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Back to the Writing

May 13th, 2015 | Posted by Veronica Louis in Writing - (2 Comments)

by Veronica Louis

Blue and yellow words that say Back to the Writing, on a black background.

Image: Veronica Louis

One year ago, I embarked on the difficult adventure of completely rewriting my novel’s manuscript after I realized (not without the help of my writing group) that the material was lacking.

After a sufficient amount of grieving, I was once again refreshed and ready to start over. This second time around, the writing process was fun, light and flowed. Albeit, the rewriting/editing process of the second draft was slow and gradual.

Yet, I had found my rhythm: write… first rewrites, group feedback, second rewrites. And I pushed repeat for every chapter. I was so close to the end, when life got in the way, and not only obstructed my writing rhythm, but obliterated it. Unless I dealt with the skeletons, I would be blocked, and any attempt to write would become a guilt-ridden session. And so I pushed pause, while being afraid that the momentum I had gained would be lost. (more…)

Writing for the Corporate World: It’s a Process

September 23rd, 2014 | Posted by Veronica Louis in Writing - (0 Comments)

by Veronica Louis

Quote from Neil Gaiman -This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until its done. It's that easy, and that hard.

Image: Veronica Louis

A few months ago, I decided to take on a new challenge: web content writer and designer for one of Canada’s oldest companies. I knew that having a job as a writer would greatly contribute to my 10,000 hours of writing, but going from freelancing to the corporate world took some adjustment.

In the corporate world writing is a process, and it could sometimes be a very long one. For a magazine, a writer might deal with just one editor. You submit your draft, the editor comes back to you with notes and edits, you make the necessary changes, and the editor might make further tweaks before it’s finalized and ready for publication.

In the corporate world, there are many choir directors. So for one story, or creation of page content, you might have to go through several “editors” with contrasting viewpoints and ideas of what should be on the page. (more…)

Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules for Writing

September 6th, 2013 | Posted by Veronica Louis in Authors | Writing - (0 Comments)

by Veronica Louis

Three exclamation marks

Image: Veronica Louis

I recently came across Elmore Leonard’s writing rules and thought that he was right on the money. The recently deceased novelist wrote many books that were later adapted into film such as Get Shorty, Be Cool and Rum Punch (Jackie Brown). Leonard overall, encouraged authors to show instead of tell, to remain invisible and to rewrite if the writing sounds like writing.

My favorite suggestion? “If proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.” That’s right, in the world of literature rules are meant to be broken.

The ten rules are described in detail in Leonard’s New York Times article Writers on Writing; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle

A Summary of the 10 Rules

1. Never open a book with weather.

2. Avoid prologues.

3. Never use a verb other than ”said” to carry dialogue.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb ”said” . . .

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.

6. Never use the words ”suddenly” or ”all hell broke loose.”

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

Update on My Book

August 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Veronica Louis in Turning 30 | Writing - (1 Comments)

by Veronica Louis

Quote from Virginia Woolf: So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.

Image: WriteAtHome.com

This website’s theme, “10,000 hours,” is about spending a significant amount of time doing one thing until becoming an expert at it. But regardless of the becoming an expert part, the bottom line is to find something you love to do, and to do it, a lot.

In my case, while I love doing so many things, such as designing and teaching, my main focus right now is my writing. More specifically, working on my novel, I started this project at the beginning of the year, and after many false starts (four to be exact), the current book stuck and the words kept on flowing until the characters, plot and story development were solid. I just recently hit 40,000 words of my first draft and I’m giving myself a congratulatory pat on the shoulders.

What’s great is that I see the end in sight. I know my destination, so I know I’m going to get there. I’m not quite sure if there will be stopovers and detours along the way, but ultimately I know where my characters and story are heading, and because I know this, everything falls into place. (more…)

Blast from the Past: Do Colors Have Sexes?

August 13th, 2013 | Posted by Veronica Louis in Blast from the Past | Writing - (2 Comments)

by Veronica Louis

Purple female stick figure and Green male stick figure

Image: Veronica Louis

I came across an interesting entry in the journal my English teacher made us keep in high school.  I was 15, and I thought writing about color gender was more meaningful than writing about my future. Yet, I have to agree with my 15-year-old self, when she wrote that the difference between Honey (my English class journal) and other males, was that Honey, understood me.

 

October 7, 1998

My Future*

(*The topic may be subject to change without notice).

Dear Honey, I decided to change my handwriting for this entry. Which one do you like best? Like this or like this? Like this is faster but like this is nicer. Anyways, for this entry, I’ll stick to like this. (more…)