Introductions - Phase One

Over the course of the next 13 chapter phases,There will be writing points for new writers, and those experienced ones looking for any additional helping points. I will provide some tips and information to help hone your work even better and hopefully, everyone will gain something from this.

I will cover not just basic grammar and punctuation, but different styles of poetry and prose, short story and novel writing, non-fiction, autobiography and biographies, essays, memoirs, reviews, and screenplays. I will show examples on every area I possibly can.

I will have material here to talk about plot setting, suspension of disbelief, elements of fiction.

I have a section on the who-what-where-when-why and how. Tips on your beginning, middle and end to what you write. Also, the one part no writer enjoys …editing and revision.

I will have a series of what I call Side-Bar Notes – knowing your fiction/non-fiction/poetry market. Why rejections happen.

There will be more I haven’t mentioned.

But to be clear, I have read many pieces of work on Prose, and all of it is and has been very good. This is a guide for you to use when you are not on Prose and are looking to heighten your muse, get you past a rough patch in thinking or writing.

With that said, I want to mention, and recommend a very good book to read: The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. written in 1918, and published by Harcourt, in 1920, comprising eight “elementary rules of usage”, ten “elementary principles of composition”, “a few matters of form”, a list of 49 “words and expressions commonly misused”, and a list of 57 “words often misspelled”. E. B. White greatly enlarged and revised the book for publication by Macmillan in 1959. That was the first edition of the so-called “Strunk & White”, which Time named in 2011 as one of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923. This tiny book will do more for your writing than a four-year college degree in my humble opinion.

On one last note: I am debating on whether to put up an article I have saved since 2012 about the joys and hazards of self-publishing on the web. What do you think? Should I? or should I not? You won’t see it anytime soon, but if you want to see and read this, it will be available.

Now, for those of you already published, there still may be things put here you find you can use somewhere down the line. So, for the time being, I will begin this with something I always said to my students.

… and we begin.

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First, Webster’s American English Thesaurus defines the word Poet as: a writer of verses, versifier, rhymer, rhymester, poetaster, bard, minstrel, troubadour, maker, creator, author, composer, writer.

Call it what you will, one could add to the definitions: emotional, thinker, doer, active, skilled, talented, and designer.

As for yourself, what words would you add to the mix?

Regardless of what you do in life, whether you decide to become that published author, brick-layer, carpenter, doctor, mechanic, a CEO, or a ditch-digger, for your own sense of self-worth and importance as a person, as a human being, take the attitude of these six words, and carry them with you as your personal mantra.

I Can. I Must. I Will.

Don’t say: I can’t, if, doubt, I don’t think, I don’t have the time, maybe, I’m afraid of, I don’t believe, (minimize) I, and, it’s impossible.

What you can say: I can, I will expect the best, I know, I will make the time positive, I am confident, I do/will believe, (promote) you, and, It can be done.

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“For all things are possible. Without possibilities, we have nothing. With possibilities, we have everything.” - Me

“Honesty’s the best policy – Miguel de Cervantes

“Liar’s prosper” – unknown.

These quotes worth remembering.

The first, is that good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals such as vocabulary, grammar, and the elements of style.

The other, is that while it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is just as impossible to make a great writer out of a good one; it is possible, with hard work, dedication, and more work, to make a good writer out of a competent one.

And let’s face facts, when writing fiction, every writer out there known to us is a paid professional liar entertaining the hell out of us!

Here is an interesting true story.

What is the difference between you, and Stephen King?

He can command well over $1,000,000 in advance for a novel today, even if it had but a single word on a page (slight exaggeration). Why is that? Because he honed and polished his craft to become one of the most read writer’s around the globe. He didn’t start off making that kind of money overnight.

But what makes you and Stephen King the same?

Simple: you both start with a blank page. You both stare at a sheet of white pureness until the first word is put down.

Any story you write, should have, must have, a strong and captivating opening to catch the reader’s attention. It is well known that a single line opener, or a four-line paragraph will further a writer’s career or destroy it.

I am a firm believer that as a writer you should:

1) Already know your ending before you begin Chapter One

2) Already have it written

3) Fill in the middle that holds the start and finish together.

Those who take on a writing career (profession), take on a task that can be done in a month, or a year; some may take years, before that that all-important novel you know sleeps, eats, and breathes inside you, wants to be wakened, written and feel very much alive. Some of you now are already published author’s, but there are always tips of the trade that can help you even more. Within all that will appear here over the weeks, there will be a line or two that will trip your writing light fantastic.

As new writer’s, being recognized by the marketing industry is difficult, but it can be done.

Sorry, I side-tracked myself. Let me get back to that true story.

Stephen King started in a single-wide trailer writing short stories he would sell to skin magazines back in the 60’s and early 70’s, of which he sold them under the name, Richard Bachman. His first major release in 1974 was ‘Carrie’ (He wrote under his own name), practically sent him soaring to Number One on the Best-Seller’s List, and later became a movie with the same name in 1976 that helped his career even more. His works today are printed in 26 different languages, and he has written both screenplays and non-fiction as well.

So, I think, if a small-time guy in a single-wide, working as a short-order cook making $150 a week can make it … why can’t you.

The only way you won’t make it in this business is one thing: you don’t give it your very best and treat it like it is your best friend or lover.

Know this: breaking into the business isn’t easy, but it is doable.

Most new writers begin with small press publications/magazines. They may or may not pay you, but moist will send you 1-5 copies of your work in print. If they don’t pay you, then see the published story or poem as part of your resume. The more you get published this way, the sooner you will be able to take the next step and begin submitting to publishers. Once you can convince them by an already proven record of accomplishment; there will be a publisher that will offer you a contract. That means it becomes official: you are a published, not writer, but a novelist, an author! That has a much better sound, doesn’t it? And much later into this course, I will go into more detail.

But here I want to make one very necessary point. If your intent is to write to make a ton of money, large or small … forget it. It will never happen. That attitude can and will show up in a hurried write and often, overkill. As a writer, or novelist, your writing should be because it is something you love doing and that you want to entertain your audience. Just keep that in mind. If you do that, the money will come.

I have often said to my students: if one person who reads what I write, gets something from it, then I have done my job as a writer.

Next, I will have a section on the one area we all need help with at some point or another. Grammar and punctuation. (Yeah, I know ... you hate it ... so sue me.)

This will be the only “class” you attend you will never have to pay for. And I don’t know about you, but I love free stuff, especially when it really is free!

And for the final kicker this week, I leave you with a few fun things to ponder over.

Palindromes (which a word or series of word is spelled the same backward as well as forward) and Homophones (where these words, though spelled differently have the same exact sound.)

Perhaps there may be a poem or short story from these words. Hmmm … now there’s a scary thought.

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Palindromes

A Toyota—civic—deer breed—don’t nod—eye—level—madam, I’m Adam—never odd or even—Otto—pop—bob—radar—see referees—step on no pets—top spot—a nut for a jar of tuna—bird rib—borrow or rob—I did, I did—live not on evil—ma has a ham—no lemon, no melon—not so, Boston—pa’s a sap—pupils slip up—rise to vote, sir—rotator—Roy, am I mayor—tenet—was it a rat I saw.

Homophones

Aid/aide—air/heir/err—ant/aunt—allowed/aloud—arc/ark—aural/oral—away/aweigh—ball/bawl—band/banned—baron/barren—be/be—beach/beech—bite/byte—fir/fur—flour/flower—foreward/forward—gait/gate—gilt/guilt—grease/Greece—great/grate—groan/grown—hall/haul—hire/higher—peace/piece—pleas/please—pole/poll—pray/prey—real/reel—rows/rose—to/too/two—sea/see.