How to Write…
…Right!
Patrick Grayson
Copyright
Published by Heart Space Publications
PO Box 1085, Daylesford,
Vic, 3460, Australia.
Tel 0450 260 348
Graysonian Press South Africa is an imprint of Heartspace Publications.
Postal: PO Box 4389, Cresta, 2118 Tel +27 11 431 1274
For information about this or any of our other books:
pat@heartspacebooks.com
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All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.
Originally printed in South Africa
Whilst every care has been taken to check the accuracy of the information in this book, the publisher cannot be held responsible for any errors, omissions or originality.
Copyright © 2010 Pat Grayson
Whilst every care has been taken to check the accuracy of the information in this book, the publisher cannot be held responsible for any errors, omissions or originality.
Printed book:
ISBN: 978-0-6204393-9-8
ePub:
ISBN: 978-0-9874997-9-0
Dedication
To Kimmy, wonderful to have a little girl – who I look up to!
Acknowledgments
To Lynette for the play and sage advice
Tim for a great cover
Renee Louw – editing: 0721830039
Lance Grayson and Heather Pansegrouw for proof-reading
Introduction
How to Write… Right!
The name says it all.
As a writing coach I set out to write How to Write… Right! with the attitude that this is to be the best book on writing to emerge in years. I have tried to give you as wide a view as possible of writing skill, technology in writing, working with creativity, publishing, self-publishing, marketing your book and many more topics. The book is also aimed at people who have a need to communicate by the written word, in the form of emails, reports and letters – which is everyone!
In order to provide this overview, I have sacrificed depth of material. This book can guide you to being a very good writer, but it will not make you a great writer. For this, you will need to broaden your knowledge by reading books that specialise in subjects like the writing of novels, characterisation and many more.
I have written the book from a writer’s point of view, as I am a writer. I also weigh in with my knowledge as a publisher. This means I will teach you writing skill, about publishing and self-publishing. I will also show you how to avoid the common mistakes that most ‘would be’ writers make when they submit a manuscript to a publisher.
I also focus on the most important component that most books on writing ignore – you – that your writing is an extension of who you are.
Some may describe their life with the aid of a pen, others see their life as a result of what their pen has told them!
This is not a book of words that you read once and put down, it is more of a course, and so I encourage you to work through the various exercises, sample writings and journaling. All are designed to assist you to emerge at the other end of this book as a competent writer.
I once read that if you read 67 books on a given subject, you would have the equivalent knowledge of a PhD on that subject. I believe that if you read this one book on writing, you will have most of the tools required to write in almost any format.
Lastly, I can’t teach about writing, without teaching about life and our connection to it. I can't teach without love, nor can I teach without spirit.
THE STRUCTURE OF How to Write… Right!
Throughout the book I use these symbols:
Text in blue like this contains a quotation, mine or a well-known writers.
Text in grey like this contains creative writing from me, or a famous writer (SIC), that will help you understand humour, dialogue, and many more.
This symbol is for writing exercises.
This icon indicates a tip.
The book contains 2 main sections:
Not all readers will want to work through the technical aspects and can browse as required.
What you need to gain the most from this course:
Your first writing drill
Use your new notebook (from now on I shall refer to it as your journal) and write in no less than 10 lines what your aspirations as a writer are. Give this a bold heading as we will return to this later.
Spontaneous writing
Spontaneous writing is a writing drill that teaches you many things about writing.
It involves writing for a set period of time, usually around 10 minutes, on a given topic. You just start writing and do not lift your pen off the page for the 10 minutes. Whilst writing, you do not worry about grammar, spelling or punctuation. In fact the only thing you worry about is getting your ideas down in a cohesive format.
With these writing drills, the subject matter is not important (if it were, you may be attached to the result).
Benefits of spontaneous writing:
Over the years I have seen amazing improvement in students’ writing as a result of spontaneous writing. So if you are serious about writing you should incorporate it into your daily life. I know of top class writers who have done these drills all of their lives.
You want to be a writer, so let's start writing!
Open your journal and write the heading, This morning.
Take note of the time, as you are to write for four minutes on this topic. It does not matter what you write as long as there is a flow. And remember, do not stop writing, irrespective of what you put down – just write. While writing do not edit or look back on what you have written.
