How To Be A Better Writer

A Haven for Readers and Those Who Want to be Better Writers

Lazy Eights

January 26, 2016 By howtobeabetterwriter_dhystk

“Eight Online Writing Tools to Help Liberate Your Inner Writer.” Catchy title, at least it has what it takes to make you want to take a second look. Here’s the list with very brief descriptions/comments. You can, in your free time, go take a closer look:

Marinara Timer Tells you when to take a break. How about when to get to work!? An inexpensive kitchen timer would work as well.

odds and endsCoggle – A mind-mapping tool that you can share with friends for input and comment, I think. Dad said it best, “Quit fiddle-farting around! If you want feedback, ask for it, but do the work first.

After the Deadline – A browser-based spell checker? Just what we need—another way to do the same thing ad nauseam.

Cold Turkey – Blocks websites that keep you from getting your work done. So does self-control and discipline, which is always more easily achieved when you focus on your work and put your primary priority on your most important priorities!

Typewrite – Write without the distraction of word processing software. Another stripped down word processor. Does a header and tool bar keep us from getting our work done? Really!?

Overleaf – A researcher? Description says, “. . . a little hard to use.” Sort sounds like you might have to use a chisel to cut a piece of paper. ‘Nuff for me! Next!

Focus Writer – Another simple interface for writers. How about pen and paper if you are that easily distracted? Try Damon Runyon’s technique—typewriter on a table shoved up against a blank wall.

Ginger’s Grammar Checker – “It’s not the most accurate tool, but with a few tweaks, it can get you there,” says the description. Where exactly is where? If you have to manage your tool, when will you have to time to get your work done? Do we want control dials on a hammer?

Mostly, these tools are not the products of writers but of people who want to service (or sell to) writers, and the writers they target are the new ones who are at that stage where they still believe in the fairytale magic that to be a writer just act like one—all you need to know are a few tricks and easy solutions.

I call this list the Lazy Eight. There are similar lists; they mostly vary in number.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not denigrating the suggested tools; it’s just that they do the same thing a dozen other apps claim—to make writing magically easier. If they actually did make writing easier, we should see apps like Plot Plotter, Paragraph Perfection, Verb Checker, Ending Examiner, Character Creator, Pulitzer Picker . . . The logic behind such apps is similar to that in the old joke: My doctor told me to quit drinking or it would kill me, but have you ever noticed there’s a lot more old drunks around than old doctors?! There are a lot more writer remedies around than . . . writers.

One of the first things to learn on the road to becoming an accomplished writer—and that is your goal—is the need for a mature and realistic approach to the craft. Sometimes it comes easy, but mostly you have to work and struggle at it—sort of like a smithy taking a piece of iron and turning it into a horseshoe. A horseshoe looks simple enough, until you examine the stages of effort involved in making one.

Perhaps the better analogy to writing is the formation of a human fetus. There are stages that take place from impregnation to the birth of a baby: zygote, blastocyst, embryo, fetus, birth. Your skills in writing have to go through a similar process, except we don’t have universal labels and reasonably “demarkable” stages, and improvements are usually nuanced. The maturing process for a writer involves learning the creative side of the creative process and how to use the tools of communication in an evermore-creative manner. Get it? The key is your creativity.

ad for pillsSystems and techniques touted as shortcuts are sort of like old time patent medicine remedies. Geritol and Carters Little Liver Pills come to mind. In reality, they were little more than laxatives. And because people could get “irregular,” emptying their intestines generally made them feel better. They could as easily achieved the same result by drinking more water to loosen “things” up.

There are no little pills to unplug your brain, although many children of the Sixties tried to find them. The way to “unplug” your brain’s creativity is through exercising and practicing it. When not working on writing creatively, read the words of other creative writers and analyze, analyze, analyze. But in all that analysis, remember that a creative mind is one that is loose and relaxed and lets the content flow and keeps in mind the ever-reliable adage and promise of hard work—writing IS rewriting.

