A Writers Life

heres something neat i read from my writers book that miss dianne gave me.

(Spilling Ink: A Young Writer’s Handbook by Anne Mazer & Ellen potter.)

A Writer's Life

Is this your idea of fun...

...sitting in a room by yourself all day?
...staring at blank pieces of paper while you cast about for ideas?
...writing and rewriting the same sentences over and over?

Yes?  Well, have I got a career for you! To be a professional writer, you will need the following skills:

...time wasting
...day dreaming
...a knack for noticing things that annoy other people
...a delight in playing with words
...stubbornness
...a slight touch of insanity

Nobody feels sorry for writers. If we want to write in the middle of the night in a tree house in the backyard, wearing an electric lime green and orange ball gown, a beanie cap, wool socks, and Elmo slippers, that's our business. No one tells us what to do, or how to do it.

It's a dream job, so we shouldn't even think of complaining. Nevertheless, I'mgoing to complain. You should at least know what you're getting into.

1. Writing is some of the hardest work in the world. I call it "mental rock breaking."
2. Writing is lonely.
3. It takes a long time.
4. Even if you spend years on a project, you still might not succeed.

But, I also don't want to lie to you. Writing is one of the world's greatest jobs. Let's talk about why.

1. You're in charge. You set you hours: all day, half a day, three hours four times a week, or on weekends only.
2. You choose your working space: tree house, basement, closet, cafe, or the biggest and best room in your house.
3. You choose your method: by hand, by typewriter, by computer, by dictation.
4. You choose what to write: science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, historical fiction, nonfiction, technical writing, children's books, biography...
5. You choose the characters, the setting, the conflict and the style. (Okay, maybe some of them choose you, but still...without you, they'd never breathe or speak or have a life.)
6. You choose whether to write in first person or third person. You choose whether his eyes ar blue or gray. You choose whether she has a temper or is just too sweet to be believed.
7.You can create a universe from the smallest seed of an idea.

8. Your words, written in a solitary room by a single person, have the power to touch millions. They might turn someone who hates reading into a book lover. They might change the course of someone’s life. I once read a story about a famous actor who spent his teens lying, stealing, and beating people up – until he read Shakespeare.

I'll tell you the truth. Here's the best part of being a writer:

Your words can

Change the world!

WOW! how cool is that!

...hugs from lenny

...a monsters loose!

HELP!

yikes! i got a angry snow monster running loose on apple mountain! hes in my wip and hes just really mad cause he doesnt got a name. he said if he doesnt get a name pretty soon hes gonna swallow up my whole ms characters and all.

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for sure i been trying to get him a good name. first i got calling  him sasquatch and he hated it.  then my cool cp miss sharon said thats a hairy man monster not a snow monster. i tried yeti but he hates that too. he wants a his very own scary name. i been thinking and thinking but i just cant think up one he likes.

miss sharon said maybe i should ask my blogger friends for some help and i said woweee thats the most best idea ever. now im asking for some cool names from you. heres some stuff bout that snow monster that could maybe help you think up a cool name.

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hes made of icy snow and hes gigantical tall and big and hes real ugly and mean. hes got a mouthful of sharp pointy icicle teeth and he loves to eat mountain climbers. (yikes! all my characters are mountain climbers!) he howls so loud you gotta get your ears covered. hes soooooooo scary.

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i hope you got some good names you could share out with me cause for sure couldnt want that monster to eat up my ms and my cool characters all in one big gulp.

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big thanks for being a help for me and my wip and my characters!
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did you ever not know what to call a character and if you didnt how did you get a name?
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…hugs from lenny
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ps if you cant think of one just real quick you could think on it a little while and then sent it on a email. im at lennylee@rocketmail.com

...blearning

i stuck blog and learning together and got “blearning.” cause of your cool blogs i been "blearning" lots of neat writer stuff! i gotta say youre just the best teachers ever. so i gotta say thanks to all my blogger friends.

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heres just some of the stuff i “blearned” so far.

