Category: Writer’s Block

Books, writing and writers

And the word is…?

Posted in Writer's Block

Jake: A Murder in BrooklynAlan M. Guy is a retired dentist and indie author. “Jake: A Murder in Brooklyn” begins when the protagonist is awakened at 3:33 a.m. from a dream. Detective Stanislaus Jakubowski (Jake) begins a quest to find the vicious murderer of his now retired, former detecting partner and mentor. Guy cautions readers that the content is raw and gritty, and “Not for everyone.”

Guy, a member of a Florida writing group, produced this work as a challenge to see if he could write without using an English word deemed to be most common in all compositions. Can you guess what word he left out?

My senior center writers’ critique group is composed of an eclectic mix of capable, original thinking, intelligent individuals, all of whom have impressed me and educated me in some way or another, to become better at this craft.

Mary Alice brings wisdom, derived from her many active years, to frequent musings: most are humorous in her unique style. A few are serious. I guess it must depend on her mood that week.  All her creations, however, reflect her ability to simplify with dignity and grace those thoughts, which flow through her mind.

Carol contributes her unique ability to make us feel comfortable with her down home Wisconsin war-year childhood essays. We feel these essays must be compiled into an anthology to share with her family members. Most outstanding is her writing and rewriting remarkably reflective remembrances carefully crafted with alliterative alliterations.

Bonnie has created a semi-fictional family saga, which entertains and envelopes us with each reading in its unusual stylized format. In addition, she has a remarkable ability to listen intently and constructively critique unabashedly. Despite her recent “JOB-like” trials and tribulations, she has returned to us with her ever-positive smile and giggles.

Steve has shown an ability to artfully describe real characters. On his imaginative side, he creates fictional futuristic mysterious men secretly training for some worldly salvaging of our seas, or perhaps more, as that might be a smokescreen for something more sinister.

No one can deny Limone’s deep-seated love for his horribly damaged homeland. He expresses his spirituality so humbly as he describes his feelings towards God, Mother Earth, and his fellow human beings.

Doug has brought an unusual frank story of real people from financially humble beginnings with a style so dramatic it is enthralling just to listen. He has a fabulous matter-of-fact ability to read his story that seems like a professional actor. He has a great voice for radio.

Don’s mischievous, rebellious views of life and religion sometimes masked a great talent he possessed in many artistic aspects of his long life. His position was that he was unable to critique our fiction, which did not detract from sharing with us his well-researched writings on classical painters and Germany’s Bauhaus movement.

Jane, as facilitator, provides guidance with a well-balanced firmness to keep our group on track, combined with enough flexibility to allow some deviation, so long as it is informative or helpful to some of us in our world of writing and literature. Her lack of visual acuity, which has forced her to become an involuntary Luddite, has not deterred her ability to keep up with current events or knowledge of the technology to which she is no longer privy.

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Answer? The. Did he succeed?

Tools of the trade

Posted in Writer's Block

EmersonHow many times have you wished for just the right image or message to convey your thoughts and feelings? What about combining them? Do you wonder where people come up with all that stuff you see on the internet? It’s mind blowing when you think about it. Some of the content is just plain silly and some is breathtaking. A lot of what you see is amateurish at best while some is breathtakingly beautiful. I don’t think there’s much you can do with a good photo except post it and let the viewers take it in visually and intellectually. Sometimes, however, you want to take your photo to a different level. You want your audience to get what you meant when you took that shot. One way to do that is with a free design tool called Canva (www.canva.com). Most of what is on the site is free, but you may need to pay for photos that are not stock photos. Even at that the paid images are mostly in the $1 range. Or you can upload your own photos and designs, as I did with the image at right.

It is a simple-to-use tool. There is a slight learning curve but it won’t be long before you are creating all kinds of designs. You can use them in Facebook and other social media posts and in blog posts. Aside from being a useful tool, it is down right fun to play with.

I learned about this site by attending a webinar conducted by Joan Stewart, www.publicityhound.com and Joel Friedlander, joel@thebookdesigner.com, well-known names in the indie publishing business.

If you are looking for a handy tool to add to your design toolbox, this is it and it is (mostly) free.

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Note: I am in no way affiliated with Canva . These are my thoughts based on my experience. There may be other similar programs in the marketplace. I have not tried them.

5 Benefits of Grammarly

Posted in Writer's Block

InspirationI hate editing my copy. It’s the trickiest part of writing. There are so many ways to go wrong when you are producing words by the hundreds. For all the value word processing programs have brought to writers, their biggest flaw is literal non-contextual interpretation of words.

She went their to see her mother. Their is spelled correctly, but it’s wrong in this context.

The bear truth, is misleading unless you are talking about a big brown animal you came across in the woods.

Grammarly.com, an online instant grammar checker and more,  is a wake-up call: Commas, periods, exclamation points, oh my! Spelling, context, confused words, oh my! Voice, mixed metaphors, unclear comparisons, oh my! Grammarly points to the word or phrase and suggests an alternative, or that you rethink what you’ve written, oh my (head in my hands here), and sigh. I am not a horrible writer, but I am too often a lazy one. Grammarly is worth every cent of the $139 I paid for it.

Grammarly forces me to think: Yikes, what a thought. Think more about what I write. Perish the thought. However… (Picture me thinking here: Hmmm, Grammarly might not be happy about that ellipse. Does it have a purpose? It does come in handy now and again, because as I write I may want to slow my readers down. Still, is the ellipse necessary, or am I slowing down the reader too much?) I hope you get the idea. As a writer you do want to think about every aspect of what you’re writing – spelling, grammar, voice, tone, and readability, and yes the occasional ellipse.

Grammarly hates, hates, hates, passive voice: If you use this product be ready for a rude awakening. You think you’re writing in electrifying ways, until you see how many times you slip into passive voice. Why do you slip into passive voice? Because passive voice is easy, and it’s sloppy, that’s why. Things happen, and you tell about what happened, yadda, yadda, yadda. Have you put the reader to sleep in the process? I look over some of the things I’ve written, and I cringe. Instead of engaging the reader, I see where I dumped information in globs. Bad form; sloppy writing.

Grammarly gives you options: You can use the basic mode and Grammarly checks for contextual spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and style. Or you can select plagiarism to learn whether you have inadvertently “borrowed” someone’s words and made them yours. There is a vocabulary enhancement function, which points out vague words that can be changed to another word or phrase to make the sentence stronger or clearer.

Grammarly will send you to a professional proofreader: I believe there is a charge for this service, but if you want another pair of eyes to look at your work, the option is there.

A caution here. Grammarly doesn’t do your work for you. You still must read your copy. The suggestions in Grammarly are just that, suggestions. As the writer, it’s up to you to accept or reject the program’s recommendations.

In summary this is a good product for writers whether you are writing a business letter, an op-ed piece for the local paper, a school paper, an essay or a book. Punctuation and grammar are the building blocks of written communication.

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Note: I am in no way affiliated with Grammarly.com. These are my thoughts based on my experience. There are other similar programs in the marketplace. I have not tried them.