Dive In!

Olympic divers amaze me.

They climb up a ladder, walk out on the diving platform, take a few preliminary bounces, and dive--leaping off the board, twisting, turning, arching--finally slicing through the water to finish their routine.

Amazing.

The purpose of Olympic diving is to dive--to get off the platform and into the air and then into the water. If the diver just stood there bouncing on the board well, I'd get tired of waiting.

"Dive already!"

"Jump!"

"Just do it!"

Writing the lead paragraph for your article is like diving off the platform. You don't want to spend too much time up there on the board, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing ... you need to set up your piece and then dive in.

We're writers. We love to write. We love words. We especially love the words we write. And sometimes we are convinced every single word has to stay in that article we've oh-so-carefully crafted. No slicing, no dicing.

Part of writing is--dare I say it?--editing. And editing is more than just polishing the words you've written. Editing is also figuring out what words you need to delete.

Too many words can become too many sentences, which can become too many paragraphs, which becomes a lead that is way too long. It's like a diver taking too many bounces on the board. He's up on the board, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing ...

Dive already!

The next time you're working on an article, look at how many "bounces" you take before you dive in to the rest of the story. Your lead should set up your article and then allow you to move on.

You decide if you need a sentence or a paragraph or half a page before you're "off the board" and into the rest of the story. If you're on page 2 and you're still setting up your story, you're probably overdoing your lead. You're just bouncing on the board. Step back and rework it so you're not wasting valuable word count on a lead that's too long.

What is Deep Point of View (POV)?

The point of view where a reader experiences being inside a character’s mind, knowing his actions, feelings, emotions, and thoughts.

The reader becomes the POV character.

Before you write a scene, decide which of your main characters—or possibly the villain—will be the point of view character. Everything in the scene will be experienced through this character. Consider:
--Which POV character has the most at stake?
--What must be revealed or remain hidden? (If a character has a secret, you don’t want the scene to be in his head.)
--Which character has the strongest emotion in the scene?

Layers of Deep POV.
On the surface, the reader experiences the actions of the POV character. Going deeper, the reader perceives what the character sees, hears, feels, tastes and touches, which also establishes setting. Then, the reader discovers the thoughts, emotions, and feelings. Finally, the character displays a unique voice that’s based on sentence patterns, age, gender, education level, career, and attitudes.

A five-year-old protagonist sounds different than a college professor. Male characters should sound different than female ones. A reader selecting a random page in your novel should be able to tell which character is speaking by the unique voice you’ve given to each POV character.

Setting.
Setting becomes more than mere description and reveals qualities of your character. Describe setting through the POV character’s eyes. If your POV character wouldn’t notice the setting, then it’s not important to the reader, so you’d give minimal description. But if your character is an architect or a building contractor, you‘d describe the building in more detail then if your character is a mailman. If your character is a forest ranger or a botanist, you’d describe the field differently than if she were a hairstylist.

Choosing Vocabulary.
My husband used to say there were only sixteen Crayolas in his box. He’d recognize beige and tan as synonyms for light brown, but words such as ecru, fawn, cream, sand, oatmeal, or taupe weren’t colors in his vocabulary. However, if your POV character is an artist, paint contractor or fashion consultant, he might have a wide pallet of colors.

Rules:
1. Write the scene before worrying about a lot of rules. Then, edit and decide which rules you need to follow.
2. AVOID: seemed, appeared, and looked.
Example: In the moonlight, Sara looked at a tall man limping toward her.
Better: In the moonlight, a tall man limped toward her.
3. AVOID: He or she thought/felt/saw/noticed/wondered.
Example: She wondered, how many times had Nick warned her to observe the details the police would need to solve a crime?
Better: Nick had warned her to observe details the police would need to solve a crime.
4. AVOID: describing your POV character's physical traits. I know I’m a petite brunette. I don’t think about it, and your character shouldn’t either.
Example: Suzy ran her hands through her long, silky, blond hair.
Better: Suzy pulled her hair into a ponytail.
(The reader will learn the color of her hair when another character notices it.)

