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Have you ever wondered what difference a writing tutor could make in your life?

• Instead of being assigned a number like a prisoner in cell bock D, your mentor would know you on a first name basis
• Your mentor would be available daily to answer your questions and guide you through the maze of journalistic rules
• You would compete only with yourself as your mentor escorts you from your present level to your individual highest potential
• The mentoring system is available at nearly half the price you would expect to pay
• You would gain certification in the courses you take

It's time to get off the stool of do-nothing and start writing! Having a hard time getting started? You aren't the only one.

Try a few of these ideas:

* Write 15 min. a day

* Reward yourself with a dessert after you finish writing

* To warm up, write about something that makes you super mad or glad

* Turn off the TV/radio

* Go to a different location to write

* Stay off the Internet while you're writing

* Don't text or answer the phone until you finish

Life is busy, and it waits for no one. Don't be cross with yourself for "failing". No one really fails. They are just procrastinating, always thinking tomorrow will be different. It happens with diets. It happens with smoking. It happens with writing, too. The main thing is to pick yourself up now and start over again. And should you fail this effort, too, begin again every new day. As long as you have new days, you have an opportunity for new beginnings.  

Daily resolutions are the only kind that really accomplish anything, so now is the time to make your daily resolve. Here are a few ideas to help you refocus.

Welcome to S. Joan

Popek, Our Newest

Staff Member!

WHAT is a WRITER?

by

Jo Popek

What is a writer?  Writers are Masochists, Fools, Hermits, Sadists, Slaves, Dreamers, but most of all, writers are passionate lovers.

Their love? Words.  Why else would they labor over one sentence for hours, writing and rewriting, putting a comma in and thirty minutes later, taking it out again?  Why else would they change the word laughed to chuckled to grinned to guffawed to smiled and finally back to laughed again? 

Why else would they spend hours at their keyboard tapping out the lives of fictional characters while their real family sits in the next room watching TV?

Come on, admit it. Most writers don't really know how their family spends their time while they are slaving away on a heated plot.   

Who else would isolate themselves into hermit-like status, tethered by invisible chains to a keyboard, laboring for days, weeks, or even months while they finish that "one last chapter"? 

Only masochists would repeatedly set themselves up for rejection by pouring their souls onto paper and shipping it off to publishers who may give it a glance before they toss it into the slush pile. 

Only sadists would sit at a keyboard hour after hour while their family waits for them to join Grandma's 90th birthday party? 

Why are writers like this?  Because they can't help themselves. It is inborn – a flaw – a birth defect, if you will – a glorious gift.

You can't change it any more than you can change your DNA, so stop trying. Do the only thing that will make you happy. Give in! 

Let that latent Hemingway and long hidden Poe surface. Let them sing sweet songs to you. Let them show you what you were born to do. Let them write. 

Go for it!

Short Story Tutor, S. Joan Popek 

What Time Is It?

 * Time to quit

procrastinating

* Time to get serious about writing

* Time to make writing a priority

* Time to take a writing class

* Time to sell something!!!

* Time to have some business cards made

* Time to really call yourself a writer!

* Time to live up to your own expectations

CONVENIENT

PAYMENT  PLAN

You asked for it - we did it! All courses are now available with four small monthly payments. No administrative fees. No service charges. Don't put it off any longer...

Sign up Today!

Writing for Children

by Deborah Owen

Writing for children is not the same as writing for adults. In fact, it may even be more difficult, as the first qualification of writing for children is being able to think like a child. While that may not be a problem for the life of the party who likes to play with flatulence pillows, it is a challenge for most people.

The best research you can do is to play with children and listen to them talk. You will be amazed at their patterns of logic. Once upon a time my daughter asked me whether a zebra had black stripes on white, or white stripes on black. Another time she asked whether there might be a dark blue piece of material across the night sky and it was blocking the sunlight. She asked if the material might have little holes in it, and if we might be seeing the sunlight through those little holes, but that we called the little holes "stars". What an exciting way to see nightfall – but to adults, it is just a midnight sky with stars.

If you want the proper perspective of a child, pretend that you can think clearly but that you have limited expressive skills; then stoop down and twist your neck to look up at a six-foot tall person standing over you.

When you write for children, be ready to paint the unbelievable… such as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny delivering goodies to the world in one night. Fantasy fits into their make believe world perfectly. Think of personification with tables, chairs, marching knives and forks, etc. Look at everything with wonder, and see it as an opportunity for investigation, because this is how children see life.

When you set the scene, set it as though you are looking through a child's eyes. For example, if a little boy walks into a newly decorated living room with a tray of cookies in it, what would he notice first? The new sofa, chair, carpet and drapes? Or the cookies? It would be the cookies, of course. He would be able to tell you every kind of cookie on the tray, but it would be unlikely that he would notice the change in furniture until the cookies were gone.

One of the best ways to get into the proper mood is to revisit your own childhood and think in the terms you used then. Remember the things that seemed so important to you at the time? Did you do magic tricks? Did you try ventriloquism? Did you make mud pies and feed them to your dolls? Did you have tea parties? Catch lightening bugs and put them in a jar? Lie in bed and listen to the cricket outside your window?

Revisit your childhood. Remember what it was like.

Write to me at:

        darla@cwinst.com

   DARLA  SEZ

Dear Darla

Excuse a dumb question, but what's the big deal about Show, Don't Tell? I've been reading a lot of older literature and they sure didn't use it then.

Dan

Hi Dan

The "big deal" about Show, Don't Tell is that today's editors won't buy fiction written in the old style. They have discovered the audience likes to think for themselves instead of being told every little thing.

Among other things, they also no longer want:

* More than one or two exclamation marks in a 2,000 word story!!!

* Adverbs ending in -ly

* More than two consecutive prepositional phrases per sentence

* More than a total of three prepositional phrases per sentence

* A first sentence that will hook the reader

* No weather topics in the first paragraph

Twist the Ending

Twisting the ending of a story is like putting icing on a cake, a cherry on top of a sundae, or nuts in brownies. It is the ultimate satisfaction.

First, think about where your story is going. What is the logical ending? Next, think of an alternative ending that would surprise the reader. Now, find a common denominator between the two endings where you can make the flow seem right, and then split the story line off in an unsuspecting direction at the last minute. Have fun doing the twist! 

     Deb's Corner

I'm sitting here contemplating all the old stories that abide in my dusty files. They've been there for decades, sitting beneath the headstone of stubbornness because in those days, I would rather not be published than to conform to the rules of the industry.

Now a bit older (okay, a lot older) and somewhat wiser, I am for the first time considering rewriting them for today's market.

Still, there is something sacred about those beginning stories. Something precious about my faltering attempts.

Maybe I should think about it some more.