I’m not sure what I’ll have to do with my NaNo novel from last year actually goes under the heading “editing”. At the moment, it looks more at home in “complete rewrite”.

*sigh*

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving!   There are many things that we, as screenwriters, can be grateful for.  On this Thanksgiving, take a moment and ponder…

Freedom of Speech  and how you can write whatever YOU want. 

How computers have made rewriting easier.  Can you imagine having to retype every page that you need to rewrite!   OR, putting a screenplay on paper using nothing but a pencil?

Research is faster with help from the internet.   But don’t forget the beauty of your local library and be thankful for that, too.

Readers, the people who read what we write … our family, our internet buddies, friends in our writer’s groups.

And our lives.   All our experiences that we draw from as we write.  Our imaginations, wild and crazy as they are.   Our loves and our fears.  Our challenges and our gifts.

Screenwriters be thankful.  And after you eat some turkey, get back to work and finish that feature!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We know that some people are just good with words. Writing comes easily to them. While some of us have to struggle to give right expressions to their thoughts, these people with natural writing skills are able to do it without having to consciously try.

As readers, at some point of time or the other, we all have been fascinated by a piece of writing, which conveys its meaning so beautifully that we wonder why we did not write it that way. Its not that we got the idea a little late. Its just that the writer simply knew how to express it better than us!

Now, if you are one of those people who have the natural writing skills, it makes obvious sense for you to be writing a book. Your skill will be your biggest asset.

However, if you are trying to do it completely on your own, you need to be aware of a mistake many first time writers, especially those who have not been exposed to writing or publishing in a formal manner, tend to commit. Over-rating natural writing skills!

Of course, there are exceptions to everything. But for most people it is important to keep in mind that the product of one time writing is not ready for an average reader. Even with the best writing skills, here are some of the common language issues that will be there in the manuscript

• You might have penned down ramblings too exactly. The sentences would have become too long with many clauses, which can be interpreted in different combinations. And even with the best command of grammar, you would have lost track of related subjects, objects, verbs, tense, voice and singular vs. plural.
• If you do not think in the same language that you are writing in (can be the case with many Indians writing in English), the constructions of your thought language would have made their way into your writing, which would definitely strike as odd or even funny to the reader. Not the effect you wanted to create!
• There would be missing or wrong punctuations, words spelled wrong which spell checker can not catch (‘there’ instead of ‘their’) or an unintentional wrong use of word which make the meaning just opposite to what you intended to say. Before you know it, the reader has put down your book with a “Never Again” feeling.

The issues we have pointed here are mostly language related. There would also be issues around consistency of plot and characters (for fiction), consistency of message and correctness of information (for non-fiction), overall narration, organization of chapters etc.

With self publishing, there is no one to really check you and it is easy to give in to the temptation of publishing your unaltered work – “natural writing”. If you are doing it more for fun and self-satisfaction, then it may be fine that way. But if you want others to read it, the language issues we have pointed out should be the least you must take care of.

What this means is that the manuscript must be re-read several times by you and you should not be shy of editing and rewriting ruthlessly if need be. In an ideal scenario, after you are done from your side you should also take the book through a professional editor. If professional editor is not affordable, then find a friend/relative who is good with language and will give honest feedback about writing and language. Good news with self publishing is that you still retain the final control on your manuscript. If you don’t want to accept changes suggested by the editor you are free to do so. But it is important to take an informed decision. Not knowing what could be wrong will not do justice to your book.

All of this does not mean that you have produce books which are written like school essays in such a grammatically and politically correct language that no one ever talks in. Of course not! Refining and rewriting the manuscript does not mean that it has to lose your style. If your character are not supposed to speak correct language, then they should not. If certain portions are there to convey ramblings, then they should be written like ramblings. The idea, rather, is that none of this should happen in an unintended fashion. In general, a qualified editor would understand the difference between what comes due to writing style and what comes due to wrong way of writing it. In cases where she does not, you retain the ultimate power anyway.

So, pick up the manuscript you did not bother to read since you have finished it and get started on it!

P. S. How much editing do you think the current piece has gone through? Can it do with more? Suggest through comments the parts/sentences you would rewrite. Not abstract suggestions. Give the actual rewritten text. Focus on how language could be made better, more readable etc. apart from the grammatical errors.

