Supercharge Your Writing!

From Cheryl's Writing Crate

Happy spring!  Finally--the calendar says spring so regardless of what the weather is currently telling us, I'm going to embrace March 20th as the start to a lovely, refreshing, warm and sunny season of spring.

Truthfully, spring is not one of my top two seasons, but I do love all that it stands for--primarily new growth and fresh beginnings, and for me, part of those fresh beginnings means spring cleaning my life, not just my house.

As part of that process, I include freshening up my home, my garden, my recipes, my exercise and health routines, and of course my writing.  As you may recall from my post last week, I'm currently experiencing a very frustrating situation with my computer--more specifically our router.  I never knew that computer viruses could lurk about in this way, but I found out that it's not as uncommon as you would think.  Sigh!  So, while we await our internet company to rectify the situation, I'm focusing on other areas of my writing that I think could use a bit of spring cleaning.

This year, I'm getting back to basics and working on tightening up my content as well as paying better attention to my grammar.  Lucky for me, my colleague at Macmillan Publisher, Mignon Fogarty also known as Grammar Girl, has just the help I'm looking for--a webcast called "Supercharge Your Writing".  In this new series, you will have access to video lessons on tricky writing topics such as:

• Me, Myself, and I
• Lay versus Lie
• How to Use Hyphens
• Combining Quotation Marks with Other Punctuation
• And much, much more!
• 
  

I encourage you to visit Grammar Girl's website to learn more and while you're there, you are sure to enjoy dozens of helpful and interesting columns and podcasts relating to all things grammar and writing.  Now that spring is in the air, it might be the right time for you to think about freshening up your writing skills as well.

Do you have any spring rituals to transfer from one season to the next?   

A Writer's Ring

From Kate's Writing Crate…

  

        I love to write longhand. I love the way a pen fits in my hand. I even love my writer's callous built up over decades on my middle finger where my pen rests as I scribble down my thoughts.

        As I write, I see pages fill up with words as well as my hand holding a pen moving back and forth. It's a focused and familiar view, but it changed recently thanks to a "big" bang.

        Normally I wear a simple band ring channel set with small, but brilliant, flawless faux sapphires and diamonds on my ring finger. One day, I banged my hand on the corner of a bookcase and my finger began to swell so I removed my ring. The only other finger it felt comfortable on was my thumb. After a few moments, it felt like I had always worn my ring there so I didn't pay any attention to it again until I started to write later that day.

        Suddenly my hand holding a pen was eye catching. Glamorous. Special. Now I love seeing my ring as I write so much that it has reduced my resistance to start writing every day.

I recommend wearing a thumb ring to every writer. I really think I am onto something—and I'm not the only one.

A few weeks after I started wearing my thumb ring, or, as I now call it, my writer's ring, I watched an interview with Elizabeth George, New York Times bestselling author of 18 books in the Inspector Lynley series and Write Away: One Novelist's Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life. I noticed right away she was sporting a shiny gold ring on her thumb. Is it part of her success? I wouldn't have said so a month ago, but now I think it might be.

Join the club. Wear a writer's ring. Having something sparkling on your thumb makes working more enticing!

 

Does a writer's ring affect your writing?

Writing Around Computer Problems

From Cheryl's Writing Crate

It's Thursday and beside it being French Toast and waffle night in our house, it's also the day I happily post my blog entry for The Writer's Crate.

Though I always have great intentions, sometimes the "powers that be" have other plans for me instead, and this week, that plan was for my computer to have virus issues--again!

To sum it up--ARGHHHHH!

So, on that note--the French Toast and waffles will still happen this evening, but I'm afraid my post for today will be put on the back burner until my computer issues are resolved.

How do you handle interruptions in your writing routine due to computer and other unforeseen issues?

Reads for Writers: Still Writing by Dani Shapiro

   

From Kate's Writing Crate…

        Writers need support which we don't always get from non-writing family members and friends. They mean well, but it usually comes down to numbers: How many books, articles, etc. have I published? How many people read my blog? How much money do I make? They never ask if I wrote a great sentence today or if I solved a plot point.

        So when non-writers ask about my life, I usually say I'm busy writing articles or editing. Things they can see for themselves when the magazines I work for are delivered. I don't tell them I wrote six pages in my notebook yesterday and three more today that led to idea for a post that took me another four hours to write, rewrite, and polish.

        They're not interested in the details of writing and that's okay. I'm not always interested in their occupations, but as a writer I listen because I never know when a fact or incident may spark an idea.

