I'm A Writer...Sort of!

I couldn't sleep the other night so I decided to get up and work on a story that I had been writing.  I got to thinking about how I could become a "structured" writer.  You know, the kind that gets up three hours before the rest of the family so they can get the last sixteen chapters of their book done. I don't do mornings so I knew this would never work for me.  My husband says I'm out of bed before 6:00 every morning but I don't wake up until 10:00.  A lot of days, he's absolutely right about that.  By the time I do finally get fully awake, it's time to do some laundry and try to get a little housework done.  Of course, there's always the phone call from the person who needs a ride to work or the baby sitter is sick and could I watch the kids for the day.  Then another person calls and wonders if I would mind picking up their prescription from the drug store and running it out to them.  They only live twelve miles from my house so it's no problem to do this.  Or how about the day your husband forgot his wallet and the policeman who stopped him would really like to see proof of a drivers license! By now I have decided that I'll probably never be a "structured" writer because I don't want to give up the time I spend running errands for other people and I would never give up my time with my family.  So here's what I have decided to do.  I will continue getting up on those nights when I feel the need to write something down before I forget what a good idea I had.  I will take a small notebook with me when I'm waiting to see the doctor and jot down ideas for songs, poems, stories or even a book.  I will sneak ten minutes out of my day to try out a new tune on the piano.  I will let the dishwater get cold while I write down a funny story about something my children did when they were young.  And when I think of something precious my husband said to me, I will shut the vacuum sweeper off long enough to add it to my notebook of memories. Well, I guess I can never call myself a good writer, but I prepare meals occasionally and no one has ever called me a cook!  And someday when no one needs me to run for them, I'll sit down and write that book.  What a sad day that will be.                                                                                            Karen Sperra

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Room to Write

Rural life includes small towns surrounded by ranches, farms or dry ground. I live in one of those towns on the southern Colorado prairie. The nearest sizable city is an hour west on a two-lane roadway through scrub land or verdant, irrigated fields. On the way I might pass fifteen cars coming or going. Such traffic.

The internet connects me to the wide world of news and views. While a metropolitan area offers large bookstores, restaurants, shopping, medical services, plays, concerts and movies, it also carries the attendant traffic and noise. Cities vibrate with stress and hurry up. How lovely to drive towards home. Soon, I relax, set the cruise control, and let the busy-ness of the city drain away. During the ride, I mull over a storyline, think through a block, conjure up a character, so that by the time I reach my cozy, little office in the spare room, I’m ready to write the next chapter or blog.

Room to write means more than space. It means my mind is not cluttered or harried. Small town living is laid-back, undemanding. Deadlines are welcome, not dreaded.

Colorful characters abound. Not just the family whose ranch has passed down to four generations, but the relative newcomer who runs a large cattle ranch and is a Ph.D. Local rodeo performers and events like “mutton-bustin’” entertain and provide rich background for stories and interviews.

Wherever you live, writers find each other. Our group lives within an 85 mile radius. When we can’t meet physically, we meet online, exchange materials for critique and encourage one another.

We’re not all hicks just because some of us wear cowboy hats and can line dance. We train horses, raise bees, read books and write poetry.

And our favorite song is “Don’t Fence Me In.”

                                                                                       Pat Zabriskie

On Being A Rural Writer

Sitting on the deck with the sun warming my shoulders and back, I throw my left hand in the air and wave at the passing pickup as my right hand continues writing the words to my next song.  The quiet of the spring afternoon lets my creative thoughts flow from my head to the pen.
    Nothing is as wonderful as being a writer and living in the country.  Being able to sit outside on a sunny, warm day sets the scene for the next great song, poem, story or novel.  No noisy boom boxes, no squealing tires, no sirens.  Ahh...just peace and quiet.
    Okay, so there are just a couple of drawbacks to being a writer and living in a rural area.  All the towns around us have a population of under 8,000.  The town I live closest to has 400.  The nearest "big city" is two hours away, so getting the latest magazines might be a bit difficult. But there’s the internet
   While some inconveniences are part of living the rural life, I love it and wouldn't change a thing.  Being in a small writers group is also full of advantages you wouldn't have in the big city.  You form closer relationships with your group and you get more one on one attention when you're struggling with a piece of writing.  Also, in a rural area you get to know your neighbors.  Those neighbors can make for many hours of writing material.
    Want to release your creative juices and write like never before?  Move to the country!                                                                                           Karen Sperra

Dreaming Again

“You’re never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

- Les Brown

A new year is the perfect time to set new goals, dream new dreams and awaken the sleeping writer from their page-less slumber. How do we revive our creativity and stimulate our waiting fingers to type out the great American novel (or romance book, magazine article, etc.)?

 As writers, we can take a few lessons from the ardent gardener who longs for spring in the middle of a long winter. On the coldest of days you can find them with a seed catalog in hand, pouring over it as they imagine the beautiful scene, or the luscious results, from the plot of land that will be a display case for their creative minds and diligent work. They dream, they set goals, then make their plans and take the steps to succeed. As writers, we are also in the “gardener” category, with some times being more fruitful than others.

