Pocket-Sized Tutorials

             

In How to Get Happily Published, Judith Applebaum says, "[good writers] are apt to go through several books and magazines a month and pick up pointers on style, organization, point of view and the like…." The how-to of gleaning those pointers is the subject of Francine Prose's acclaimed text, Reading Like a Writer. Following her guidance, you can expect to achieve writing excellence. It sounds good, except she advises that you immediately read more than 100 titles. Unfortunately, at the "close reading" (therefore, s-l-o-w) pace she recommends, the glaciers would melt before you digested half the list.

To read like a writer makes sense, but if time constraints prevent your analyzing a library of classics, consider reading like a writer – on the run.

First, assemble study materials – an assortment of used books, magazines, and newspapers. Used? Yes, and cheap, so you'll feel free to mark pages with abandon. Next, choose any book, and pull it apart into sections, or tear an article or two from a publication. Fold the pages to purse or pocket size, and you're ready to turn spare moments into writing lessons. As time avails, read, all the while marking words and passages that reinforce past learning, or teach you something new.

• Circle strong verbs, and unfamiliar words, as well as particularly descriptive words or phrases.
• Print "R"in the margin beside passages that indicate the author researched the subject, or conversely, "R?" where you question material presented as fact.
• In nonfiction articles, notice quotations and their purpose. For example, does the author use a quotation to reinforce a stated opinion? Write "Q" beside all passages that contain quoted material, both direct and indirect. Hopefully, you'll find time to analyze them later.
• Similarly, put an "A" beside each anecdote. Notice how the author leads into it. Like quotations, anecdotes can be used for a variety of functions. For example, one anecdote may support the author's point of view and/or work as a transitional paragraph, while another is simply included for interest.
• To study mechanics, highlight all punctuation marks on page. Do you agree with how they were used?
• Beef up your spelling. Redline words that represent your spelling demons.For example, are you troubled by the suffixes -er and -or? If hyphenation gives you grief, observe words formed with prefixes. In no time you'll imbibe the correct spelling of nouns like afterthought compared to compound adjectives, as in the phrase "after-dinner speech."
• Examine dialogue, underlining each character's words in a separate color. How does the author create different voices?
• Put a smiley face by smooth transitions between paragraphs, end of chapter zingers, an author's segues from the present to background material and back to the present, and so forth.
• Ask yourself questions, and scribble brief answers. What held your interest… or lost it? In How to Get Happily Published, Judith Applebaum says "writers often stop to examine each powerful passage…to figure out how it achieved its impact." She suggests three techniques to watch for: "a succession of startling images, a change of tense, a panoply of facts."

After you've squeezed all the good you can from one piece, file it and select another. When you read with purpose, you can turn poems or prose – from lengthy novels to brief advertisements – into teaching tools. It's simply a matter of observation, curiosity about writing technique, and a desire to improve your own work.

(c) 2013, Bernice W. Simpson

Outlining Made Simple, Part II

If you used the outlining system explained in Outlining Made Simple and your writing assignment was a page or less in length, I’m certain it worked for you. In that blog, we deliberately did not tell how to use the system for outlining a school research paper or a 2,500-word magazine feature. The reason: too much information can overwhelm most of us. We learn best in small increments.

We also learn by doing. Like downhill skiing, just reading about the subject won’t keep your face out of the snow.  So, if you don’t have a writing assignment, give yourself one—a short story, essay, or several pages in your journal—and follow along. Since the two blogs deal with the same subject, think of them as Outlining Made Simple, Parts I and II. Read Part I. That is the bunny trail.  

Here’s a summary of the bunny trail: To outline your writing, list miscellaneous thoughts about your subject on the right side of a 2-columned table. Next, place a number in each cell in the table’s left-hand column to indicate the note’s order in your piece. Then, highlight the column and click “Sort.” Now your thoughts are in logical order, and your article or story is ready to for a quick first draft.

In Part II, the slope isn’t frightfully steep.  We are still working in a table using Microsoft’s Word 2007, but this time we are using additional features. We will add rows to the top of the table, split the table and use commands “Split Screen” and “View Windows Side by Side.” If you are not familiar with those features, look them up in “Help,” or send me a note in “Comments,” and I’ll explain how to use them.

