When you start writing, you generally start writing for yourself, for your own pleasure in finding the right words to express your feelings. Some people start writing to give others pleasure, such as A.A.Milne who wrote the famous Winnie the Pooh books for his beloved son, Christopher, but it is often a small audience at first, so those little errors don’t really matter.

 However, when you want to publish your writing, you do need to care about presenting a clean copy with no errors for the publisher to read. You need to edit your own work before you give it to a publisher. Editing is a completely different skill to writing, so it is not always easy to edit your own work. In fact, it is often easier to edit someone else’s work, because you are less familiar with it. The author often knows what is intended by a particular sentence, but the reader becomes confused. The main trick to editing your own work is to look at it as if you are reading someone else’s work for the first time.

 Ask yourself questions, such as:

• Does that sentence make sense?
• Have I left out important information that would help the reader make sense of my writing?
• Does my writing flow from paragraph to paragraph in a smooth manner, or do I repeat myself?
• What questions do I have after reading this?
• Am I assuming the reader has the same knowledge I do?

If you write at a computer, it is a good idea to print out your article and proofread from the printed copy. It makes it easier to spot the simple errors, such as the typographical errors, and you can circle the error quickly and keep reading. Edit the entire piece and then go back to the computer to make all the changes, so that you don’t forget anything.

Read your writing aloud. This helps you to spot the instances of awkward wording or phrasing, because you will naturally stumble over the words when you read them aloud. If it doesn’t sound natural when you read, you need to do some editing.

I’ve often heard authors say that the first draft is nothing like the published version, and that’s probably a good thing! Editing and proofreading is a continual process that adds the technical side of writing to our work. We all need to polish our writing until it shines and reaches to the heart of the reader.

 Hayley

For free articles on freelance writing, check out http://www.expandingcreations.com

Have you ever sat down and wrote 12 pages of a story and said “Okay now what? Where do we go from here? Your characters have been telling you their story loud and clear but after while their story comes to a complete halt and your characters are silent. You are experiencing what is common to many writers – the cursed writers block.

For years and years, I fought Writer’s block.  I would ambitiously start a project and  never finish it. This was not getting me anywhere. I didn’t understand what my problem was.  I thought maybe I wasn’t cut out to be a novelist. Partially out of fear and insecurity, I let my dream sit on the shelf.

A few years later, after the birth of my second son, my dream broke its silence. “Its time.” It whispered to me. “Its time to make your dream a reality.”

I started reading through many of my uncompleted works, trying to find an answer to why I had never completed them. My answer soon became clear. I would write everything I could on the story – but then I would simply lose direction. Has this happened to you?

I began to look to my many writing books for answers to how to write the book from start to finish… one key element stood out for me OUTLINE.  Maybe that is what my problem was. I would write and write until I lost interest in the story.  I decided to make another attempt to write something. This time I decided to try outlining before I wrote the story.

I had an idea for a book for children. It was a beginners novel.  So the first thing I did was jot down ideas for the book – brainstorming. Once I had some good ideas from the brain storming. I began to Outline the story.

With the outline I included the cast of characters with a brief description about them.  Then I wrote the story in abbreviated form. It is important when writing to know where the story is headed.  Once I completed the outline, I went to work on writing the story. For three weeks I wrote solely on this project and for the very first time wrote a complete story.

From that time on when I start a story the first thing I do is brainstorm and write an abbreviated version of the story.  Once I have the story written, I will add the padding including the details, and back stories etc. Very often my outlines are multiple pages long depending upon the length of the piece.

I keep this handy little list, I made up using the word OUTLINE to remind me what I need to include in the outline.

O- opening line,

U – understanding character motivation,

T- tell the story,

L- list the characters

I- information needed (research)

N- nothing but the bones

E- ending.

What techniques do you use when you write? Do you write freehand? Do you outline? Please tell us.

With the busy time of the Christmas season upon us, I won’t be writing again until the New Year. Wishing you and your families a very joyous Christmas and a happy New Year 2010.

Allison

I volunteered; I sure did, without so much as a thought of,  what if I can’t think of what to write or scarier still, what if people don’t like what I write? Naw, I didn’t think of that, not until I actually sold my idea to Damienb. Now I must follow through. This isn’t exactly Face Book either where I can count on family and friends to like whatever I write, but then who ever got to be a paid writer by writing just for family and friends? Nobody that’s who! So I will swallow my pride and all my fear here and just plunge right ahead.

I have actually been writing most of my life. Even as a child, to placate my younger sisters, I would make up elaborate stories to tell them as they lay huddled together in the bed next to mine. To this very day if someone says, “tell me a story” I am apt to try. So here I am on the Newbie Writers Blog site to impart some bits {and believe me they will only be bits here} of wisdom that I learn along the way to becoming a published, paid writer.

