Spoonerisms in Writing

When I first met my husband, he loved to provoke the curiosity of a tot by reciting a poem about the "Pee Little Thrigs" or "Rindercella who slopped her dripper."

The first response to this was always a blank stare while a puzzled child would try to decipher the code. Next, came what sounded like a giggle stick and then, chuckles gave way to snorts.

After a few minutes, my husband, encircled by a growing audience, began his cartoon voice impressions, mimicking every character from Yogi Bear to Yacky Doodle to Snagglepuss. Adults and children stood holding their sides while laughing so hard they could cough.

While the comedic effect worked well in person, humor can be risky in writing if not used with wisdom.

I recently critiqued a sobering tale that was chock full of obnoxious spoonerisms. It was apparent that the author was quite entertained by them but this reader found them offensive. If the man was writing a comic book or memoir, I could possibly find it in my heart to cut him a little slack but in a murder mystery, the puns were way off-base.

So how do you know what word plays and wacky wisdom to use and when?

1. Make sure you are really feeling the mood of your story

2. Think long and hard before using jokes that don't fit that mood.

3. Make sure your critiquing colleagues are not afraid to be brutally honest with you.

4. Be willing to extract things from your text that you really love but to which your readers may not be able to relate.

While it is a great idea to entertain your reader, using cute phrases is a bit like playing cards while holding crossed fingers behind your back. "You've got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them."

Eating My Words

Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to catch your own typos in a chat program or online community such as Facebook or AIM? Did you ever write something, hit send and then wish you could take it back only to find it was too late? There sit your words on the screen in front of you, staring at you like bugs eyeing a piece of meat.

You might search in vain for a delete button and then look for a chair to crawl under. At least in the electronic format, you are not face to face (right away, anyway) with the recipient. Regardless, you are making an impression.

Thanks to a really nice new friend, I am sold on hiring a professional editor for my latest work in progress, that is, after my writing collegues take a chop or two at it. I've played the role of a fool in some ways.

Shall I talk more of the three Re's that make you feel ridiculous? Re-read, Re-treat and Re-write. Make that four! Re-cover. Yes, I am re-hashing the last post and eating some of my words.

Yesterday was profitable for me in the writing department. I managed over 3, 000 words in a couple of hours. Prior to then, writer's block had hit me on head and left me numb when it came to working on my novel. I was able to write small things, articles, blogs, short story content and the like but whenever I opened my novel file, I became stuck like a fly on tar paper. Then, I experienced a breakthrough as I re-read a chapter of "Calling Him Lord" that I had written ages ago. Boy, were there typos, incongruent ideas and lots of run-ons that were somehow missed in the first edit. I ate more words. Delete! Good bye to about 1000 words.

Next came the revelation, a whole new line of action. My characters went their ways-ways they had not previously taken, but ways that brought them to a better intersection with the plot. Such fun! But, just as I missed things in the first edit, so I shall likely in the second or third.

If I have to sell my right arm to do it, I shall hire an editor!

What's on tonight's menu? I don't know. Maybe more humble pie.

P.S. If you read my previous blog called "Ghosts of Manuscripts Past", you might like this website which helps you find repetitious words and phrases in your text. I tried it. It's fascinating. You feed your words into the little text box and it spits out an itemization of over-used words and phrases.

Check it out: http://www.writewords.org.uk/phrase_count.asp

The Write Connections For Editing

Networking is vital to a writer. It's not only what you know but who you know. Who you know and what you know determine what you publish.

There are many opinions on whether or not to hire a professional editor. It's not my desire to debate the in's and out's of either choice. Editing is a necessary "evil". The method that you, as a writer, choose to accomplish that is your choice.

I've found that bartering with others can help defray editing costs somewhat. There are many accomplished professional or polished amateurs in writing groups. I suppose someday I will be wealthy enough from my published work to hire a professional editor, but maybe at that point I won't need one anymore. Of course, my perfectionist brain excels at being critical of my work so much that it often impedes the creative process enough to prevent the completion of the final product at a good speed. On the other hand, I have much to learn about self-editing as well.

Many of you are able to allow creativity to flow and leave the editing to the pro's. As I said, the choice is yours.

Last night, I had the opportunity to join Palm Group in Sorrento, a writing group of which I was a long-time member. Relocation of both the group and me had prevented my attendance for quite a while but another move back into the general area has enabled my re-acquaintance with the group. It was great to see the old gang along with newer members I had not met. The Oldies are still the Goodies - as talented and friendly as I remember.The Newbies are promising as well. I look forward to another visit next month.

One of the things I enjoyed about Palm Group was their ability to dissect work by other writers/authors and point out areas for improvement and deletion. (My, are they good at it!)

But submission to the table is not for the faint of heart. My first visit was four years ago when the former leader introduced them to me as, "The Carnivores". What an accurate description it was!

While no member feels belittled or unappreciated, one sure does find the need to be on his or her toes. The critics don't miss a trick but give it to you with both tough and tender morsels of advice and praise. Needless to say, I will polish my work with much self-editing before I submit anything. I think I will just sit back and learn from the others for a while as I am rusty in the art of being heavily critiqued and swallowing it.

Not that I have all raving reviews by those who read and critique my work currently but that Palm Group has a reputation for raking it with a fine toothed comb. This is exactly what I need...as soon as I am ready again.

For now, I shall trade services with a few select trusted members of the other writing group in which I hold membership, the Clermont Christian Writer's Group, the group that is strong on encouragement. That way I will experience the best of both worlds.

On the flip side of the coin, I also have recently "met" someone who runs an editing company. You can find information about her services at: http://www.awordaptlywritten.com/

Regardless of your selection of the venue, editing is a must. You must have connections with other writers who can edit your work and you never know ahead of time where those connections could lead.