Use of the extra features will help you glide down a long slope. If your list of notes continues past one page, enumerating hundreds of thoughts can be a dizzying chore. Long lists need presorting. Follow these steps:

1.       Scan your notes and think of topics within your subject.

2.       Estimate the number of topical subdivisions you’ll have, and add that number of blank rows to the top of your table.

3.       Split the table after the last blank row. Similar to your listing of notes in the first table, list your topics in your newly drawn table.

4.       Next, assign a letter (a, b, c, and so forth) to each topic according to the order you want sections to appear in your paper.

5.       Highlight the left column, and press “sort.”

You have constructed your paper’s framework. Next, you will group all those miscellaneous notes to an order you can work with. You need the lettered list handy for referral while you go through your notes. You can print it. That works at home. But too often in a school or office, your one-page document’s place in the printing queue follows an order for a dozen copies of a 30-page collated booklet. Murphy’s Law applies: the printer jams. By the time your document prints, you could have finished your outline. Steps:

1.       Use the command “Split Screen” to keep the section’s list at the top of the monitor’s window. Now it remains in place for quick reference.

2.       Next, scroll through the list of notes, assigning each the letter of the topic a particular note will be grouped with.

3.       When each note is paired to a letter, highlight the table’s left-hand column, and click on “Sort.” Now disparate notes are pulled together into groups of related topics.

4.       Working with one letter at a time, decide on how you want to arrange the thoughts or notes in that particular group. Assign each note a number, and write that number beside the letter. The “c” group in the left column’s list may look something like this: c2, c5, c1, c4, c3.

5.       Highlight the part of the column containing only the letter you are working with. Click “Sort.”

Repeat the action for each lettered group in your notes. If you followed the steps outlined here, your notes logically arranged, almost represent your first draft. How easy is that?

©, 2012 Bernice Simpson

Writing Outlines Made Simple -- By Suzi Sandoval and Bernice W. Simpson

Award-winning Toastmaster, Suzi Sandoval, provides her audiences with speeches full of exceptional material presented in a concise and understandable manner.
Preparation for a speech or article begins with a topic and research for that topic. Once facts are gathered they need to be sorted, a process once done on index cards. "With our system, I can get those ducks in a row so much faster now," said Suzi.
Bernice said, "Before we developed our outline system, sometimes I spent so much cut-and-paste time on an article, I was tired of it before the writing started."
Here is the convenient method we use to outline an article or speech. We used 2007 Microsoft Word for the steps below. If you use Open Office or another word processing program, certain details will differ, but the overall concept should work for you.

            Ten Easy Steps to Create your Table. 

1.      From, the Home ribbon, go to Insert tab.

2.      Click on Tables

3.      Click on arrow, to insert a table.

4.      Hover cursor over “Insert table.” The line will turn yellow. Click.

5.      An “Insert table” box appears with choices.

6.      Choose the number of columns; for this particular purpose, we choose 2 columns.

7.      Choose the number of rows. For this particular purpose, we start with 12 rows.

8.      Click OK.

9.      By default, the column with is set on “auto” which means your two columns are the same width.

10.  To change the width click on the column line, and using the ruler for a guide, drag the line to the left to create one narrow column on the left and a wide column to the right.  

            Six Steps to Prepare Your Outline.

1.      In the rows on the right, jot down thoughts that pertain to your subject. Use one row for each thought. Use the down arrow to move from one row to the next.

2.      If you need more than the 12 rows in your table, use this quick method: simply move your curser to the outside of the table on the right side. Click on the "enter" key and another row will appear. Repeat for each extra row you want. Note: you must position the curser (use the "back" key or move it with your mouse) to the outside of the table to perform the action.

3.      Now you are ready to sort those miscellaneous thoughts to chronological order. Go through your list of notes, and place a number beside each note in what you think is a logical order. Where you are unsure of the exact order, assign a number to each major point. Next look for supporting material, and give those notes the number plus a small letter: 1a, 1b, and so forth.