I participated in the NYCMM contest this week-end. And then I wrote a short screenplay for Robbie Comeau titled “Aichmophobia”.

Robbie is a filmmaker who I met through DVXuser and MoviePoet. He’s looking for a screenplay which incorporates a dream-sequence that he has already written. In case you’re curious, aichmophobia is a “fear of knives”. If Robbie accepts my script, it will be made into a short film. When appropriate, I will upload the SP.

So now, after writing two short screenplays, I’m back to my feature “Unknown Caller” (previously titled “Stalked”). The rewrite is going well.  I’m on page 42.

Yesterday, I found out about the Seven Rays Script-a-Scene Adaptation Competition sponsored by Final Draft.    Jessica Bendinger wrote a book titled “The Seven Rays”. As soon as I can read the book, I’ll decide if I want to write a scene and enter the contest. If I decide to enter, I’ve got until February, 2010, to get that finished!   $20.00 entry fee.

Compliments of Carolee and Jill, ( and in this case Therese and Donna),  today’s exercise is :

Read one of your poems out loud to someone (yes, really). Ask that person to recall one line or phrase. Use that line as the opening of a new piece.

What I used was this:   my first (and just about my only) try at a sestina. (you really might want to skip this part)

The Nymph Refrains

I am not bright.
Not bright enough for you, Lucifer. The sun
will not stop in the heaven
at my command, nor will the blue
sea turn to gold
for me. I cannot dance on air.

You want a magic air,
Lucifer, one for transmuting straw and gold,
And I cannot for all your bright
and cruel beauty, sing down the sun.
Apples will grow blue
before I sing that song, or god will step down from Heaven.

I want the heaven
of your bright
regard. The blue
vaulting sky knows you are air
to me, and sun,
and more by far than gold.

But I could lose the sun,
Lucifer. And lose all promises of heaven,
If I cannot ignore your gold
and honeyed words. And even god can see your bright
sweet whisperings turn air
to mead and strip the sky of blue.

If ever suitor blew
hot and hotter, it is you, with your air
of I care not, and the heat of the sun
in your hands. You burn gold
with your most glancing touch, and give lie to heaven
making midnight bright.

You cannot, trickster, have what gold
is mine by right. My tunes belong to blue
day and sunlit air.
The gift of heaven,
and none of yours. You can not steal from me, Bright
Star, to quench the sun

I have no spelling air to call the sun,
to wrench the gold from day and steal the light of heaven.
My soul, I cannot write blue songs. I am not bright enough.

The phrase Jim liked in there

sing down the sun

( I think there was way too much mellerdrama in the sestina, so I went light)

.

.

The afternoon’s too long and bright

sing down the sun

and bring on night with music

use ukuleles, piccolos and chimes

to lift the stars

and when the time is right

bring on the moon

flute a sliver from behind a cloud

or sound out full and rich the sweet bassoon

.

(don’t have a title, and I’m a little iffy on the last line, or maybe the last two, but I like the idea)

This week-end was reserved for competing in the NYCMM screenplay contest.  I’m happy to announce that I survived the week-end and the assignment.

My five-pager ended up being titled ”Daddy Help Her”.  The assigned genre was horror, the location had to be a farm, and the required object was a remote control.   I’ll post “Daddy Help Her” today if you wish to read it.  Someday it might be rewritten!

I’ll be happy to proceed to the finals but, if I don’t, I got what I needed to out of this competition.  The thing I learned from this competition is how important “time” is when you write.

If you agree  that “writing is rewriting”, then time is needed to do the rewrites.  It is even better if you have a break (more time) in between the rewrites. 

It is possible to produce a polished SP in a week-end but it is a very intense process.   I am so very grateful that my family supports my SP endeavors.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I am indeed grateful for your kiddos. Fourth graders have a unique view of the world.

Do I need to tell anyone there’s no school Wednesday through Friday?

Due to the shortened week, my students will have no new homework or test preparation. Obviously, they must complete any missing assignments (particularly in math) and the December science fair looms large.

For the latest news on Mr. T’s classroom, follow us at Twitter.

Science Fair. I extended two deadlines. Get the scoop here.

