Make it Grow

 The four tools that writers can use to make their writing grow are:

                            READ                      
                             
                           Write

                           Observe

                          Experience

We touched on them all in the last post, and I thought we could dig deeper in following posts and so, today, it is READ.
When you read, you should read what you like. Now, not just the genre you like, but a book that when you pick it up and read a few pages speaks to you.
I have a problem reading non-fiction. It always is dull, to me. I have read some and enjoyed them and when I stopped to figure out why, I discovered that they were written like good fiction.
Books about writing fall in the non-fiction category, and I have read several. One that I love, and I know I am not alone in this, is Stephen King's "On Writing". Even if you don't like his subject matter in his books, he gets this right.
A good thing to do when reading these books on writing is to read other books, or at least one, by the same author to see how he puts his advice into action.
Someone I have followed, through her newsletters and blogs, is C. Hope Clark. She has just recently published four fiction books that I have enjoyed. Her web site is here: fundsforwriters.com. She gives good advice and information on funds for writers. Her site has been on Writer's Digest best 101 sites for Writers for the last 15 years.
A young man that has helped me with my writing is Jeff Goins. He started a daily challenge a year ago that has helped me with making sure I write often, daily, in fact. He has a blog goinswriter.com.Jeff has also written several books, the latest is The Art of Work. I have enjoyed it.It is about living the life you want, not the one everyone expects of you.
So, read about writing and read, read, read. Try one of the links here and see what is up with them.


                                                                                                          

Writing

I started writing in earnest about twenty years ago. By that I mean intentionally writing stories and I took a course on writing for teens.

I started signing up for newsletters on line that encouraged writers and were resources for money and prompts and just generally good to read.




The first one I signed up for was Funds for Writers and Funds for Writers Small Markets. I learned to love C. Hope Clark and enjoyed her stories as the editor for FFW.
 She let us into her life and encouraged all to write more and more and more. Her answer to anyone who said what do I write about was: everything. If your child is sick. Write about it. If your chicken gets out. Write about it.
If you are bored. Write about it. Her mantra has always been to just write.



It took me years to get to where I would write about it. I thought my stuff was silly and incorrect, but there are ways to find out if it is incorrectly written, as in wrong verbs, wrong voice, etc. Silly is just a frame of mind and you may think it silly, I may think it enlightening.




I joined a writing challenge that has helped me immeasurably to get to writing. It is called 500 Hundred Words a Day and was started by another of my e-mail mentors: Jeff Goins. Both Jeff and Hope have the same mantra: write. Just put your bottom in the chair and write.



You can write first, then edit. Try to put your editor out to grass while you write, you can always invite him back in after you have written the end to the story or rant or blog post, whatever you write. If you leave him in place while writing, you may only get three words done, if you put him out to grass, it may go to three hundred. You will need to edit, anyway, so write as much as you can before you do that edit.
 And ALWAYS edit.


 Who wants to send your first stories out into the world without straightening their ties and brushing their hair?