Since he posed the question, and because I’m always a sucker for an inviting status post like that, I’ve been thinking about this a bit. As a former teacher (and now curriculum developer), writing, teaching writing, and working with the writing of others is part of “what I do.” Clearly, it’s also something I do “off the clock”. In fact, I’m not sure I can compartmentalize writing anymore – it’s vital to both my professional success and mental well-being.

But, his question made me think.

What would I tell folks who are not in a place where formal instruction is desired or necessary?

[I need to admit here that one of the coolest things about teaching is taking something that you know and trying to remember what it was like to NOT know it. The act of dissecting something that's second nature is extremely interesting and I highly recommend it. Please warn friends and family prior to starting though - it can become an obsession and I'm all about the warning before the OCD kicks in!]

So here are my top 5 writing tips – in no particular order. Hopefully, these will be helpful for someone struggling to find “their inner author”.

1. Don’t THINK about writing. BE a writer.

Too much thinking can kill a good creative streak! Now, don’t get me wrong, good writers think and plan and draft and think and plan and draft … but those are actions toward a goal! Don’t get stuck on the idea of “being a writer” or think that there is a method or procedure or recipe that you can use to become one. Just write. … and write and write and write. It doesn’t even matter if what you are writing is formal or grammatically correct or even if it makes sense. It matters that you are getting your thoughts on paper. That’s the biggest hurdle most of the time!

Oh, and please fortheloveofallthatisgoodandrightwiththeworld, please don’t worry about your spelling or handwriting!!! [You know, assuming that you still write on paper with a real pen, pencil, or even a nice colorful crayon from time-to-time.]

Blank paper, like the dark, can be scary and overwhelming. Turn the light on – get something down. Draw a picture. Write a letter. Scribble. Write down everything that comes into your head. Rhyme as many words as you can. Write a shopping list. The act of writing is the first step to becoming a better writer.

While we are here at the “being a writer” discussion, I should mention that it will probably help to rid yourself of any romanticized notions you might have about writing. It’s very often hard work. Although I secretly have visions of writing from a perch overlooking a crystal clear, blue ocean in a house full of windows. Of typing away, hearing the breeze, listening to the waves and the seabirds, and seeing an occasional whale or sea lion. I do know that this daydream is more than a tad unrealistic – both from a monetary and work efficiency standpoint. While I’m sure that some writers write in these exotic/romantic settings, I’d be willing to bet that most find their get-away at Starbucks or on their very regular living room couch. So, get thee a pumped up cuppa coffee and find a comfortable spot!

2. Embrace the messiness.

Writing is a messy business. It’s all thoughts and scribbles and phrases and rabbit trails [*grin*] and run on sentences and  … you get the idea. It’s OK. Relax. That’s part of the process. It can actually the best part of the process if you let it. This is the place and time when anything is possible. Anything!

Sometimes the messy is in your mind. You incubate your thoughts for a long time and then whoosh, it all spills on the page in a mostly-coherent draft. Although some writing teachers don’t formally count that as drafting, for my money that’s one solid way through the writing process. I tend to be a fan of what works over formal process definitions – especially when it comes to stretching the creative muscle.

Sometimes that mental drafting doesn’t work. When that happens, the mess may show up as hundreds of sticky notes or words flowing over pages and pages in a document or journal or blog. While this looks a bit messier, this often brings all of the possibilities together. [A very beautiful thing, I think!] At this point the ideas need a little tidying up … sort of like scrapbooking your family vacation. You make decisions about what ideas and phrases work in your current project and the rest becomes material for other/future projects.

Whatever your mess looks like, don’t be in too much of a rush to reign it in and don’t be embarrassed or shy about it. Celebrate the mess! Embrace it … let it be messy. You’ll clean it up eventually … probably more than once!

3. Read. Read. Read.

It’s almost cliche at this point and if it wasn’t so dang true, I’d skip it here. But, the role reading plays in becoming a good/better writer … well, it’s vital. Good writers have good models. Good writers read. If you are a blogger (or want to be), read blogs. If you want to write fiction, read a lot of fiction. If you want to write non-fiction, read a lot of non-fiction. Yep, it’s about that simple. Well, sort of.

Just reading good writing won’t automatically make you a better writer. You’ll need to pay attention to the devices, tone, and style used by the folks you are drawn to. What do they do to move the story along? What tone do they use? How do they handle dialog? What forms of poetry do they choose? What topics do they tend to write about? What draws you to their writing? What do you like/dislike about their approach to a topic? In short, you want to read like a writer. It takes things to a whole different level.

