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A form of Procrastatnation during first week of NaNoWriMo, Volunteering with purpose |
| ** Image ID #427081 Unavailable ** Part 1 of 3 of this Week’s Editor’s News Writing by the Numbers of Person This first part of this three-part Newsletter is dedicated to the individual who specifically asked me: Can you write about ways around the use of the word "I" at some future point? Big problem for me that I am trying to overcome. Writers write in different persons, not to be confused with writing to different persons. Knowing how to write in third person, will afford everyone who writes anything for the general public an opportunity to be better understood, better received, and accepted as an authority by a wider range of audiences. As a writer, do you desire to write professional newsletters, write technical instructions, or write educational narration for a presentation to your peers? All that is necessary are clear directions for a writer to follow concerning the use of person. A writer must understand: 1. When and how to use first person 2. When and how to use third person 3. How to avoid careless use of second person 4. How to control the use of person in their writing The following exercise has been expressly written to enable anyone to practice independently. The purpose of the following exercise is to show how to create a narrative voice to speak to readers, and how to deliberately select, when writing, what is called person. This is the name given to one characteristic of the voice a writer uses to tell a story. There are three forms (easily identified by number, as: first person, second person, and third person.) 1. First person (using I or we) sounds like this: I (we) saw the car as it careened across the neutral ground. First person reads like the voice is part of the action. 2. Second person (using you) sounds like this: You stood on the corner, and you watched the car as it came towards you. Second person makes the reader part of the story. 3. Third person (using he, she or they) sounds like this: He was standing on the comer when the car came toward the intersection. The use of third person puts the narrative voice outside of the story. Third person makes the storytellers voice a non-part of the action. The narrative voice becomes just the teller of the story. When writing, a writer must be very careful not change person. Switching person will confuse a reader, and lessen the impact and value of what you have written by making it difficult to follow. Third person is the storyteller’s (narrator’s) voice. Controlling the person, as a writer writes, will take practice. Today’s practice lesson is on using third person to write a paragraph by use of directions written in third person, using he, she or they. This will be hard because you’ll want to use second person, you. Don’t! You’re going to describe how to do something. It’ll be easier to tell how to do something that’s simple. A good way to start, when faced with the job of describing how to do something to another person, is to first make a list of the steps or procedures. These steps should be listed in the same order in which they should be done. It is exactly like following a recipe to bake a cake. There should be at least eight steps in your list. This list can be just words if you want it that way. Below is an example of a list of eight steps for sharpening a pencil. The third person paragraph that needs to be written from this list can be titled: How to Sharpen a Pencil 1. Face sharpener 2. Hold pencil in left hand, the end to be sharpened pointed to the right 3. Grasp handle on the right side of the sharpener with thumb and forefinger 4. Insert end of pencil in hole in top of the left end of sharpener 5. Turn crank clockwise facing right end of sharpener 6. Push on pencil while turning crank 7. Remove pencil and examine it for sharpness (Repeat steps 4, 5 and 6 if necessary) 8. Blow dust off sharpened end The next step is to turn the list into sentences in which the narrative voice uses third person. To make this example a paragraph, we’ll have to have a topic sentence. The following sentence is an example of a topic sentence. Use the following sentence as your topic sentence, or write one of your own: “Sharpening a pencil is an easy thing for a person to do.” How to Sharpen a Pencil Sharpening a pencil is an easy thing for a person to do. A boy who would like to sharpen his pencil must first face the sharpener. He must then hold the pencil in his left hand so that the end to be sharpened points to his right. Using his right hand, he holds the handle on the right side of the sharpener with his thumb and forefinger. With his left hand he inserts the end of his pencil in the hole in the top of the left end of the sharpener. He turns the crank in a clockwise direction as he faces the right end of the sharpener and at the same time pushes the pencil into the sharpener. After a few turns of the handle, he removes his pencil and checks for sharpness. If it is not sharp enough, he repeats steps four, five and six. When the pencil is sharp, he blows the dust off the end that has been sharpened. Now it’s your turn. Write a description of how to do something in third person, just as we wrote, "How to Sharpen a Pencil", in third person. Chose one of the six topics below, or chose one of your own to make a descriptive list to use in third person writing exercises: 1. How to fill an ice tray with water 2. How to make the perfect PB&J sandwich 3. How to fold a napkin 4. The proper way to load a dishwasher 5. How to make the perfect pot of coffee 6. How to open a pack of cigarettes Now that you’ve written a step-by-step description, you’re to write the same directions that you just wrote, but this time they should be in second person, using you. This is the voice with which the writer talks directly to the reader and calls the reader “you”. This should read like this: You are holding your pencil in your left hand, pointing the end to be sharpened to your right. Notice that the