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Writing: Secrets of a Writer

Updated on November 3, 2020
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'It's Difficult Work ...this whole being a Muse Thingie

Who is your MUSE?
Who is your MUSE? | Source

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.

— Aldous Huxley

Would he think it was ok?

Perhaps Mr. Huxley would not have minded too too much if this were a second quote which bounced off his ...

The secret of a great writer "is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm."

Keeping our zest for life and learning and knowing and being creative alive and well, skyrockets a writer out of the ordinary into the stupendous.


Secrets...Betcha' Can't Keep 'Em....

"I've got a secret and you don't know it." Anyone ever said that to you??

Of course they have.

Well, at least, I know it was said to me, plenty of times. Even as an adult.

And sometimes I wish they wouldn't because I then want to know what it is that they know that surely I must hear or I will burst.

Writers too have secrets. And, no doubt, some of them are the same for most of us and some of them differ greatly.

Some of the secrets we share have to do with the mechanics of writing. You know, the necessary part of constructing a tale or nonfiction piece that is worthy of the consideration of others....the mundane parts of writing that, in the long run, do form a basis for the creative part of writing to emerge.

How we do that does differ greatly.

As you read the works of many just here on HubPages for instance you may know even before you look at the author's name who it is that wrote it. Over time we develop a style and our voice comes through in our writing.

Secrets...there are many.

I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story

— Tom Clancy

Astonishingly Vibrant Colors

Nature bounty can be a MUSE.
Nature bounty can be a MUSE. | Source

Jolted Awake in the Wee Hours by Ideas Tumbling Around, Demanding to be Heard


Awakened in the wee hours overflowing with ideas,

Words calling, chanting, singing

Haunting

Metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia, alliteration, personification....

declarative interrogative exclamatory imperative ....sentence types learned eons ago (for some of us)...

Parts of speech can be cantankerous and troublesome...when a verb can be a noun or a noun a verb ....don't those crazy words know their place???

The billowing wave rolled up to shore;

One excited, little child will wave at us when we drive by his home.

And many many more rules..punctuation and paragraphing etcetera etcetera etecetera.

Calgon, won't you please take me away??!!

Secrets...this is just the beginning of those as yet undisclosed ways you, Little Words, have power of me...

Photos Can Punctuate Articles

Unusual  names and signs can offer inspiration.
Unusual names and signs can offer inspiration. | Source

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

— Madeleine L'Engle

Exceptionally Enchanted

A moment when a child experience something exciting for first time is muse-ical.
A moment when a child experience something exciting for first time is muse-ical. | Source

Enchanted by Adverbs...

Angrily, hastily, beautifully....

adverbs work their magic....deliciously dancing in our noggins ....sometimes

at other times they languish within the folds of our grey matter----like a lazy day in the hottest part of any summer....

and, then unexpectedly, without a hint, sentinels heralding the story that will become...mystical, magical adverbs appear, cautiously...

awaiting a perfect moment to appear, stealthily but, unselfishly.

Without their appearance, writing may appear somewhat droll....

try it sometime...write a piece with no adverbs...consciously decide not to select even one and see if it works.


And it will...in some cases...but to me it seems it would be akin to viewing a rainbow with only drab gray colors...

Adverbs put the sparkle in my writing...

Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.

— Lisa See

Patiently Waiting

My Gretta girl who has become my loving pup  serves to arouse the muse within me at times.
My Gretta girl who has become my loving pup serves to arouse the muse within me at times. | Source

Between the A and the T

When I was a wee bit of a girl, I would call out, "Daddy, where are you at?" and he would invariably reply, 'Between the A and the T."

I never got it. Not till I was much older and learning to use 'proper English.'

Those doggone prepositions.

Don't end sentences with them...never ever!!

....Over and over I heard that when I was a young writer in high school...

Now I end sentences with them because I can....there are still those who strictly adhere to the preposition rule but after six decades plus, I think a little literary license is AOK.

