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

Wordy Wednesday

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
***

Words are like a stream of tickertape spewing across the screen. They either become a sentence or they turn into jibberish.

Have you ever been listening to people, in a restaurant for example, and all the words seem to blend together like scrambled eggs? Jumbled and confused you can’t discern one conversation from the other?

We as writer’s have to listen and pick apart a conversation in our writing. We can’t jumble it all together and expect readers to get the point. Always try to remember a beginning, a middle and an end. Using this technique will make your words have a cognitive point.

If we start a paragraph, we should start with point A., move on to point B., and finish it up with point C. Tying it all in to point A. We can’t confuse the reader by giving them the whole alphabet and expecting them to put it all in order and make sense of what we write.

Our words are going to flow from one point to the next and the reader is going to be all the more enthralled in your story. Whether you blog, whether you’re telling a Short Story, or whether it is a Novel, you must always keep in mind the reader.

I know of some writer’s who try to over-explain, and in this sense, they lose the reader. It’s as if the writer is writing in desperation, trying to get the story out and all that they get from me is sympathy. This is where a lot of possibly good writer’s are left behind on the way to publishing success. I also note that while in the library, there are many writer’s who are published sitting on the shelf collecting dust because either the cover didn’t grab someone or the story synopsis was lame.

I’m going to pick up a book that has a little taste of what the writer has written. His style or her flair will pull me in and if it doesn’t, then onto my search for the next Shirley Jackson or Stephen King. They know how to streamline words. They know what the reader wants. The reader wants to get lost in some fantasy world, but wants you, the writer, to make sense of this fantasy world. Our words are going to keep them reading.

It seems my tickertape has run amuck and must end here. Remember, words are your friends. Take good care of the relationship and it will blossom.

A Paragraph

Paragraph’s

Sure the writing of a paragraph sounds quite simple but you need to take into consideration the elements that make up a paragraph. When writing an essay, the paragraph will need to be broken up by spaces (online) so that it is easier viewing. When we clump it all together, it looks like just that, clumped together words. Writing clumped together words is quite simple, but to create a piece of readable work you’ll need elements and structure.

A paragraph begins with a basic topic sentence. This will introduce the main topic of the paragraph. The following sentences will develop from there, the sentences will relate to that very first sentence. This is what I like to call the “fleshing out” part. The final sentence will be linked back to the very first sentence making the paragraph whole.

When your subject changes, then a new paragraph begins. Sounds simple, does it not? It’s not. It is so easy to get off topic while writing a paragraph and this is why we need to hone the skills in writing so that we remain focused on what is filling the page.

I’m all for free writing. Just letting your muse flow like crazy and come back later to edit what you wrote. But you still need some form of structure in your paragraphs or you will be lost in the revision stages wondering what you wrote. Free writing doesn’t mean sloppy-I-can-do-anything-I-want writing, it just means you can write freely without inhibitions.

In writing a novel or short story, it is not going to be all paragraph writing. There will come a time when you have dialogue. Do you know that the dialogue has to be set in its own paragraph? Each part of the speech, even if it’s a “hi”, one word, it still needs its own separate paragraph. Now when dialogue and narrative are used together, you might want to look at the master’s and see their take on how they handle the situation in writing the short story or novel.

“You’re saying that I need to separate the talking part?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”

“And I don’t clump it all together and mix all the characters up like popcorn on a griddle?”

The students were filled with questions. I’m sure glad I thought of this topic, “NO!”

If you mix the dialogue together, the reader will then lose his/her place and wonder who is doing the talking. We need to make it easiest on the reader so that they come away with an enjoyable experience not one of confusion. Isn’t that what we want for our reader? To give them the journey of a lifetime through our words?

“Yes ma’am!” They all said with glee.

“Well, what are you waiting for? GET WRITING!”