So you wanna a be a writer!

I intended to write about writing this week, but before I even started I looked for an old column that I wrote.  It was in January 2005 and I really don’t have much new advice. I have cut some to fit in my usual 900 or so words; and I have updated a few paragraphs.

If you want to be a writer, you have to write.  If you don’t write, then being a writer will only remain a dream.  That is what I told myself over fifteen years ago.  Then I submitted my “Bear Stories” to the Northland Reader, a month or so later “Tech Staff Shortage”, then “Berlin Wall”, and before I knew it I was writing for almost every bi-weekly issue.  When the Northland Reader went weekly as the Reader Weekly, I soon started writing weekly.  Every so often the muse left me and I didn’t submit a column, but now it is hard not to write a column.

One way to start writing more is to keep a journal or a notebook, not necessarily a “What did I do today” but a collection of your ideas, no matter how fragmentary.  I have a small collection of hard-back blank books in which I jotted ideas about what I did or felt or saw for years.  One of these years I might transcribe them to my computer

You can also use little spiral bound notebooks that fit in pocket or purse.  Don’t forget to carry a pen or pencil.  Or you can use scraps of paper.  The problem with scraps of paper is that they pile up and don’t get organized.  It is fun to unbury them and read what you wrote a month or a year ago.  I posted a few of these on my blog last week. Now you can put your ideas in your smart phone or tablet, but just like the scraps of paper, you may bury them among all your other info.

The really best place to start serious writing, that is writing that other people read, is to write letters or emails to your friends and relatives.  Before putting your letter in an envelope or clicking the send button, reread what you wrote.  Does it give information clearly, does it convey your mood, and does it encourage a response from your reader?

Write in sentences and paragraphs. Each sentence should give a single idea, and a paragraph should give a set of related ideas.  I have a relative who sent emails as one big run-on paragraph; we found his messages very hard to read because we couldn’t focus on his thoughts.

Another good place to do serious writing is letters to the editor.  Why not write a letter to the Reader Weekly about this column?  Or to the News Tribune or the Star Tribune about what you think on an issue.  I must be getting stale because my letters are not published as frequently as a few years ago.  I try to follow the TUT principle; that is, a letter to the editor should be Timely, Unique, and Terse.  If you wait two or three weeks to write, if you write a letter similar to all the others, and you ramble on like this column, you probably won’t get published.  But if you email your letter as soon as you read an article, if you state an idea that is not given in the article, and you write in sentences and paragraphs and keep it to the size the newspaper wants, you greatly increase your chances of having your letter published.

The best basis for writing is lots of reading.  Read newspapers, magazines, and books. Unless you want to write about TV, turn it off and read instead.  Read novels, biographies, and histories.  Read books about writers.  One I particularly enjoyed is “It’s Been a Good Life” about Isaac Asimov.  If you read it you will sense the joy of expressing your thoughts to others.

Every good writer has an editor.  Pick up any book and read the acknowledgments; not only have many people contributed with ideas, but others have read the book and given the author comments, not only the publisher’s editor, but friends and colleagues. Before you dash off that important letter to the editor, ask someone else to read it.  You might be surprised at what familiarity with your letter lets you overlook.  My wife often reads these columns before I email them.  Although I complain that she can be too picky, very often she finds either a blatant error or suggests a better phrasing.  She’s out of town this November 2014 weekend, and so any mistakes are wholly my fault.

If you would like to meet and talk with other writers, contact Lake Superior Writers – www.lakesuperiorwriters.org or 1301 Rice Lake Road, Suite 129, Duluth MN 55811.

Finally, what do you do about the dreaded writer’s block?  Generally, just go do something else for a while and try again later.  The humor writer James Thurber discussed this at a party with other writers.  One said he typed “The” in his typewriter and then words started coming.  Thurber tried it the next time he had writer’s block. He typed “The” and just stared at it.  After awhile he typed “hell with it” and went back to bed.

Or you rewrite an old article:)

This article was published in the Reader Weekly, 2014-11-06 and can be found at  http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/11/06/4303_so_you_wanna_a_be_a_writer.

Thanks for reading

I would like to thank all who have been reading this blog, whether long-time readers or recent visitors.  The number of page views per day has gone way up for the couple of dozen per day.  I don't kid myself that I'm writing better.  It's mostly the same old stuff.

I think there are two factors, one mine and the other the times.

I've been writing more entries per day.  Probably because of the other factor.  It is election time in the United States, and so all the political junkies are looking for as many opinions and I like to peck out my opinions

I thank you for your visit to the "Irregular Blog", and I hope you will come back often.  And if you like what you read, please tell your family and friends.

Why Read?

Fact: Reading can make you a better conversationalist.

Fact: Neighbors will never complain that your book is too loud.

Fact: Knowledge by osmosis has not yet been perfected. You'd better read.

Fact: Books have stopped bullets - reading might save your life.

Fact: Dinosaurs didn't read. Look what happened to them.

From an email from ABE Books.

To beat somebody with a stick, recite to them a limerick

My wife and I were talking after dinner about the connection between how much I write and how much I read.  I said that I don't read so much as that I write a lot about what I do read.  She replied that I do read a lot compared to many other people.

She then asked about how to get out of the Limerick group on Facebook that a relative put us into to.  I said that I had already dropped out, but she hadn't figured out how to yet.