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1. whats a query letter and how to do a good one and how much it hurts to get rejected
2. abbreviations like mc wip pov arc ya ms mg cp and lots more
3. whats a genre and which ones you write
4. whats a beta (i thought it was a fish! ha ha) and how one could help your story be better
5. some rules for good grammar and punctuation
6. whats a critique partner and how could it make your writing better. i got a cool cp and its miss sharon!
7. its really hard to be your own publisher
8. in the beginning of a book you gotta have a real good hook
9. storytelling is a art
10. writing stuff from your for real life is soooo interesting
11. you gotta do lots of reading and research
12. building up your vocabulary is good for being a writer
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heres some really neat stuff i “blearned”
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1. adding exclamotion points and sparkles to writing is cool!!!!
2. reading interviews get you to know more personal stuff bout a author and gives you lots of good info and hope (and sometimes a signed give away!)
3. contests are soooo much fun!!! (i won lots of stuff and even a soccer ball in an uncontest. ha ha)
4. tips for being an unboring blogger (i hope i got that right!)
5. blogfests are soooo cool. so far did one and it was lots of fun!
6. how to make a book trailer for dummys like me. ha ha
7. a debut novel is sooooo exciting!!
8. cool new words… schizz suckage realz
9. yikes! im a blogaholic
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thanks for teaching me soooo much and being a big support on my writing. some day im gonna get a for real book published and on that page where you thank people im gonna say thanks to all my blogger friends cause i couldnt have did it without you!!
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… hugs from lenny

...critique stuff

i hear lots of stuff about how getting what we write critiqued and making sure we get a really good cp (critique partner) could be a really big help on making our stuff lots better. i got a really nice cp but i gotta tell you the truth is i got lots of questions cause for sure i dont know so much about critiques or being a good critiquer and i wanna be a really good one. so whos the best person i could ask? my cool cp! and thats miss sharon at random thoughts. its pretty nice she took time to answer stuff for me. im sharing it with you cause maybe it could help you too.

heres what i asked and what she said…
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1. is a critique more different than a review?
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It's very different than a book review, because you are trying to help the writer improve his/her story. In a book review you are summarizing the story and telling why you liked or didn't like the book.
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2. does a critique mean you gotta check all that grammar and punctuation stuff?
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By the time you send your manuscript out for a critique you should have all your spelling, punctuation and grammar problems fixed. It doesn't mean your cp won't find a mistake, but you don't want them to have to look at little things like that when they are spending time on your manuscript. You'd rather they spent time telling you if something didn't make sense or wasn't logical.
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3. does a cp do any editing?
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I think that a good cp critiques and edits without thinking about it. I know all my cps do. If they think of a better word than I have, they suggest it. I'm always open to suggestions. I'll use them as long as I think they are better than what I said and I think they sound like me. It's important to not forget to NOT lose your voice.
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4. how come we could need someone to critique our stuff?
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We ask people to critique for us because it makes our work stronger. We are beginners and we are learning by helping each other. Just like reading a book, it's another tool to improve your writing skills. Even seasoned authors have agents who are kind of like their critique partners...Although some, like Steve Swinburne, don't have an agent or a cp.
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5. how come some people got more than just one cp?
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One reason to have more than one cp is to get a variety of points of view (POV). I find it really interesting when I send something out to a group of people and they all see different things that could be improved in different ways.
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6. what could you want from your cp that could help you make your stuff better
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It helps me when a cp tells me how they feel about a piece or a character or a scene. Was the character too predictable? Was the character too perfect? Was the bad guy too bad? Is the storyline believable? Did the story touch your heart? (that depends on the type of story) Did the timeline make sense? Did the main character grow or change in some way? Was the character consistent throughout the story? (ie he had brown hair, picked his nose, liked monkeys and had a crush on Sally) Did they live on Drew Street all along? Did the writer change the name of the main character (mc) by accident mid story? Does something not make sense to the reader?
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You want your cp to question you. I ask questions all the time when I'm critiquing someone’s work. If a cp just says your writing is wonderful, you need to get a new cp.
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When I'm critiquing I jot down my thoughts and emotions as I read as well as other comments so that the writer can see what emotions are evoked in me. You want your reader to connect with your story emotionally on some level. I want the author to know when I LOL or when I cry.
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7. is their anything else on critiquing you could want to say
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It's really important to remember that your critique partner is giving suggestions. It's your story and you have to stay true to it and to your voice. You can take the advice you think fits with your voice and dismiss the rest. You always want your story to sound like you. (That's my opinion anyway.)
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BIG THANKS miss sharon! now for sure i could know more about critiquing and im gonna work on being a really good critiquer!
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what do you think could be a big help for you from a cp or a critique?
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…hugs from lenny

p s ...today december 6th is my cp's birthday!  happy birthday miss sharon!

