Chick Lit Goddess

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Writing the Right Way

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Grammar.  Is it really that hard to write grammatically correct?  The answer should be no, but for some people, the answer is yes.  When one is reading something and it isn’t written smoothly, it might be hard for the reader to understand what the writer is trying to relay, (a period, comma, or an apostrophe in the wrong place can change the meaning of what is meant to be said.  Misspelled words can be a problem too, (ex. Right vs. Write and To, Too, Two).

Now, I know that I’m not 100% perfect when it comes to my grammar, but I at least try to make my writing seem smooth, and easy for the reader.

Often times, when I read someone’s work, and they haven’t put the time and effort into their grammar, it really irritates me.  Sometimes, it make me wonder if they even care about their work.  Yes, writing is hard work (coming up with a story, creating characters, inserting conflict…), but isn’t using grammar part of the writing process too?

A great website that explains grammar perfectly, is http://theoatmeal.com/.  I love two of their posters, http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling and http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe.

My advice, if you want to be a writer and want to have something published, be sure that your grammar is great, and learn it if you don’t know it already.  Oh, and this is key — many publishers will automatically put your work in the “slush” pile if you do not write correctly.

Distractions When Writing! (Oh, I did something stupid tonight!)

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For about the past week or so, I haven’t really focused on Second Thoughts of the Sexless Fiancée as I want to, and I think I know why — it’s all because of being distracted way too easily!  Yes, it might be the excitement of the renovation process (YEA), annoying E-mail alerts that are invading my inbox, Thorndike crying (yes, I mean crying), the phone ringing, I’m either too hot or too cold, and worse of all, I have a brain fart and have no idea what my characters want to say or do.  These are only a few reasons why I can’t get motivated to write and I don’t even know where to start!  I have read, taken, and have tried my best at trying to stay focused, but nothing has worked, but I’m hoping to change that, and so far, since March, I have — thanks to the classes at GWW. (That reminds me of the stupid thing I did tonight, but I’ll get to that later).

Anyway, in search of really good advice, I decided to Google “distractions when writing.”  On the 9th (sad, I know) result, I finally found a very well written article.  I didn’t feel like the writer was like, “sit there until you come up with something to write” “train yourself to focus,” “don’t take breaks – they’re bad…,” and the list goes on.  Along with what he writer said to not do, he gave examples, which seem to make sense.  Here is the article: http://writetodone.com/2008/01/09/how-to-write-without-distractions/.  All 10 of these tactics, seems pretty reasonable, so I’m eager to get started!

So…I’m sure you’re wondering what stupid thing I did was, aren’t you?  Well, last night, I signed up for Fiction Advanced.  That begins on September 8th, and ends on November 17th.  I was cool with just that, because of all that is going on right now (a few very exciting things), I thought that would be enough…but then tonight, I was in the Lounge with some great and inspiring ladies, and one amazing instructor, and I found out that there is a Romance Advanced class, and…yep, I signed up.  That class begins on October 6th, and ends on December 15th.  Oh, yay, for overlapping!  After I took a breath and calmed down, only after realizing what I had done, I feel like I’m more energized in my writing than I have been, though really it never stopped, but merely came to a slow speed.  In all honesty with myself, I truly believe that if I continue on with thee GWW classes, I will maybe have a completed manuscript, and then comes the fun part — writing a query letter!