Writing daily

 

Writing daily

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

I am told that I make light of things - well, don’t we all? Sometimes people accuse me of trivialising problems. I don’t. I just compartmentalise them and look for a lighter tone to carry me through. That’s along the lines of, ‘Laugh, and the world laughs with you, Weep, and you weep alone,’ and I’d rather not weep, thank you.

I do have an errant sense of humour, which is not always appropriate, I suppose.

My writing is entirely selfish. I do it to keep myself on an even keel and not let events overwhelm me. It takes me away from miseries I would rather not dwell on that would make the lives of everyone around me (that would be Barry!) miserable, too. As well as my blog, I keep a daily journal.

I wondered about the origin of ‘Laugh and the world laughs with you.’ The lines are from this poem by the American author and poet, Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919).

Writing without thinking

 

Writing without thinking

Most people have had to paraphrase. It is something that villainous teachers demand of their reluctant students. The advice runs along the tracks of, ‘Read and inwardly digest, then rewrite in your own words.’

Just as a calculator is not helpful to those who have not grasped the basic principles of arithmetic, so can a thesaurus lead the unwary astray.

‘It was a dark and stormy night and the Captain said to his mate, “Tell us a story.”.’ 

                                        can become

‘It was an obscure and passionate dark and the Boss revealed to his partner, “Voice us a floor.”.’

Top marks for effort, but many fewer for comprehension. It could be worse. if the paraphraser decided to try more ambitious vocabulary, excited by the words but not having a clear understanding of nouns, verbs and adjectives.

‘It existed a dim and hot-blooded brunette and the Torment displayed to his accompany, “Caution to us an item.”.’

 In an effort to make our writing more interesting, less formulaic, less prone to cliché, we search for different ways to say ‘said’. So our characters gasp, sigh, shout, scream, whisper, implore, question, cry instead of simply 'saying'.

Our characters never walk – they sway, sashay, march, stagger, stumble, totter, trip, race, hurry, and never do they start an engine – it is powered up, and so is a computer. 

 

 

 

Insecure Writers’ Support Group

 

Insecure Writers’ Support Group

 

IWSG is the brain child of Alex Cavanaugh. It is a place for all writers, of whatever stripe, to express themselves. This month’s co-hosts are  Patricia Josephine, Diedre Knight, OlgaGodim, J. Lenni Dorner and Cathrina Constantine. See other posts here                                                                 

The optional question this month is ‘If you ever did stop writing, what would you replace it with?’

The question assumes that the reader spends a good deal of time writing. Taking it to its logical conclusion, that is largely true, if one counts diary entries, tutoring a grandchild, writing plant labels, but actual good, honest, down-to-earth creative writing? (Can creative writing be ‘down-to-earth’?)

Technical writing, explanatory leaflets, recipes, instructions, court orders, musical manuscripts, lesson plans, love letters, emailed complaints to the local authority are all legitimate forms of writing but are they what we mean by ‘writing’?

I digress, as usual. If I ever stopped writing I would spend time walking the dogs, playing the piano, reading, doing jigsaws and cross stitch, bird watching, stargazing, taking photographs, but I do all those things anyway. So there you have it – I don’t spend much time writing, at least, not as much as I could.

 I admire those disciplined souls who dedicate their lives to their craft and understand that that is why they publish their work while I daydream and dabble at the edges of what would undoubtedly be a stellar career (insert ‘wink’ emoticon) I’ll never stop writing and thinking about writing and dreaming about writing.

Writing

I read something yesterday about writing. It was quite strident and ran along the lines of, ‘So you want to be a writer? Stop blogging! Why waste your time on one or two when many more could be reading your novels?’

All well and good, I thought, but I’ll take the one or two over the none and be encouraged by their interest. It’s no good publishing a novel if no-one is going to read it.

However, I have published one* and intend to publish two or three more this year. Whoops! Brave words – must follow them up with action – that is, editing, proofreading and, in one case at least, finishing the first draft (and then editing, etc.) Action will be put to one side for the next week at least as I shall be looking after Frankie. I know, excuses, excuses . . .

(*The Sweets and the Bitters of Love’ is available on Kindle, £0.77 in UK, $1.15 in USA – free to borrow if you’re a Prime customer!)

Problem solving

Problem solving

Something was at the back of my mind recently, disturbing what little equilibrium I enjoy J and worse still invading my slumber, giving me unpleasant dreams and waking me so thoroughly that I could not go back to sleep. After a few days realisation dawned – it was the characters in my novel. I didn’t like any of them; they seemed to have very few redeeming features and I really didn’t much care what happened to them.

It’s my own fault for writing such unappealing people! Since I abandoned them and turned to another work in progress I have felt more at ease and am sleeping better. I’m working with amiable characters now, or at least characters who are less obnoxious.

All this serves to illustrate is that I have very little in my life to worry about for which I am exceedingly grateful. I shall eventually return to my cast of nasties and give them a make-over, a face lift for the temperament – they’ll be better for it and so shall I! 

The five-minute writer

I ordered a book from Amazon yesterday and it arrived this morning. (Actually, I ordered two but I knew I would have to wait a few days for the second.)

Today’s delivery is called ‘The five-minute writer’ by Margret Geraghty and comprises examples and exercises to stimulate just five minutes writing a day. I’ve been dipping into it and it looks promising, though being loquacious I cannot imagine restricting myself to five minutes.

I should never suffer from writer’s block again . . . yes, and pigs might fly!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

How Not to Write a Novel

‘How Not to Write a Novel’ by Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark

I was given this book for Christmas and read it very quickly, laughing long and loud at many of the things the authors wrote. Even if the reader has no intention of attempting to write a novel it is so wittily written that it is a joy to read. Few books have the power to make me laugh aloud at every page and want to read out bits. This book is one of the few.

I recognised some of the mistakes as being quite pertinent to my own ‘writing’. I know I have a bad habit of airing my (limited) knowledge but after reading this . . . ‘The glories of the Calvin cycle, and the further intricacies of the Krebs cycle . . . were little comfort now that her husband, Hugh, had bonked that secretary, in an act of sexual congress whose origins lay in a reproductive innovation evolved in algae 2-7 million years ago!’  I shall be more circumspect in future.

However, some research is necessary in order to avoid writing like this: ‘The architect admired the way the building was crafted; it was all stone with curvy arches like an old church.’

How many ways can you say ‘said’? Like so many would-be authors I have fallen into the trap of trying to replace ‘said’ with another verb. The following exchange will remain in my memory:

‘Funny?’ she interrogated.

‘Hilarious!’ he expostulated.

‘Surely not?’ she doubted.

‘But how little you know!’ he exclaimed.

‘Says you!’ she objected.

‘That’s the last I am willing to say,’ he concluded.

‘Some listener you turned out to be!’ he snorted.

I could go on and quote more but would be in danger of reproducing the entire book. That would be plagiarism, wouldn’t it?