Do I Really Need Those Words? by Carol Harrison

  

Some of the best advice I have received came at the beginning of my writing journey. When I began writing, I soon got bogged down in trying to make the words flow. I finally became brave enough to share that first chapter with more seasoned writers.

One published author asked me if the memoir was for family or to go beyond to a wider audience. If it was meant to go to more readers than just family, she told me to cut this and this and this and start here. The chopped sentences could be woven in if I thought I really needed those words but at a later point in the manuscript.

After realizing I’d asked for help, I began a new word document, cutting extraneous sentences and began where the writer suggested. If I didn’t like the new start, I still had the first file to return to and see if I could muddle through. The story began to flow as I cut those sentences from it. I found I didn’t need them to reappear at a later point.

Later I took Marcia Laycock’s devotional writing online workshop. It taught me, among other things, to remove unnecessary words or even whole sentences to say what I meant in the least number of words. In one exercise she had us write a devotional and gave us 1500 words. But part B of the exercise was to cut it by half without taking away any meaning. Part C, should we choose to accept it, was to cut it in half again but still retain the full meaning. It meant asking myself, “Do I really need really need this word or that one?”

It taught me how to write tight. I’ve received that advice from others along my journey as a writer, sometimes at a workshop and at other times in one-on-one conversations with more experienced writers. I think the question, “Do I need these words?” is one we should ask ourselves often as writers. It helps us avoid being too wordy and slowing down the flow of the story.

Along with choosing our words carefully, we can also avoid filler words or words we overuse. Do I really need these words to add to the meaning of the piece or help the flow of the story? Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. It all depends on whether it enhances the piece or distracts the readers’ attention.

I think this is some of the very good advice I have received over the years in my writing journey. But I am still a work in progress at following it all the time.

 

Carol Harrison believes there is always more to learn about this craft of writing. But putting the advice into practice doesn't always go as smoothly as she wants it to. She writes from her home in Saskatoon, SK.

The Best Unedited Advice About Editing by Bob Jones

"The writer who breeds more words than he needs,

is making a chore for the reader who reads.” Dr Seuss

"The best writing is rewriting." Anne Lamott

“Embrace the shitty first draft."

That’s the unedited version of the best advice I’ve received on editing, courtesy of Anne Lamott. The sanitized version is, “Give yourself permission to write poorly in your first draft.”

And I’m glad I get to go first with this prompt because I imagine there will be a few more Inscribe writers who would say the same thing.

When I first started blogging, a friend suggested reading Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. And ever since then, Anne has become a friend. She’s launching her next book this month and I’ve pre-ordered my copy so I could get a sneak peek. (Spoiler alert: more unsanitized words.)

Initial Drafts

Anne emphasized the importance of getting ideas down on paper without the paralyzing pressure of perfection. This initial draft, she argues, is just the beginning—a necessary step to be taken before the real work of writing begins. The first draft is just to get the story down; it does not need to be good, or even coherent.

Writing without editing is a discipline I‘ve struggled with for two decades. However, I fight the good fight with perfectionism.

My name is Bob and I'm a perfectionist.

“Perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness and life force. Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground— you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip.” Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

The genius of an unedited first draft is it will free up more time to edit.

I don’t have superior thoughts or extraordinary talent. I have a great commitment to rewriting. Perhaps you don’t rewrite enough in part, because you don’t have enough time. But if you can cut your writing time in half and reallocate it to editing, you’ll be making a good start.

 

As always, thank you for reading. Looking forward to reading what you write about editing.

 

A Letter to My Way Younger Self by Bob Jones

The February prompt is to write a letter to your younger self. What advice would you give?


Dear Bob:

Congratulations on landing your first assignment in pastoral ministry. You've been given a sacred opportunity. Your new role as an assistant pastor will demand more of you than anything else in life. This role is way more than a job; it is a calling.

You will put in long hours, sometimes seven days a week. At the beginning you won't know what you're doing but that's OK. You'll feel that way for every new major challenge that God calls you into. Bible College trained you to parse Bible verses but not to deal with the complexity of human interaction. You will run programs not people.

No matter what happens, people are never the problem. The problem isn’t even the problem. How you look at the problem is the problem.

Don't sweat the small stuff. It's all small stuff.

The most important person in your life is your wife, Jocelyn. She will be with you day in day out for decades. In due time you'll leave your first congregation and enter into a new ministry opportunity and Jocelyn will be there with you for that. She is the only person you'll carry forward, aside from your firstborn son.

Pay attention to Jocelyn. She is God's best gift to you. She is smart. She is good.

She wants you to succeed and she will do everything she can to help you achieve that.

Listen to her. She has insight about people that you don't have. Trust her judgment. She is intuitive.

She loves you. Put her first. Make time for her. Quantity and quality time. Do your best to understand her. Live at peace with her.

Have fun with her.

Together, you will walk through the deaths of your parents, and life-threatening illnesses, and travel to dangerous places. Hold hands all the way and hold each other tight.