Then, the fun begins. You can try on their style for size. Pick an author’s style/tone and write something that mimics it. See what’s comfortable. See what’s not. This part is play, but I think it’s important play. You don’t want to mimic or become someone else long-term, you just want to wear their literary shoes for a bit.

I believe it’s also incredibly helpful to read what good writers say about writing and their process. I’ve mentioned Anne Lamott here before. Her Bird by Bird remains one of my favorites – and a perennial read for me. There are some online folks that I’ve found as well. I really like The Novel Doctor. I love how he uses language and humor … and I adore, absolutely adore, this post. It is spot on!

Literature, blogs, writing discussions … these become your resources and models. The advice and examples become part of your tool box! Invaluable.

4. Get social.

One of the things I’ve found most true about writing is this … audience is everything! Knowing your audience matters. Having an audience matters.

When you are your only audience, you write differently than when you write KNOWING that someone else will read your work. The difference is more than content. It’s more than dealing with the distinction between personal and shared content. There is something about “being published” that causes you to carefully consider your words and writing structure in a way that simply doesn’t happen when you are writing in a personal journal.

Oh, and here’s the good news. Being “published” doesn’t have to mean submitting work to a publisher and getting it printed in a known or highly distributed print/online publication. It simply means putting your work “out there” in a place where others can read and react to it. This opens up a wide range of possibilities that include personal blogs, “notes” in Facebook, and sharing with a colleague.

Time for a fair warning. Getting social on this level can be scary. The “What Ifs” can be overwhelming. What if the readers don’t like it? What if readers are highly critical of my work? What if everyone else posts something that is so much better? What if I can’t be as good as [insert writer's name here]? It can be terrifying. But, it’s a necessary part of getting better. You need feedback. You need to be pushed. You need to know, specifically and in some detail, where others are struggling with what you’ve written. That’s how you grow. It’s how you become better. It’s how you get out of your own way … out of your own head. It’s scary and frustrating and hard to hear (sometimes).

But, guess what? It’s likely that this new social group of yours will also tell you what’s good about your writing. They’ll celebrate your strengths and help you work through the challenges. They’ll give you support. They’ll become your writing family. They’ll make the hard work worthwhile because writing is meant to be read! Having readers is wonderfully energizing … having readers that make you want to be a better writer is a gift.

There are quite a few places writers/artists congregate online. Here are a few. You might want to try them on for size.

• National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) -is an annual (November) novel writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world.
• National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) – National Blog Posting Month is the epicenter of daily blogging! People who want to set the habit of blogging by doing it every day for a month, including weekends, can come here for moral support, inspiration, and the camaraderie that only marathon blogging can provide.
• Art House Co-op – Art House creates massive, nationwide art projects that tie hundreds of artists together – and anyone can participate.

5. Play with words.

Sometimes work really is play and the old saying, “All work and no play…” comes directly into focus. I find writing is one of those situations. Mixing up your writing time with a combination of “real” writing and just taking time to explore or work with words is, in my opinion, vital for keeping the wheels on the road. (It’s also a fun way to get past a spell of writer’s block!) The great thing about this one is that there are ALL KINDS of ways to mix it up so, by all means, play your way!

Here are some of my favorites.

• Complete an “assignment”. I like the challenges in Room to Write by Bonni Goldberg.
• Design a Twitter-friendly/tweetable story .. 140 characters at a time.
• Find or take a picture of something and sketch out the back story.
• Create and describe a new character.
• Invent humorous/clever status entries for Facebook (or the social network of your choice).
• Find a poetry form/pattern and write a poem using it. (I especially like to write against type – like using Haiku for distinctly non-nature oriented topics.)
• Rewrite the words to a favorite song or nursery rhyme. (Really want a challenge? Work your kids/family into the new song lyrics on the fly to entertain them while making dinner. Write these down, they’ll ask you to sing them again!)
• Challenge yourself to write a paragraph about an everyday topic using using alliteration a la Aster Aardvark.

…and because you’ve read this far? Here’s a bonus tip!

Bonus: Find your own voice – and be OK with it.

It can be very tempting to imitate the style or voice of a well-loved author or of an author you particularly like. Resist. The beauty of writing is that it allows a writer’s unique personality shine. Let yours out. As wonderful as [insert your favorite writer here] might be, he/she doesn’t corner the market on quality. Be your own person when you write. Let your humor come out. Find your voice and be OK with it!!!