4.      On the ribbon, choose the “Home” tab.

5.      On the ribbon, go to the “Paragraph” section. Find the icon for “sort.” It is an A above Z with a down arrow beside it. Click on it. A sort box will appear.

6.      By default, it is ready. Simply click OK.

Suzi and Bernice hope you'll try our outlining method. Let us know if you find it helpful.

(c) 2012, Susana Sandoval and Bernice Simpson

Balance

Can you relate to this? Everyone agrees you have a good topic and you've put a great spin on it, but it lacks…well, it’s hard to say what exactly. You redo paragraphs your writing group said were long; now the entire selection is choppy. You break up narration with dialogue, only to learn “it doesn’t have a natural feel to it.” The prose is flat in places, and even where the writing is good, your article or story is simply not coming together.

Maybe it lacks what I call journalistic balance. If so, you can learn to balance your writing by examining the works of professional writers. They’re easy to find.  Your local newspaper could be a source, and you can definitely expect to see them in magazines known for their excellence in journalism.

To find examples for this article, I checked the website of one of my favorites: The Smithsonian Magazine. I immediately clicked on “How E.B. White Wove Charlotte’s Web.” What writer can resist a title like that? And the reference to weaving fit this article because a well-woven article will be balanced.

Hopefully the article by Chloe Schama will still be posted when you read this. As a writer, reading her article should be both interesting and entertaining for you. Studying the following three items should not overwhelm you.

·         Opening: Notice the phrase, “porcine encounter.” Without it, Ms. Schama’s opening would have been too wordy and awkward for one sentence. How many of us would have considered using the word porcine?

·         Use of the m-dash: Here it emphasizes the next six words whose contrast to all that follows makes the m-dash still more effective.

·         Transition between the first two paragraphs: Remember that long list of transitional words and phrases you drew up in high school? They are largely absent in Schama’s articles, and that gives her writing a satisfying maturity. What links her first two paragraphs are the words “loss” and “sentiment.”

There is much more to learn about balancing your writing, but effective openings, punctuation, and transitions are good elements to start with.  And speaking of transitions, while you’re at the Smithsonian site, why not read Chloe Schama’s article, Frank Baum, the Man Behind the Curtain? After you’ve read it once, peruse it. Notice how she leads you smoothly from one paragraph to another.

Make a list of your observations. Soon your skill in using transitions will improve. And when you apply your knowledge to the story that wouldn’t come together? Read it and listen to the flow.

     

Show, Don't Tell: Three Tips to Turn Tell to Show

A novice sees "SDT," in her manuscripts margin. When told the letters stand for Show Don't Tell, the novice frowns, "...and that means what?"

It doesn't mean to never tell. But a good critic looks for places a writer can substitute facts (tell) with show. Show refers to something written in such a way that readers not only follow a story, but experience it. Read the three tips here to increase your understanding of the SDT concept. Their use will help to guide you toward your goal of writing excellence.

1. Engage Your Audience

They are participants aren't they? You write; they read. Instead of telling readers what to think, what to feel, or what to notice, give them credit for intellect. When they are pulled into a scene sufficiently to draw their own conclusions about characters or plot sequences, readers experience, through a movie in their minds, what you want them to know or feel.

Example of Tell:

Nobody liked working in that department, least of all Mr. Carter's assistant, Brenda. In her personal notebook she recorded his rudeness toward her and others. With Carter's negativity escalating, Brenda gleefully looked forward to the day he'd be fired. She had enough on him to present to head management, if necessary. It would rid their department of Mr. Carter, and put Brenda in his vacated office--with a promotion and raise, of course.

Tell Turned to Show:

Without losing stride, Alvin Carter stepped off the elevator, pushed the department door open, snapped his fingers at Brenda to summon her, pressed his remote key, and walked into his office.

Brenda pulled a notebook from her purse for a quick notation of his behavior. Give 'm enough rope, and he'll hang himself. As she moved toward his office door, she smiled. Keep it up, Alvin. You'll slip up seriously, and with your attitude, it has to be soon. I'll inherit your position with private office, and get two raises six months apart. One with the promotion, the other.... Raise morale, raise production, and that makes a raise for me. Poor Alvie, you just don't get it, do you?

When Brenda entered her boss's door, she left it open. If Carter raised his voice, others would hear it.