Math 5. Small group investigations in class are planned. There will be no new homework this week. They should have plenty of time in class to complete missing assignments. They will not test this week.

Spelling / Vocabulary. All students will work with their cumulative spelling and vocabulary words. They will not test this week.

Rewriting.  Students will complete their second extended writing piece.

Shurley Grammar. No testing this week, however, students will be classifying sentences and working with vocabulary.

SECRETS AND THE GIRL WITH THE AMAZING NAME:  A Story Coaching Exercise

     “Give Cecily your chocolate Easter bunny”, my mother said. “You know I have to get the house ready for Passover and it’s too big for you to eat all at once tonight.  I don’t know why your father got it for you in the first place.” 

     Cecily and I sat in the breakfast nook of our kitchen, my favorite spot in our house. The sun warmed us, along with the cups of hot chocolate with marshmallows we were sipping.   In-between sips we played with each other’s hair, each one wishing she could have hair like the other girl. Cecily traced with her fingers the blonde pigtails of the Little Dutch Girl on the red and blue tablecloth.

     “If my hair was straight, I would fix it just like that, Iris, or like yours, with bangs”.  

       I could not quite believe my ears, since my hair was fine and stringy, and barrettes and bows never stayed in it for more than a minute or two.  Cecily’s hair fascinated me. It was black and coarse and done up in a lot of little pigtails and each pigtail had a different color bow.  It reminded me of my father’s garden or of a wedding bouquet and it made me smile when I looked at it.  Everything about Cecily fascinated me. She was my best friend and my next-door neighbor. She had luminous, happy eyes, thick, curly lashes and silky dark brown skin. She  smelled like cocoa butter, which she told me her mother lathered on her skin twice a day.   

     Even Cecily’s family was interesting.  She had at least 15 relatives living with her at different times. There were grandparents and a great-grandfather, and cousins of all hues and ages. Cecily’s house was like a bag of penny candy from the store, with one incredible goody after another waiting to be plucked out and delighted in.  She always had somebody to play with, whereas I was the baby, with siblings much, much older and there was usually some family drama going on among the adults so nobody had much time for me.   I mostly retreated into a world of fears, books and fantasy.

     The two most amazing things about Cecily to me were her mother, and her name.  Cecily and I, being 8 yr olds, complained to each other about how unreasonable our mothers were and how many rules there were for us.  We also complained about our names. We wanted what we perceived of as pretty, “normal” names.  My favorite at the time was Barbara Ann and hers was Susan but we had been cursed, in our opinions, with names that made no sense to us and names that made us targets for our classmates.  I was regularly reassured by my parents that I had been named after my two great grandfathers and that Iris was a beautiful name to them.  It didn’t change the fact that I had never encountered another person with my name. People always commented and asked me if I liked the flower, which I didn’t, and kids called me Iris Jack O Lantern, ridiculing my middle name, Jacqueline. 

     Cecily’s name, though, was wondrous to me.  If I could not have been blessed with what I thought was a simple, pleasing, regular American name like Barbara Ann, I might have liked to have her name. Her mother or her aunt would stand on the front steps of her house in the evening, while she and I were down the street busily engaged in catching fireflies in jars, and they would call out her name, or I should say her names.  I can still recall and hear her mother’s melodious voice.  She was tall and dark-skinned and looked like a painting from one of my older brother’s art books. Her hair was wrapped in a scarf, usually brightly colored, like orange or purple, with the tail of the scarf flowing down her back.  She would cup her hands over her mouth and sweet syrup would begin to pour out, thickly and slowly,  picking up volume and momentum.

     “Cecily….Come home now.  Cecily…Cecily Judith Peachy-Peach-A-Neeny Woo Woo Lady Flower Vandillia (I added) Pickle Sawyer.  Time for bath. Where are you? Get your sweet behind here now!”

     At the sound of this call, to me an untold story with many hidden and magnificent adventures and secrets I wanted to unlock and discover, I would run to Cecily’s mother, hypnotized by her voice and by the name.  Cecily would hang back, hoping none of the other children playing outside in the steamy, sticky evening air would have heard the cursed roll call of her family pet names.  Then she would skulk home, head down, covering the half-block distance, as slowly as possible, with a despondent look on her face.

