White Space

As opposed to white noise, white space is a necessary in the writing world. I too often see assignments of crammed together words, appearing as one paragraph. I am totally lost as to what a person thinks, when as a writer, they would think that this would bode well in the writing world.

White noise is defined as:

1 a : a heterogeneous mixture of sound waves extending over a wide frequency range

   b : a constant background noise; especially : one that drowns out other sounds

2    : meaningless or distracting commotion, hubbub, or chatter

Now think of White Space as # 2’s definition: meaningless distracting commotion. Is that what you want your readers to walk away with; the feeling of reading meaningless chatter? Of course not. You want not only your words to be appealing but also the display of your words to be attractive to where the person isn’t pulling their hair out just trying to get to the finish line.

I know some people are from other countries, and might not understand the proper way to portray their work to the American public. They read what others have written, and see how it is done, so why not try and display the work in an appropriate fashion?

Eager writers new to the playing field just want to write and get that piece posted as quick as possible, but in all sincerity, when I open a piece that is all jumbled together like that, not one bit of white space, just one lengthy paragraph? I have to skip over it and not read it at all. I’m sure that is not what they intended to do, to turn people off from their writing, so I say this, before hitting that submit button, read your work out loud. If it sounds appealing it just might have that same affect on your reader.

Now look at your work. Is it the proper wordcount? Is it broken into proper paragraphs, where the reader can visually take note of what they are going to read and the amount of time it is going to take to read?

Remember these five rules before submitting work to ANY place, whether a magazine or an online class. Rules are rules. Guidelines are there not only for the reader, but also for the editor to choose from. If you submit jumbled words, it gets tossed in the trash by the editor, or not read by your fellow classmates.

1. Always double space after a paragraph making WHITE-SPACE visual to the reader.
2. Always proofread your work. At an online workshop you’ll get feedback and critique, and they’ll also point out the many grammatical errors you’ve made.
3. Always read your story out loud! A lot of folk find this weird, sitting alone in a house, reading out loud. But this does help you HEAR what you might have missed in the correct structuring of the sentence.
4. Always check the word count. If it calls for 500 words, make it 500 words. Editors will toss out work for being ONE WORD over the limit. Get into practice at your online course.
5. Always take the critique with a grain of salt. Not everyone gets a glowing critique and not all critiques are right in their assessing of your work. You are the creator, the artists. Critiques are to guide you, not to demean your work.

I got a nibble on a book that people are reading about writing! I’m going to try and offer a book to read with my posts, labeled Book Bites. Nifty, eh?

Book Bites on Writing:

 "WIRED FOR STORY," by Lisa Cron

Wild World of Writing

The writing world is just wild! With Authors, Publishers, Agents, and Editors, we find ourselves in a world of words, bouncing around like balls in a BINGO machine! It’s a wonderful world mostly, where like minds join together for the same common interest and that is the love of reading and writing.

The definitions of such are below:

AUTHOR --
1. a person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist.
2. the literary production or productions of a writer:
3. the maker of anything; creator; originator:

WRITER --
1. a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., especially as an occupation or profession; an author or journalist.
2. a person who commits his or her thoughts, ideas, etc., to writing.

PUBLISHER --
1. a person or company whose business is the publishing of books, periodicals, engravings, computer software, etc.
2. the business head of a newspaper organization or publishing house, commonly the owner or the representative of the owner.
 
AGENT --
1. a person or business authorized to act on another's behalf:
2. a person who works for or manages an agency.
 
EDITOR --
1. a person having managerial and sometimes policy-making responsibility for the editorial  part of a publishing firm or of a newspaper, magazine, or other publication.
2. a person who edits  material for publication, films, etc.

Publishers, Editors, and Agents are not necessarily writers/authors. They are in the business because they were either writers in their previous years and found the business exciting enough to stay in the field one way or another, or the love of reading has brought them to this juncture.
 
And not all writers make good editors. I see some well published writers/authors of their own works still in need of an editor who can pick out that typo and make their work appear more professional. Say a writer posts an article at Helium. If they have not edited their work and many typo’s abound, what are the odds of that author ever being taken seriously?
 
Is an agent necessary to get your work into the hands of the publishers? Not necessarily, but they do know who to pitch your work to and whose hands it would best have a likely shot at being published. So as you can see, it is one wild world this writing domain that I’ve gotten myself into. With ups and downs, in's and outs, the Wide World of Writing is a kaleidoscope of adventures and can bring a richly rewarding creative world to life for you whichever you are in the industry, writer/author, agent, publisher or editor.
 
As the Cat Stevens song says, “Oh baby baby it’s a wild world!” ...it goes onto saying, “But if you wanna leave, take good care, hope you make a lot of nice friends out there, but just remember there’s a lot of bad and BEWARE!”
 
The same can be said for the writing world.

Professionalism

It only takes one person to change your life – you.
Ruth Casey

***

There comes a point in ones writing career when you realize the importance of acting like a professional. If you’re just writing to make friends, to be popular, to just plain old have fun, then you are in the wrong business. Maybe you should think of joining a circus, or a carnival, or perhaps a day care where the children don’t want you to be professional, they want a like-minded person who is funny and will play all the time. Remember, they WANT Bozo the Clown for a friend!

When you join the writing sites, it is pretty important that you come off as a professional. You never know if a prospective editor, agent, or publisher is sitting right next to you, observing you before she/he approaches you. If they see that you can’t even act professional, why would they want to take something as serious as getting you published and helping you with it, into their professional business?

Allow me to ask this, when you submit your work, are you going to put cute little hearts on your work, a few woohoos; are you going to sign it with (hugs)? I’m just here to tell you, that your work will go right in the trash! Why? Because not only did you not adhere to the guidelines, it was because you were very unprofessional in the submission of your work!

As teachers of writing, we have to set proper examples for the new writer to follow. When we act in a childish manner, the newcomer finds this as an example to follow and they go on acting like a child, then the whole class begins acting like a child, then the classroom erupts in crazy behavior and becomes a circus-like atmosphere. Which has me running for the exit. But it has the newcomer embracing the silliness, and then the entire school is acting crazy and unprofessional and makes me not want to be a part of the writing world!

I will not take seriously anything someone is trying to teach me if they continuously shout out “WOOHOO” with a smiley or the words, woohoo. An occasional smiley might make them feel welcome, but the annoying over use makes you appear not very knowledgeable, or better yet, very unprofessional in the field. You’re waging a popularity contest, an ego boost, and in hindsight, you’ve created a series of fellow performers. You were just suppose to teach lessons.

The RINGMASTER - YOU, the teacher! The one who is guiding and leading has trained:
CLOWNS - these are the folk that follow your insanity and lead others too!
TIGHTROPE WALKERS - these are the ones that stand high above you looking down, wondering what they got themselves into.
TRAPEZE ARTISTS - these are the ones who swing all around the place, trying to fit in, and showing off their silliness, as you taught them!
JUGGLERS - Who juggle many sites, doing the same thing. Running around being crazy.

Now don’t get me wrong, the newcomer is frightened as it is upon entering a new course, and when they see someone acting like a goof, they then think, “Hey, this is an okay place! I feel at home.” Then they go onto acting a little loose too, where otherwise they might have remained professional. I say this: Know your boundaries! Set your limits! Know that the writing community is full of professional people, just waiting to help you along your path. Even the ‘stiff shirts’ can be a little zany sometimes, but we know what our job is and that is to guide you in the RIGHT direction, not skirt you off to the circus!