TIPS:
1. Become your POV character for a day. I’ve heard of several authors who say they’ve done this. As you sort laundry, stir cream into your coffee, run errands, think of how your character would react in each situation. It sounds crazy. But we’re already crazy, since we hear voices. It’s worth a try.
2. In a workshop, Author Suzanne Brockmann advises to write the scene in first person, then rewrite the scene in third person point of view, changing as few words as possible.
3. Read The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life by Alicia Rasley.

When writing deep POV, every word should reflect the personality of your character and bring him or her to life.

Blessings,

~Roxanne Sherwood~

Top Ten Tips to Avoid Missed Spellings

"Bee holed! Wear wood wee bee without the my tea spell checker? God only nose."— Jason Ohler

By Scoti Springfield Domeij

1. Set your writing aside for a day.
   
2. Proof read carefully on hard copy—not the computer screen.
   
3. Check your dictionary, either a hard copy or online, then click "Add to Dictionary" tab to add the correct spelling into your "Spelling and Grammar" check. This is especially useful for Bible names and commonly used "web words."
   
4. Don't rely on spell check. It's not the infallible last word. However, do turn on Microsoft Word's auto-correct feature. When it flags a misspelled work, select the correct usage, then click on the auto correct button. Warning: Auto-correct doesn't review every misspelling. Also, watch things it flags as potentially wrong. If you just blindly follow the recommendations of spell check, you will introduce new errors into your manuscript.
   
5. Look for homonyms. (One of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning, i.e. Their/they're/there.)
   
6. Watch for potential spectacularly embarrassing misspellings. Spell checker will not catch misspellings that form other valid words. I routinely misspell marital. My fingers always Freudian-type "martial." Public is another word that you don't want leave out the letter "l." Trust me on this one. A "faculty person" can become a "faulty person."
   
7. Right spelling, but wrong words spell check misses include: accept/except, affect/effect, among/between, anxious/eager, bad/badly, desert/dessert, Earth/earth, farther/further, foreword/forward, irregardless/regardless, It's/Its, lead/led; passed/past; than/then, your/you're.
   
8. Make a list of words you usually misspell.
   
9. Double check dates. You don't want 1997 to rewind back to 1967 or 1897.
   
10. Read your copy aloud. Often, our ears hear the mistake our eyes miss.
    

Fun Web Sites

How Well Can You Spell? Take this test and find out.

Improve your spelling. Learn the one hundred words most often misspelled.

Regret the Error: Mistakes Happen This web site reports on corrections, retractions, clarifications, and trends regarding accuracy in the media. Some of the posts are hilarious.

Quiz: Are You Smarter Than a Spell Checker?

Word Finder finds words with any combination of listed parameters. For example, you can find all 6-letter words that start with "d" and end with "n". Or find words that rhyme by searching for words ending in the same letters. If you enter letters into the "Unscramble" box, it finds any words formed from those letters.

Owed to Spelchek by Jamy Schuler

I have a spelling checker,

It came with My PC

It plane lee marks four my revue

Miss steaks eye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it.

You sure reel glad two no

Its vary polished in it's weigh,

My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a bless sing.

It freeze yew lodes of thymes.

It helps me right awl stiles two reeds,

And aides me when aye rime.

To rite with care is quite a feet

Of witch won should be proud.

Their are know faults with in my cite.

Of none eye am a wear.

Each frays come posed up on my screen

Eye trussed to be a joule.

The checker poured oar every word

To cheque sum spelling rule.

That's why aye brake in two averse

By righting wants two pleas.

Sow now ewe sea why aye dew prays

Such soft wear for pea seas!

Spell Check Poem

Spelchek: Deterent to Akurate Speling

"Bad spellers of the world, untie!"– Graffito

By Scoti Springfield Domeij

Are You Orthographically-challenged?

(Hint: Orthography refers to "right spelling.")

I used to be a great speller. Spell check ruined my memory.

One day during critique group, Beth said, "Is that spelled correctly?"

