If Ernest Hemingway could do it, so can I

Today I realized how long it’s been since I wrote on this blog — 2 1/2 months. In January I had lots of ideas of things to write for the blog and other things I wanted to do. I had intentions to write a “these are my 2013 goals” post, but it never got done.

It’s been a very blah couple of months for me. My energy is zapped, and it’s hard to build yourself up and do something creative when you feel down. That’s funny to me since my creative outlets often have helped my energy and depressed moods.

But I’ve also come to realize how hard it is to be creative in today’s technology age.

I sit down to write and get nothing done because there are too many distractions. New e-mail pops up. There are Twitter and Facebook notifications. And there are far too many other distractions online to cause someone to procrastinate. The distractions keep piling on each day.

I could just turn off the Internet while I work. I’m sure lots of people do this. But there’s just something about the keyboard and the laptop that doesn’t do it for me when I want to write something more than an article or a blog post, when I want to write a fiction piece. And I’ve had a story floating in my head for months.

I recently finished “The Paris Wife,” which is a fictionalization of the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and his first wife. I had one of those eureka moments as I read about how Hemingway would go off and write — he was just doing it in notebooks by hand.

Lately I’ve found it’s easier to work when I have just a journal and pen in front of me. There are no distractions, just the paper and the pen. I don’t like to do this except to scratch down a scene or an idea too often because then I’d have to retype the whole thing. It seems like more work.

But isn’t that what great authors like Hemingway did many moons ago? If they can do it, so can I.

My thinking is it’s the first draft. The first draft is never the final draft. If I write it down, I can’t go back and edit right away. And when I do type it, it’s a chance for me to edit the story too.

I’m just hoping my hand doesn’t fall off.

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Feeling uninspired

The activity on this blog is an indication of how I’m feeling in the last two months or so: Uninspired.

Yesterday’s post was the first one I had written since before Hurricane Sandy at the end of October, and the same has been happening with my creative life in general. I’m not writing much if at all, whether it’s on this blog or elsewhere. I started a post-Sandy piece on how social media worked for us, but I haven’t been able to get back to it. I’m not taking many photos if at all lately. I’m not even debating much about journalism and social media, though I am determined to read Post Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present. I haven’t even been reading that much lately.

I was busy in the wake of Sandy, but I also just don’t feel like I have the energy or inspiration to dive into my creative projects now that things have calmed down.

I can point to my depression problems as one of the reasons. But my creative projects whether it’s photography, writing on a blog or scribbling in a journal has been one of my coping mechanisms.

And it’s not like I don’t have ideas. I’ve had a story idea brewing in my mind for a few weeks, but I’ve just never gotten to the point of putting the words on the page. I haven’t had a driving desire to sit down and write them down. I’ve shot photos, but I have yet to edit them. Editing them leads to sharing them, which is the fulfilling part of shooting photos.

I’ve had times in my life where I’ve felt uninspired, but it’s usually in one area and not all of my creative life. I was writing a story yesterday at work and struggled to write a creative lede. I wrote something straight forward, which is a bit more unusual for me. Lede writing can be a joy and I’ve rarely had that problem.

So where do I go from here? I have to find my inner inspiration (hey, I can’t sit around waiting for it to strike, right?), but it can be a hard task when you’ve lost something like that.

I’d love to hear stories from people who have gone through this struggle. Or maybe you have suggestions? Either way, leave them in the comments section or send me a tweet at @jenconnic.

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Would you let someone look over your shoulder while writing?

Writing is a solitary activity. You’re the one putting the words on the page and need your space from the rest of the world to do it. No one is there in your head to share the activity with you. Someone may be sitting in the room with you, but you’re not really doing it together.

But what if someone was looking over your shoulder the entire time, seeing every word you scribbled on the page and then, many times, deleted? What if they saw how you chopped an entire section because it didn’t work?

That’s what one writer is doing with Google Docs. Silvia Hartmann has opened her document with the entire world to watch. They can see as she writes and edits. Of course, people cannot edit or write on the document themselves. The document, though, is so popular that you cannot get in to see everything at any one time. Plus she had to split the document into two parts because of the constraints of Google Docs.