Here are some gardening helps to tend the field of dreams and words.

 Journal

 With the gardener, no entry is too short, or too long. It may be writing a “wish list,” or drawing a detailed sketch. Writers should write whatever comes to mind, no matter how simple, silly or deep minded. There may be a seed of an idea that could later blossom in the “spring”.

Pruning and Grafting

Take out the old journals and notebooks and be re-inspired. Glean the useful portions to start a new work or transplant into a current project.

Development

As the gardener researches new designs and plants, we should go to the writing books or magazines for information to help prepare the work. Other research for your book or article can help you cultivate a new crop of ideas.

Plan the layout

Sketch out your garden. Put your ideas in an outline of sorts to help “plot your plot”.

 Work the soil

When things warm up, it’s time to work and amend the soil. The preparation ahead of planting will help reap a larger yield, and a more productive work day for a writer.
 

Plant the crop

Whether it’s large or small, the garden, or writing project, must be actually planted to produce the finished project. This takes work, but the future harvest is always worth the effort.

Always remember - the experienced gardener, or writer, plans for growth, not failure.

Jerolyn Lockhart

The Importance of a Mentor

I really didn’t start reading until I was a freshman in high school.  The book that made a difference for me was one by Louis L'Amour called Tucker.  Then one day, standing in line at the grocery store, I saw my first romance novel.   It was love at first sight. The book was titled, The Wolf and The Dove, by Kathleen E Woodwiss.   I remember wrapping the cover in aluminum foil so my mother would not see what I was reading and burn it.   (It had an armored knight on a dark brown horse with a beautiful woman in a lovely gown pulled across his lap with his arms wrapped around her protectively.)   I finished the book in two days.  After that, I was hooked. The more I read, the more I wanted to write.  English grammar was not my thing, but I couldn’t shake the desire within me that wanted to be a writer. 

I became what I called a closet writer.  Heaven forbid, someone should ever find out what I wanted to do.  At first I didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance in Hades.  So I wrote in secret.  Not in a journal, but in a spiral notebook.  I thought I could write on the sly and no one would ever know.  It worked for a while, but then I  got married.  One day my husband caught me writing.  I was ashamed, only because, I thought I wasn’t any good.  He wanted to see what I was writing and I didn’t want to share.  We had the biggest fight over that single green notebook. 

Some years after his death, out of the blue a friend invited me to apply at a local newspaper as a freelance writer.  It was an Ag paper of all things.  What in the world did I know about the world of agriculture?   Well, they accepted several articles and published them.  (It was a good thing my friend and the editor fixed my mistakes.)  Praise the Lord, I was finally out of the closet.  Those first stories were something.  I struggled with grammar and punctuation (I still do, but I’m happy to say that has improved, thanks to my sister-mentors and a few English comp classes).

I’m not sure how I got into a Christian Writers Group, my friend from the paper was there too. When the group disbanded, we decided to keep it going.  We joined forces with two other writers.  The four of us developed a wonderful friendship, and the three of them took me in under their wings and became my mentors.  We did a lot of writing in the beginning and it was those ladies that began to mold me and make me a better writer.  I still have a long way to go, but I’ve come so far. 

The moral of my story is—if you have a dream.  Dream it.  If you want to be a writer—write.  But it will be a lot easier if you have someone who can direct your path like I did.  I will be forever grateful to these beautiful ladies for their love, patience, and guidance. Thank you so much, Sherry, Pat, and Jerolyn.

                                                                                           
                                                                                               by  Christine Stamp   

Keywords and Creativity

My friend, Ethel, who’s been writing for print publications for 30 years decided to learn to write content for the internet. Somewhere between keywords and search engine optimization she lost her way. Trying to satisfy the mechanics, she turned out some bland, pieced together articles from various websites.

“What happened to me?” she wondered. She used to write breezy, imaginative prose sprinkled with humor and creative flair. Writing was fun. Now, writing an article was like slogging through a mud-sucking bog.

Ethel was suffering from acute creativitis.  She didn’t need a doctor or medication, she needed the freedom to let her creative juices to run first. Afterwards, she could apply the internet mechanics to make the search engines happy.

If you come to internet content writing as a print writer, you may well experience Ethel’s dilemma. Especially, if you take one of the many instruction courses which tell non-writers how to write internet articles.  Basically, you just look up information on web sites one day. The next day, you “free write” anything you can remember from that research. Put it away till the following day.  Return and edit the material into a cohesive article.

A seasoned writer comes at internet writing from a different place. He might start with something from his experience, gather anecdotes and stories from life around him, and do any factual research necessary.

Keywords will be worked into the article or blog, in fact will be there, they just need to be placed strategically to lure the capricious SEO god to notice.

Ethel’s learning all that, but she’s enjoying her stints at the desk these days. She’s writing lively, original pieces which are beginning to garner an audience, and the attention of the search engines.

Don’t forsake creativity for craft—use both and jump into the fast flowing tide of writing internet content. 
                                                                                          Pat Zabriskie