     I was dying to know the story or stories behind those names, but Cecily refused to discuss this topic. We talked about our friends, the little songs and poems we liked to create, our dolls, foods we loved and hated, about TV shows, books, comic books, our siblings and our cousins.  We talked about how we would be famous one day, who would fall in love with us, how many babies we would have (I always imagined a multi-racial family, even back then). We talked about Jesus, because this was a topic forbidden in my Jewish household, and even about sex, or what we thought was sex at age 8.  When I asked how she got all of those amazing names, Cecily would stick out her lower lip and tell me it was none of my business and I should just hush up.  I gathered that different people in her family had given her nicknames but I didn’t know why, or why her family would string them all together in a near song when they called her name. She said it had something to do with her father, but her father did not live with her and she said she never wanted to see him again. Sometimes she said this with a good deal of anger, shouting it in my face and almost making me cry. It was hard for me to understand because I loved my Daddy. Cecily liked my father too and said he made her laugh with his silly rhymes and games and the way he liked to stick out his false teeth to surprise children.

     Cecily told me she hated being different.  At the time they were one of the first few minority families in our neighborhood. Our school in Queens, which was on the border of two different neighborhoods, seemed to be filled with spoiled little divas in the making, who already passed their time boasting about their fancy clothes, their leads in the ballet recital and the great vacations their families took.  They were kids who had white bread sandwiches with bologna and twinkies in their lunchboxes

     Cecily and I shared an embarrassment that made us both stand out.  Her grandmother walked the ten blocks each day to bring her a home-cooked lunch and sat with Cecily in the auditorium while she ate it.  Her grandmother didn’t want her playing with all of the white kids being that she was the only black girl in her class.  I, too, suffered a similar indignity. A year before, I had been in a serious car accident with my parents , had been hospitalized for more than a month and had nearly died, suffering a skull fracture, respiratory arrest, brain swelling and temporary blindness. While I had recovered, I still had some emotional scars and developed some ticks and twitches, which ran in our family but which were probably aggravated by the helicoptering and over-protection of my parents. The strong message I got was that I was “fragile”, “special” and “not like other kids” and needed to be careful or something would happen to me.   My mother, too, walked the ten blocks and sat with me in the auditorium while I ate lunch. She brought little containers of matzoh ball soup, or pieces of chicken, chopped liver sandwiches, and home made cookies or pastries.  When I finished eating, my mother and I went on to her volunteer job for the rest of the lunch hour. She helped out in a class for children with special needs, who mostly had various types of cerebral palsy. While I am sure she felt it was a good lesson for me to see other children who had needs more complicated than my own and to help them, it compounded my feelings that there was something wrong with me and that I would always be different.   I lived for several years, unable to verbalize my fears but haunted by them, thinking that I would “catch” the cerebral palsy, that my car accident had rendered me defective in some way and that I was probably going to die young. 

     Cecily and I never discussed this, or other topics that seemed to be taboo for her, such as her name, where her father was.  One day when I was about nine, my parents told me we were moving back to Brooklyn to be near my grandparents.  Cecily and I said teary goodbyes and promised to write. These were the days long before the Internet and e-mail. I had an allowance of 25 cents a week and stamps seemed expensive.  We had a measured rate phone service of (as my mother was constantly lecturing me about) 2.5 phone calls per day within the 5 Boroughs of New York City, and she did not believe her precious call allotment should be squandered on little kids. So Cecily and I wrote one or two letters and then simply lost touch.  I never forgot her though, or her remarkable name and once wrote a children’s story about it,  just as I am now remembering her and her amazing name  with this very tale.

     As the years passed, and as I grew comfortable in my own skin and with the person I had become, I realized that being unique was something I liked.   I learned that my secrets and fears had created conflict and pain for me, but had gradually been transformed into a vehicle and tool for me to focus on what made me different in a positive way. 

      As you listen to this story, can you identify with it in any way?  Can you remember a time when you felt different and didn’t enjoy the feelings engendered in you?  How did that shape who you were then and who you became today?  How was the early “ you” a prototype for the character you are now?  Did you create your story or did your story create you? Or was it a little bit of both? Can you explain this?  Did you ever consciously set an intention to rewrite your life story or a particular chapter of it?  How?  What part of your story would you like to reshape or shift now? How will you begin to do this?