"It passed spell check," I replied.

"I can't believe you said that," Beth said.

Then I realized, I blindly rely too much on spell check—an imperfect correction system. I had substituted spell check for proof reading. Every time I rewrite or before I send a manuscript to my critique group or to an editor I click on "Spelling and Grammar." It's my habit.

I have always loved reading, writing and spelling. In second grade I was a spelling whiz. When I had children, I expected them to excel in these subjects. I grieved when ADHD disabled my son's reading and spelling skills. I also felt like a failure. In second grade, my son's verbal skills tested out at grade nine, even though he failed reading and spelling. My daughter-in-love sent me this email with these instructions—

FORWARD…ONLY IF YOU CAN READ

Only great minds can read this This is weird, but interesting! fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr t he ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

This email looked like my sons' school papers that their teachers had to decipher. Apparently, I have a great mind and so do my sons. I raced through the paragraph and so did my son. Being able to read this scrambled email proves Andrew Jackson's belief, "It's a d*#* poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word. Did I mention that I have creative sons?

To the college professors and editors that teach, "Bad spelling makes you look lazy," I proffer, "Bad spelling is the sign of a genius or a great mind." However, dear writers, editors agree with Mark Twain who said, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

These links provide some interesting thinking about "right spelling."

• Writing without typos is totally outdated.
  
• Spell it like it is: The idea that we shuold except student's spelling misstakes as merely 'variant spellings' speaks to the denigration of Trooth in education.
  
• Spell Czech king for miss takes.
  

Moral of Story?

Don't relinquish the value of your knowledge to a computer or to someone that judges you—failure—if you can't spell.

Not Your English Teacher’s Point of View

Your teacher tried to explain the three points of view: first person, second person, and third person, which has nothing to do with how many people are in a story.

First Person.
In this POV, the focal, or point of view, character uses the pronoun “I” or possibly “we,” if plural. Everything must be revealed through this character’s senses, knowledge, feelings and thoughts. The author is limited by what can be shown through the POV character but a benefit is that this POV gains immediacy and reality. (It also lends itself to eavesdropping, so the reader can hear conversations and learn information that the POV character isn’t otherwise privy to hearing.) ☺

(A) I went to the store and saw a little black sweater with red flowers. It called my name, so I just had to try it on. I wondered what Brad would think.

(B) I didn’t know that Brad would hate it because it reminded him of a sweater his mother used to wear.

Sentence B doesn’t work even though it uses the “I” pronoun because the character can’t say what she doesn’t know.

Examples of first person POV are: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding, and Kissing Adrian by Siri Mitchell. A book written that uses the pronoun “we” is Anthem by Ayn Rand.

Second Person.
The POV character speaks to “you” and makes the reader feel as if he’s a character in the story. A few novels have been written in this narrative, but this POV isn’t very popular today except in some fanfiction.

Third Person or Omniscient.
Historically, the omniscient POV has been the most common. The pronouns “he” and “she” are used. A narrator, who knows all the facts, tells the story. The author’s knowledge and prerogatives are unlimited. In this POV, you can write, “Little did he know . . .” and divulge information that the character does not yet have.

Examples of third person POV are: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn, and Finding Stephanie by Susan May Warren.

Writers using the omniscient POV may be tempted to head hop. For example, in the classic dinner party, the author goes around the table revealing the thoughts of each guest, hopping from head to head.

Jim chewed the roast beef—and chewed and chewed. He took a swig of water and finally gulped down a chunk. Where in the world did Tom get his meat—from Shoe Leather R Us? He wondered if he could make an excuse to leave early.

Sylvia glanced at the gentleman to her left. He appeared to have as much trouble swallowing the tough beef as she did. Might she plead a headache and ask him to escort her outside?

Again, I’ll say that historically the omniscient POV has been what we’ve read the most, so it’s very easy to slip into this narrative view. However, today’s editors will mark you as an amateur if you head hop.