I am fascinated lately it seems, with commas. Have you ever gotten hung up writing some thing and couldn’t figure out if a comma belonged to that sentence and if so why and if not, why not? No? Well maybe I am a little weird but there is quite a bit written on the subject of commas. Take for instance “The Little Book”. Never heard of it? Oh, I’ll bet you have, it is otherwise known as “ The Elements of Style” by William Strunk and E. B. White. I found this book a few years back when taking a paralegal course. I keep it in the bathroom and read it over and over again.

The Elements of Style privately published by the author, an English professor, in 1919 and later collaborated on and added to his “little “ book was E. B. White of Charlottes Web fame. In their book Strunk & White imparts a compendium of rules and principles of writing. I scan this little book almost daily it seems to check on the usage of a verb or noun, and of course the comma and its use has been addressed here as well.

The quest to find the correct usage of commas led me to other resources as well, like the piece written on the subject by Dawn Copeman. In her article Dawn tells the reader/writer the many nuances of the plain old comma. She teaches that the comma can be used in many ways, and if you notice, this little blog has a bunch of commas running through it.

The comma, can for instance, be used as a “serial” comma separating a number of items one from the other. An example of this would be; the clown ran through the tent and the elephant, the monkey, the big cat and the giraffe followed too.

There are numerous rules about commas when to use them and when not to, and if I were writing a paper for a classroom there would be much more written on this subject, but this is just a blog and I am only trying to write about what I am learning as I teach myself to write.

I have used commas in this blog for emphasis, for separating a list of things and I have not used a comma to enclose a parenthetic expression in the second paragraph of this piece.

I hope that you have made it to this point in my blog this morning and that the information imparted here is helpful. As for me, I will be writing my little heart out here, now that I have finally come to the point in my life where I actually have “time” to write, may I learn to do it well.

Good morning!

I have been fortunate enough to be accepted as a blogger for this fantastic site, and I am looking forward to the coming weeks and months. Newbie-writers is a source of inspiration and support for many writers – both newbies and ‘veterans’ – and to be able to contribute in some small way is a pleasure.

For my first post, I thought I would just introduce myself briefly. My name is Jim Grange,  and I am a PhD student researching in the field of Cognitive Psychology. I have a fair amount of writing experience during the course of my studies, but I recently set out on a mission to start writing general interest pieces for the layperson. 

Science is my passion. I love all aspects of the scientific process, and I want to share my passion with the world (OK, perhaps just a few people who may happen to stumble over one of my articles, but hey, it’s a start)! Fiction has never grabbed me in the same way that science writing has. What I particularly love about popular science material is that quite often, truth is stranger than fiction.

For example – just from physics literature alone – which of the following do you think is physically impossible theoretically:

• Time travel
• Teleportation
• Single atoms being in more than one place at a time
• There are more than 4 dimensions (up-down, left-right, forwards-backwards, and time)
• The atoms in your body disappearing as a whole, and reforming the other side of Mars

You may be thinking “All of them, Jim!”. But the beauty is, they are ALL theoretically possible!! Time travel is not only allowed by Einstein’s Special and General Relativity, it INSISTS that it happens all the time (in fact, geo-positional satellites that communicate with your mobile phones and GPS have to compensate for time travel every few seconds in order to work)!  You will have to look out for future articles from me to read about the rest in more detail. But you get the point, there is so much weirdness and wonder in the world in which we actually live, I have never felt the urge to get lost in a fantasy world. But we are all different, and that’s fantastic!

Over my next few blogs, I hope to be able to share some of my writing experiences with you. Academic writing is very different to the writing I am engaging in now, so I am a newbie also. Let’s all learn from eachother’s experiences!

I look forward to writing for you soon. Until then, keep writing!

Jim.

P.S. My academic website can be found here:  http://jimgrange.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Last year, after quite a lot of soul searching, I made the decision to pursue a freelance writing career.  I was happy now have a career path to pursue.  Enthusiastic and ready to begin my journey, I sat down at my lap-top computer and pounded out a two page business plan and goals for the year.

As the year started, I was a little nervous but ambitious. I sent out my first set of article queries and hoped to hear something form someone. I heard about a few online writing groups that would publish my work. Miss-guided I signed up for them. Was I published online? Yes. Have I seen any monetary pay outs for them? No and I doubt I will for these.

Is it discouraging? Of course it is. Will I give up? Of course not! A side from my family, writing is my pride and joy.  Rejection of any kind is discouraging but as writers we can’t give up.Persist with your writing and it will pay off.

As this year draws to a close, I have been re-evaluating the goals and objectives I have set. I now realise that I bit off more than I could chew. I had written goals that suited a full time writer. Too ambitious for a beginner such as I? Yes.