Notes:

The Show selection is longer than the Tell selection. Describing behavior that demonstrates a characteristic requires more words than a simple fact: "Mr. Carter is rude." But which one paints a clearer picture?

The writer used a technique called "Stream of Consciousness" (SOC) to show how Brenda and her co-workers feel about Mr. Carter. Without being told directly, readers gain greater insight into Brenda's relationship with Mr. Carter. She not only dislikes him, but disrespects him. The reader of Show may question Brenda's character as she schemes to take Mr. Carter's job. Despite that, the reader of Show has a greater sense of Brenda's self-confidence, and believes she is destined for Carter's position. Is it because the writer evokes an intellectual response by letting the reader follow, and identify with Brenda's thoughts?


       2. Edit Your Work

Example of Tell:

To look at Carla as she listened to Rev. Milford's Eulogy, no one could know the depth of her grief.

Tell Turned to Show:

Carla stared past the casket spray, past Rev. Milford to the bare wood of the empty choir loft, its great maw swallowing her pastor's words, "God's grace, comfort, faith, heavenly kingdom."

Notes:

Twenty words tell Carla, attending a funeral, is deeply grieved. Do you care? If you do, are you relating to Carla in an intimate way, or are you observing from a distance?

Compare your reaction to Show. Note the details added. How do they raise drama in the passage? Did you notice the phrase, "her pastor's words?" Does that lead you to believe Carla is a practicing Christian? Why is that cogent (though unsaid) information? How does the choir loft symbolize Carla's grief? Think about your intellectual engagement. Show does not use the words funeral, grief or eulogy. Compare facts given in Tell to the inference you draw in Show.

How to Edit Your Work to Raise Drama and Evoke Emotion

Write your first draft as fast as you can. If typical, that draft will tell the story, but will lack the emotional impact you feel and want to convey. Next, go through each page. Mark deadwood to remove and sentences to trim by rewording them.

With your word count reduced by one-third or more, go through the manuscript again. This time underline sections where you feel a sense of drama or a specific emotion. In the margin, label the response each invoked in you.

Next analyze. Your story is a movie in your mind. If you underlined "Sarah felt out of place because she was taller than her classmates," you identified with her and felt what it is to be different. But does the statement stimulate the same response in your reader? Not likely.

Try this: list Sarah's feelings about her situation. Include memories that hurt, made her angry, or caused her embarrassment. If, being taunted, she finally hit someone, what exactly happened? How did she deliver the blow that knocked him out...or killed him?

Take your rewrite to your critique group, and ask if you managed to transfer your mind's movie to theirs.


        3. Educate Yourself

You may have aced English in college, but if you think that turned you into a marketable writer, try selling your essays or research papers. Do people comment on your witty anecdotes? Try writing them to eleicit laughs. If you want to be published, find out what you must learn. Don't let your educational ego trip you. "Show, Don't Tell is a writing technique, and you can learn how to use it.

Read. Turn away from the sitcoms and read instead. Imbue how novelists reveal characters without making specific statements about how they look or feel. Notice how nonfiction authors, while not stating their opinions directly, atttempt to lead you to agree with their point of view.

Check your writing for: am, are, is, was, were. Simply rewording sentences that contain passive verbs often forces you to change tell to show.

Practice the art of SDT. Below, find one activity to start with.

Example of Tell:

Angela, recently divorced, had purposely filled her calendar with activities to stay busy and to forget the pain she felt. She volunteered at the church nursery on Wednesday nights, and read to children at the library on Saturday afternoons. On Saturday nights she served supper to the homeless, and cleaned the facility's kitchen afterward, staying after others left. There was always something to do. She washed grime off the legs of tables and chairs and wiped smudges from the woodwork. Perhaps her job and all the extra activity helped to push the hurt from her mind, but she felt she was just going through the motions of living. But it was not living. It was anything to fill time, to postpone returning to an empty apartment.

Turn Tell to Show

Show what you can do with the paragraph above. Post your "Show" in "Comments." If you want prompts for more SDT activities, use "Comments" for your request.