Limited omniscient POV tells the story through one or two character’s points of view—maybe as many as four character’s views, but each scene is limited to only the viewpoint character’s senses, knowledge, feelings and thoughts. A new scene may skip to a different character’s POV but the author must write from the new character’s viewpoint. When the author writes essentially becoming the character in the scene, this is writing with deep POV.

In the example above, the story is told through Jim’s viewpoint, so we can only know his thoughts.

Sylvia grimaced. She appeared to have as much trouble swallowing the tough beef as he did. He leaned over and whispered, “If you announce that you have a headache, I’d be grateful for the chance to escort you outside.”

Deep POV.
In deep POV, you must write the story with only the knowledge, thoughts, experiences, and feelings of your POV character. The entire scene, not just the dialogue, should reflect the personality of your POV character.

This is where stories come alive. Today’s editors want to know if you understand deep POV, and beginning writers often struggle to grasp this concept. I’ll explain more on Deep POV next week.

~Roxanne Sherwood~

Blog Tour: Love Starts With Elle by Rachel Hauck

**Win a copy of Love Starts With Elle by leaving a comment on Rachel’s blog tour post. **

I enjoyed reading Love Starts With Elle. Rachel Hauck develops strong characters with believable conflict who don't always make predictable choices. I've come to look forward to my "visits" to the South Carolina low country.

Rachel is the author of ten, going on eleven novels, and has recently become an "acclaimed" author. (Yeah, funny how that happened. Some dude found her lottery stub stuck to the bottom of his shoe and tried to "acclaim" her. But her husband refused to pay out.)
Since then, she's gone on to become a best selling author of Sweet Caroline.
Living in central Florida with her husband of sixteen and a half years, one sweet little dog and one ornery cat, Rachel is a graduate of Ohio State University and a huge Buckeye football fan. One day she hopes to stand on the sidelines next to Coach Tressel as a famed, acclaimed best selling OSU alumni, beloved for her work in literature and letters. (She's written at least a couple hundred letters in her life time.)
Love Starts With Elle (July 2008, Thomas Nelson) is set in the South Carolina lowcountry, and earned 4.5 Stars and Top Pick from Romantic Times Book Club.
Look for her next release next spring, The Sweet By and By, the first book in the Born To Fly series with award winning country artist, Sara Evans.
Of the writing journey, Rachel says, "I'm humbled by the amazing things God is doing in my life. I love what I do, and am so privileged to work with Thomas Nelson fiction and am excited to see what God has in store for all of His authors and writers. Just keep praying and writing!"
Visit her blog and website at http://www.rachelhauck.com.

To visit other blogs hosting Rachel's blog tour, go here.

Passion or Imitation?

"Find a subject you care about and which in your heart you feel others should care about. It is the genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style." ~ Kurt Vonnegut

I never planned on writing a book.

I was quite content writing magazine articles, contending with 800 to 2200 word counts and fairly quick deadlines.

I wrote about issues that burned in my heart and spilled out onto the page as words that became sentences ... paragraphs ... articles.

I didn't necessarily write as much as other writers that I knew--but I was writing regularly and submitting regularly.

And then I became a late-in-life mom at 41. Motherhood over 35 became something I cared deeply about because I was living the experience up close and personal--and looking for answers. And I knew I needed to write about it. I also knew the multi-faceted topic couldn't be adequately tackled in a single magazine article.

And so I found myself working on a book proposal and 3 sample chapters and pitching the idea to an editor.

Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood over 35 was published a year ago. I've kept my first author copy on my desk.

Will I write another book?

Maybe.

If I am passionate about a topic that warrants being pitched as a book.

Writing a book is hard, hard work. I run into people all the time who say, "Oh,yeah. I want to write a book too someday."

I smile and nod and think, "Good luck with that. You have no idea."

And more importantly, they have no passion for writing.

One of the most-oft repeated axioms about writing is "Write what you know."

I agree.

But, even more important than writing what you know is write what you care about. Write what you are passionate about. Write your heartbeat.

No one else can write that.

When you write from your heart, you are sure to find your true writer's voice rather than imitating someone else's.