Years ago my lifelong faith faltered because of effects in my life that I couldn’t explain. Here’s how a simple label fixed me, and can fix your writing, too.
Behold! The game is afoot, and The Second Draft loometh ahead, apparently precipitous but in reality more easily ascendable than its predecessor. In this, my most excellent beta reader = Mom = my climbing buddy, having scouted ahead and come back to me with a report of the obstacles and pitfalls I shall face. And so, knowing that forewarned is forearmed…
This year, I participated in the first annual Conscious Me Pre-Writing Challenge. Not only did I participate…I won it. This challenge is all about Writing it Early, which I talked about at the start of the challenge. That’s something you need to work on, whether you’re a blogger, a novelist, or anyone else who has to do serious writing from time to time. It always feels like a hassle, a necessary evil — or maybe you see it as a luxury you can’t afford — but it’s one of the best things you can do to make your work better (and, ultimately, to make it easier and less stressful).
I’ve mentioned it a couple times, and even devoted a whole page to a detailed description, but I’m participating in the Conscious Me Pre-Writing Challenge.
It’s all about Writing it Early, which I talked about a couple weeks ago, just as I was getting started. I thought it might be beneficial to you guys, my readers, to know a little bit more about the challenge, and about my experience with it.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Tell us about a time when you barely finished a project (bonus points if it was a writing project, but it doesn’t have to be).
We’ve all got our war stories, and they’re usually pretty fun to drag out from time to time. This week you’ve got a good excuse. Brag about the one you got away with. Make it a post on your blog, 300-900 words, and share a link with us here in the comments.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
That’s the biggest challenge of any blogging project: keeping up with the blog’s posting schedule. Really, it’s just a regularly recurring version of what is the biggest challenge for every writer: writing to a deadline.
There are techniques for handling that last minute writing, skills you can learn to make it as good as possible, but in the end that’s all just damage control. You cannot write your best quality work unless you write it early.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Weak verb forms will have been murdered by this blog post.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
As a new writer ready to start on revision, it’s difficult to know what’s wrong with your story, and sometimes even more difficult to know why it’s wrong. A good mark-up will reveal both of those things, but then it’s still up to you to figure out what to do with them.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
I met my little sister for dinner recently and said, “It’s time for you to start taking your writing seriously. It’s time for you to start proofreading!”
She just frowned and said, “But I do! That’s the thing. I don’t know how to make it better!”
The assignment this week is to critique one of your own documents. Pick something you’ve written recently and write a short analysis of the document’s quality and craftsmanship.