My husband is a big Star Wars fan.  He watches all six movies often, though there’s a couple he watches more often than the rest.  He collects the action figures (never call them toys to a “true” collector).  He rushes to the video store that sells the comic books the same day they call him to let him know his comic is in.  And everytime a new SW novel appears in print he combs the bookstores (ranting about it being released in hard back first and having to wait a year or more for its release in paper back, but that’s another story for another blog).  All of this means that when he found his favorite SW author’s web site he, of course, emailed a link to the site to me.

Usually I look at these “helpful” links others send me with half-hearted attention, but the fact that he raves about this author’s writing made me curious.  My initial reaction to Karen Traviss’ web site was, if possible, even more curiousity because the first page link she has is to something called Critters.  (My husband, being the wonderfully oblivious man he is, assumed the author was talking about her pets or some such thing.)  After looking at her other page links, which all had to do with how to be a better writer, I figured it had to have something to do with writing.

I haven’t been so surpriseed at being right in a long time.  It turns out that Critters is a group of writers from novice to pro who critique each others’ work.  (Hence the clever name.)  Its a great idea.  The only catch is that all members are required to submit a minimum of one critique per week.  The good news is that there are ways to get ahead in critiquing and ways to catch up.  The benefits of having your work honestly, and tactfully, critiqued before it hits the publishers desk or you’ve already submitted it to a POD (print-on-demand) company far outweigh the commitment in time and energy spent doing a critique a week.

The best part is that you can have your complete novel critiqued as well as smaller works.  There are special provisions for entire novels and a way to get your work bumped up to the top for critique if you just don’t have the time to wait an entire month.

While it would be nice to be able to write the perfect story from the first word, a good writer knows that editing and rewriting are a must in the craft.  Having your work critiqued by others who have no reason to stroke your ego, as family and friends do, makes the process that much better (though no less painful).  Thanks to authors like Karen Traviss, who are willing to give new and emerging writers advice, and to fellow writers like those on Critters, every would-be writer has a better chance at success on The Road to Writing.

… or at least that’s what I’ve found.  This is because I see where I need to stuff and have to start writing.  That is, I see where I need an extra chapter to balance out point of view or where I need to work in more of a transition or resolution.  This is all first draft.  So in actual fact, it’s not a 2nd draft until I’ve gone over all of these bits and pieces (which won’t be done til the end, as I like to finish it before going back over things). 

So really, this is a 1st and a half draft!

For the latest news on Mr. T’s classroom, follow us at Twitter.

The fourth grade website is NOT operable. I had to change hosting sites recently and it does not work. So here’s a temporary fix:

–Download the “Week 14 for Parents” .zip file here from YouSendIt. It contains the:

• Open Court story and vocabulary words
• Mr. T’s spelling list
• DOL (daily oral language) practice sheet and answer key
• Science Fair Information Packet
• Student Science Fair Notebook

–Download a .zip file unpacker here (most computers will open this file automatically when you click on it. If not, you can find one here)

Science Fair. I have extended two deadlines. Get the scoop here.

Math 5. Problem sets 50 – 53 will be due as homework this week. They should have plenty of time in class to complete homework. They will test this Friday.

Daily Oral Language (DOL). Students edit two or three sentences daily in class and will test on some of the same sentences this Friday. Additionally, students will edit two similar sentences weekly for a quiz grade (to see if they can apply their newfound editing knowledge).

Spelling. Every student has a spelling list at their individual spelling level as determined by their Morrison-McCall test results (several kids spell well beyond the fourth grade age level). A copy of their list is sent home in their Monday Folder and a duplicate list kept at school.

Vocabulary. All students take a five word vocabulary test each Friday.

Shurley Grammar. No testing this week, however, students will be classifying sentences and working with vocabulary.

I’m a “stickler” for using the right (write!) word.  I don’t like long fancy words, I like the shorter ones, the words that no one will scratch their heads over.

Sometimes long fancy words are the only ones that can be used, but I always worry that a reader won’t know what the word means and then … suddenly the reader is someplace else but, most certainly, not reading my story!