Other than the first 30 seconds, I am sure it was easier than you thought it would be. I can assure you that as you continue this type of training, even more complex topics will be easy to write about.
When you trust your writing, it will fall out of you.
LET’S LEARN TO WRITE
The difficulty is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.
Robert Louis Stevenson
What makes a good writer?
In your journal, write down what you think makes a good writer.
Now, write down which of the following characteristics you think you already have, and which you lack:
You may have realised that there is not one characteristic in the above list that you can’t cultivate. All are achievable and are taught in How to Write… Right!
About my teaching: Did you know that you bought a book on writing written by someone who can't write? Someone who can't spell and whose handwriting is abysmal? You don’t believe me eh? Well it’s true, I can’t write with a pen or spell as I am dyslexic.
Below is your first reading. As you read this you will see that anybody can write, even a dyslexic. Analyse the piece for flow, humour and interest. Be aware of the introduction (does it grab?) and the end (is there resolution?). Also look for metaphors. If you don't know what a metaphor is go to your dictionary and find out.
I was asked to write the following for a magazine:
Pat Grayson – Being Dyslexic
Damn it. Once again I bank 103 instead of 301 bucks. I’m dyslexic and, as you read this, you’ll see that being dyslexic has governed my entire life, sometimes in amusing ways, like the time when I thought I would try my hand at Internet dating. Instead of selecting the contender’s age range of 36 to 47. I flagged 36 to 74. Can you imagine my horror when a toothless, prune-faced geriatric beamed at me as I opened my e-mail?
Dyslexia is derived from two Greek words: Dys – meaning poor or inadequate and Lexis – words or language. According to research the cortex has six basic layers, with layer one having essentially no cells, but dyslexics typically have bunches of cells in layer one.
It seems that dyslexia is a disease of the fortunate as research indicates that you have to be above average intelligence to have it. And here is the killer for you feminists – males are three times more likely to have it than females. But then I am not too sure about the research… such as, why would they use mice to look at encoding phonological or temporal processing?
A friend once asked me how my dyslexic brain functions. ‘It works,’ I told her, ‘as if it were correct and the rest of the world wrong. It has a method of its own, like that of some sort of strange animal species that evolved in an unknown pocket of wilderness. I have no problem with maths and can add as quickly as anyone. But when I am trying to spell a word it is as though the connections come adrift. I get stuck in a sort of limbo. This is probably the reason why I spell the same word in a document many different ways, and each looks correct to me. My mind won’t be boxed in and limit the word to only one spelling.’
In my first year of school I could not form letters of the alphabet, like prissy Mary could. I would move my tongue out of my mouth with the effort, but the result was still a mess. It was as if the pencil had a will of its own. This was the start of my being labelled ‘different’. I was held back at the end of that first year, to ‘try again’ with another bunch of kids.
In time I discovered that there were more and more things that I couldn’t cope with. The label ‘different’ was later amended to ‘dunce’. Yet I didn’t feel stupid. But as time went on I told myself, ‘Maybe this is what being stupid is like.’
The school system, and the ability to form neat r’s or j’s, was the measure. School is still the standard by which our intellectual capacity or lack of is gauged. It didn’t take long before I lost faith in school, thought of myself as hopeless and blocked learning even more. I developed a brittle self-esteem and became an unfulfilled and angry person.
If there was one area in my life that helped to salvage some self-respect it was on the sports field, as I fared better than most. Without the balance of sport, I would indeed have been in a sorry state.
A new school year was always interesting as the incoming teacher either unconsciously or consciously classified the children. It was never long before I was relegated to the back of the class, considered a waste of time. Provided I behaved I was generally ignored. That was forty odd years ago. Schools may be different today.
Of course, I wasn’t quiet and well behaved and through expressing myself I disrupted the class. So not only did the teacher consider me ‘slow’, but a nuisance as well.
Year after sorry year passed with me sliding further back into academic oblivion. I became angrier and more rebellious. Year three of high school saw ‘them’ putting pressure on me to leave. This was just fine by me and, as ironic as it may seem, I left school to get an education.