This year, I narrowed my goals down to what I could accomplish. I limited myself to three attainable goals instead of the seven I had last year.

I admit I was a bit too ambition for a Newbie, especially this stay at home mom of two boys under 5 years old. When it comes time for you to set out your writing goals, always remember the KIS method.. KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Wishing you all the greetings of the Season, most especially Merry Christmas.

Allison

Everyone who visits this website has a love of writing; whether it is journalistic, in depth feature style articles, short stories, novels, or poetry, writing is a pleasure that satisfies a deep part of our souls. Yet, not everyone who has a love of writing can write well – yet!

Writing is a craft that takes a lifetime to learn, refine, and enjoy before you become a true master. Even the most famous authors suffer through personal doubts, changes from editors, rejections from publishers, and criticism from readers. This is part of the process of writing.

You can write only for yourself and avoid some of the rejections or criticisms, but if you do this you will miss half of the joy of real writing. Writing is a method of communication that allows one heart to speak to another, and without a reader, the path of communication becomes useless. Much of the joy that comes from writing stems from the reader feedback – when someone reads your work and says “That touched me, made me laugh, made me cry, or made me want to dance for joy in the rain.”

So, as 2009 draws to a close and we all dust off the New Year’s resolutions that we dropped back in January (or if we were really good in February), I have a suggestion for every writer here. Instead of setting yourself goals about how much you going to write, try thinking about how well you are going to write. Make at least one resolution to work on improving and refining your craft of writing. Aim for quality, rather than quantity, and resolve to learn more of the craft of writing in 2010.

I am excited to become part of the blogging family here at newbie writers. If you want to read more articles about the craft of writing, visit my website: http://www.expandingcreations.com

HayleyWriter

Hey everyone,

Dawn has some high quality posts and me not being a writer probably shouldnt post up on here! However being the nerd I am, I was never ever happy with the Writer’s Quill theme I chose for our blog. It became one of those things whereby we decided on a blog, I got it running and searched for “writing themes.” Only one available I installed it and put a “must get to that” note in my head.

So months later I happened to be at the WordPress site for some tech help (which is useless I might add) and thought “may as well check out the themes” to which I found this one. I edited the header (which I’m not keen on, might design a distinct blog header) and tweaked it a bit. What do you think? I seriously need your opinions on this as im a perfectionist.

I too am sick with the ‘dreaded lurgy’ or bronchitis and sinusitis (but you didnt REALLY need to know that), why do I decide to tweak our blog when I should be in bed? Who knows!? I know now I’ll be awake most of the night thinking “hmm need to fix that header.. not happy with it.”

I welcome your opinions. Also spammers (and yes you do exist I’ve deleted ten so far from our database) go ahead and post, it’ll be deleted and karma will get you in the form of a bus hurtling towards you next time you cross the street. Get a real job!

Damien

I have decided, seeing as my brain is currently, as Edward said on the forum, full of cotton wool, to see what famous authors have to say on the topic of writing and what we can learn from them.

“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” So said James Michener, Pulitzer prize winning author of over 40 books.

What I love about this quote is its honesty. I know that I am not a very good writer – not where first drafts or blogs are concerned – but I do know that with careful editing and re-writing I can usually turn out a sell-able article. Yet when it comes to writing fiction I suddenly expect myself to get it right the first time.

I’ve lost count of the number of short stories and novel chapters that I’ve given up on because I wasn’t happy with what I’d written. I never give up on articles that easily; I work at them until they are right. Yet I’d never even thought of doing that with my fiction, I’d just assumed that I was no good at writing fiction. Looking back, I’d never even given myself a chance!

In my new free-writing run up to Christmas I’ve decided to keep all the words produced and then later see if I can’t develop them further. I also have decided not to be so harsh on my fiction attempts, but to continue to work at them and rewrite them just as I would with my nonfiction articles. Who knows? With a lot of rewrites and attention, I might actually get one that can be published.

Hey, it’s advent. Which as my daughter and I learned today in our home-school session, comes from the Latin adventus which means arrival. And the first day of advent saw the arrival of a new illness for me – sinusitus! Yeah! Now I have a aching face to add to my symptoms. Woo. Incidentally, if you’re planning a Christmas story set in Malta at Midnight Mass be sure to have a young boy aged between 7 and 10 doing the sermon – that’s another thing we learned today. And if your story is set in India, do note that Christmas is known as bada din (big day).

No, I’m not suddenly going to share home-school facts with you but I have decided in the mad days of Advent to pick up a little fact like that, or a face I see on the street, or a line from a song and use it as the start point of 5 – 10 mins maximum free writing. Just writing without editing for 10 mins max and seeing where it goes. Even I can fit 10 mins writing in a day and in what will soon become a more rushed and hectic advent, I know I will need those ten minutes too. Ten minutes of just me and my laptop – bliss.