations and so on. I never had an exam in English. Only a short paper after 6 weeks and seminar discussions and a long paper -- 25 pages after 12 weeks or a 30 page paper after 6 months, and a few short papers of 10 pages.
Medill required daily newspaper stories. Working at newspapers in the 70s before Medill cured me of my sitting down and thinking too much before typing.
If a person is writing something creative, and everything we write is creative, let it spill. Let it sit. Then edit. Repeat. A few times.
In my paid job, the Canadian writers are much better than most of the American writers. There are fewer Canadian writers, but they are all thorough and take their time. About half the American writers slap it out and hand it in.
That does not produce quality.
Hemingway wrote: Write drunk, edit sober.
Much as we think of Hemingway as a man's man who spent a lot of time socializing and drinking, in reality he spent much of the day writing and revising, working on words until they were just right.
At the Kansas City Star, he was told to make stories as consise as possible.
He revolutionized writing.
But his brevity counted. He was the inventor of the six-word story.
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.''
Make it bite. But first, write it.
Well, off to work on my projects. I have a fiction MS, a memoir MS a YA MS, a Wikipedia on my father, my paid editing, and the three job apps. This month due: The three job apps, two are two by July 11th, and the other one around that time, too. The others are in progress.
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