Red wattlebird feeding on Eremophila flowers

Gardening

Over recent days I have been spending more time out in the garden than at my computer attending to my writing. The spring weather has generally been wonderful and the spring rain a bit above average. The rain has come at about the right intervals to promote and maintain weed growth, hence the need for me to spend a great deal of time in the garden.

A big garden

Let me hasten to add that our garden is no ordinary quarter acre block common to many Australian homes. We have 5 acres (2 hectares) of land on the edge of the rural city where we live here in South Australia. It’s a challenge to look after and demands one keep on top of things.

Neglect

Sadly, the property has been quite neglected over the last 3 years while I completed my Master of Arts in Creative Writing. Now that I’ve graduated I can focus a  little more on the extras – like gardening. One of the most time consuming tasks in recent weeks has been keeping on top of the weeds. We have planted many native Australian plants – like the one being enjoyed by one of our resident birds shown in the photo above. For these plants to really thrive I need to maintain a weed free zone around them. The weeds have a habit of taking over and choking out the growth.

Weeding my novel

This time last year I was doing a different kind of weeding. I was working very long hours – sometimes 10 to 12 hours a day – trying to get my novel into shape. The novel was my thesis paper for my degree and it had to be as near to perfect as possible. I spent many tiring hours weeding out all unnecessary words, phrases and even paragraphs. Every novel, short story, poem or article needs this treatment. Make every word count, weed out every lazy, useless and careless word.

You’ll stand a much better chance of getting your writing accepted for publication.

Good writing.

I can understand that. Some history turns me off, while other aspects of history fascinate me. I guess it sometimes depends on the mood I’m in, or the particular aspect of history being discussed, read or shown on television. To many people family history is deadly boring – with and emphasis on the “dead” part.

I disagree.

Some writers complain that they have trouble coming up with ideas for stories and novels. My suggestion is to get hold of a family history book. If your family hasn’t had a family history book published, borrow someone else’s history. I have two family books; one based on my father’s side, the other on my mother’s family. Both are filled with family genealogical diagrams illustrating relationships in the broader family. They also include many interesting but rather stiff upper lip type photos which can be a little amusing today.

But I digress.

Both books contain hundreds of short accounts of the lives of people in my family. Many of these people are now dead. The accounts range from the familiar, mundane and ordinary, through to the unbelievable, adventurous and plain tragic. Take for example the account of my ancestors on my father’s side as they escaped religious persecution in their home land and migrated half way around the world to settle here in South Australia. Several members died on the boat journey out here. The story of the survivors shows great courage and drama. It’s ready made for retelling, possibly best written as fiction.

Any family history book, if it contains accounts of the lives of ordinary people, will be a fertile field ready for harvesting by a creative and imaginative writer. Troll through the book looking for that one story that captures your imagination. Then let that imagination have full rein. Let the story run its course. Don’t necessarily worry about sticking to the facts; you are writing fiction. Writers of historical fiction do this all the time; their stories are fiction based on a true story or actual event.

I hope you find a little gem of a story.

Good writing.

It is so easy to slide into clichés, to over use words and especially phrases and expressions which are so old and familiar that their corpses are not only rotten; they smell worse than a skunk sprayed dog before it’s been washed.

It is a rare event when a politician, public figure or some other prominent citizen comes up with something arrestingly original. I laughed out loud earlier this week when I heard someone say, in reference to our federal government, the following words:

“They promised us the world, but they just showed us a picture of an atlas.”

How wonderful.

More power to the people out there not content to squirm in the mud of mediocrity, but make an effort to create new ways of making their point.

Good writing.

Every writer gets rejected.

Period.

Perhaps I should qualify that statement. Every writer who submits to publishers gets rejection letters. No-one is exempt; it’s a fact of life for a writer. If you keep on submitting stories, poems, articles and novels to publishers you are going to get rejected. Not every piece of writing will get accepted, nor will everything you slave over will see publication. Fact.

No writer likes getting rejection letters. I’ve sometimes heard speakers or read in books about writing that we should not be upset about getting a rejection letter. Everyone gets them, and the publisher is rejecting the story or poem and not you. While there is some truth in that, getting such a letter still hurts. Sometimes – many times – we find it hard to divorce ourselves from our babies, er… writing. You don’t like my poem – therefore you don’t like me. It’s an easy conclusion to come to, and it can be quite harmful. And it hurts. I know; I’ve had my fair share of rejection. A few years ago I sent out over 30 submissions to various publishers and every one was rejected. I nearly gave up writing.

The good news

Now for some good news. Not every letter from a publisher is a rejection. If you keep on writing the best work you can produce and keep on sending it out, sooner or later you will see your name in print. And when you get an acceptance the feeling is great. You are entitled to do the Writer’s Dance. Yell and scream in excitement. Tell your family and  friends. And then get back to writing and do it all over again.

Lollipops

Now what about the “lollipops” mentioned in my title? I’ve just read a wonderful story about “How to turn rejection letters into a positive.” The writer of this article learned a valuable lesson from lollipops.

• Keep working hard at your writing.
• Only submit your very best work.
  
• Keep on striving to improve.
• Keep on sending out your writing.
  
• Enjoy those acceptance letters.

Good writing.

Not all, of course. There are some people quite happy to pen their thoughts purely for their own pleasure – or perhaps just for a small circle of family and friends.

There are many others who are striving hard to gain the nod of approval from publishers and desire to see their words in print. I’m one of them, and have enjoyed the thrill of seeing my stories and poems in print. To this point my success has been modest. I also get great pleasure in the knowledge that I have many hundreds of readers of my three blogs, including this one.