...voice lessons

YIKES! for sure I can’t sing! im a writer (umm…a wanna be writer) not a singer! well guess what i found out? writers got voices too! yep its true! writers got voices just like singers. if you listen you can hear that voice right there on everything you read.....wow how cool is that!
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whats a writers voice?
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i like what susan j letham on write101.com says (mostly cause i could understand it…ha ha)
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“Voice is the way your writing 'sounds' on the page. It has to do with the way you write, the tone you take--friendly, formal, chatty, distant--the words you choose--everyday words or high-brow language--the pattern of your sentences, and the way these things fit in--or not-- with the personality of the narrator character and the style of your story. You might be surprised to know how many beginning writers write out of character, that is, they choose the wrong voice and tone for the purpose they have in mind. …that would be story, not voice.”
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wanna read miss susans whole article click here.
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could you have more than just one voice?

its sorta like singing cause mostly you dont just sing one note. some people do and they sing way off key too and that pretty hard on your ears. yeeech! ha ha. but mostly you got lots of notes that say what your voice is. you could be soprano or alto or bass and lots of stuff in between. a writing voice is just like that cause its your voice but it could change up for what youre writing. for sure a story about a pretty sunset is gonna be in a way different voice than a story about a flesh eating zombie. yikes! what made me think of that. ha ha. and if you and me wrote the same stuff about that zombie both stories could be way different cause of us having different voices.

where do you find your voice?

for a beginner writer like me im not so sure what my voice sounds like or what its gonna be. the most best way to find out is write…write…write and write some more! it takes time to find out. just like practicing singing voice lessons you gotta practice your writing voice so it could be the best voice for you. right now im one of those boy sopranos but the more stuff i write and the more older i get and finally get all grown up in my body and in my writing for sure im gonna have my very own writers voice. then when you read something i wrote youre gonna hear my voice on a page and say wow thats lenny talking. :)

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Voice question...

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wheres your voice? are you still growing up as a writer and finding your voice or do you already have your own special one?
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…hugs from lenny

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big thanks to my critique partner miss sharon and to my bloggerwriter friends and my neat writing books and google for teaching me lots of stuff about voice.

...detail stuff

detail is real important in writing. its that little stuff that could make what you write lots more alive. if you get some detail into your writing the readers not gonna be bored. mostly it doesnt just pop out at you and you gotta do some thinking on when it could be needed and how much you could want to use. too much is just as bad as not enough.
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when you start thinking about details you gotta learn to look around and see stuff a different way. heres what i mean. just think about brushing your teeth. thats easy. but if you think about those details in brushing your teeth you could be real surprised at how much of them there are. what color is my toothbrush? does it have hard soft or medium bristles. what kind of toothpaste am i using? is it in a tube or one of those squeeze bottles? what color is the tube or bottle? do i use a little squeeze or a big glop? hot or cold water? whats the sink look like and the handles and spout? WOW! thats sure a lot of detail stuff just for brushing your teeth and theres probably lots more. its real important for your story that you think about that stuff cause details could give your story lots more color and meaning for the reader.
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heres something real important. you just gotta be real careful not to do too much detail cause that could be a bore for the reader too. i read a story one time that did a lot of describing in every chapter of how everything at the setting looked in zillions of little details. after a couple times it got soooo boring and got me away from what the story was about. ugh! that story was pretty good and i wanted to get to know how it ended so every time i got to a long bunch of details i just skipped past them and looked for more of the story. i gotta be honest and say if the story wasnt so good i would have just stopped reading it and for sure i wouldnt give it to someone else to read. thats pretty sad cause the writer did really good writing but did just way too much details on one thing. so you gotta be sure those details are something that could help the story but still let it keep moving.
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now i hope you could know more about how its important to put details in your writing and how its a really good thing when you get them just right.
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do you think about details and use them just enough so your story could be more alive?
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…hugs from lenny