Making your Writing Original - Quirky Thoughts

I was on a Holistic Pampering Day yesterday at my local Tech along with about a dozen other ladies. We were happily walking to the silver service restaurant for our lunch, nicely relaxed after a morning of Indian Head Massage and reflexology, when I spotted something bright yellow attached to the sole of one lady's shoe.

'You've got something stuck to the sole of your shoe,' I told her.

'It's a fashion statement,' she said, without batting an eyelid, and continued walking.

Fair enough, I thought. But a couple of minutes later she bent down and pulled the offending Post-It note from her sole, with a laugh. She had me fooled though for a moment!

I was impressed at how she was able to use her creative thinking enough to turn what might have been an embarassment into a clever joke. I dare say someone really outrageous like Tracy Emin or Vivienne Westwood might wear one shoe with a yellow sticker trailing from it as a fashion statement.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could bring that sort of playfulness to our writing. Instead of getting stuck in a rut of predictability, we could revel in our quirkiness. We probably don't even notice when we are being quirky and original because we take it for granted. To us, it's normal.

When I got back from my two salsa classes on Monday, my feet were so sore that I told my husband I wished I could take them off. It would have been so nice to unscrew them and get rid of the pain for a few minutes.

I was talking about this to somebody else this morning, and he said, 'That's funny! I'd never have thought of unscrewing my feet.'

But to me, it seems perfectly logical. It also seems natural not to put sheet music into my bag upside down in case the musical notes fall off the pages and not to put books into my bag upside down in case the words fall out and get lost!

Take a few minutes to think for yourself about your own little quirky thoughts. Then write them in your notebook. You might need them one day.

And even if you don't, you might make yourself smile. Surely that's worth doing?

Your First Thirty Seconds - How to Write an Opening

First Impressions Count

Recruitment experts always say, 'When you go for an interview, the interviewer will form an opinion about you in the first thirty seconds'.

Readers do the same sort of thing when faced with a piece of writing. There are so many things to read these days - articles, stories, writing in magazines, newspapers, books, the internet - that your readers have plenty of reading matter to choose from and not enough time to read it all.

So when you're starting off a piece, you need to make sure that your opening will grab your reader's attention and make him want to read on.

The Hook

Writers have a special name for this. It's called the hook. Just as a fisherman doesn't want to sit at the riverbank all day and go home empty handed, the writer also needs to catch his readers and keep hold of them.

How to Create a Catchy Hook

So how are you going to write an effective hook for your story or article? What sort of bait are you going to use? Here are a few suggestions:

• Start with a question to get your reader thinking
• Use direct speech to make your opening immediate
• Refer to something topical, then tie it in with the subject of the piece
• Say something surprising
• Be controversial
• Start with an honest, personal observation then open it out
• Begin with an anecdote that is funny or memorable

Discover for Yourself

When you read anything in the coming week, whether it's an article in a newspaper or magazine or a novel, you could take a special look at the opening. Ask yourself what technique the writer has used to hook his readers. Perhaps you could even jot down in a notebook what they did and start your own little collection of effective openings?

Think back to your favourite books or to stories or articles that have lingered in your memory. Can you remember how you felt when you began to read them? Did the opening make you curious? Was it striking? Did you identify with what the writer was saying or feeling?

How about when you looked at this post? Can you remember how it started? What did I do to catch your attention at the beginning?

If you're feeling ambitious, maybe you could write an opening paragraph yourself and try to incorporate a hook? If you like what you've written, you can share it with us by writing it as a comment. Tell us why you think it works.

'Get It Right' - Part 2 - Using the Humble Comma

Too Much or Too Little

When I'm marking my students' work the humble comma seems to cause an awful lot of problems. I spend an inordinate amount of time putting in commas where they are needed or changing them into full stops or semi-colons. It's bizarre that something so small could cause so much trouble.

When to Use a Comma

So how do you decide when to use a comma? Are there any rules?

One of the most common uses of the comma is to divide up bits of a sentence that are logically separate from one another. The best thing to do is to read your sentence and ask yourself if you could take out any sections and still end up with a sentence that makes perfect sense.

Separating Names from the Body of the Sentence

Here's a sentence which needs a comma between a name and the rest of the sentence:

John, I'm going out now.

What would happen if you took away the word John? Would the sentence still work without it?

You'd be left with this:

I'm going out now.

I think you'll agree that makes a perfectly good sentence all by itself, so you need to have a comma to separate John from the rest of the sentence.

When You Can't Separate a Name from the Rest of the Sentence

Take a look at this sentence:

John is going out now.

Can you get rid of the word John? Definitely not! You'd be left with:

Is going out now.

That's not a proper sentence! So it would be meaningless to write:

John, is going out now.