        Usually writers have at least one writing friend because we need empathetic support. We discuss projects and share tips and ideas to keep ourselves going because writing is hard work.

        For more support, I love to read inspiring books about writing and the writing life. Most recently, I discovered Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life by Dani Shapiro.

Speaking of support, or in this case the lack thereof, Shapiro chose the title Still Writing because people who know her keep asking her if she is still writing despite being the author of seven books, a writer of numerous essays and book reviews, and a writing teacher.

In Still Writing, Shapiro shares fabulous thoughts on the habits of writers, the stages of writing, and the tools needed along with the daily schedule she keeps to reach her writing goals.

She also discusses writers and teachers in her life like Virginia Woolf who make her "feel less isolated in the world. Though we are alone in our rooms, alone with our demons, our inner censors, our teachers remind us we are not alone in the endeavor. We are part of a great tapestry of those who proceded us. And so we must ask ourselves: Are we feeling with our minds? Thinking with our hearts? Making every empathetic leap we can? Are we witness to the world around us? Are we climbing on the shoulders of those who paved the way for us? Are we using every bit of ourselves, living these lives of ours, spending it, spending it all, every single day?" (p. 71)

Yes, writers daily fight their demons and squash their inner censors all while feeling, thinking, empathetically leaping, witnessing, and then, hardest of all, sitting still long enough to write down all we observe in our own voices and styles.

Witnessing life and capturing it creatively on blank pages requires bravery, clarity, and endurance. No easy tasks so we need all the support we can find because we are still writing.

Who do you turn to for support?

The Joy of Letter Writing

From Cheryl's Writing Crate

Ever since I was a little girl I loved to run to the mailbox each day in hopes that I would receive a letter, a greeting card, even a catalog that was specifically addressed to me.  They didn't come often enough, but when there was a special, written letter of some kind it would make me jump up and down for joy (I kid you not!).  

A handwritten note was something exciting back then, because most kids just aren't accustomed to receiving mail, except for birthday and holiday cards.   To be honest, receiving personalized mail in this day and age is also pretty exciting--especially for adults who are used to only receiving bills and junk mail.  

I have always been enamored with sending greeting cards for every occasion under the sun.  I don't stop at birthdays and anniversaries--I love to send cards to friends who might be having a bad day, as well as congratulatory cards to people who have moved to a new house, started a new job or may have mastered a new skill like baking pastry from scratch or housebreaking their new puppy!  If there isn't a card for such a celebration, I grab a blank one and write my thoughts inside of it.

For years I had a pen pal that I met in Colorado when our first child was born, nearly 20 years ago.  For the first ten years after her birth, my new friend and I wrote one another letters at least three times per month.  I can still remember the thrill of heading to the mailbox and finding one of Amy's letters waiting inside for me.  We didn't just write short and sweet ones, either.  Sometimes we each wrote 10-page letters--full of details about everything from staying up all night while our babies were teething and how we would survive the next day operating on less than an hours sleep to our latest successes or flops with new recipes in the kitchen.  The content was important, but what really mattered was the intimate connection we felt from holding crisp pieces of paper in our hands that we had exchanged with one another about  all the happenings in our harried but precious  lives.

And now, over a decade later, snail mail is nearly non-existent.  Sure many of us still exchange greeting cards here and there, but truthfully, if you stop and think about it the days of writing and receiving letters and notes in the mail is practically a thing of the past.  Texting, e-mails, twitter, and other forms of social media have replaced the personalized art of writing to our friends and I fear it might soon be a thing of the past.

Because I've always been a fan of letter writing and exchanging cards and other written sentiments via mail, I did a little research to see how other writers felt about letter writing and I stumbled upon a wonderful article written by Mason Currey called "The Death of Letter-Writing".    Currey is the author of Daily Rituals, How Artists Work and shared some very insightful thoughts on how letter writing and e-mails just cannot be compared.

Here's a paragraph taken from the article that really got me thinking:

Is email really such a different beast? I would argue that it is. I recently compiled a book about artists’ daily rituals, and as part of my research I spoke to several contemporary writers, painters and composers about their working habits. Nearly everyone was wary of the distractive potential of email. The novelist Nicholson Baker, for instance, told me that he tries to avoid checking email too early in the day because “it just does change everything. As soon as you have a couple of emails pending, the day has a different flavor.”