Someone once told me (or maybe I read it someplace), never use a “quarter” word when a “nickel” word will do!

Which brings us to the use of LIE or LAY.  Both are nice nickel words.  But, I admit, I always get them confused.  When folks read my stuff, I’m forever hearing, “it’s lie not lay” or “it’s lay not lie”.

So, I googled “lie or lay” and found a bunch of web-sites that explained the difference. 

LIE OR LAY

Basically, use LIE if something is going “to be at rest in a horizontal position”.  Use LAY if one is going to “set or place something down”.  If you want more information, click on my google-search above!

Okay, get to work.  Happy writing!   Enjoy your week-end.

This from a news site:

Prejean’s reluctance to open up to Larry King comes as a surprise, after a week spent speaking candidly to the media about a video, rumored to be involved in her sudden settlement with the pageant organization, that Prejean claims she made for an ex-boyfriend. On Tuesday, she told the “Today” show that the video was “the biggest mistake of my life.”

Who on earth makes a sex video for an ex?
Or is the writing a bit vague…
Did she perhaps make it for a now former boyfriend?
Hmmm.
Confusing.

If the writing is NOT confusing, and she did make it for an ex, that guy is the best salesman on earth.

I started to rewrite “Unknown Caller” a couple of days ago.   As I set about immersing myself back into the story (after a break of several months), doubts surfaced.  I wondered if the project was worth my time, and  I even considered scrapping the project in its entirety. 

But then I realized something.  And I’m glad I did because I’m going to be ready for it next time it happens to me!    Everytime I start to write (or rewrite) an SP,  I have these doubts.

I think what happens (in my subconscious) is I sit down to write and because my writing time is so precious to me, I become afraid of wasting any of it.  And this “fear” immobilizes me.

I know this is going to sound weird, but I have to actually give myself permission to waste my writing time.   And what I mean is this … I give myself permission to make mistakes, to go down the wrong path in a story, to use the wrong character at a particular plot point.  I give myself permission to scrap pages and pages and pages that I’ve previously written…  And try again.

That’s what writing is … rewriting.    I don’t want to sound like a broken record because I’ve said it before.  But it’s true.   So, be forwarned, I’m probably going to say it again.  Because every time I admit it to myself, it amazes me.   It’s such a simple concept.  Writing is rewriting.  The experienced pros out there tell us this all the time but it takes many writers (including yours truly) years to accept it.

Depending on how you define the word “DONE“, I’m DONE with my novel.

Told from the viewpoints of three Silicon Valley soccer moms, my psychological suspense novel follows the story of a fragile woman whose mental stability is threatened by an unconventional outsider.

This was my target date to be “DONE“, and as of today I’ve finished adding scenes, cutting scenes, and rewriting scenes and dialog sequences.

Of course, I was “DONE” when I finished the first draft. I was “DONE” when I finished a clean-sheet rewrite after the first draft. Was I DONE after rewrites 2-6, depending on how you count them? I’m “DONE” with beta reader feedback, critique group feedback and more beta reader feedback.

I’ll take the rest of November for a quick once-over to weed out some inconsistencies that popped up when I cut scenes.

Then it’s time to read it out loud — all 93,259 words. (I know that auditory polishing will help it shed more unnecessary words, a diet that should put it under 90,000). During voice breaks, I’ll finish compiling my list of agents and work on my query letter. (As you can tell from the brief summary above, my query  needs a lot of work.)

So yes, I’m “DONE“. Time to celebrate!!!

I’m guessing because of NaNoWriMo, my word counter in the right sidebar has stopped working. The site cannot, apparently, handle the traffic it is getting. This has made me a little more than angry (selfish, I know) because it was my favorite word counter and now I have no word counter, and yet I still have words to count.
Still, I do support NaNoWriMo writers (Go you!!!) but I don’t participate. I have participated twice, but they were both disasters. I don’t have the writing personality for it. It requires you to write a whole lot without editing or revising because you just don’t bloody have time. And as I’ve mentioned many times before, I don’t write that way. I write a little, I go back and read and reread and edit and adjust and move things around and then I go and read the previous chapter through to where I stopped and I do a little more editing before finally moving on. I suspect that in the end there will be little to revise/rewrite of my early chapters because they have already been so heavily revised. So you see, I’d spend the entire month of November ponderously trying to break through like, chapter two or chapter 3’s invisible rewriting wall of doom that my obsessive compulsive brain won’t let me get past.