The process of writing can be a deeply personal experience. We all feel a certain sensitivity about what we write, whether it’s poetry or even an article. You have to have a thick skin just with the final product, but imagine if everyone could see the steps you took to get to the point where you’re ready to share it. Would we start to self edit and not put down what we really want? Would we be exposed of being a fraud as a writer and a product of quality editing?

I wonder how many people I would confuse as they watch me write. I don’t always write from beginning to end. If I’m writing an article, I might not have a lede or opening ready in my mind. I write the rest, and that usually uncovers what my lede should be. And I sometimes jump around when I’m writing fiction. I may know how a scene will unfold later in the story or how it will end, but I’m not sure yet how it will start. But writing the ending, or even middle scenes, allows you to drop in some foreshadowing, a very powerful tool, earlier in the story.

I don’t think I’d be brave enough to open up my writing process to the entire world so they could see how I write. Would you? Talk about it in the comments or send me a tweet @jenconnic.

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We always complain about grammar, but no one does anything about it

Yet another “people don’t know what they’re doing with grammar” post popped up today. Jim Romenesko highlighted “11 most common grammar gaffes on social media” on his site today. The list is like every other list. It features how people don’t know the difference between it’s and its, add apostrophes to denote pluralization and don’t know the difference between your and you’re (among others). Though the list does have one of my pet peeves: People who don’t know the difference between good and well.

These lists pop up at least once a week. I have conversations about grammar at least once a week on social media. My friends bring it up at least once a week on social media. I’ve wondered if people even care about grammar in today’s world.

But then again, when I read these entries about grammar, it’s mainly complaints. There’s nothing listed on how people can remember the differences or teach themselves the rules.

We all make grammar mistakes, but how do we teach ourselves to not make those mistakes?

I’m a sticky note kind of person. I leave myself notes on the computer monitor to remind myself about the mistakes I make the most. Back in my days at The Hour, I wrote a series of stories about a “vicious dog” ordinance, but I never seemed to be able to spell vicious right (in fact, I looked it up just now to make sure I got it right). So I wrote the proper spelling on a sticky note and put it on my computer monitor. Sometimes the monitor would be covered with the notes, other times there would be far less. But it was how I trained myself to remember the right spellings, proper grammar and also proper style (ie. things I was always looking up in the AP Stylebook).

So how do you remind yourself of proper spellings, grammar and style? Do you have tips for people to remember? Post about it in the comments or send at tweet to @jenconnic.

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Becoming characters in your writing or in real life

Ever read a book and feel like you want to be the main character? Maybe you even notice you’re taking on the qualities of the main character.

Medical Daily has an interesting article how readers can indeed take on the traits of their favorite characters (found the link via Brian Farnham on Twitter).

Even if you don’t take it to the extreme as dressing up as Harry Potter, perhaps you do do it in some ways. I’ve been reading Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, and I find myself relating quite a bit to her. But more over, I’ve found myself thinking “I’d like to date a guy like Joe Morelli” (don’t judge me).

But writers also can take on those characters in some ways as inspiration. We may not take on the traits ourselves, but we stick them into a character we’re developing. I’ve found I develop characters one way after reading something by Christopher Moore, for example. I’m sure other people are the same way, but it’s a fine line to walk between inspiration and plagiarism.

What do you think of the study? Do you take on a character’s traits or use them in your own writing? Post about it in the comments.

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To try to teach grammar or not: Do people care any more?

This morning I posted on Twitter how periods go inside the quotation marks. It’s one of the things that drives me insane since the rule is the period always goes inside, unlike a question mark or exclamation point. And it was just frustration as I was quoting something in something I was reading that needed some grammar editing.

To which it started a discussion with some of my followers about what’s the right method, how the rules are different in other languages and just on grammar as a whole. At one point I blurted out I should write blog posts with simple grammar lessons. In between some of the your versus you’re jokes, some people encouraged me to do it.

But is that a good idea or is it just wasting my time?

I know I care about grammar, though I do make mistakes. I have friends who care to varying degrees. Our common link is we’ve all been writers or editors at some point in our lives. Of course we care about it.

But what about everyone else? Since I work in social media, I frequently see what people are writing. It makes me cringe. If they cared, though, they’d turn off the caps lock and take care in what they wrote. They’d use complete sentences and use periods.

