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The Jevlir Caravansary

Category: Writing

  • No Writing Tricks?

    Not according to this nice, short article on Scroll and Quill Consulting.

  • Scheduling Your Writing

    There is a great post at Study Hacks about how professional writers schedule their writing.

    I find all the suggestions quite useful. I would differ on the precise time of starting, because I have found that doing my morning devotional reading first always helps, and that takes a bit longer. I also have to dedicated the first 45 minutes to an hour of my morning to some business related activities that start my day, including posting the morning devotional, and so forth. This usually starts before 7 AM, and on many days before 6 AM.

    Immediately following that I do my devotional reading, which for me can be up to a couple of hours. Thus I get to actual writing, beyond small posts like this, by about 9-10 AM or so. I have tried writing first, but it doesn’t work. I definitely can’t move it to the afternoon, however, or it just plain doesn’t get done.

    (HT: the evangelical outpost.)

  • Mixing Genres or Strong in Multiple Areas

    One of the things that makes me do some thinking when I write on this blog is that I am not entirely certain of why I like the things I like. This is especially interesting when I encounter a story that I do not enjoy, and yet that I think is well written. Something in my occasionally logical brain is offended at the realization that my enjoyment doesn’t fully follow my more technical appraisal.

    Now it may simply be that I have not done enough serious looking at the literature that I read. If I study it more closely I may do a better job of determining why I like certain things but not others. At the moment I believe that characterization impacts my appreciation of a story much more than plot. I have read some stories in which I thought the plot was not all that good, but yet I enjoyed it because of the quality of portrayal of the characters.

    But what I have noticed over the last few weeks is that I truly like stories that are very strong in more than one area. I could call it mixing genres, but these are truly properly fitted into a single genre; they just offer elements of another.

    For example, I like military fiction. I like military history as well, but military fiction is fun. I also like science fiction. But some of my favorite science fiction writers are folks who do a good job combining good military writing and science fiction, such as David Weber and David Drake.

    In recent reading suggested by my wife, I read Nora Roberts’ books Sacred Sins and Brazen Virtue. Normally I dislike romance, but the mixture of elements of mystery and a small amount of suspense made that reading workable.

    I’m not trying to get technical here–not that I could in this area–I’m just looking at what I like. I’m also not trying to be prescriptive. It’s not that such stories are better; I just enjoy them more.

  • Blogroll Addition: Nuggets of Gold

    I located this site because it was added to the Moderate Christian Blogroll.  The writer uses stories in a very inspirational way.  I intend to keep track of it, so even though I display the Moderate Christian Blogroll, I’m going to add it to my standard blogroll of writing blogs.

    I’d  particularly commend the post titled The Missing Baby.  It’s a creative combination of story and scripture.  Good stuff!

  • Prescriptive Grammar

    This post uses the phrase “prescriptivist blowhards,” which I wish I had coined, about this prescriptive nonsense, which surely deserved it.

    The meanings of words are determined by the way in which they are used.

    Syntax is determined by the way people actually write and talk.

    Prescriptive grammarians can yell and talk all they want, but it will still work that way, just as it always has. “They,” for example, is a plural pronoun because people used it that way. It can become a singular pronoun in certain circumstances for no better reason than that, surprise, people use it that way.

    I do want grammarians and grammar teachers to be a bit conservative about the language. They shouldn’t be early adopters of every new way of expressing a thought. But uptight prescriptions are just silly, and can, nay should be ignored.

    (I think much the same way about artistic and literary value.)

  • Becoming a Better Writer

    I’ve been asked by a number of people how to become a better writer. Despite my current publications, I still find myself more in need of advice than I am prepared to offer it, but I do try to help. I don’t know where I first heard it, but what I usually pass on, and largely all I’m able to pass on is the one thing that worked for me, the “ass-on-chair” approach. (Proofreading comment: Also, avoid long, complex sentences such as the preceding one like the plague. And avoid cliches too! Don’t touch them with a ten foot pole!)

    For some better and more detailed rules on how to learn to write, see 10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer.

    Row of tipping hats: faithmaps blog, SmartChristian.com, and Church Tech Matters.

  • Tom Sims is Cheering You On

    Sometimes when you’re a bit of a visionary or an ordinary dreamer, and people look at you with a tolerant look that tells you they believe you’re doomed for failure, it’s nice to have someone do a little bit of cheering.

    Tom Sims does it in poetic form.