TECH: 101 Tips (1)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 27 April 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Discipline is the difference between a wannabe writer and a published one. It's about sitting down. If I waited for the muse, I'd be having pedicures every week." Ayelet Waldman

Discipline? That's an interesting question. How do you organize your writing? Do you use a quota -- daily, every other day, weekly, or something else? Words, pages, hours in front of the computer? Or do you use some kind of deadline or milestone? Do you give yourself some kind of rewards? Or do you just try to beat yourself into doing it? How do you set up your discipline?

This quote seems to suggest all you need to do is sit down? I suspect there's a little bit more to it than that, although consistently returning to the writing has to be one of the key parts. Whether it's five minutes a day or five hours...

There's that muse thing again. Inspiration by the gods -- probably blowing in your nostrils or maybe in your ears?  I think I prefer serendipity and synchronicity and the magic of exposing yourself to plenty of opportunities and influences, and then letting the little grey cells connect things up. Anyway :-)

Pedicures? Having pedicures every week? Is that a punishment? I mean, I just don't quite understand that part of this quote.

So -- wild reflections. Please feel free to provide your own refractions. After all, a quote isn't all it's quoted up to be until we've all yanked on it. Or something like that.

TECH: Good words

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 28 April 2009

Writer's Digest, December 2005, pages 51 and 60, have an article in the column Humor Writing by Tim Bete with the title, "Word Play." The point is that punchlines in particular often need a perfect word to really make the humor zing. It refers back to the TV game show Match Game where people tried to fill in the blank in a sentence, often with humorous results.

So how do you pick that perfect word? How do you get words that exaggerate, provide a surprise, or make people think twice? Here's some ideas:

1. Listen to how words sound. Read the writing out loud and listen to how it sounds. Try switching one word for another and listen to the difference.
2. Pick a word that breaks a pattern. You mix up sentences -- length and type -- to add variety. Mixing the links and kind of word does the same thing, and can make it funny. When a character lists their preferred diet as various gourmet dishes plus Twinkies, the Twinkies are funny. Any time you set up a pattern, one, two, three, infinity, the break adds zip.
3. Be specific. Generics aren't as funny as specifics. Details make things believable and personal.
4. Put the funniest word at the end. Punchlines belong at the end of the joke, and the funniest word at the end of the punchline.
5. Find words with multiple meanings. Ambiguity, puns, and all that jazz.
6. Use a thesaurus. Don't overload, but a thesaurus is a great brainstorming tool. Look up the key word and see what alternatives you've got to play with.

Make every word count.
Write!