Why do you think cellist Yo Yo Ma practices for hours every day? To keep on top of his game, maintain his creative edge, and achieve the little nuances of perfection. It takes practice and assessment and practice and assessment.

It’s probably better to analogize writing to sculpting rather that music. In music you practice the same piece over and over. The sculptor, as the writer, starts new each time. The edits and rewrites of a writer are the efforts a sculptor takes to bring the details of his subject to life in marble. Turn the page of your journal and you face a new piece of marble. You can use what you learned on you last piece, but your challenge is to bring perfect to your new piece.

In fact, don’t call it a journal. The minute you put such a label on a notebook you start to confine the range of your input to fit the label. Just have a notebook that you write in every day. Be it a paragraph, a page, or several pages of stream of consciousness, whatever way on a given day and in a given mood gets words on paper. But writing serves no purpose unless you read and review it and analyze the quality of your efforts. What are you looking for? Signs that you are getting better! As you build your writing muscle, you gain a little better control of the more fine and refined movements. That’s when you will see your own progress.

I have this theory that the problem with teaching writing is that we confuse it with teaching grammar. As a result, we make students so fearful of breaking a grammar rule that they plug up their literary alimentary canal to the point of stoppage. They are in a constant stage of starting over and their writing becomes forced and redundant. So many of the “short cut apps” marketed to writers are little more than “tools” to comply with the rules of grammar. The consummate art of relabeling standard concepts to sound like break-through remedies! So instead of taking the latest version of Carter’s Little Writer Pills, put your fingers to the keyboard and write. A great place to start is to avoid the Lazy Eights and pick out a beginning of something new and see where it takes you. How will you know when you’ve made some improvement in your writing? You’ll hear it when you read your work to yourself.

Your keyboard is calling.

Filed Under: How to Be A Better Writer, Writing Tagged With: grammar, systems, techniques, writing tools

Comma-nders of Usage

July 17, 2014 By howtobeabetterwriter_dhystk

Harold Ross, founder of The New Yorker, and James Thurber, who served as the magazine’s literary backbone for decades, allegedly fought for three week over just one. One argument over its proper use is made august by being named after Oxford University. Even constitutional scholars and jurists have weighed in on its proper use. The comma! Its history is long and sometimes colorful, starting with perhaps its description by Richard Mulcaster (1532-1611) as that “small crooked point, which in writing followeth some small branch of a sentence, and in reading, warneth us to rest here and help our breath a little.”

commasThe description shows up in Mulcaster’s The First Part of the Elementarie (1582), but even then he was late to the party. Apparently this curve-tailed creature of punctuation was invented by Aristophanes of Byzantium, the librarian in Alexandria, Egypt, around 200 B.C. If so, he certainly left his mark on history. You would think by now its proper use and application would be well settled, but debates over when and where to use it continue. I’m going to focus on a few of its primary uses about which writers need to be aware.

My own technique to determine whether a comma is called for involves (A) what sounds right, and (B) the avoidance of confusion. When I write, I constantly read my efforts aloud to test whether what I have put down on paper comes back off clearly to the reader. Usually, words come off the page through the reader’s eyes, but it’s the ears that determine whether the words chosen play well and sound correct, even to one’s eyes.

When you read what you have written aloud, if your sentence(s) clearly and effectively set forth your intended message, they probably are correct. Of course, reading aloud requires some level of emotion. Deliver your sentences in a dead, flat-lined, monotone and punctuation becomes pretty much useless.

Sounding right has a lot to do with inflection—the modulation of intonation or pitch in your voice that injects feeling or emotion into what you have written. Like a measure of music, a sentence can have variations in emphasis, rhythm and pitch, but intonation is what gives life to its words.

The comma is the closest thing we have in the our written language to the symbols in music that guide a musician in how to deliver musical content. They alert us as to where to make changes in intonation that impacts rhythm, and thus, the meaning of a sentence.

Certainly, there are places where the placement of a comma needs to be rule-driven, thus the distinction between “Let’s eat Grandma” and “Let’s eat, Grandma.”  But even there, the sound test works quite nicely, unless you are actually suggesting to your cannibal family what’s for supper.

