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  Noticing Newbies  1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions  Welcome to the Noticing Newbies Newsletter! Our goal is to showcase some of our newest Writing.Com Authors and their items. From poetry and stories to creative polls and interactives, we'll bring you a wide variety of items to enjoy. We will also feature "how to" advice and items that will help to jump start the creation process on Writing.com We hope all members of the site will take the time to read, rate, review and welcome our new authors. By introducing ourselves, reviewing items and reaching out, we will not only make them feel at home within our community, we just might make new friends! Please, if you read a great piece written by a Newbie, submit it to the newsletter; we just can't find them all without your help! Your host this week is esprit   Passionate about writing? Take your passion to new heights - with an online Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, available only from top ranked National University. Choose workshops based on your interests. Work with experienced and published faculty. Prepare for a variety of career opportunities. Use a state-of-the art online system: Study where and when you want. Click here to get more information!  HAVE YOU FOUND YOUR WRITING VOICE? Exercise. Do you consider it necessary or a complete waste of time? I’ve never liked to exercise, it’s hard work and I always thought I got enough by doing house work. Didn’t I stretch when I reached into the top cabinet to hide cookies from the kids? Didn’t I walk and jog when I chased the little hooligans out of the house? Wasn’t I taking good, deep breaths when I told them to go play in the back yard and give me five minutes of peace and quiet? Now I want to learn to write and I’m told again I need to do daily exercises. I need to stretch my writing muscles, and develop my writing voice. FREEWRITING Read some of the works posted on the site, and you will soon know who exercises. Exercise doesn’t have to be hard work or only for the young; look at Richard Simmons. Exercise and Freewrite are just other words for Practice! 1. Get yourself a journal, a notebook, whatever, and write something in it daily. Look out the window and imagine why the neighbor is looking over the fence so intently. Is there a story there? Practice! 2. Practice writing exactly what you see. If you pretend you’re writing to a friend you'll relax and the words will be natural. Don’t concern yourself with grammar or the perfect word at this point. Just write. Practice! 3. In writing, voice is the way your writing ‘sounds’ on the page. You need to find your own unique writing voice, and that will take lots of writing practice. Fill a couple of pages in your journal, it may take a few days, then read them aloud. What do you sound like? You will hear your voice if you have honestly written freely from the heart. Practice! 4. Practice different 'tones'. What mood do you want to portray? Practice it. 5. Imitate a writer you like. To learn a craft, we must watch and imitate. Your own voice will eventually come out. Practice! 6. You don't become a concert pianist just because you know which key is which. You aren't a good speller just because you know the letters or the alphabet. And nobody gets it right the first time. It will take much time, and practice, practice, practice! Free-writing is the exercise machine that does it all; it helps develop your writing voice, it help’s overcome ‘writers block’, and it develops the character’s voice if you give the characters each a page and let them ramble in their own voices. If you don’t develop the characters voices they won’t stay constant. It will be very hard to hold the style you intend and you’ll find their voice changing from chapter to chapter, from day to day. A wonderful quote I found to go with this subject is by John Steinbeck, novelist. If you are using dialogue--say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech. The reason free-writing works so well, is because it is private. Write your first story drafts the same way. Don’t worry about grammar, spelling or correctness of format. Focus inward and write a clear simple story, exactly as you hear and see it in your head. If you start fiddling with editing before the story is written, you’ll lose your voice. Maybe this is where my own problems lie. I edit as I go. I can't help it. If I know there is a typo or misspelling I can't ignore it, it bothers me until I fix it. And, I do not write every day. I just have to show you this example of free-writing description. "Invalid Item"  by A Guest Visitor saramione says, it was just as an exercise to write down exactly what I was seeing. I was frustrated with Writer's block and thought doing this might help- and it did! We can learn a lot by reading how other people do it. Do you need somewhere to start? Try this exercise. Write a 200-word description of a place. You can use any and all sensory descriptions but sight: you can describe what it feels like, sounds like, smells like and even tastes like. Try to write the description in such a way that people will not miss the visual details. I found these items while searching for something else. They are good examples of this week’s topic. You can see how others do it, and it may make it clearer to you. dyrheart says, A journal that holds true to the freewrite theme is "Just Be There Blog" by DyrHearte writes  Many of the writings have been prettied up and structured, but it shows how the mind jumps from thought to thought at random. It may also demonstrate those times when you don't have any clue what to write when you first sit down, but if you just start to write, something will come out of the flow eventually. Sometimes things will come out that can be expanded upon later. Free-writing for this next one is in the journal, "freewrites: prompts, scenes, or teasers" by DyrHearte writes This story is the satisfying results of expanding on a free-writing piece, also known as rambling, scribbling, and talking to the wall.
 Here are just a few of the newbies I have noticed around the site. They are all talented and they would appreciate your checking out their ports. I know you will be pleased.
A free-writing piece
freewrite-the tone of anger done to perfection!
Got kids? This is funny.
A multi-talent. Short stories and poems. I think he also tells tale tales, which he'll deny. Scoot down a little, please. I have to squeeze two more new members in that I just found. I know it must end somewhere, but these are just too good to be left out.
a wonderful talent! Well, I'm told I have no more room, so I suppose my remaining list of new talent will have to wait till next time. I hope this letter has been helpful to some of you. I've certainly learned a lot researching for it. Don't hesitate to submit items to the newsletter for consideration. The editors are; amawitch Beyond the Cloud9  bianca_b next week's editor esprit ** Image ID #715135 Unavailable **   Here are links to helpful items. Use them, read and learn more about the site.
Submit an item for consideration in this newsletter! http://www.Writing.Com/main/newsletters.php?action=nli_form  Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter! http://www.Writing.Com/main/newsletters.php?action=nli_form Don't forget to support our sponsor! %%NL_AD_BOT%%  question: How do you post a story in a message board? answer: You must make a link of your item. Writing ML Help is located in Author Tools. "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor "The illustrated guide to linking" by Writing.Com Support  is located on almost all forums.The squiggly parenthesis referred to are located on your keyboard between the P and Enter keys. Use the Shift Key. This is where most of us mess up. We tend to use the regular ones or we forget to use the shift key. My question to you is; No one writes by the same rules; we all have our own style. Do you follow the rule of editing after the work is done, or do you edit as you go? We all love and need feedback, even Newsletter Editors. Have a question or comment for the Editor? http://www.Writing.Com/main/newsletters.php?action=nli_form  To stop receiving this newsletter, go into your account and remove the check from the box beside the specific topic. Be sure to click "Complete Edit" or it will not save your changes. |
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