Of course, those who know me well know that this will create all kinds of associations in my head, both clever and silly.  With about four or five iterations I came up with the following:

There was a lady from Limerick
Who had a very poor memorick.
She wore lots of bows
To get lots of beaus.
She got one, but was it Tom or Rick?

Before the above result, I had the last line as:

She got a laddie and lost him quick.

I didn't think that was a good parallel to the second line.

On my first try I had a different ending, but …

An open day to catch up, but I'd rather do nothing

Here I sit, in our house in Duluth during a blizzard.  I had planned to go skiing today, but even before the snow started, I decided that Spirit Mt. wouldn't be open because of the wind.  I thought of doing some shopping, but driving is not recommended.

I did go out for the papers this morning and that was a bit of a struggle – bare sidewalk and then shin-high drifts.  There was only one car at the restaurant where the paper boxes are, and I had breakfast there to give them a bit of business.  I had planned to go tomorrow.   A few more people came in, but the restaurant was short-staffed because of the blizzard and it closed at nine.

When I came back home it was into the wind.  To keep my hat on, I had to look at the ground in front of me.  To get up the steps from the sidewalk I had to pull myself up with the handrail because of the drifts.  And I had to struggle to get the front door open because of another drift.

I thought of going to the fitness center because the buses were running, but did I really want to battle my way to the corner again?

Some of the heroes today are those who put the papers in the boxes, the bus drivers, the restaurant staff, and our mail carrier.  She or her sub came by far earlier than I expected, and our box let in a lot of snow.  At least there were no soaking checks or blurred ink.  Another hero is the person who went down the block struggling with a snowblower.  Unless he has somewhere to go, I don't see the point; the continuing snow and the gusting wind will soon fill the path up again.

It was fortunate that my wife had chosen yesterday to go to Tokyo to visit our son and his family.  The same flight out of Duluth today was cancelled.  Even then, her flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Tokyo was delayed because of snow.

My lunch was rather makeshift because I was going to buy some of the stuff I had planned to eat.  So I had to pick and choose stuff out of the refrigerator that I wouldn't normally eat for lunch, like yogurt and peanut butter.

So, here I sit with a pile of stuff on my left to file or throw out and a similar pile on my right.  I could download Turbo Tax and get started on taxes.  I could clear up my backlog of email.  I could practice singing.  I could read any of the five, six, or seven books I've started.  I could even start a fire in the fireplace and sit all afternoon reading.  But I just flit from one little thing to another.  I read a bit of one newspaper or other online. I play a bit of SuDoKu.

Instead I stare at the screen or I try to look out the snow-covered window to see if the storm has abated.  I really can't see if it is still snowing without going right up to a window and looking out through a "clearer" spot.  I do know the wind is still blowing.

I do get in some of my physical therapy exercises for my sore shoulder, but that only takes five minutes or so.

I could drink our last bottle of wine, but I would only get woozy and sick.

Maybe I will light a fire and then finish "Il Compagno Don Camillo" and then reread "Comrade Don Camillo" to see how much of the Italian I understood.  I do get the larger picture, but I know I'm missing lots of nuance.  Well, maybe not lots.  I do know that compagno Don Camillo doesn't miss any chance to use Communist doctrine to point up inconsistencies in Soviet practice.

That's what I need.  A good chuckle!  Ciao!

If you want to lead you need to read

"I'm a leader, not a reader.' - Herman Cain, Nashua NH, 2011-11-17, quoted in Union Leader. This is probably a swipe at Barack Obama who reads a lot. Cain went on to say that he would surround himself with "good people" who we can rely on for good advice. Excuse me, Mr. Cain, but how are you going to know they are giving good advice if you are not somewhat conversant with the subject matter?

Some of our best leaders have been voracious readers. Teddy Roosevelt, the second good Republican president, sometimes read several books a day. Thomas Jefferson had a very large library. Even leaders that are disparaged by some as anti-intellectual read lots of books - Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush. Richard Nixon said, "I am not educated, but I do read books." See "For Obama and past presidents, the book they read shape policies and perceptions", Tevi Troy, Washington Post, 2010-04-18.

Why do I write?

A friend asked me this the other day.

I have a lots of reasons to write: I read a lot; I respond to what I read; I'm a performer; I like to share what I think.

I know I'm not the world's greatest writer.  I can tell because this blog has not gone viral; on a good day a couple dozen people check my "headlines" via a feed.  But I do know that my writings resonate with those who have "open" minds; that is, minds not locked into a certain world view.

Yesterday I thought of another reason - to protect freedom.  Nope, I'm not on the battlements fighting against an invading army.  But I am expressing my thoughts in a way that I hope gets people to think beyond a certain limited view.  When we have a limited view, we think our way is the only right way, and when we do so, we keep making the same mistakes over and over.  That deprives us of the freedom to "think anew."

"Thomas Jefferson's" advice to young people (and probably everybody else)

Clay Jenkinson used Skype and iChat to visit as Thomas Jefferson with a grade school class in Naperville IL. This is episode 757 found on iTunes or www.jeffersonhour.org. At about 31:12 into the episode, he leaves them with three pieces of advice:

1) Read all the books you can. He said when he was their age he spent 10 hours a day reading.

2) Learn at least one foreign language, better two or more. He said he spoke seven languages, three dead and four current. From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia these were Latin, Greek, Anglo-Saxon, French, Spanish, Italian, and English. He also dabbled in others.

3) Take up a music instrument. He played violin, pianoforte, and harpsichord. "You are creating harmony in your life."