Only later, when my Mom saw the same elements in my young brother, did she set out to find an answer. Her studies culminated in her becoming a remedial teacher. By that time I had left home. Visiting one night, she explained about dyslexia. I’d never heard of the word and thought, ‘so what?’ She wanted to train me with remedial techniques but, being touchy about the matter, I made all sorts of excuses. I was fine as a bricklayer and occasional drunk.
Fortunately, as the years passed, I gained confidence in myself as a person. The inadequacies receded and became less important. My child-like writing, atrocious spelling and the mixing of numbers did not concern me to any real extent.
The brain is a wonderful organism and over the years mine has, to a degree, trained itself to reverse errors. For instance, I might be looking for 93 and upon seeing the number say ‘ah, there’s 39’, but I know it is 93 as an instantaneous reversal would have taken place.
In my work I conduct presentations to executives with lots of notes on flip charts. Seldom is there a time when a dyslexic slip-up doesn’t make an appearance. An example could be where I start to write the word bank, but it appears on the board as bnak. There are other times when bank appears as nbka. In other words, I would write first the b and then the n, which I’ll squeeze in to the left of the b, and so on.
When I produce any of these unintended gems I’m not aware of the awkward sequence. In my mind it is normal spelling. The adjustments are made without conscious thought. In fact, I may only realise something abnormal has happened if I notice the audience casting flabbergasted looks towards the board as if to say, ‘Whoa, did you see that?’
I’m often amused at the Universe’s sense of humour when it conjured me as a dyslexic person while laying a path to make me a writer. Or is it rather the intelligence of the Universe? And what about timing? I couldn’t have managed in commerce if I’d been born twenty years earlier. My hand-written correspondence wouldn’t have been of an acceptable standard. The corporates would have disposed of me, like a pack of wild dogs abandoning an injured or aged member. I was given the handicap and, at the same time a personal computer with spell-checking!
On the subject of machines, an ATM can provide a fascinating experience for me. I usually have no problem getting my pin number out of my head. But if, at the time, someone near me mentions another number, for instance a telephone number, then my mind becomes jumbled and I can’t get the pin number into the ATM correctly. I remember watching helplessly as one card was consumed, never to be seen again, by an overzealous machine, as a result of my confusing the number. When I get the jumbles, it’s best for me to leave the ATM, reformat the hard disk of my brain and return later.
Continuing with the answer to my friend, I told her that my mind has difficulty deciphering gothic or fancy script. Most cursive writing is gobbledygook and has to be read to me. But I also told her that being dyslexic has forced me to become the achiever that I am today. If I am in front of a group of executives, I don’t care about my scrawl. I have learned to establish my own worth, and not to allow society to provide the rules by which my value is measured. Empowered, I have risen from an almost illiterate bricklayer at twenty-two, to owning and managing my own international computer software company, where I design software for business use.
If I can write, so can you.
Before reading the piece I asked you analyse for flow, humour, interest and metaphor. Write down what you discovered.
As your writing coach, I can share my experience with you, teach you to feel your feelings and embrace your creativity, all of which you will need if you want to be a good writer. And what's more, I can help you feel good about yourself, because without that, you are nothing. I can show you how to reach those deep levels of emotion so that you can faithfully put them down on paper.
Anybody can write if they apply themselves. There is nothing mysterious or elitist about writing. I know many people who became frustrated and closed because they were told that they had no talent and would never amount to anything. Invariably these students got so despondent that they rejected what they formerly loved, and cast it aside.
In the writing courses or circles that I run, I forbid negativity to come from any quarter. We always look for the good in each other’s writing. Yes, I may return to a student after an assignment and say that I feel their work was not as good as they are capable of. This would be based on the fact that I have an understanding of their writing and genuinely believe that they can do better. They may have written an emotional piece without inserting their emotion into it. I make a point of always encouraging my students.
Digressing a bit, I have writing friends who can be harsh on their students if they think that they have no talent. The teacher’s rational is that the student is better off doing something else. I disagree strongly. If a person enjoys writing, why spoil it for them. All people can improve their writing, irrespective of their standard, and so I would rather encourage, as opposed to destroy, their interest.