John is the person who is doing something in the sentence, so the word John needs to be connected to the rest of the sentence.

This may sound rather obvious, but you'd be surprised how often writers break up the logic of a sentence by shoving commas in strange places like that, especially if the sentence is a long one.

I hope you feel clearer about that particular rule on commas. There are lots more uses of the comma, but that's enough for now.

Tomorrow I'll look at a grammar problem. Why not e-mail me if you have something you'd like me to explain? My address is: gale.barker@tesco.net. I'd be delighted to hear from you.

'Get It Right' - Part 1 - Spelling

Beginner writers are often hung up about spelling, grammar and punctuation.

'I've got loads of stories in my mind,' they say. 'It's how to get them onto paper that worries me. I didn't go to university and my grammar and punctuation aren't up to much.'

What they don't realise is that they're lucky. Good stories are hard to come by. But anyone can sort out their spelling, grammar and punctuation, with a little help. Here's a little help from me - today I'm going to deal with spelling. Log in tomorrow to find out how to solve your grammar problems.

Spelling
Now that most aspiring writers have computers, spelling isn't nearly the problem it used to be. Spellcheckers sort out an awful lot of potential mistakes. They can even correct your typos for you before you get onto the next word. How clever is that!

What they're not so clever at is spotting whether you've used a word that is a real word, spelt correctly, but it's not the right word in that context. I'm talking about homonyms, words that sound the same but have different meanings and different spellings.

Homonyms - Different Words - Same Sound
Let's take a simple example: the word 'there'. Or it could be 'their'....Or even 'they're'. It's astonishing how often I see these three versions confused in my students' work. Even highly educated people with very responsible jobs can get in a mess with these.

Here's how to tell them apart.

* There means 'in that place'.

The paper clips are over there.

* Their means 'belonging to them'.

The students fixed their essays together with paperclips.

* They're is a shortened version of 'they are'. An apostrophe marks where the missing letter 'a' would have been.

They're getting ready to leave now.

Your spell checker won't be able to tell if you've chosen the wrong homonym, but an editor will, so it's worth investing a bit of time to brush up on any that you aren't sure of. There are plenty of books which explain grammatical points like these very clearly and simply. My favourite one is Collins Good Grammar (£8.99). Or you can use an online grammar website like this one : http://edufind.com/English/grammar/INDEX.cfm.

Little and Often
Grammar books aren't the sort of thing you'd want to sit and read from cover to cover in one sitting. Little and often is the best way to learn this sort of thing. You could read a short section while you're waiting for the kettle to boil or your bus to arrive. The next day, re-read that section and begin a new one.

Gale's Guide
I'll cover more cases like these in my blog, so keep on logging in. Tomorrow I'll deal with a thorny punctuation problem.

Meanwhile, if you have any queries about grammar, punctuation and spelling that you'd like me to deal with, e-mail me on gale.barker@tesco.net.

Tips for Tired Writers

Are you starting to flag a little? Has the inspiration that drove you to your word processor begun to wane? Do you feel as if you're going round and round in circles with a piece?

You know it needs something to make it work, but you're not sure what. You've been working for ages on it, but now you just feel stuck. Perhaps you've got to a scene that is vital for your novel, but you don't feel ready to write it.

Here are ten tips for tired writers:

1) Take a break, a physical break. Get up and go out for a walk round the block. Linger in the garden, watch a passing bird.

2) Get some exercise to bring back that feel-good factor. Jump on the rebounder for ten minutes. Put on a fast tune and dance to it. Do bicep curls with a tin of beans.

3) If you're stuck with a particular scene, skip it and write a section that you feel more comfortable with. You can come back to it later when you're ready to tackle it.

4) Spend half an hour doing free writing. Write about anything that comes to mind, without censoring yourself. Open a dictionary and pick a word with a pin and write about that.

5) Write something totally different from what you normally write. For example, if poetry is your thing, write an article. If you only ever write short stories, write a haiku instead.

6) Read out loud the last two pages that you've written. Hearing your own words and feeling the rhythm of your writing, you're bound to think of some changes you want to make. By the time you've done them, you'll be raring to go again.

7) Use a different writing method. If you always write longhand, try writing directly onto the computer. If you always word process your work, speak into a voice recorder.

8) Go and write in a different location. Sit in a cafe with a notebook. Write a short story on a train. The change of scenery will make you and your writing fresher.

9) Have a soak in the bath. Enjoy soft music, candles, aromatherapy oils, the works. Keep a notebook and paper handy to jot down the ideas you have while you are relaxed.

10) Be kind to yourself. Beating yourself up is not the answer. The world needs writers who are human beings, not machines.

E-mail me on gale.barker@tesco.net with your favourite writing tips or queries about writing.