narrative voice in this example speaks in present tense. You might want to try this in your paragraph. You wrote directions in third person, using he, then the same directions in second person, using you. Now you’ll write the same directions in first person, using ”I”. This should read like this: I hold the pencil in my left hand with the end to be sharpened pointing to my right. The above exercises, with practice, will teach a writer to control use of person in a writer’s narrative voice. My thoughts: First Person writing does not command as much respect as Third Person writing unless you are famous, rich, a recognized expert. My advice is to always write in Third Person when writing a formal presentation or professional newsletter. Third Person sounds more factual, authoritative, and believable. Second Person writing should be used for giving commands, instruction, or educational writing. Parents learn very early and quickly to speak in Second Person to such an extent that it becomes a bad, hard habit to break. Examples of Parent speaking in Second Person (Comic Relief): You will clean your room. You will take out the trash. You will mow the lawn. You are driving me crazy. Why did you get all F’s on your report card? What were you thinking? Will you please sit down and shut-up? Final Thoughts that have nothing to do with Person: Always leave a blank space between paragraphs. Finally, don’t say things that are designed to intentionally make others mad. Practice civility and understatement. Writing professionally and authoritatively will allow a writer to reach ten times as many readers, even if doing so will make you miss the few that you want to annoy. A Quick Review:  First person: I, we (personal memoir writing, casual letters, casual writing} Second person: you (instructional & educational, or giving orders) Third person: he, she, they, it, etc. (Best overall writer’s storytelling voice} ** Image ID #645128 Unavailable ** Part 2 of 3 of this Week’s Editor’s News Form, Fashion, & Intent of Literary Writing While perusing our Writer’s Circle member sdodger portfolio, I discovered she is investigating Literary Writing. Literary Writing is different than other writing just as sdodger suspects.
This brief portion of this newsletter is dedicated to assisting her with that investigation. The Critic’s Brief Definition of Literary Writing: Literary writing follows standard genres and form: drama, mystery, romance, fiction, historical, poetry, etc., but how literary writing is fashioned and the purpose of the writing sincerely strikes at the heart, mind, and soul of artistic creativity. Literary writing goes beyond the bounds of storytelling; it is audible art, and its beauty imparts to the reader or listener such depth and range of emotion that one is left feeling that the message comes very close to providing a definition to the meaning of life. The words used to produce a literary work are the tools, like the paints and brushes of an artist, like Michelangelo (1475-1564), used to paint the Sistine Chapel. A literary writer, or a painter, in the end, will produce a work of art. Therefore, in literary writing a writer is not merely a storyteller, but also an artist. Literary writing has a distinct, deliberate artistic intent and style that goes above and beyond the intent of any other writing. Yes,the word, Literary, has almost having an orgasmic ring to it for me. I am a little strange, and I am not repentant. The following link may provide some interesting insights: http://www.english-literature.org/essays/literary.html ** Image ID #645128 Unavailable ** Part 3 of 3: So, You’re a Beginner Novelist. STOP. Wait. Don’t Write That Book. Or Expounding the Virtures of Writing Short Stories Yes, I am completely and totally aware of the fact that it is the first official week of NaNoWriMo. My usual advice to beginning writers is to read, and to read everything you can get your hands on, from the Classics to whatever strikes your fancy. What you read will influence how you write. It is similar to programming a computer; surely most have heard the expression, “Garbage in, garbage out.” This expression usually refers to a computers performance, an operation of its Central Processing Unit. A computer or its CPU can also be compared to the human brain. If either contain little or no useful, interesting, helpful, or entertaining information, etc., the likelihood that either will produce anything worthwhile is very unlikely. It is my humble opinion that a beginning writer needs to concentrate for a considerable time, maybe as much as a year, doing writing exercises, and writing short stories. I'd like to try justifying my opinion, while carefully outlining why it is I think what I think. Beginning Writing -- Short Stories vs. The Novel Writing short stories allows a writer to experiment with many different genres, and find what comes most natural. Beginners very rarely have developed their natural writers voice when they first begin writing. By learning about themselves, through writing many separate pieces, they discover their individual writing style, figure out how to write from different points-of-view, learn to develop different character viewpoints, and their writing language will develop and become more natural and familiar to them. Commonly, beginners write similar to those authors they have often read, and admired, or authors who have written books similar to the kind of books they hope to write, too. It is perfectly natural, I have often heard it said that imitation is the highest form of flattery, except in the writing business it is called Plagiarism, and it is a career killer. If the book you write is successful enough, close enough, or resembles one that another author has written, it is possible that what may have been unintentional on one writer’s part could end up being settled by a jury, in favor of another author, and with a sizable financial award on behalf of another writer’s part. It is much better for a beginning writer to take the time to develop their own unique, individual