Perhaps the reason that my writing did not spring forth earlier was because of my dyslexia and the mindset that I had. I was very sensitive when it came to exposing my words. I simply would not, or could not do this.
I learnt that writing ability is not a gift given to a few. It is for everyone, much the same as the air we breathe. All it takes is the willingness to try, and persistence.
Before I compose a piece, I walk around it several times accompanied by myself. – Ian Satie (composer)
To be a good writer, you must read widely. When you read, read with the writer’s attention to detail; analysing characterisation, plot, dialogue and metaphor. Sorry, but your reading will never be the same. When you read with awareness it will bring far greater appreciation of good writing. Much the same as a wine tasting course will give you even greater delight in the delectable tastes of fermented grapes.
YOU CAN WRITE
Let the beauty we love be what we do
- Rumi
Spontaneous Writing
Write down the heading; What do I Want from this Writing Course? For six minutes write without pausing. Don’t be afraid to be ambitious, such as stating, ‘I want to write a book, or in fact, many books’.
Why do we write?
Here are some reasons:
I am sure that there are many other reasons. Write down any that are pertinent to you.
Writing is an extension of who you are
Write down what you think of this statement and how writing can be an extension of who you are.
Do you regard yourself as a writer?
Answer these questions:
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
Pablo Picasso (painter)
From this point on consider yourself a writer. Say it aloud, ‘I am a writer.’ And again, ‘I am a writer.’
This is very important as you only become a writer when you say you are a writer, not when the book is published, or recognition comes your way. For instance; Steve is 8 years old and plays soccer. Oh yes, he does not kick the ball very well, and has not yet learnt to head the ball – but he is a soccer player. He and his mother do not wait until he plays for Liverpool to call him a soccer player. He is a soccer player irrespective of his level of skill; after all, he will acquire these with practice.
The same goes for you. You may not have all the skills to produce great prose – yet. But you are still a writer. Don’t let the so called professionals intimidate you – you are a writer. One more time, say, ‘I am a writer.’
Because of the momentousness of this point, I am going to spend more time on it.
In one of the writing circles that I ran there was a lady who was a skilful writer. She had been writing for years, yet she did not consider herself a writer because she had not been published. Then one day she had an article published in a magazine. But this did not satisfy her internal acceptance system. She felt that the published article was a fluke. And so, she continued living with a dream of the unachievable.
Write in your journal:
I am a writer,
I love to write,
People love my writing, and
I entertain and educate with my writing.
If writing is an extension of who you are, and if you do not declare yourself a writer, what are you hiding? What is it about yourself that you do not want to reveal?
All new writers have a fear factor that crawls to the surface when their work is about to make an entrance. I well remember the panic I felt when my first book was about to emerge. I had none-too-helpful thoughts that my mind summoned up, along the lines of, ‘Hell no, people are going to see my exposed thoughts.’, or, ‘What if the market does not like my work’, or worse still, ‘Will I be ridiculed?’ The panic escalated when I thought of my close friends and associates scrutinising the regurgitations of my mind. Fortunately I had done much work on myself over the years and was able to bring balance to my mind. From then on I was okay. And so will you be.
Remember:
Once you learn the skills taught in this book, you will feel better about being a writer and consequently about yourself.
To be a person is to have a story to tell.
- Isak Dinesen
What is inspiration? To be a proficient writer you do not rely on inspiration. Peter de Vries said, I write when I am inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.
THE SPIRITUALITY OF WRITING
We must accept that this creative pulse within us is God’s creative pulse itself.
Joseph Chilton Pearce.
There is no doubt that writing is a spiritual process. There is too much in my writing (and the writing of friends) that cannot be explained in any logical way. For instance, much of what I have written in the past, I have subsequently learnt about! Let’s turn that around; I have written material that at the time of writing I thought I understood, only to learn what it really meant later. Where would this have come from?
The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially the channel.
Piet Mondrian (modern artist)
Another intriguing indicator is that I do not have a great vocabulary, yet on occasion I use words that are not part of my vocabulary. Sometimes these words have long since drifted out of use.
Certainly, when writing with enthusiasm, there is a union between you and your soul.