Just Write...

...Ever get so worked up about "The Rules" that you can't write? Oh my goodness, what if you abuse a comma?! Split an infinitive?! Horrors! What's worse, what if you let your fear of grammar clog your ability to write? I have a solution.
There is something you can do about your grammar issues.

Two of my favorite online grammatical resources: Grammar Slammer and Holy Mother Grammatica.
If you still feel like you struggle with this technical aspect of writing, find yourself a critique partner who's good at grammar. (Gee, I wouldn't know ANYBODY who has a former English teacher for a crit partner who'd be willing to help her crit partner with the grammar aspects that cause ANYBODY to fret obsessively. Just sayin' is all.)

Whether you consider yourself good with grammar, somewhere in the middle, or an abysmal mess, the trick is not to let it scare you or kill your voice. Grammar is the technical part of writing, not the creative part. But it is just as important as the creative part, because if we don't observe the conventions, our work will be unreadable to others. Just as plot, setting, characterization and imagery are tools in your Writer's Tool Box, grammar is simply another tool. Don't sweat it...just write.



"Anybody's former English teacher crit partner." ----------------->

Been so busy these last few weeks getting my ms in shape for submission, I decided to stop and have a little fun. It's harmless, it's actually fun thinking up silly titles and goofy tag lines... And yes, I believe stretching your imagination to come up with funnies for the book cover counts towards your word goal for the day. Hehe!

Have some fun, make a cover of your own HERE.

Almost May...

It's report card time. I'm reviewing my goals to date, and rather dismayed to see I'm falling short. There's a surprise. Things like getting sick (self, kids, spousal unit), laundry, outside jobs... don't necessarily get taken into consideration when it's time to hammer out some goals. Then there's the issue of "It's just not working" and "Why the heckadoodle did I try to write THIS?" that often muddy the water.

So, with May tomorrow, and 2009 almost halfway over (chew/stew on THAT for a while, huh? Mind boggling!) time to perhaps toss out all the goals to date (especially the ones that Just Aren't Gonna Happen) and start fresh. Perhaps more general goals would be good.

Some of my New, General Goals:

1. Keep on keeping the desk/workspace cleaned up.

2. Write every day, even if it's two words or two sentences.

3. Make realistic goals. (This means take into account that people get sick, things come up, Life Happens, when imposing deadlines on self.)

There. I think three is perfect.

Now, for a spot of fun...

I'm sure everyone will be delighted and thrilled to know that I would make a good 1930's husband.

You Would Make a Great 1930's Husband

You would be an ideal 1930s husband. You're attentive, understanding, clean, and friendly. You'd make an great husband for a woman of any era.

Would You Have Been a Good Husband in the 1930s?

Would you?

Writing Prompt

The writing prompt challenge? Set a scene on the night as depicted by the picture. Free write for 10 minutes. The possibilities are endless. Just write. Share, too, if you'd like. :D Have fun.

Kicking and Screaming

...Alrighty then, it's a well known fact that I am Not a Plotter. Nope. Not me. Stymies me, mystifies me, but that doesn't mean I don't see the value in planning. But you wanna see me cross my eyes and get them stuck? Suggest I do an outline. I blame this on the librarian of the school where I attended 5th grade. Her idea of "what to do with the students during library time" was to direct us to get some weird little book and outline it for the duration of the class. Um, yeah. Gotta love those Roman numerals, et al. Joy, yippee, yay and rah! URG.

My planning involves doing a character list, because I know I do things like change the heroine's eye color from blue to hazel and green throughout the WIP. If I have it in a character list, then all I have to do, every single blessed time I wish to inform the reader of the heroine's eye color, is go look it up. Nifty, huh? I also like to keep track of family members, birthdays, secondaries, etc...To me, this constitutes Planning. (Yes, with a capital "P".).

But I'm always open to trying out New Things (or "New *To Me* Things"). Hence when I read about log lines on Edittorrent, I thought, "Yanno, this might be a good thing for us self-confessed Pansters." So I gave it a shot with my current WIP. Nifty neat-O! Next up, I'm going to try it out on with the WIP I intend to commence upon when I finish the current WIP. Oh, heckadoodle, who am I fooling? I've already started the next one somewhat. What I intend to do with the log lines is use them to help me Plot. Yes, I will be kicking and screaming the WHOLE way as I attempt to this manner of Planning, but I'm going to give it the old college try. What can it possibly hurt? I might even find it a very valuable tool.

I will now sit back, wait for Sherry to notice this particular blog post, and watch for her to faint. This should be purty durned good.

Nifty Linkie

So, why reinvent the wheel when one you've found while searching for how-to articles works just fine?

Check out Elisabeth Fairchild's Writing Tips on the topic of is your manuscript ready for submission. It's simple and straightforward, a good tool to keep in mind while revising.

What Should We Write...

So Sherry and I, in a fit of silliness, took a blogthings quiz to see what we should write.

Are you ready for the shocking, unexpected results?

Despite our differences in the way we tackle writing, we are both pleased to discover, thank you to blogthings, that we should be romance novelists.

You Should Be a Romance Novelist

You see the world as it should be, and this goes double for all matters of the heart. You can find the romance in any situation, and you would make a talented romance story writer... And while you may be a traditional romantic, you're just as likely to be drawn to quirky or dark love stories. As long as it deals with infatuation, heartbreak, and soulmates - you could write it.

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

Now that we've had this validated for ourselves, we should feel a tremendous relief, secure in the knowledge that we are indeed writing in the right genre for our personalities.

Perhaps next we'll take the same personality quiz, to find out if we are indeed two different people...or perhaps it will only prove our growing suspicions that we are the SAME person. Huh. If we are the same person, I wonder if half our hair is long and brown and the other half is short and red...and just perzactly how it's been halved...vertically, horizontally? Ack.

Happy Writing!