The other night, Little Man and I were talking about what he’s learning at school. He’s getting closer and closer to kindergarten and his preschool teachers are really doing a good job with readiness skills. One of the things they are doing is reading and talking about A LOT of books. [His teacher LOVES the library and talks about books and reading all the time ... heart is singing here!]!

Little Man is excited about the books they are reading – especially one. A chapter book about a little girl in kindergarten – one Miss Junie B. Jones. [Little kids are soooo cute when they say chapter book ... there's awe in every word. I love it!]

The mention of the Junie B. series made me all warm and fuzzy inside.  See, about 15 years ago, I read the Junie B. series to my students and we all fell in love with her – and Barbara Park, the author. My students and I couldn’t get enough of  her books. We bought out the book fair and emptied piggy banks when the Scholastic Book orders went around. It was a reading frenzy. I loved it. We loved it. It was a true reading community – amazing things happened.

About 10 years ago, I had the absolute privilege of meeting Barbara Park in person. She was doing an on-camera appearance in the studios where I worked. She was there to talk to students about reading and writing – her work.

Just before her visit to the studio, it was discovered that many of the folks in our little production group weren’t familiar with her books. So, I spent an hour a day reading them out loud in our cube area. By the time Ms. Park arrived, everyone knew Junie B. and loved her. [Yep, there's a pattern here. If you don't know these books, you should get to know them!]

After the shows, she sat and talked to a few of us about writing and teaching. I didn’t get much work done that day … in fact, maybe none.  She was wonderful and gracious and delightful to talk to. [Grown-ups are sooo cute when they talk about meeting amazing authors who "get it" and are willing to talk about it ... there's awe in every word.]

It’s hard to believe that it’s been so long since I’ve spent time with Junie B. So, I was excited when Little Man brought her home. And, last night, some 15 years after first meeting Junie B., I passed on my collection of her stories to my Little Man. It was good.

Tonight, he and I read about Junie B., that Grace, Mrs., Lucille, and Meanie Jim. None of them have changed much in all this time. Junie B. is still her silly, honest, ornery old self. She hasn’t aged a bit … not one. And I love that.

Little Man can’t wait to read on! My old friend has captivated my son … I can’t wait to see what happens next!

I’d not heard of Wordle, but intrigued, I trundled over and … well, just cool. So I wordled this blog post.

Created at www.wordle.net

I must say, I just love this. So many applications … some serious, some just for fun.

Go visit! Make your own … I’d love to see what your Wordle art looks like!

Exhaustion sets in.

Heavy eyes begin to close.

Dreams are on the way.

Many would say, “Meh, just pack it in and don’t worry about it.” I must admit that I thought about it. A lot. But, this is one of those times when you have to find a challenge and make yourself write.

As I was working up the intestinal fortitude to buck up and write something brilliant (OK, brilliant might be an exaggeration in the extreme), I found myself staring at an iTunes playlist. I was stuck there staring at the running times of the songs listed.

My mind started to wrap itself around the gift that composers and lyricists have been given. The ability to tell a whole story in 3 or 4 minutes is just cool. It was then that I remembered a book that came out a while ago … and a writing challenge that I’d never gotten around to.

Ahhh … inspiration.

As the story goes, Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only 6 words. He did. Smith Magazine published a book (Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure) of what others would do if given just 6 words and has been challenging folks to compose 6-word memoirs for their next volume. 

So, what 6 words would I choose and what would I say? Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. My guess is that I’ll revisit this again…

I was driven so I drove.

Hmmm … I think that sums up most of my life and my experience of living so far. So, what would your 6 words be?

Normally, I’d give it up, go to bed, and try again tomorrow. But … I’m thick in the midst of NaBloPoMo month so, it’s time for the proverbial 12th man (or brain cell, in this case) to step up and string a few words together.

I think I’ll risk closing my eyes one more time. Maybe if I write the thoughts off the top of my head, something interesting will pop out. Of course, something downright frightening could appear out of the current cobwebs as well! It’s always an adventure.

• Nervousness is boarding a plane in a group where there are more kids than adults…
• There are a whole bunch of things is this world we make harder than they really need to be…
• I really like the silence of a snowfall…
• There are ex-pro football players who should not have made a transition into broadcasting…
• The lights in my house go on and off by themselves and sometimes it creeps me out…
• Ever notice that when one member of a family is having a bad week, the whole family has a rough week? There’s something to learn and think about there…
• The Verizon “move my meeting” commercial is REALLY funny to me…
• I’ve got a thing for Sugarland…

Well, as it turns out, brain cells really do only have so much juice and synapse firing is important for stringing together thought.