I’ve always felt knowing grammar rules and being able to spell (or at least being able to fix your mistakes when you edit) is a good thing because it makes you look smart and professional. If you receive a resume and cover letter with mistakes, what do you do with it? I know people who toss it in the trash. If you wrote a proposal at work that was filled with errors, do you think your superiors would take you seriously?

But do people want to even appear smart and professional any more? That’s an interesting question considering the things I see people spew on social media and across the Internet. Like I say, think before you post something, but it feels like there’s not a lot of thinking happening before people post.

So the question here is — If they don’t care about grammar and coming off as smart, why should I care? And I full well know why I care: I’m a perfectionist and want the best out of myself. And because I want the best out of myself, I want the best out of others. Maybe I have high standards, but we all should be striving to be the best we can be, right? It’s probably why I can be demanding, but the people who have worked for me also will tell you that I made them better. And that’s all I want is to drive people to achieve their goals and to be at their best.

And I think it starts with knowing something as simple as the differences between their, they’re and there.

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Write every day

The headline of this blog post is the advice every writer gives to everyone who wants to be a writer. “Write every day.” It’s what I heard authors tell groups of students when I was in middle and high school. I heard it again in college. I keep hearing it. Hell, I’ve even said it.

Basically the advice means you will only become a better writer by actually writing. It’s how I’ve become a better writer.

But no one really talks about what to do when you don’t feel like writing. Or what do you “count” as writing.

The latter I’ve had plenty of arguments about with my friend Charles (aka @cpillsbury, who also comments here quite a bit). He used to argue that my writing for work as a reporter didn’t count toward writing in general. Yet I was probably writing more in a day, week or month than many other writers. If I’m averaging three articles per day at 500 words per day, that’s a lot of writing in a day. But then there was the subject of what I was writing. I thought it didn’t matter (and still don’t) since I was at least writing, and in the long-run that would make me better. Charles would argue I was writing for work and not writing to fulfill myself. But who says both weren’t happening for me? I find writing an article I’ve reported out just as fulfilling as working on a novel or poem.

So now does writing in my blog count? Because I think it should. Does scribbling scenes in my notebook that I never intend to use anywhere count? Yup, I think it should do.

It doesn’t matter what it is so long as you’re doing it, in my opinion.

As for the “I don’t feel like writing” part of it, I struggle with that quite a bit. I started working out a new story over the weekend. I don’t know if it’ll be a short story or something longer and more involved. It’s still just an idea at this point. I intended to write some more of it Sunday night, but it was a billion degrees in my apartment and the computer was hot. It was just a bunch of excuses because I didn’t feel like it. I just wanted to sit on the couch and zone out.

Plus there are the days you just don’t have ideas. Or you’re tired of what you’ve been writing. It’s why I started to dig out all the writing workbooks and prompts I own over the weekend. My intention was to find a prompt every day and write for 15-20 minutes on that prompt. But then laziness took over again last night and I couldn’t motivate myself.

I’ve found deadlines are a much bigger motivator for me than anything else. Perhaps that’s why I am such a good deadline reporter. Perhaps I should set up some deadlines to help motivate myself.

Do you try to write every day? What do you write? How do you motivate yourself? Leave a comment below.

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Flying without a net: How to be a better self editor

My boss at a previous job and I would argue about proper grammar. We didn’t argue about content like why I talked to certain people and not others nor did we argue over what stories I chose to write. We argued about our differences in grammar. I always refer to the “ribbon-cutting ceremony” argument the most. I say there’s a hyphen. He says there is not.

I have a lot of grammar pet peeves. I hate the overuse of “this” and “that” in articles, especially that. Far too often the “that” is not needed, especially when someone writes “said that.” I get annoyed when people overuse commas. People who don’t put periods inside the quotation mark drive me batty. Splitting the infinitive also can drive me bonkers. And the list goes on and on, though I felt better when I joined #wjchat on the subject last night. There are others with similar pet peeves or some crazier than mine.

It’s what happens when you take care in editing copy, which sometimes I believe happens less and less in today’s writing world. But most of us are self editing, like I have to do with this blog. I call it “flying without a net.” When I worked at WestportNow and Patch, my stories would go up without an editor reviewing it. Someone might look at it later to edit. Sometimes that didn’t happen. It’s part of why I have worked hard to write clean copy.