style and voice, than try to mimic the style and voice of any writer regardless of their fame and popularity. Beginning writers who have not cemented their voice and style all too often are not able to maintain one voice and style throughout the length of a book. The Autobiographical Urge Beginning writers write too close to themselves, because they have heard “Write what you know” and take that literally. Producing an autobiographical or near-autobiographical work is just something not to be undertaken by a beginning novelist. Name one great autobiographical novel that has been written and garnered fame and fortune by a beginning novelist? I am not saying your life is unimportant, or uninteresting I am just saying, wait, take your time, and learn your craft to do your memoirs justice. A beginning writer needs to learn that good writing needs to appeal to a large general audience. The writing of many short stories usually helps a writer develop wider audience appeal, especially if the beginning writer joins a writers group, and there is always the possibility that the shorter material may be noticeably special enough that it could still be developed into a book length work. Don’t Limit Your Experience If you are beginning writer, how much experience can be gained from writing a single novel, perhaps two in their first year? At the most, your writing will cover only one or two genres. If, on the other hand, as a beginning writer, you are writing one short story a week then you can try many genres, styles, viewpoints as strikes your fancy; you are free to explore the terse hard-boiled Ford/Hemingway approach, the lyrical styles of Laurie Lee or Dylan Thomas, John Irving, and many points in between. This is not the case if you start out writing a novel. Most publishers ask for a writer’s resume, or clips. An unpublished novel from a beginning novelist just doesn’t carry a lot of weight, but if you have a dozen of so short stories published in various magazines then you, the writer, have a healthy beginner’s writer’s resume to present to a publisher with your yet to be published novel. Get my drift? Learning to be Successful As a beginning writer, one major advantage of writing short stories is that a one or two thousand word task seems more doable and less intimidating than the 50,000, 75,000, or 100,000-word novel. Allow yourself time to learn to succeed, as well as time to learn to develop good writing habits. Peer Assistance It is easier to get proper feedback on a short story because your writing group will have the time to critique a complete entity with you: a beginning, middle, and an ending. Thus, by writing many short stories, in many different genres, you’ll get more feedback, more often, and learn more quickly about you strengths and weaknesses. Your membership in a peer group, like on Writing.Com, will also give you an opportunity to read other writers work, and allow you to see what works and what doesn’t, maybe even before you attempt the same kind of scenario that you have just reviewed. It is all a learning experience that you benefit from; it is a win, win situation. Learning from Reviewing. As a empathetic reader and reviewer you can suggest fixes for other writers you have reviewed, and you can read suggested fixes from those that have reviewed your short stories in areas that are seen as your weakest. This variety of experience and feedback is virtually impossible if your first writing experience is writing a novel. Experimenting with Voice and Style By writing a collection of short stories a beginning writer has the advantage of comparing and contrasting different voices and styles that can’t be done in a novel without the possibility of sounding like a complete idiot, or at the very least sounding seriously confused. It is obviously easier with writing short stories to use vastly different subjects; to a beginning writer the fact that short stories have a shorter word counts, and can be written about a variety topics that it should just make more sense than starting out writing a novel. If you’re really a glutton for punishment, then start out trying to write articles for your local paper or magazines, but still forget the novel. Working within a writers group, you could all agree to create a single-subject writing task within a specific genre to be completed within a specific time frame, and have fun reviewing how differently each writer worked the subject. It then becomes a study of style and individual character characteristic set against a constant. First we Crawl, then Walk, and then we Run The short story is short because it contains fewer words; but in its short simplicity is its complexity; to say as much as possible in as few words as possible, the short story teaches the writer not to be wasteful. It is beyond my ability to explain to you how to write tight, but I can recognize tight writing when I see it. Short story writing is an excellent taskmaster for a beginning writer; she will allow you to explore your imagination without limitation. Remember the classic story of the tortoise and the hare. Take your time; write your short stories, what’s the rush? In the end, the tortoise wins. Waste Not; Want Not Time spent writing a novel is for most beginning writers a wasted year, or more. Time spent writing a short story is typically a few days, or maybe a week. While it is true a writer could write 52 consecutive short stories, experience tells us that is that after every short story is complete, the writer has usually learned something of great value in regards to his or her writing after every short story is complete. This will in turn benefit each short story that follows. In the case of a novel, a writer does not learn much until long after he or she has completed his long and arduous task of writing a novel and submitted it. Even then, sometimes a beginning novelist is too emotionally invested to listen to critical reviews. After all, the writer has invested many long, lonely days and nights spent sweating untold amounts of blood and tears onto pages