MY NOVEL

Amidst other free-lance work, I'm writing a novel. It's both invigorating and intimidating.

With all the tools we have today, writing is so much easier now than it used to be. The market, however, is much more difficult. In the old days, if you were adept at grammar and chose an interesting topic, you were likely to be published in just about any genre. Nowadays, it's much tougher, even if you can write fairly well.

The competition has increased. Information and technology have reached the MAX Q of all time. Writers and writer wanna-be's are a "dime a dozen" and self-publishing has become a stronger marketing venue.

To top that, the general public is just not entertained with mere reading as in days of old. With the invention of satellite television, video games and wireless Internet, people are looking for cutting-edge material to read. The joy of plain reading has been replaced by reality TV shows and adrenaline-rushed activities . Stories must now be twice as entertaining, more concise, in keeping with fast-moving trends but not too colloquial. These facts can leave the aspiring writer feeling inadequate.

Despite this, those who love writing will always find a way to pen ( should I say 'text' or 'key in'?) the stories that are on their hearts. True writers do it for the sheer love of writing. Publication is merely the icing on the cake.

Cake minus the icing is dry so it is important that writers do take the time to adjust some of what they write to suit the market. They need to learn ways to improve in their genre and /or branch out of their comfort zones to other genres they may have never considered prior.

There are a myriad of great tools for pros and amateurs alike. Writing formulas are important and every publisher has guidelines. Excellent writers utilize resources without compromising their own ideas and goals. They follow the guidelines and formulas for genres and look for the one thing that will make them stand out, perhaps "breaking the rules" without actually breaking the rules. They find unique ways to improve their craft.

As an aspiring writer, I am taking my own advice about stepping up the pace. Re-writing a novel which I had begun years ago, I bought a writing program to insert the manuscript text into in hopes that it will help me to make the novel even better. The editing and re-writing are an effort to come to the place where I am really pleased with the product I wish to publish. I don't want my novel to sound like it was written by a computer program but I do want to follow the formula of the genre for which I am writing. Not everyone can afford a degree in English but everyone can find free or inexpensive tools to help them improve their skills.

Being somewhat of a right-brainer, I have found the program, "My Novel" to be an interesting purchase. It helps to analyze and organize information, scenes, chapters, as well as to keep track of characters and timeline issues. I think this will help with continuity. It's like having a mini-editor, in a sense.

Recently, my husband was reading a series of Young Adult Christian fiction books to pre-screen it for our children. It really bothered him that the writer, who has had many, many series published apparently did not have continuity in the books. The author needed a continuity editor.

I can see how "My Novel" could help me as a writer with this potential problem. With all the edits and re-edits, it would be easy to miss something.

As I continue to use the program, I'll remember to keep you posted on how well it works and the things I like or don't like about it.

How about you? Do you have any programs or writing tools that you use to help you organize your writing ideas? Or do you have any favorite tricks for generating ideas for writing?

Let me know.

Ghosts Of Manuscripts Past

When you read several books by the same author or many articles by the same columnist, you tend to notice themes and word usages that sound all too familiar. To a point, this is desirable. An author's voice shining though becomes his or her signature. But how does one keep his or her manucripts from sounding like the "Department of Redundancy Department" or SOSO (same old, same old)? Or how does one come up with enough original work so as not to lead the reader to feel visited by ghosts of manuscripts past?

I was reading through some of my old pieces a day or so ago and noticed several words that I had used repeatedly which I had not seen on first edit. Removing myself from the closeness of my own creation for a time gave me a much more objective viewpoint for analysis.

Aditionally, expanding word usage helps to break up the monotony. Taking advantage of a thesaurus, magazines, "word finds" and cross word puzzles are other ways I have worked on curing this subconscious tendency to use the same phrases over and over again.

How do you deal with this issue in your own writing? Share with us your tricks for editing out repetition without hurting your continuity.

Writing Reviews

This is a shameless plug. The last few days, I've been busy reviewing some E-books and We-ebooks. To read them, visit one of my other blogs at:
http://www.leadlearners.blogspot.com/ or www.homeschoolblogger.com/thelearninghome

I'm taking advantage of free or cheap resources to sharpen my skills. Real writers are those who don't let their lacks keep them from learning how to be better writers. I'm an aspiring real writer. I want to do whatever I can to hone the writing craft.

What are you doing to improve your writing ability. Share with me, please, any tips and ideas that will help other writers on this pubishing journey!

Thanks and have a great day.

More Market Opportunities

I am so up to my ears in the waters of writing and I'm lovin' every minute of it. Hopefully one or two of those market ideas or challenges will be the golden opportunity to catapult a writing career into success.

Right now, I'm working on short stories for contests, two greeting card ideas, a children's story, weekly writing challenges and a monthly column. I don't know where this ride will take me, but I feel like a child in a theme park waiting in line to try ride after ride if for nothing but thrill of it all!

I'm thinking about shutting down my other blogs in order to focus more on my professional writing but I'm not sure if I can break my addiction to using blogger as a personal journal and telling all my daily faux pas and dirty landry. Time will tell.

Regardless, I'm happy to be living in a dream place (Florida and near the water) while doing my dream job (free-lance writing). I believe that, in time, I will be making my dream paycheck as well. Until that day comes, I will keep writing my little fingers off-in part because I just can't help myself and in part because I know that those who aim at a target will hit something most of the time and may even hit the bulls-eye some of the time; whereas, those who aim at nothing will hit it every time.

Well, it's late and "That's all she wrote, folks"!