How do you make sure your copy is clean before you post? You don’t need to scrutinize it. Just give it a read, but here’s the biggest piece of advice: Read it out loud if you can. It’s a trick I learned as a journalism undergraduate student. You’re more likely to find your mistakes, especially awkward sentences and repeated words, if you read something out loud. I remember dashing off something quick for a “writing for the ear” glass in graduate school without reading it out loud to myself. When I read it out loud for the first time to my class I noticed how I had repeated one word several times.

On Twitter today, @ksablan posted a link to an article with mistakes too many writers make. Some of my pet peeves are mentioned in the article. But there’s really no real list of simple mistakes we all make. We all have a quirk, which is something to keep in mind. Is there a word you cannot spell? Do you always mess up using affect versus effect? If you know the mistake you make over and over, you can remind yourself with a note (I used to have Post-It notes all over my monitor with words I could never spell properly). Eventually, though, you’ll train yourself to not make those mistakes.

Also remember your audience is your editor too. They’re going to pick up typos and other mistakes and let you know about it. Some are nice and will send you an e-mail, but others will call you out in the comments. Still others may rip you apart because you made a grammar mistake. The proper thing to do is to thank them for pointing it out and fixing it in the article. Always thank the person who points it out, even if they’re nasty to you. The nasty commenters won’t really have a response to an acknowledgement and mention that you edited the story.

Do you have advice for writing clean copy? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

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Words and their overuse that drive me insane

There’s a radio commercial making the rounds from one of the cell phone carriers that has someone using the word “BOOM!” over and over again. The other person in the commercial tells him to stop using the word because it’s annoying.

The commercial strikes a chord with me because I have a lot of moments reading social media or listening to people and want to scream “STOP! JUST STOP OVERUSING THAT WORD!” I’ve come to loathe certain words because of overuse, like “BOOM!” Others include “epic” and “fail.” They’re used to often it feels like an epic failure to use them. And I hate myself for even typing that last sentence.

Others just sound so ridiculous to me, like the word “tweep.” It’s not that it’s overused, it’s that it sounds ridiculous. I feel it’s disrespectful to my followers and audience. It sounds like “sheep,” and I don’t want to think of my followers in that sense. You all have brains in your head and aren’t mindlessly following along with me.

When I think about how much I hate these words, though, I start to feel like Old Lady Connic who is yelling at the kids to get off her lawn. But I don’t hate the words themselves most of the time (except the word “tweep”). It’s more the overuse of the word that drives me bonkers. I feel like if we overuse a word, it’s going to lose it’s meaning or impact when we do indeed use it.

Of course, I want everyone to have fun. And I’m sure there are words I overuse both online and in my day-to-day conversation (New Jersey should be thankful I have curtailed my use of the word “wicked” since moving here five years ago). But I have no idea if anyone agrees with me or just thinks I’m a crank. Maybe I am cranky and old and don’t want anyone to have fun.

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Wednesday reading and thoughts: Damn you, autocorrect; Twain on banned books

A new study is saying “damn you, autocorrect” about our spelling skills, but I, like the Atlantic Wire, see it as yet another “how the Internet is destroying something” study.

I have never been a terrific speller. I had to look up how to spell definitely when I was in middle school, and I still need to today. And when I was in middle school we were still using local dial-up networks for the Internet. It’s not the Internet that has made me a poor speller. But I use a dictionary and spell check to make sure I get things spelled right.

Maybe we shouldn’t be blaming technology so much as we should be considering people’s laziness. The technology is right there to make sure we spell things properly, but how often do we see misspellings?

* * *

Excellent point made by Nancy in the comments section of yesterday’s summer re-reading post. “I hate that with e-readers you don’t know what anyone is reading on the train or plane!”

That is one way I learn what others are reading and get ideas of what I may want to read. I’ve even started conversations about books. But the advent of e-readers means I can’t sneak a peek at what someone is reading.

* * *

Ever wonder what Mark Twain would think if he found out his books were banned? Well, we can know now because a letter he wrote about it has surfaced.

Now I wonder what he considers an “adult” to be reading his books.

* * *

I’ll be reading “The Great Gatsby” again this summer, and this is a big reason why:

I’m really looking forward to the movie, especially since I think Leonardo DiCaprio is a perfect choice to play Jay Gatsby.

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