Fiona Maddock on the site Write for your life has written a thought provoking article called Unknown and unpublished: enjoy it while it lasts. She explains that the unpublished writer has freedoms not enjoyed by a published author and I’d agree. Unpublished writers can write whatever takes their fancy, have no set deadlines and can write as much or as little as they wish.

She doesn’t leave the article there, of course, going on to outline some basic but essential things to remember to do on one’s journey to becoming a published writer. We should not forget the basics of grammar, spelling, punctuation, editing and rewriting.

Sound advice.

Good writing.

“When a writer is born into a family, that family is doomed.” Czeslaw Milosz

Write what you know.

Generally that is good advice, especially for writers starting out on their writing journey. Draw on your life experiences and use those in your writing. Your life is what you know best, so it’s a good place to start. A big part of those experiences revolve around your immediate family, so write about them and draw on their experiences too. In your formative years as a writer, especially when you are young, this might be all you have to draw on for your inspiration.

I know that my early stories and novels I drew heavily upon my own experiences and those of my family. Much of this early writing may never see publication; it is part of your apprenticeship in the craft of writing.

As I developed my writing skills I was able to cast a wider net. Now I find I am able to let my imagination soar and take over more and more. I am now less reliant on personal experiences and more on imagination.

Writing exercises:

To help you develop your writing skills, try one or more of these ideas:

• Start writing a journal about your every day activities.
• Write a page or so about your favourite toy.
• Describe the place you went for a holiday when you were young.
• What happened on a camping trip when you were still at school.
• Think about your least favourite relative; describe why you don’t like that person.
• Write about the events leading up to an accident or tragedy in your family or friendship group.
• Write about your favourite teacher at school.

Good writing.

The article “On walking and writing” is well worth reading.

Then go out and take a walk.

I would – but I’m writing this post late at night!

Good writing – and walking.

It has been a while since my last entry here.

Sorry about that.

I’ve been a little overwhelmed with life for a while now, but things seem to be getting back on track again, one step at a time. I have several large projects on the go which are taking – no – demanding my attention. I’m starting to chip away at them but the task sometimes looms far too large.

Having one of the coldest periods on record here in South Australia is not helping either. It is very tempting to linger in bed on these crisp, frosty mornings… and then linger some more. And my good wife spoils me by bringing me a hot cup of tea in bed some mornings. Bless her.

One of my major projects at present is finishing off my novel for children (I’ve written extensively about the process here.) I am currently working on the 7th draft and it is getting near to the final shape and form.

The editing and rewriting I am doing in the 7th draft comes from the comments made on my manuscript by my supervising lecturers. Both are experienced writers and editors and their help has been invaluable in shaping the novel into its present form. One thing I have found interesting is that their comments and suggestions are remarkably similar, even though they read the manuscript independently. They have been very picky, very critical of every word, sentence and even the whole structure of the story. This is good because it is helping me to produce the very best writing I can achieve.

Find a good critiquing friend

I would recommend that every writer find a trustworthy friend who knows about writing and how to do it well. Then get this person to critique your work. It could be a fellow writer, a neighbour, a member of a writers’ group or even someone who does this for a living. Paying someone to do this can be money well spent. I haven’t had to do that yet, but I have received much help from my lecturers (who get paid to do this) and from my writers’ groups (They do it because they like me! And I “pay” them by commenting on their writing).

Find a good editor

Along with finding someone to critique your writing I would suggest that your writing will benefit from good editing. You need to find a good editor. It can be the same person who critiques your work doesn’t have to be. I’m not talking about editors who work for publishers here. That stage comes later, after you’ve submitted the very best work you can do, and the publisher has accepted your piece for publication. I’m talking about someone with a good eye for picking up typos, spelling errors, punctuation boo-boos, grammatical blunders and structural flaws. Such a person can help you polish your work until it is perfect – or as near to that as you can. Publishers are more willing to accept your work if you make the effort to get it near perfect – so their editor has as little to do as possible.

Further reading:

• Writing a novel - the process I went through to write a novel for children as my thesis paper for my Master of Arts.
• Editing - more articles from my archives about the editing process.

Good writing.

My daughter, an English teacher, calls herself  “The Apostrophe Nazi”. She delights in correcting errors wherever and whenever. My son even uses an apostrophe to abbreviate his name – Simon has become Sim’. It also annoys me when I see this poorly understood form of punctuation abused.

Imagine my horror, then, in reading  this sentence in an email from a bookshop recently:

“Xxxx Booksellers would like to thank its’ regular and new clients for their support.”

That is a shocker!

I should be fair though; the humble apostrophe is probably the most misunderstood and misused form of punctuation in our language.  Furthermore, the meaning of the sentence is still quite clear, so I’ll just let it rest. I make mistakes too – plenty of them.

Further reading:

• Use apostrophes correctly – an amusing article with many comments from my family.
• Writing hints – a list of writing hints from my archives.
• Apostrophes – the Wikipedia article on how to use them correctly.

I know I did.

In my early years my dialogue was… well… to be frank, it was appalling. I didn’t know what I was doing. Years later I still struggle, but it comes more easily and, I hope, sound more natural.

Some thoughts on dialogue

• Dialogue is tricky – it takes plenty of practice to get it right.
• Dialogue is not like conversation, so don’t record everything a character says.
• Make dialogue authentic and realistic – this takes practice.
• Dialogue must move the plot along.
• Dialogue can show character in a more powerful way than mere narrative.

For a longer discussion on this aspect of writing, Joanna Penn on her blog The Creative Penn has an article called My Dialogue Sucks: tips for improving dialogue in your novel. It’s well worth a read.

‘Good writing,’ said Trevor. ‘I hope you get the dialogue right.’

‘Thanks,’ said his readers. ‘That was most helpful.’