The primary rules that guide comma usage include the following applications:

1) To separate independent clauses in a compound sentence. Usually we employ a conjunction (and, but, or, for, nor, yet) between the clauses, and plug in a comma before it. “I’m inviting everyone to dinner, but you can decide whether to stay for desert.” In lieu of the comma and conjunction, you can sometimes use a semi-colon or even a dash. “I slid sideways to a stop, pointed my bike at the trail and began to peddle.” or “I slid to a sideways stop—pointed my bike at the trail and peddled.”

15 punctuation marks2) To set off a parenthetical element from the rest of the sentence. Warning: This device is subject to over use. The parenthetical element interjects something that you want the reader to know right now but it’s not absolutely necessary that the reader be immediately informed. You’re interjecting an interruption—an aside—so you want make it clear to the reader that is what you are up to. “Mrs. Henry, my English teacher, uses a bullwhip to keep students in line at lunch time.” The way the sentence is written injects clarification about who Mrs. Henry is and the information, being non-essential, is set it off with commas. But written in another way, the relationship between Mrs. Henry and teaching English are essential to one another and thus does not require a comma. “My English teacher Mrs. Henry loves to come up with ways to avoid having to use commas.”

Of course, if you have two or more English teachers, the comma would be required. Also, the comma is dropped when the additional information is essential and it’s usually essential when you identify which one(s) about the word the added phrase defines or identifies. Note: This is one of those important rules of usage.

To run the risk of being tiresome in order to, hopefully, add additional clarity, the distinction between additional information that requires a comma and additional information that does not can be classified by whether the additional information is restrictive or nonrestrictive. (Notice that “hopefully” in the sentence above was set off by commas because it’s a true interrupter.) If a clause is restrictive, i.e., necessary to define the word being clarified or defined, it needs no commas. If it’s nonrestrictive—you’re merely adding information that is not necessary—it needs commas. A restrictive clause limits, i.e., restricts the meaning of the noun being clarified. It usually involves defining the word modified, so no commas are required. The information being interjected is essential. The test to determine if it’s essential is: if you remove it, will the meaning of the sentence be significantly changed?

When adding information that doesn’t define the noun, the information is not being restrictive but merely adds information, then you set it off with commas. Writers frequently employ nonrestrictive clauses as a way to insert additional information and to break up the potential repetitive or monotonous sound of a cluster of short sentences.

Your litmus test: Nonrestrictive clause requires commas. Restrictive clauses do not.

3) Separating elements in a series. This is probably one of the first rules of punctuation you learned. Over the years, however, there has been a debate with how to handle the last of a list, especially when the list has only three items. For example: “Becoming a better writer involves a commitment to usage, diction, and spelling.” There are proponents who claim this last comma, known as the Oxford comma, is not actually required. I use it to keep the peace with grammarians, and Oxford graduates, who tend to keep score. Note, however, that when the list is adjectives used to describe a noun, the “and” is not used: “It was a typical frigid, snowy, windy Minnesota day.” Go figure!

4) Setting off dialog and quotes. As a wet-behind-the-ears journalism student, I suspected that many of my cohorts preferred paraphrasing to using direct quotes in their stories because you could cramp a finger executing the keyboard machinations required on those old Royal desktop behemoths to insert all the required quotation marks and commas.