You will be privileged to journey with stellar leaders through plans and projects to the glory of God. Your labour will endure. You will see a harvest of souls from the seeds you will sow.

You will walk many congregants and community members through death, devastating trauma, and grief. Those experiences will be God’s training to prepare you for your own personal losses.

Your lifetime will pass by seemingly at the speed of light. Just as the scriptures advise us, “our days are but a handbreadth.” Live in the moment. Treasure every day. Start with Bible reading, prayer, journaling, and coffee. Always coffee.

Your collection of the front pages of newspapers from Canada and around the world will end up in the garbage. The books you purchased for your study will be given away to younger leaders and a Bible college library. The Coca-Cola bottle and can collection that will eventually define your office space will end up on other people’s shelves. But the relationships you develop, the leaders you call up and invest in, and the people that you share Jesus with will last eternally.

Settle your priorities early.

You can't put God in the centre of your church or your marriage or your role. But you can put God in the centre of your life and that choice will affect everything else.

All work and no play will make Bob a dull boy.

So, listen to Jocelyn, take time off, relax, and make use of all your holidays every year. The church will survive without you. Put your hand into a bucket of water and then draw it out and the hole that remains defines how indispensable you are.

God is for you. No matter how dire the circumstances, or how much you doubt yourself, God is for you. Walk in that truth. It will sustain you, give you grit, and keep your heart and mind quiet and at rest as you trust Jesus.

God bless you, Bob.

Your friend,
Bob

 

I had a lot of fun writing this. That's what writing should be all about. Thank you for the prompt.

I'm grateful for the life and wife and family and friends and opportunities God has given me.

How about you?

Advice from Admired Artists by Joylene M Bailey

 

Photo by Pixabay

~~~~~

Over the years, as I've honed my craft of writing, I've learned from many different writers. Whether through a lecture, a workshop, a book, or documentary, these authors - and some other artists - have inspired me and spurred me on. I've filled journals with their quotes.

For my January post, I thought I'd share some Advice from Admired Artists in the hope that at least one of them, new or familiar, will encourage and inspire you in your writing today and into this year.

In no particular order, here are 23 quotes for 2023:

There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you. 

- Beatrix Potter

***

The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. 

- Agatha Christie

***

One of the best forms for a long narrative, as was found in The Hobbit, ... is the pilgrimage on journey with an object. That was the form I adopted. 

- J.R.R. Tolkien

***

Good ink cannot be the quick kind, ready to pour out of a bottle. You can never be an artist if your work comes without effort. That is the problem with modern ink from a bottle. You do not have to think. You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn. But when you push an inkstick along an inkstone, you take the first step to cleansing your mind and your heart. You push and you ask yourself, what are my intentions? What is in my heart that matches my mind? 

- Amy Tan, The Bonesetter's Daughter

***

Everybody is creative, and everybody is talented. I just don't think everybody is disciplined. I think that's a rare commodity. 

- Al Herschfeld

***

Have compassion for yourself when you write. There is no failure --- just a big field to wander in.

- Natalie Goldberg

***

Perhaps in their small way, writers can answer for those who are voiceless in their extreme deprecation and suffering. But at best, in the very smallest scheme, writing can provide a moment of grace, both for she who writes and he who reads, in a very dark world.

- Cecile Pineda

***

The most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

- William Makepeace Thackeray

***

On the page, punctuation performs its grammatical function, but in the mind of the reader it does more than that. It tells the reader how to hum the tune.

- Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots and Leaves

***

I never could have done what I have done ... without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.

- Charles Dickens

***

If I didn't know the ending of a story, I wouldn't begin. I always write my last line, my last paragraph, my last page first.

- Katherine Anne Porter

***

 

Photo from Pixabay

***

Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book: give it, give it all, give it now.

- Annie Dillard

***

No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader.

- Robert Frost

***

My first novel was turned down by 31 publishers.

- James Patterson

***

Writing a book is a task of will, time, and the courage to fail if required.

- Dr. Barbara Sinor, PH.D

***

When the words mean even more than the writer knew they meant, then the writer has been listening. And sometimes when we listen, we are led into places we do not expect, into adventures we do not always understand. 

- Madeleine L'Engle

***

The writer's job is to stare.

- Kate DiCamillo

***

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should've behaved better.

- Anne Lamott

***

Excellence does not require perfection.

- Henry James

***

When you are describing a shape, or sound, or tint,

Don't state the matter plainly, but put it in a hint,

And learn to look at all things, with a sort of mental squint.

- Lewis Carroll

***

Broadly speaking, short words are best and the old words, when short, are best of all.

- Winston Churchill

***

Writing should be like a cottage garden, with no straight path; it should meander, around corners, through creaking gates, looking for the secret places - like life.

- Susan Branch

***

Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.

- Charles de Lint

~~~~~

Joy enjoys collecting inspiring quotes from other artists. She loves learning about their process, and what helps them get the job done. She writes from her home in rural Alberta, where she lives with The Cowboy, a half grown puppy named Chara, and a new kitten called Rhubarb. Find more of her Joy infused writing at Scraps of Joy.