Writing-Power-for-Everyone Archives - Page 3 of 5

Rehearsing My Writing . . . No, It’s Not Just a Liz Thing

September 16, 2006 by Liz

Musicians, Actors, Writers

Growing up, I learned early that it was imporant to sort the things I do that everyone does from the things you might call . . . um, er . . . “uniquely Liz stuff.”

Knowing the difference has saved me from looking foolish and made me a better teacher. . . . Unfortunately, knowing doesn’t come with immediate credibility on that self-same subject.

Sometimes I know that other folks do the same things that I do. Yet the idea is apparently so incredible that people hearing me say so assume I’m delusional and that the subject in question is . . . sshhhh don’t tell Liz, but we all know it’s . . . a “uniquely Liz thing.”

I’m writing this because I know I’m not the only writer who rehearses before writing.

Stop whispering.

I can’t imagine a person who hasn’t used the process, you included.

We all practice what we want to say when the conversation is really important.

“Mom, I don’t want to go to the party. . . . I need to. My entire life depends on it.”

“Sweetheart, when you talk that way, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

“In the past year, I’ve take on significant new responsibilities . . .”

Those aren’t words that just happened. We rehearsed them.

Actors rehearse improvisations.

Musicians rehearse jams and free-wheelin’ rock solos.

Writers rehearse before writing. Some prewrite. Some freewrite. That’s rehearsing too, but I mean thinking words before sitting down, typing, before having to look at them.

Here’s something of how my rehearsing goes.

I think about the words I might write.

I say them and listen. I construct and recontruct sentence as if I were preparing for an important conversation.

I think I might say this. I think about whether that statement makes sense and makes me want to pursue it.

A few words come that sound right.

I find a word I particularly like. That word begets another and there are two, three , and four.

Soon I have sentence, sentences — whew an idea is rolling — it’s a paragraph!

I walk and practice and play with words until I feel ready to write jazzed about what I want to say.

Rehearsing is more fun than sitting at my computer.

I hear some folks rehearse in the shower, . . . That’s okay for writers. It’s not a good idea, if you play electric guitar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with a problem you’re having with your writing, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Arlo Guthrie, a Pickle, and 5 Signs You’re Forcing a Bad Idea to Work

September 12, 2006 by Liz

I Had This Idea about Deadlines

I had this idea Sunday about deadlines and how we sometimes push words and designs out the door to meet them — how schedule beats quality and how that works against us every time.

I wanted a fun example to talk about. So I chose Arlo Guthrie’s “The Motorcycle Song,” and started writing this post. I chose it because the first time I heard someone sing that particular song, I remember thinking that the lyrics are, well, less than inspiring.

I don’t want a pickle.
Just want to write on my motorcyle.
I don’t want a tickle,
I want to write on my motorcyle.
and I don’t wanna die. . .
Just wanna ride my motorcy-cle.
–Arlo Guthrie, The Motorcycle (The Significance of the Pickle) Song

My, wasn’t I smart? Well, no, not even clever. I was in love with my own idea.

Anyone who remembers the song probably already suspects what a truly bad idea that was.

[Read more…]

The 9 Rights of Every Writer — Peer Pressure Is for Jr. High School

August 10, 2006 by Liz

Can’t Stay in My Box — I Never Was Cool

I suppose if I were the savvy one, I’d wait until Monday or Tuesday to write this post. But I’m not. I’m the one who writes when the writing needs to be done. This post can’t wait until Monday or Tuesday, and darn it. It shouldn’t either.

The dialogue around the blogs that I read a lot and among some bloggers that I care about has been around one big question lately that keeps getting twisted and turned.

Do I write about what I know and want, or do I change what I write when I see big traffic come?

It’s time we talk about the rights of a writer. [Read more…]

The 5 Traits of an Infallible Writing Program

August 4, 2006 by Liz

Why There Is No Decent Writing Program

I received an email asking:

Is there such a programme (not software) for writing? A simple one?
If not, can it be done?

My answer:

There is not one that I know of. The problem is that language is so complicated that the finest copyeditor I know can sit for hours over a sentence unraveling its meaning and its correctness.

A writing program requires a human. Otherwise you end up with a stilted bad translation, like a piano player who knows all technique and no art — or a designer with the same problem. You only get so much without discussing an original whole developed by the learner to test the message the learner is trying to send to make sure its the same one the reader is getting. It’s the ambiguity of words and the twists and turns of spelling that make learning to write too complicated to teach from a book or a computer program.

The 5 Traits of an Infallible Writing Program

Each writer’s process is individual. We find our own way to it. If your quest is to become an effective writer, you’re really taking on an apprenticeship. These are the 5 traits you need to build an infallible writing program.

2. To offer direction based on your writing, you need a human, a coach, a teacher, a fluent writer, who understands the dynamic tension between structure and expression, who can listen like a reader and translate you message, and who loves the music of the language. Writers need constant feedback no question.

3. You need writer friends to coach you with tips and techniques that they use, the way an old jazz guitarist shares what he’s learned with a new one. Writers need input to keep growing.

4. Plenty of technical resources and reference books to check for how to do things according to conventions, such as capitalization and punctuation, grammar, usage, and mechanics. And you need someone to show you how to use them as manuals not roadmaps.

5. You need time for reflection. Time to think the deep thoughts. Without them, serious writing just doesn’t happen. The world gets in the way. It only takes a few minutes to let a writer find the quiet to write in.

Learning to write starts the day we learn our first word and continues until we write our last one. It works in this way:

First we listen. Then we speak. Then we read. Then we write. The more we listen, speak, read, and write with folks who can already do it, the more fluent we become in the language, and the more we understand how to use it. With fluent speakers and writers guiding us, we learn to do it faster, broader and more deeply.

In the end, we learn to write as we learn to talk, by doing it.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

If you think Liz can help you with your writing check out the Work with Liz!! page in the side bar.

While You Were Out Having a Life

July 5, 2006 by Liz

Highlights for Readers

I know that most of you have a real life, and that during this holiday you actually lived it. With that in mind, I’ve collected the recent posts on the most popular topics and brought them together here for you.

Click on the titles of the ones that you want to explore.

Hope this helps make your life a little easier. I know it’s always hard this first day back to work.

Brand you and me.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help with your writing, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related articles
Checked the complete Writing Power for Everyone series on the SUCCESSFUL SERIES PAGE.

6+1: How-to Blogging â Stomp Out Swiss Cheese Knowledge

July 3, 2006 by Liz

What Have You Taught Me Lately?

Bloggers are always teaching or learning something. Blogs are filled with ways to promote a blog, to build a brand, to install a new plugin. When we get a new program, instructions come with it. Sometimes we follow them. Sometimes they work. Sometimes big parts of them seem to be missing.

How-to blogging teaches something.

A how-to post could be as simple as how to a make a sandwich or as complicated as how to turn your computer into a host server for WordPress.

People read how-to articles because they want to be learning.

Therefore: Nothing is worse than a how-to post that skipped a step.

I hate information that has holes in it. [Read more…]