One of the most important lessons I have learned as a writer is that I always have room for improvement. I’ve actually been writing for many years now, but I still find I learn great lessons every day when I write. That’s why I love Newbie Writer’s Forum – I can get help and constructive criticism from other writers here.

Previously, we had a blog post about dealing with rejections and that is something that does happen to every professional (and not quite so professional) writer. Instead of calling it a rejection, which has negative connotations, call it a lesson you can learn. This has hope for the future.

When I first graduated with a degree in Communications (print journalism), I thought I knew everything there was to know about writing. How wrong I was! I have continuously been working on honing and polishing my writing skills ever since. I have learned more about writing in the past 18 months than I did in my three years at university.

I’m beginning to realize that when we stop learning, we stop writing. Whatever format you like to write, there is always some way you can improve your writing. You can experiment with new structures and formats, you can learn grammar rules, and you can learn how to bring your characters to life. You can learn to re-structure your writing so that it speaks to a specific audience, you can learn new words and increase your vocabulary, and you can learn the skills of description.

I have a challenge for each of you. We’ve been challenged to write at least 100 words a day, and that’s a good challenge. If 100 words is too little, challenge yourself to write more, but give yourself a reasonable goal that suits your time commitments. My challenge to newbie writers is to find something to learn every month. You may spend a while reviewing a particular grammar rule, such as where to use commas, or you may want to try writing in a new style. You may like to try an online writing course where you receive feedback on your writing.

Whatever method you choose to learn about the craft and skill of writing, you will find that your writing continuously improves over time. I hope I never stop learning!

HayleyWriter

My website www.expandingcreations.com offers online training courses and resources for freelance writers.

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.

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

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.

Thought I’d share with you a typical, or rather not so typical writing day with you.

Friday 8.30am. Normally this is when I start home-schooling my daughter, but today she is feeling ill so I decide to work on a submission instead. Normally my writing time is late afternoon/early evening so this is a bit of change for me.

I settle my daughter down on the sofa with CBBC (for those of you who don’t live in the UK this is an advertisement free childrens’ channel) and I get down to work.

10.30am first draft done I check for typos and grammar then go for a coffee and to get my girl a drink and snack.

Mull over the piece I’ve written; it’s missing something. Half-an hour later I’ve figured out what needs to be done and it’s back to the laptop. One hour later, 2nd draft is done. It reads better but is by no means perfect. On checking the word count I’ve written 2000 words and that’s a problem as the magazine I’m submitting too only want 1,700 max. Time to get editing. This isn’t actually too much of a problem as I usually just remove the first three or four paragraphs and find that the piece works just as well from this point on. The reason? Well, I suspect like many of you when I start to write a piece my brain is still warming up to the material and getting into writing mode; even with my outline in front of me my brain still takes at least three or four paragraphs to get warmed up. Whilst many of these are fine paragraphs they are usually on reflection surplus to requirements. So out with the carefully constructed opener, this was a hard decision as it was very good and I spent a while writing it. Then out with the following three paragraphs and suddenly the piece is a lot tighter, sharper and nearer the 1,700 words mark.

A quick break to make lunch and then it’s time to print it out and read through again, line by line, picking up typos the laptop didn’t, such as it instead of is, and removing unnecessary words.

At 12.30pm I’m down to 1690 words. Perfect! A final check through and off it goes. Job done!

What is your writing day like? Let us know in the forum.

Dawn