The Writing Process: How I Save Spit
If you’re interested, here’s a glimpse of me editing myself. *Ruthless* http://aopinionatedman.com/2014/02/24/the-writing-process-part-3-how-i-save-spit/ Love, HW
Tag: Writing Process
The Writing Process II, Part 5: The Gift of Time in Revision
If this one isn’t short and sweet, hopefully it’ll be short and sensible. Before publishing anything, take the good that time offers and – where at all possible – step away from your work. Stephen King says, “With six weeks’ worth of recuperation time, you’ll be able to see any glaring holes in the plot… Read More The Writing Process II, Part 5: The Gift of Time in Revision
The Writing Process II, Part 4: Why We Read
In all the talk about how to write, I began thinking about why we even try, backtracking to why we read. According to Stephen King, “The real importance of reading is that it creates an ease and intimacy with the process of writing.” (On Writing) What I want to understand, though, is not the intellectual… Read More The Writing Process II, Part 4: Why We Read
The Writing Process II, Part 1: Keep It Real
The Process is as rich as there are writers. I now see that in my earliest years of writing I had been trying on words for size, putting out what I thought sounded good. Of course sounds are what give birth to words, and it is the thrilling privilege of writers to show communication is… Read More The Writing Process II, Part 1: Keep It Real
The Writing Process: The Final Word
Put a touch of magic in your ending. The last impression you leave of your writing rests on your closing thoughts, which will ring more loudly than the opening sentence that well may have gone forgotten halfway into your narrative. In my school years, I struggled not to copy my first paragraph in the last.… Read More The Writing Process: The Final Word
The Writing Process, Part 5: Keep Painting
In extension of The Writing Process: Sensory Details, Part 4, I share a handful of poems a few private students produced years back. The wording fell into place once the ideas came to life in the brainstorm of senses (explained in Part 4). Tip of the day: quotes wake up poems with the element of… Read More The Writing Process, Part 5: Keep Painting
The Writing Process, Part 4: Sensory Details
I was about 23, teaching 5th grade in a diverse Philadelphia public school. Hailstones and Halibut Bones, the beautiful book of color poetry that inspires kids out of mediocre writing, sparked lovely poems in my own students. (It is the most recent edition that offers vibrant pictures). The contagious delight the kids took playing with… Read More The Writing Process, Part 4: Sensory Details
50th Post, 200 Follows, Award, and More on Writing
I awoke today to over 200 subscribers on my Stats report. Still doing Cyberland on foot without the airlift of tweets or Facebook (somebody, get me a GPS for FB). I thank my faithful readers for entering the story. Sharing the journey has been more enriching than I knew to expect as a new kid… Read More 50th Post, 200 Follows, Award, and More on Writing
The Writing Process, Part 3: To Be or Not To Be
I’m not asking Hamlet’s existential question. To be or not to be? To live or kill myself? It’s literal grammar. To eat –> She eats. To dance –> She dances. To be –> She be. She is. The verb TO BE conjugates, or breaks down, into the form is when referring to a singular third… Read More The Writing Process, Part 3: To Be or Not To Be
The Writing Process, Part 2: Save Spit
I’ve taught writing in both public schools and private settings. Years after their last lesson with me, I asked two very bright sisters (with diametric learning styles) what they remembered from their long season with me. Both answered, “Save spit.” Turned out, the pithy injunction had velcroed itself on their brain and conducted the papers… Read More The Writing Process, Part 2: Save Spit
A Holistic Journey 