Dang.

Important Husband Note: Husband sometimes states things in a way that, at first glance, warrants a smack in the head. 99.99% if the time it’s just delivery – he doesn’t really mean it. I’ve been with him a long time. I didn’t take it personally.

But alas, that’s a rabbit trail for another time! Back to the question. Why do people blog?

What I found interesting is that I didn’t really have a good answer for him! How do you explain the blogosphere to someone who uses the Internet rather than lives on it?

So, right. There are

• marketing blogs – “let me tell you a pithy story and tie it back to my product or service”
• advocacy blogs – “let me tell you why you should see things my/our way”
• information blogs – “let me tell you what I know about…”
• personal blogs – “let me tell you random things about myself”
  • personal blogs for income – “I have lots of readers and have put ads on my site to support my blogging habit”
• family blogs – “let me keep you in touch with what’s going on in my family”
• picture blogs – “let me show you some pictures I just took”

Ahhh … yes, great. So, why is this blog worthy? I have no idea. It’s probably not. It’s Monday, I’m tired.

So, I guess that probably the biggest question he had (politely unspoken, thank you) is why do I blog.

It’s pretty simple really. I need to have a place to write simply to write and play with writing. Anne Lamott (one of my favorites, btw), says that if you want to be a writer, you need to write every day. She also says that most of what you write will be … well, let’s just paraphrase and say, “not good.”

It doesn’t matter if folks read what I write or not (although it’s always great to have feedback) … it just matters that I write … everyday! Who knows? Maybe a fabulous nugget will suddenly appear and I’ll expand on it and make millions.

It could happen … as long as I keep blogging!

Many of these assignments are simply silly, but they are all designed to get my brain working with words – sort of a workout for my writing skills. In this journey, I’m going to stay away from cerebral topics – the kind I write about at work. I’m going to search for other parts of me. I have no idea if this will be interesting to anyone at all. But … here goes somethin’!

Assignment One: Describe Smells. Let everything filter through your nose!

Cigars. Soap. Fish. Lake. Faint mildew. Wow, not a Channel type list of ingredients. But, put together in just the right way, they are extremely comforting. They are my grandpa.

For years before the medicinal smell of old age set in, my Grandpa oozed a distincly male scent. That strong scent – animalistic – that said, “I’m in control here. I will care for and protect what is mine. In my own way.”

The cigar smoke, El Verso, permeated everything … well, sort of. I remember him smoking them in the house, but I can’t remember a time when they were overpowering. Just pleasantly lingering. Nevertheless, that light tobacco smell was in his hair, his clothes, pretty much everywhere. Like the lingering scent of fresh ground coffee beans in a coffee store.

Also lingering in that smell, was the freshness of soap. Good, old-fashioned manly-smelling soap. I’m not exactly sure where that came from to be honest.  Men of his generation (people of his generation) didn’t bathe daily. But … the smell was there. Clean and strong … with a hit of smoke!

Everything else is a pinch and a dash … a pinch of mildew from living in a lake house. A dash of fresh fish from the morning catch. A pinch of plain ole’ fresh air from the outside chores. A dash of sweat from pure hard-work and effort.

It was a recipe for the quintessential smell of testosterone. Man … confident, controlled, and comforting.

One winter night in 1997, I left my parents house to head home. As I walked outside to my car, it started to snow. There were already a couple of inches on the ground and my feet were crunching … that was the only sound.

My parents lived way outside of the “city” on 50 acres of wooded land. So I was really out in the middle of nowhere. If you’ve never been, I suggest you find a place like that and visit. It reminded me a lot of the book Owl Moon.

Anyway, so I wanted to capture that moment … that sound (or lack of it). So I wrote this. I think it might be one of my favorite pieces.

Look up.
Look around.
Peace is falling.
The roar of the silence peaks other senses.
Cold tingles fingers.
Eyes see ghostly, crystalline figures clearly.
The beauty of the forest … deafening.
Everything shimmering and boundless and clear.
Majestic creatures quieted -
Tucked in Mother Nature’s quilt.
Look up.
Peace is falling.

The weather we’ve been having here (and the fact that it’s almost Christmas) reminded me of this again. Good memories.