-  =  -  =  -  =  -  =  -  =  -  =  -
An apology for the format of this post--I will reformat to make it more readable when a kind friend installs word processing software on my new computer. --Bernice Simpson

(c) 2011, Bernice W. Simpson

How to Deliver a Thoughtful Critique

Think trip. Foray. Fun. Your destination is CCC, a meeting place reserved for Competent, Confident Critics. Since you're traveling with others, and groups vary, be ready to tailor these tips to fit your organization's arrangements.
Inexperienced? Don't let that deter you. You are a reader, right? You don't need to drive the bus to move along the road. Get on board and join the conversation. Your comments count.
Essentials on Your Packing List
Like the toothbrush and clean underwear in your bag, you need to pack your mind with a few essentials before starting out.

• Respect. When you regard each person in your group with professional dignity, it will be easier for you to criticize fellow members' writing. You will make purposeful comments even when a genre is one you don't normally read, or an author's opinions differ from yours.
• Friendliness. When you are a team player, you'll find a place to draw a happy face on each manuscript, and be compelled to compliment each writer when it's your turn to speak.
• Flexibility. When you understand the author's target audience, and what kind of critique s/he wants, your notations will be more appropriate and concise than they would be otherwise. (To save time, the author should provide a brief note stating background to the piece, audience, and the degree of thoroughness wanted in the critiques. It may be anything from an overall impression to as detailed a critique as time allows. If you need clarification of the term "audience" do the exercise below. It illustrates audience differences.

Stuffy Nose Stuff

 Instructions: draw lines to match the words to their owners

1. Exudates                 a. A six-year-old

2. Mucous                   b. A Medical professional in formal writing

3. Snot                         c. An adult in polite company

A Time to Be Picky

If a manuscript's next stop is an editor's desk, mark anything you think could hamper its sale. Look for errors that discredit the writer, such as improper agreement between subject and verb, an extra space between words, a comma accidentally left in when a sentence was changed. Watch for what a computer's spell-check may not catch: peer/pier, foreword/ forward, and so forth. Your careful inspection might give the manuscript the extra horsepower to beat traffic on Publication's super highway.

Pick Three

Try to make three comments about each manuscript you read. Do you need ideas? Below are a baker's dozen. Need more help? Use the "Comments" space below the blog to request it.

1. Awkward construction. If you read a section more than once, sentence construction may need improvement. If you can't think of how to fix the problem, indicate how many times you read it. "read 2x, 3x," etc.
2. Cliches. These are fun. For your own writing practice, make a list of cliches and your original substitutes. Be ready to replace the nondescript tires with the best on the road.
3. Descriptive phrases. Did you find one you liked? Give it a diamond.
4. Dialog. Comment on the dialog. Does it reveal character? Is it easy to follow? Where, if at all, do you think dialog would improve sections of narrative?
5. Echoes. Is a word or phrase repeated several times? Circle them.
6. Flow. If the piece read smoothly, say so. If not, can you spot what interrupted your reading flow? Remember to mention it in your verbal critique.
7. Hook. Do the opening sentences grab the reader? If not can you suggest a better hook?
8. Inconsistencies. Look for characters out of voice, time discrepancies, illogical elements or even contradictions to known facts.
9. Interest. Mention specifics that made the reading interesting to you.
10. Purpose. Does a piece fulfill its purpose? For example, does it instruct, entertain, provoke thought, or soothe your soul?
11. Setting. Does a scene lack (and need) a stronger sense of place? Comment on details that enliven the setting.
12. Verbs. Applaud the superlative. Check your thesaurus for active, expressive verbs to replace the passive or nondescript.
13. Zingers. Hopefully your group members are closing chapters with zingers. Give them a "Like" in fancy letters.

During the oral critique, direct your comments, prefaced with a positive word of two, to the writer. In a well-attended meeting, limit your observations to three points so others can have a turn. Be honest. Be compassionate. But remember the session's purpose: writing improvement. You should not, by your omissions, steer a writer down Rejection Road.

*Answers to Stuffy Nose Stuff: 1. b, 2. c, 3. a.

Excerpt from an unpublished book, CRAFT: Create, Rewrite, And Fine Tune

(c) 2011, Bernice Simpson