Humor: "New Definitions"
Baloney \buh-lo'-nee' \ : Where some hemlines fall
Burglarize \bur'-gler-ize' \ : What a crook sees with
Counterfeiters \kown'-ter-fit'-ers\ : Workers who put together kitchen cabinets
History Writing: . pages 17 and 18
Getting started is the goal. Once your story is on paper you can make changes.
One successful author I know uses the Puzzle Method.
- Jot down ideas and remembrances as they occur to you.
- Spend a week just writing your thoughts.
- Make note of locations your want to include.
- Which point of view do you feel will best tell your story?
- You can use different points of view in different parts of the story.
- As you make these notes try to decide where they will fit in your finished story.
- Start ~ middle ~ end?
- Put a heading on these parts for easier identification and placement later.
Maybe you will recognize some of the following authors and learn from what they said about writing.
“Your writing is never as good as you hoped, but never as bad as you feared.” Bertrand Russell, philosopher.
“Writing is easy - all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” Gene Fowler, writer
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” Saint Francis of Assisi
If you do write for publication, be aware the process is difficult, but not impossible. You need a strong resolve to forge ahead and keep sending your material to one publisher after the other until you succeed. Most famous, successful authors ran the same gauntlet. “Gone With the Wind” had to be rewritten ten times; and Bennet Surf, as an editor, rejected it and later regretted his decision. The book became a best seller and a movie grossing millions of dollars.
Another book rejected by fifteen publishers ended up having 30 million copies in print. Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl.” Publishers couldn’t believe people wanted to read about a young girl hidden in a secret room in Nazi Germany.
Stephen King, whom most of us know as a horror writer had a giant stack of rejection letters. How many of his stories have become movies? His persistence paid off, and so will yours. “Only God gets it right the first time,” Stephen King said about rewriting.
“I would have made it shorter, but I didn’t have the time.” Winston Churchill