Journalists use direct quotations as a way to add credibility to their writing. There was a time in journalism history when you didn’t put quotation marks around what the President said. Apparently, there was an informal conspiracy between newsmen and the White House to leave the President room to wiggle his way out of accountability. We now call it plausible deniability. Politicians have since come up with a better technique. They just lie. “I didn’t say what I said and if I did I didn’t mean it. You misquoted me. You took it out of context.” That’s right up there with the three-pronged defense to a claim that your neighbor’s dog bit you: “First, my dog doesn’t bite. Second, my dog wasn’t home that night. Finally, I don’t own a dog.”

one comma5) Miscellaneous items to keep in mind:
• Introductory elements of two of more words in length are generally set off with a comma. The single-word type can usually join the rest of the sentence unimpeded: “Finally he got up and left the room.” However, if the introductory word might create a misunderstanding, insert the comma: “Sadly, his family didn’t understand why he ran away from home.”
• A comma sets off a conjunction adverb used as a transition: “The clock on the wall indicates I’m right on time. My watch, however, indicates otherwise.”
• Use commas with words of direct address, such as yes/no, the reader’s name, question tags: “Yes, I’ll have water with my bread,” said the prisoner. Mild indicators, such as “well” or “oh,” like commas, too: “Well, it is really good water.”
• The feared and revered “comma splice.” Splice refers to cutting something, usually in two. But grammarians use it to refer to leaving out the conjunction between two independent clauses and letting a comma do all the work. Sometimes a literary device, a true grammarian cringes at the thought, hides in the corner and cries, “Quick! Add a comma!”
• Quotes require attribution, set off with commas. There are three basic styles. (A) Introductory words after the quote: “Blah, blah, blah,” said author Beatrice Jones. (B) Introductory words before the quote: Ms. Jones said, “Blah, blah, blah.” (C) Introductory words somewhere between the beginning and the end to break up a quote. “Hardy har har har is important,” declared Ms. Jones, “but what is really needed is more blah, blah, blah.” (C) A hybrid that includes additional information either in front of a quote, after a quote, or in both places: The writer Beatrice Jones leaned toward the camera and said, “Blah, blah, blah,” then turned and walked out of the room leaving the floor cluttered with unused and tattered quotation marks. “They wanted to charge me with literary littering,” she complained later.”

You can see how the above quotation techniques can add variety and help a writer avoid sounding like a courtroom transcript? Q-A-Q-A . . . They are key tools for the writer, so look at where the commas are placed and follow the obvious rules of use. You don’t need a grammar manual; a well-edited novel will serve as a good guide to quotes, i.e., dialogue.

For the writer, other important basics about commas to remember, include:
 To indicate missing words. They are missing because you removed them. The “them” are usually conjunctions. Again, the comma is used to assure clarity. “She went to the movies, I went to play.”
one comma A note is needed here. You can use the relative pronouns “that” and “which” to introduce clarifying information: “This is the car that I want to purchase.” “I put my bike, which has 18 speeds, up for sale.” A few rules associated with “that” and which”: “That” typically refers to people and “which” to things. “Which” usually takes a comma to set off the clause it introduces, and “that” does not. Note the foregoing sample sentences. Argh!

Why know about comma usage? Misuse of the rules regarding commas can have expensive consequences. Take the case of Rogers Communications and Aliant, Inc., up in Canada. Rogers executives were confident they had locked in a long term price for the right to string their cable lines on Aliant’s telephone poles that protected them from price hikes on the long term. Surprised they were when Aliant gave them notice of a hefty rate hike ($2.13 million Canadian dollars) only a few years into the contract. The ensuing dispute hinged on a single comma. At issue was a key clause on page seven that said the agreed upon rate “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

The problem lay with that second comma. The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission ruled that the second comma allowed for termination of the contract at any time, without cause, upon one-year’s written notice.” The apparently much-desired five-year price protection was erased by the comma between “terms” and “unless.”

gunCloser to home, the placement of a second comma gave rise to a recent (2007) debate about the intentions of the Founding Fathers in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution regarding the right to bear arms: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The District of Columbia, in an effort to curb crime in the District, adopted strict rules on the ownership of handguns. The resulting uproar by handgun owners and organizations like the National Rifle Association, turned the Supreme Court into a cluster of grammarians. The D.C. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, honed in on the second comma—the one after “state”—to rule that the Amendment endowed each citizen with and individual right to carry a gun regardless if they belonged to a militia, as opposed to the proffered argument that the amendment protected the “collective” right of states to maintain their militias.