But I AM in favor of people who do NaNoWriMo. If nothing else it teaches dedication which we are all sorely in need of. Go get’m, warriors!

UPDATE! As of 11/11/09, my word counter is back! Hurray!

I have difficulty sitting down to write. How can I make myself write?

Writing is a habit. It might be difficult in the beginning, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. In the morning or evening, do you think about brushing your teeth? No. You just do it. Same thing with writing. If you set aside a certain amount of time or word length to write, you’ll just start automatically writing if you get used to it.

So in the beginning it will be more difficult. That’s why it’s the easiest the more you write.

What are some good books about writing?

Bauer, Mary Dane What’s Your Story?
Bernays, Anne What If?
Joselow, Beth Baruch Writing Without the Muse
Koehler-Pentacoff, E. The ABCs of Writing for Children
Mette, Stephen Blake How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal
Newman, Leslea Writing from the Heart
Rodale, J. I. The Synonym Finder
Smith, Michael C. and
Greenberg, Suzann Everyday Creative Writing: Panning for Gold in the Kitchen Sink
Spence, Linda Legacy

What else should I do?
Read! Write! And know that it’s hard work for little money. At least for awhile. The famous advice is don’t quit your day job. So make sure you have a college education with a good, solid back-up plan. And have fun. Writing is a passion and lots of fun. You’ll meet wonderful people and have a rich, rewarding life.

Some days I sit in front of my keyboard, and the writing flows.  I don’t have to “search” for a word or scene because  everything surges through my fingers with minimal effort.   I’m higher than a kite because of my creativity.  I’m on top of the world!

Then the next day I’ll read what gave me such a “buzz” the day before.  And I’ll think to myself, this is a bunch of hog-wash.  What I have written is nothing but drivel.   How can I possibly think I’m a writer?  Why am I wasting my precious time on earth writing?

Or I’ll put something I’ve written on “review sites” such as Zoetrope or TriggerStreet.  One review will praise  my story,  the next reviewer will tell me the story rates about as high as a dead bug under a fly swatter.

Oh, the ride we are on!  It’s enough to put you in the looney bin.   But, there are things we can do to deal with this “motion sickness”. 

The internal battle inside you, the “I can’t write” low versus the “I’m a great writer” high…  This is a hard one to deal with.  Personally, I just accept it and keep writing.  If a particular project is causing a lot of self-doubts, then I move on to another project.   I’ve decided I’m really not into self-torture!

As a writer, there are many things you can do to keep yourself stoked.  One thing I do is visit a  computer file of mine  titled WHAT IF.   It’s a great cure for the “writer blues”. 

The WHAT IF file is a great diversion.  WHAT IF I was invisible?  WHAT IF the doorbell rang and it was my dead ex-husband?  WHAT IF the sun quit shining?  WHAT IF no one picked up the trash?  WHAT IF?  WHAT IF?  WHAT IF?     So many “what if” scenarios!  As you add to this file, you will find it to be a great place to go for ideas!

Receiving reviews from other writers can impact your emotional well-being, too, if you aren’t careful.  First and foremost, don’t take anything personal.  Not everyone is going to love your work.   And remember the reason you are getting a review … to help you improve and hone your craft.  Personally, I hate reviews that tell me how wonderful my story is and don’t tell me how I can improve!

Anyway, when you get a review you will discover that, all of a sudden, what you thought was “perfect”, is full of misspelled words, missing apostrophe’s, and places that just don’t make sense.   That’s okay.  Remember the purpose of a review is to help you get better. 

I try to put space between my work and the reviews because it helps me see things more clearly.   I’ll use recent projects of mine to illustrate how I do this.

I just finished a major rewrite of  “Revenge”, a feature I started a couple years ago.   I had several friends agree to read it plus I put it on Zoetrope.  While  waiting for those reviews, I started to revise a  feature I started last year titled “Unknown Caller”. 

Now yesterday I received two “Revenge” reviews, and this morning I received another.   Many writers would put aside “Unknown Caller” and immediately start to rewrite “Revenge”.   No, no, no, that is not what I do.  If it works for you, fine, but that’s not what I do.

