Define It.

Lately I've been coming across discussions and definitions of what writing is and it has made me wonder about my own definition of writing. 

I think everyone believes 'writing' involves grammar, punctuation, word choice, sentence variety, lyricism, pacing and similar mechanics. But is that the sum of writing?  Is it only about commas and word choice?  Or does writing also include story, plot, characters? 

There are many times when we say at writers "I like the story but the writing wasn't very good." or "The writing was amazing, but I couldn't connect to the characters." does writing include making your characters relatable (obviously there is still room for personal preferences here as not every reader will like every character no matter how well written) and making sure your plot has a beginning, middle and end? Or is that story telling? 

The fact that writing is defined differently by different people is one more reason the whole industry is so subjective and we sometimes feel there are no straight answers. 

For me, writing includes the line by line mechanics, grammar, word choice, smoothness, etc, but it also includes the whole; whether or not the story makes sense, multidimensional characters and such. I don't differentiate between "writing" and "story telling".  They're all part of the same thing. 

How do you define writing? Do you differentiate between the two?

Puzzler

The other day I was doing a puzzle with my daughter, Pretty Girl.  She started with only pulling half the pieces in the box out. She doesn't understand yet the idea of the whole picture.  She sees little flashes of color and thinks they're pretty and tries to smash them together regardless of fit.  I tried to explain that picture isn't complete without the background, edges and neutral colors that make the bright colors seem brighter. But at three years old this concept is a little difficult for her.

When we write we need to use all our puzzle pieces.  We need the idea, the flashes of color, but we also need the craft, the grammar, the dedication that hold those flashes together.  Grammar may not be the most exciting puzzle piece (and if it is don't tell me cause then I'll worry about your mental state) but it's a puzzle piece that can make the story shine.  It's grammar that get's the idea across appropriately so readers can understand what you're saying.

We can try to just write the shiny bits and smash them together into a story, but when you step back from the puzzle and look at the whole we'll be able to see the missing pieces and awkward fit. So go ahead and pull all the puzzle pieces from the box.  Dust off your unused writing skills and lets see what kind of picture we can write today.

What other writing puzzle pieces can you think of?

Overused

Last week I finished my edits (woohoo!) and on a lark decided to do the find function for “ly” Just to make sure I don’t have any unnecessary words residing in my manuscript.  Wow!  It was a huge surprise how many there were.  Some of them were legitimate, such as family (which comes up a lot in my story) But there were still a lot of adverbs.  How had I missed them all?  I was surprised how many times I used certain words.  My characters don’t do things, they slowly do things, and finally do things, and my favorite…slightly do things.  Apparently I also use the word “only” a lot.  I mean A LOT a lot.  My characters also sigh a bunch, as did I when I saw all of them.  

If I had a quarter for every “ly” word I’d be amazingly wealthy, or you know, able to buy some well written books to read. 

What words do you overuse?

Snips N Stuff

Does anyone else notice the growing trend of people who have stopped using capital letters?  Is it so very hard to capitalize words?  Or do people just not care about language anymore?  Maybe punctuation and grammar are becoming disposable like the rest of our society.

All right I'll end the rant now. 

You know how sometimes you have a day where you could get lots of writing done but you piddle around and don't do as much as you could. You work, but afterwards you look back and hate yourself a little for not working harder.  Anyone else do this?  Anyway, I'm trying to make up for such a day so I'll just leave you with a little snip I found. Does anyone else find things in their work that surprise them?  Things they don't remember writing, or that are surprisingly good, or surprisingly bad.

He could tell it was her by the shape of her body, the set of her head. He knew everything about how she looked, stood and moved. She was so beautiful, even now, a dark silhouette against the sky. His stomach fluttered and his knees felt slightly weak. It still surprised him, even after all these years, the effect she had on him. His arms ached to go around her, pressing her tight until she became a part of him. His lips tingled wanting to kiss her until she couldn’t breathe and thought of nothing but him. If only she would smile at him, truly smile, or even see him, instead of looking through or past him as she always did. If only she wanted him as he wanted her. 

Have a happy Wednesday!

Nuts and Bolts

I'm having someone help me with a final check through my MS before sending it to betas.  I'm shocked at how many things I've missed.  I know grammar isn't my strong point so I expected all the missed commas, but oh how many times I've misspelled a word.  Waive for wave.  Solder for soldier.  Thing for think. Sometimes I have words repeat repeat themselves. When it's a real word spell check doesn't get it and I, having read it all so many times before, see what I think is there rather than what is. Next time I'll print it out and read it out loud.    Or I can just give it to my mom and have her fix it again.  Thanks Mom!

What do you do to help find all those nitty gritty problems? And can we ever find them all?

Instructions

The Engineer and I have been working on our basement for years.  We’re doing most of the work ourselves so it’s taken awhile.  We’re getting close though and this weekend we started installing the cabinets.  They are from a wholesale type place up in Atlanta and therefore were very inexpensive (but oh so pretty) but we did have to assemble them ourselves.  When we pulled out the single sided, single sheet of paper I had to laugh.  The first sentence (which was coincidentally the whole first step):

Aims at on the side panel on fastener and the back panel fastener inserts afterwards, and then fasten them using screwdriver to turn camlock 180 degree clockwise.

What???? 

Step six consisted of only three words. 

Assembly the drawer.

It’s my new favorite sentence.  There was nothing about the different sizes of screws, the many pieces involved in the drawers, the hardware that needs to be inserted into the cabinet to make it open and close.  No we just have to assembly it. 

Fortunately The Engineer is good at building and figuring things out.  I mean, he did just build our basement; a little cabinet won’t stop him. 

I had to wonder though how much they paid the person who wrote this and how I could get that job. 

Contractions R Us

I received a crit once where I was told my use of contractions was not consistent.  I've been thinking a lot about this comment.  Yea, it was only one person but I want to make sure I get this right. 

In my manuscript I have a character that doesn't always use contractions.  This is not her native language and she does have a little more of a formal lilt to her speaking.  Also there are times when I might have used a contraction but didn't for the sake of emphasis.

"I won't do that."

VS

"I will not do that." 

Do you see a difference?  I try to keep them consistent within those parameters though. 

So the question I have for everyone is:  If you were to read this would the use of or lack of contractions bother you?  I'm very curious about how other writers feel about this.