According to the court, the second comma divided the amendment into two clauses: one that was “prefatory” (i.e., introductory in nature) and the other “operative.” Wrote Adam Freeman in his 2007 New York Times article, about the kerfuffle, “On this reading, the bit about a well-regulated militia is just preliminary throat clearing; the framers don’t really get down to business until they start talking about ‘the right of the people . . . shall not be infringed.’”

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed, and in a decision, much of which was couched in historical interpretation of the Constitution’s linguistics and 18th century writing style, held the right to bear arms remained an individual right, as opposed to a right to carry arms in connection with military service. Mr. Freedman describes the condition of grammar in the days when the Constitution was drafted:

“Refreshing though it is to see punctuation at the center of a national debate, there could scarcely be a worse place to search for the framers’ original intent than their use of commas. In the 18th century, punctuation marks were as common as medicinal leeches and just about as scientific. Commas and other marks evolved from a variety of symbols meant to denote pauses in speaking. For centuries, punctuation was a chaotic as individual speech patterns.”

At least my interpretation that the placement of commas in part depends on what sounds right has found acceptance with SCOTUS.

Comma on!

But carefully. They might be loaded.

Filed Under: How to Be A Better Writer Tagged With: commas, laws, punctuation, writing, writing tools

Writing Tools

January 11, 2014 By howtobeabetterwriter_dhystk

Recommendations from Lowell Forte about writing tools

Like any skill, you need tools.

If You Want to WriteHere are some  I recommend to add to your tool chest:

Webster’s New Third International Dictionary – This is the one you see the kids bee lugging around. It’s definitive. It’s expensive—about a hundred bucks. It is loaded with most of the ammo you will need for any writing mission.

A good thesaurus. I use Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus and the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus. Keep in mind that a thesaurus should not be considered a source to find a more impressive word but one that more clearly expresses what you want to say. It’s easy to get caught up in overload mode—like the curlicues added to fancy-up a wrought iron fence—but your goal should be to make a very good but simple gate that lets the reader through to clarity.

Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook – I have the fourteenth edition with a 2001 copyright. It’s a bible of grammar and writing guides that are both helpful and fun. You don’t need a shelf of grammar books. Remember, there are no magic formulas, just some basic rules to understand. It’s how you apply the rules that help you improve you writing. But you should view rules as made of rubber rather than concrete. In writing, rules are for guidance. They point you in the right direction. Hodges does a good job of that.

The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage – This is a great volume to augment Hodges and provides some alternative insights in a straightforward manner. This is one of the books I give to friends.

Write Source 2000 – Patrick Sebranek, Dave Kempter, and Verne Meyer did a masterful job in putting this book together. Mine has a copyright date of 1999, but the nice thing about grammar is good advice stays relevant for a long time, and these guys provide some great advice, aided by the fun illustrations by Chris Krenzke. There is a wonderful section called the “Proofreader’s Guide” that serves as a quick reference source to key rules of grammar and usage. The book also has great information on basic writing skills that will help in building your confidence.

The Elements of Style – Written by William Strunk Jr. and modernized by E.B. White. Your grandparents might have used it during their college days. Penguin Press came out with a hardbound illustrated version in 2005, which is a more pleasant experience to read than the small paperback I lived with in junior college. Perhaps best described as a compendium of good usage, it’s worth reading as a book rather than used just as a resource.

If You Want to Write – By Brenda Ueland. Her book bears an original 1938 copyright date, but her advice and wisdom is timeless, especially the early chapters. Try to find an edition by publisher Graywolf Press (www.graywolfpress.org), with a wonderful introduction by Andrei Codrescu. It’s as if Ms. Ueland is patting you on the shoulder to give you confidence and courage. She’s a wonderful spirit to keep around.

There are other grammar and usage books, but I like these because they offer practical, and therefore, immediately usable advice. You don’t learn to write by accumulating dozens of reference books. You learn to write better through practice, practice, practice.

Filed Under: How to Be A Better Writer, Paragraphs Tagged With: writing, writing tools

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