If not careful, handwritten letters could easily become a lost art, that's why I'm challenging myself and you to pick up your favorite pen and pad and get busy writing a letter to someone who you'd like to communicate with.    Take this challenge even one step further and commit to writing letters to personal friends, family members, business acquaintances and even a letter to the editor or two.

Writers don't limit themselves to only writing short stories, articles, and books, they find ways to share their thoughts in as many venues as possible so why not incorporate more letters into your writing regime.  Not only will you satisfy your need to write, but think of how happy you'll make those who will be receiving your notes and letters!   Sounds like a "win win" to me.

When was the last time you wrote a letter?

Fill a Notebook a Month

From Kate's Writing Crate…

        Now is a good time to start filling a notebook a month as recommended by Natalie Goldberg in her book Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. Yes, it's already March 3, but writers need challenges and deadlines so pick up a notebook or a legal pad if that's what you have and GO!

        When I first started doing this, I was excited and nervous, but also committed. I wanted to be a writer and here was an easy writing project.

 

Yet there were still days I didn't write at all. And there were days that I didn't have any idea what to write about when I did pick up my pen. Sometimes I just started writing 'I have nothing to say' repeatedly until I did--and I always did.

 

I filled that first notebook in a month and continued filling monthly notebooks for well over a decade. All that practice is why I now write and edit for a living. And I still fill notebooks, but every other month currently.

 

Writers write if we give ourselves permission, time, and place.

As Goldberg states, "Give yourself permission to write the worst junk." The goal is to fill the notebook with ideas, observations, and thoughts. It's not meant for publication so you can relax and write what you want.

Since you MUST fill a notebook by the end of every month, you are forced to make time to write. Deadlines are a part of every writer's life. Get used to it now.

The place to write is in your notebook, but it's portable so you can have it with you any place you go. There's no excuse not to write in waiting rooms, on public transportation, if you arrive early and/or the person you are meeting is late, in between loads of laundry, during lunch and at breaks. A few minutes here and there add up and so do the pages.

There are many benefits to filling a notebook in a month and continuing to do so for years and even decades:

Practice makes you a better writer. The more notebooks  you fill, the better writer you will become.

Seeing  your stack of filled notebooks grow is proof that you are a writer.

The satisfaction of meeting your monthly goal is a driving force to continue.

You learn to jot things down to capture moments.

You can expand on your observations later—even turning them into poems, essays, short stories, books, plays, songs, and articles.

You learn to pay attention to conversations you overhear so you can improve the dialogue in your work.

You learn to capture details about characters, locations, fashion, cuisine, etc. to ground scenes in your work.

Deadlines are not so fearsome when you meet them on a regular basis.

It is fun to flip through old notebooks for writing ideas—and to see what interested you back in time.

But mostly, filling monthly notebooks keeps you writing no matter what!

        Writers write so start writing now!

How has filling a notebook a month improved your writing?

YouTube for Writers

From Cheryl's Writing Crate

As much as I love getting lost in a great read and just allowing myself  the abstract delight of drifting off into another world entirely, there are also many things in my life that lump me into the category of a "visual" learner.

For instance, there is no way I could've ever learned to tie a man's necktie if it weren't for the patient and endless repeated visual directions my father gave me years ago.  Now that I think about it, I can't possibly remember why at the age of 17 I was so desperate to learn such a thing, but I did and after a few very trying days of visual direction and explanation, my father successfully helped me achieve this very lofty goal.

Speaking of learning to tie a necktie--did you know that the most popular video on You tube is that exact thing--learning to tie a necktie?!  That's right!  According to a You Tube poll at the end of 2013, the most viewed YouTube was "How to Tie a Tie for Beginners" with over 16 million views!  So, why on earth would I bring up such a thing in a writing blog?  Because not only can you learn the double windsor tie knot on You Tube, but as a writer, you can view hundreds of wonderful you tubes on all things writing.

So while I consider myself an abstract Goddess overall, there are plenty of times I just love sitting back and watching as well as listening to some great advice--especially when it comes to my passion of writing.

If you haven't checked out You Tube lately, I suggest you take some time to visit and surf the thousands of titles available on everything from how to manicure the perfect lawn to sitting in on some very creative writer's workshops.

Here's one of my favorites--J.K. Rowling--Writing for Grown ups 2012

Just one warning--don't head over to YouTube to check out the hundreds of writing videos unless you have some extra time on your hands--it can be very addicting.

Have you ever visited YouTube for advice on writing--if so, what are some of your recommendations?