Exercise in Writing Challenge!

A few days ago, I was writing about my word count issues while I sorted it all out in my head and was surprised to find that you all... that is talking out my hangups in writing on the blog is part of my process.

By approaching a problem in the third person, like I am helping someone else over a hurdle or across a pitfall it becomes easier to find a resolution. I know that I have talked about the value of journals before but this is just slightly different.

Start a Writing Blog; drop me a link and I'll read you. But don't give yourself any hard set responsibility to the Blog. Instead, when you come across a problem in your writing, be it for a school project, NaNoWriMo, or that book you have been working on for the last decade and address your hurdle like you are writing an article.

Requirements: Each entry must be 1000 words. Topics can be like "Writing about an Illness", "Writing a Romantic Interlude.", "Getting Past Writers block.", "Why I hate writing in Drafts."

This is in part because as writers we are part of a community, but mostly because as a tool... writing about it forces you to research and researching helps you move on.

Hitting the write word count!

 So I did write something on my birthday. I wrote a quick and dirty article to publish on a forum that I enjoy using as an online resource... You know how it is, giving back. Problem being they have a minimum length of a thousand word requirement and my finished article is 668 words. So the question is:

How to stretch the writing without losing quality?

Which is how I found blogging gems The Write Soul and Writing with Purpose while it didn't give me my answer in the strictest sense motivation was achieved so my 668 words of amazing information won't go unread on my word processor.

The answer lies in the art of "Fluff" which is really just expounding just a little bit with educational examples and descriptions, this does become an art because it can make reading your writing tedious if you aren't frugal or don't choose the right words. "Watch you sentence length." can become something like "Watching your sentence length is critical, while short sentences will help you emphasize a subject it isn't always in your best interest." followed by an example. You can see the word count growing already.

In the hour or so that I toddled about writing this for you, my Article is now 1,462 words and ready to submit... that is after a few runs of proof reading the new bits.

The sign of an Amateur...

They say constantly change your Point of View is the mark of an Amateur and how you can distinguish a professional.

I agree that within a single scene you shouldn't change the point of view as it can be confusing, but is it really the sign of an Amateur or something you can clean up in the draft process?

My opinion is that you should get the words on paper and save the cleanup for when you have writers block, who cares what voice you are using as long as it gets cleaned up before someone else reads it?

Opinions, rants, emotional outbursts... Please comment below.

Its My Birthday!

As of 02:59 (AM) PST I am officially old.

Well 31.

I find very little inspiration in my birthday, its not one of those things that my family ever made a big fuss about. But it is the one day of the year that I do not feel guilty about playing hooky.

Oh I am writing, I write every day. Some days its just a few words, others it may be a chapter and there are times when I am not inclined to write so I edit.

Today I'm writing. I may go out to dinner and bring a notebook and write some more.