This means I know everything there is to know about writing.
Right?
WRONG!
This message came through to me loud and clear this week as I worked at my current WIP. (Not that I ever thought I knew every thing there is to know about writing!)
News flash here!!
Words do not always flow through a writer’s life like a meandering river.
Sometimes we hit turbulence, sometimes a freak storm comes up, sometimes we hit the rapids in the river, but if we’re lucky our boat will not capsize. We won’t fall in the water and drown. Turbulence just means we have to work harder to keep our craft afloat.
As an editor once said to me, “Writing is not for wimps!”
Boy, is that an understatement.
I certainly don’t have all the answers to all of the woes we experience in life or writing. I think I’m safe in saying that no one does.
Life is a journey of learning, and each day presents us with new opportunities. I choose to look for ways to improve, to make what is good and right in my life work even better.
Our lives, just like our writing, can usually stand some improvement. If you’re one of those lucky people who have a perfect life, and if you are a writer who gets the story right on your first attempt, then I send you blessings because you are one of the truly fortunate ones.
A facebook friend, who just happens to be a published writer, sent me this link last week titled “Eleven Things You Need To Know” by Tim Wynne-Jones. I knew my WIP was going to be too wordy. She sent me this link saying she likes to keep these tips in mind when she’s looking to streamline a manuscript.
These tips are sort of straightforward, things that any writer would look and say, ah yes, but of course. As a beginner, I would have looked at these tips and gobbled them up, chewed and devoured them and asked for more. As we proceed into our writing life, creating plots and characters, it never hurts to brush up on the obvious. I certainly appreciated having these tips presented to me last week at a time when I needed this reminder.
There are lots of books out there on writing and most authors have their favourites, books that we fall back on when the water get a bit rough.
Perhaps one problem is that we become so comfortable in the place we are now we begin to slide backwards without even noticing. We unlearn the things we worked so hard to learn. Turns out the lessons that we thought we learned we didn’t really learn after all. Sometimes we are so tightly wrapped in our chapters that we kind of let all those useful tips slide. Just as we fall back into old behaviour patterns, we sometimes fall back into old writing habits. Yes, it happens. It never hurts to keep a supply of helpful hints close by.
For any aspiring writers out there I urge you to check out this link , and if you’re a published author I’m sure you’ll appreciate the gems inside these eleven tips. I know I’m going to keep it handy for those times when the water gets a bit rough. It will serve to remind me to slow down and pay attention, steady my strokes.
Happy Living! Happy Writing!