and pages to just accept the hard cold reality of rejection after rejection of some idiot who can’t see brilliance if it fell on their head. It is easy to see how a first time novelist can become delusional spending all that time alone, you think? Short Stories are the Bomb. How many novels have you heard of being honed down into a short story? Short stories have been made into novellas, short stories made into novels, and short stories have been made into films. Short Stories have all the elements of style of good writing: a beginning, a middle, and end. There is dialogue, characterization, conflict and change. It is easier to learn for example, the idea of premise/theme on a single short story than on a novel. A writer can write a 2,000-word short story illustrating a proverb without ever referring to it, or proving a statement such as "All men are dogs". It hardly needs saying that a writer would realistically want or need to produce a novel to do the same, and expect to sell it, but there is always an exception to every rule. You think Michelangelo taught himself to Paint while painting the Sistine Chapel? Imagine you’re a writer with a truly great idea for a novel; a story idea that is guaranteed to earn you, the writer, fame and fortune. Why in the world would you begin writing your novel during the process of learning the process of writing? Why not first learn those skills before risking your concept, reputation, and sanity to chance, and inexperience? Imagine what would have happened if Michelangelo had started teaching himself to paint by trying first to paint the Sistine Chapel. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of The Critic  ** Image ID #645128 Unavailable ** Not too many featured works from members or non-members, the newsletter is long enough, y’all think? Featured Works From Our Members:
About writing an Author’s Bio in third person. You’re a writer; you’re going to need a bio, so read this, I did a lot of research and I don’t want it to go to waste. ** Image ID #645128 Unavailable ** Featured Works From Non-Members:
Writers can enjoy laughing at themselves better than anyone else. We do understand, don’t we?
Parts 2, 3, and 4 are linked in this Part 1. Read them all. Good refresher. ** Image ID #645128 Unavailable ** Writing Prompts: Narrative: · (Fictional narrative) Write a story about something that has been recycled, like a can, newspaper, or plastic bag, and its adventures along the way. · (Fictional narrative) Write a story about a ride in a hot air balloon. Descriptive: · Describe your favorite or your least favorite meal. · Describe a person you respect. · Describe something you collect or would like to collect. · Describe the perfect picnic lunch. Friendly Letter: · Write a letter to a friend who has moved away to tell how your life is different. · Write a letter to a friend about why you like to read books or magazines about a certain topic. · Write a letter to a friend telling about something new you have just learned to do. Business/Formal Letter: · Write a letter to your favorite television star telling why you like his/her show. · Write a formal letter to the President asking him for an autographed picture. · Write a letter to your city’s recreation department requesting information about a park in your area. · Write a letter to a local animal shelter requesting information about their volunteer program. · Write a letter to your town's newspaper explaining why someone you know should get a Special Person of the Year Award. Ask Holly Jahangiri  to write about the wonderful collection of autographs and letters she requested from famous people. She wrote formal letters, and asked them to wish her daughter a happy first birthday, and THEY DID.It's an amazing collection, and a heartwarming example of the lengths one mother was willing to go to have some of the most famous people in the world acknowledge and share in celebrating her daughter's birthday. Expository: · (Directions) Write directions explaining how to earn gift points on Writing.Com. · (Instructions) Write a paper giving step-by-step instructions on how to make your favorite sandwich. · (Instructions) Explain how to use a specific kitchen appliance. Summary/Retelling · Summarize your first year on Writing.Com. · Summarize a commercial you have seen several times on television. · Retell a story someone told you about you when you were a child. · Retell a story of an episode of your favorite television show. Poetry · Look at a photo and write a poem about the image(s) in the photo. · Write a list poem of your favorite things. Drama · Write a play, which creates a new ending to a story you read. · Write a play where characters from your book relive a historical event. Journal · Write a journal entry about what you do and don't understand about the Electoral College. · Go into a natural setting and write a log of your observations and questions. Don't talk to me about Writer's Block, do we understand each other.   ** Image ID #645128 Unavailable ** Quote: Harry Lime (Orsen Wells), in "The Third Man" "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." This week's quote was contributed by The Critic ** Image ID #645128 Unavailable ** You are invited to submit suggestions to the Writers' Circle editors. To submit an item for consideration in the WC newsletter:
All comments about this and any WC newsletter are welcome! Tell your friends about our newsletter! They can sign up through the link above. Feel free to forward this newsletter (in its entirety) to your friends! ~~~ I wrote this Newsletter during the first week of NaNoWriMo, and now I need to create a character in my book that is a Writing.Com member that writes newsletters in order for the word count of this newsletter can be a contribution towards my NaNoWriMo Word Count.   ** Image ID #898440 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #645128 Unavailable ** Issue #142 11/08/2004 Edited by: The Critic  Rate this newsletter here: "REALLY LONG W C Newsletter"  |
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