Some writers  get defensive if the reviews offer a lot of negativity or suggestions.  They actually write lengthy e-mails to their reviewers, and defend their writing.   I do not encourage this at all.  That is NOT what I do.

Here is what I do.  I read the reviews through, and write the reviewers, thanking them for their time.  And then I file the reviews away.    Why?  Because I want to put time between one project and another.  I will not give those reviews another thought until I’m done with “Unknown Caller” and ready again to commit to “Revenge”.   When I’m ready to look at “Revenge” again, I will read it through, I will study the reviews, and then I’ll begin the next revision!

Now, this wouldn’t work if I were writing on a deadline but right now it works for me.

The thing is, there isn’t much I would trade my writing time for because it means too much to me. 

So my advise, just expect the ups and downs, accept them, and keep writing.  Enjoy the ride!

Yesterday, my writing routine was interrupted because of several things, none which were  avoidable or changeable.    And this is okay because it is important that we  be flexible with our writing schedules.   Afterall, we’ve got families and friends, most of us have jobs or other commitments, sometimes we get sick, etc.

Usually I write for two hours every morning but yesterday I had to miss those two hours.

I know, I could have gotten up early and gotten in those two hours but I really wanted to stay in bed and sleep.  Anyway, just missing those two hours really threw me “off”.  I felt as if something was missing all day.

Okay, I’ll forgive myself but it made me realize just how important my writing “schedule” is to me.   It helps me stay focused.

Before I finish writing for the day, I always know what I’m going to write the next time I sit down to write.  Sometimes I actually quit writing in the middle of a scene so it’s easy to pick up where I left off.

If you are waiting to write until the “muse” knocks you over, or someone gives you an assignment … well you are going to wait for a long time.  And I can almost guarantee that you will never finish a screenplay or, if you do finish one, you will never get through the first or second rewrite.   It’s hard enough to get a first draft down, but with all that rewriting…  You just gotta sit down to write to get it done. 

My advice is to develop a schedule which will “usually” work for your life, but make sure it’s flexible for those days when you’ve got to work extra hours, or your kid needs to be driven to a party, or you’re sick and just can’t get off the couch without throwing up!

A writing routine is important if you want to be a successful writer.   Create  a flexible schedule that meets your needs.  Watch your writing improve when you write everyday!

National Novel Writing Month and I are in Splitsville, the outs, we’ve sold the house and gone our separate ways, we’re footloose and fancy free, we’re at D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

Now, don’t get me wrong. In the first week of the annual event of literary frenzy, I’ve plowed under nearly 11,000 words on my new project, a terrific jump-start that will serve me well in the coming months as I lurch toward the first-draft finish line. And I’ll always be thankful for NaNoWriMo for launching my debut novel, 600 Hours of Edward, in 2008. Further, I plan to write on every available day for the remainder of November, just like the thousands of people who are having a monthlong love affair with their keyboards. (After November and all the hoopla pass, I’ll still be writing daily. It’s what I do.)

So it’s not that I’ve taken up with another lover. It’s that it’s no longer useful for me to meet the demands of this particular lover (specifically, her insatiable need for words — at least 50,000 of them by the end of the month). This project of mine will require more contemplation than that, and the chains will be moved in more peripatetic (I love the word “peripatetic”) bunches — 500 words here, 247 there, 3,000 or so on the occasional all-day dash. I’ll reach 50,000 words in due time, and beyond that, I think, will lie the end of the first draft.

See, something happened between NaNoWriMo 2008 and NaNoWriMo 2009: I wrote a second novel. Principal writing took me about three months. Rewriting and revising took me a couple of months after that. I enjoyed that pace. It worked for me. And now I realize that given the choice between the mad dash and the purposeful march, I’ll take the latter. Every time.

Make no mistake: I’ll finish the project I started for this year’s NaNoWriMo. But it will be on my terms, not hers. NaNoWriMo, this year and probably in years to come, is a project starter for me now, not a means of filling a quota.

This question from Fatima:

Did you like rewriting as a student? Or did you start liking to rewrite as you became an author? Students at school start groaning when we have tp rewrite as essay or story.