I fell down.

(No, no...anyway..how else would I fall? O, I suppose I could fall up a stairway if I planned it just right.)

What did I come in this room for? (No no)

Okay, so maybe the writing is more polished with an object after the preposition but there are just times when I feel a need to be foot loose and fancy free.

Soon I will leave home to go out and about.

Writers turn dreams into print.

— James A. Michener

Elegantly Draped Across the Landscape

Again   nature offering me breathtaking beauty to encourage my creative juices to flow.
Again nature offering me breathtaking beauty to encourage my creative juices to flow. | Source

Learning from billybuc

I do learn and take to heart what I find is beneficial. Reading billybuc's Writer's Mailbag keeps me learning and growing (Our own Bill Holland right here on HubPages).

The Writers Mailbag makes me feel as if I am privy to a conversation between those who ask and bill who responds to their query. If you have not read any of these submissions, be sure you do and soon.

A recent one is at the following link:

http://billybuc.hubpages.com/hub/The-Writers-Mailbag-Installment-Sixty-Four


A Few Secrets of pstraubie48

1. Getting lost in novels and works of nonfiction (really my most preferred reading) fills my gray matter with ideas

2. And, did I say, I read. A lot. I even read things that are of no particular interest to me at first glance and often find myself totally engaged in the reading of a topic I may have shunned in the past.

3. People watching finds its way into my writing from time to time....facial expressions, body language, snibbets of conversation swirl around in my mind and may surface at some point in an article.

4. Reading about writing and what makes it 'work' is something that finds its way on my to-do list too. Reading what those who are accomplished writers have to say about how-to improve and how to publish works for me....dispelling the old 'you can't teach and old dog new tricks' saying....

5. I remember what someone told me many years ago when I first knew I HAD to write....

"Don't ever become too enarmoured with your own words. Be unafraid to erase, remove, delete a word. Each piece of writing you do is a 'work in progress.'"

And those words of wisdom have held me in good stead down through the ages.

6. One secret which is probably one many of us do is this:

I write and let the writing 'rest.' I may leave it alone for a few hours or a few days.

And when I go back I edit and rewrite and let it 'rest' again.

I find too that I edit after I publish as well.

(I do miss errors even as many times as I edit and re-edit and when I find them I change them. I even have lovelies here on HubPages who have my back and will inform me of a boo-boo. I do the same as well in an email, never in a comment. And apologize if they do not want to be informed. One person wrote me a scathing note because I, in a friendly way, pointed out an error via email...so you may not wish to risk it. )

Other secrets...well, I have to keep some really as 'secret', you know.

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.

— Matthew Arnold

Another little tidbit...


Choosing only two secrets, I would select read and write.

Read nonfiction and fiction in great abundance.

Read works by authors who have stood the test of time.

Read by authors whose writings you fall into when you are reading them.

Read works that inspire, entertain, uplift, challenge, stimulate, move you to action and reaction.

Be very certain to read something funny...something that makes you laugh out loud...every day.

And write. Write some every single day.

And read some more.

And write some more.


Thoughts to Ponder: What do you find the most challenging about writing?

punctuation
finding the best words
finding time to write
too much concern with length of an article
fear
uncertainty
selecting a topic
staying on topic
constructing sentences with flair

Perhaps there is something else not shown on the table that might be of concern to you. Please feel free to share in the comment section.

This Song Sung by HIM Gets My Synapses Firing on so many levels

Wise Words ...

The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange, and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power. Toni Morrison

Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to use 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. Mark Twain

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. Elmore Leonard

More Wise Words...

You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write. Saul Bellow

… the truest writers are those who see language not as a linguistic process but as a living element…Derek Wolcott

Je ne sais quot

Think of authors that you read or have read and may go back and reread. The ones you are drawn to the most, whose writing captivates and holds you are the ones who have that " je ne sais quoi" that it is not possible to define; it just is.

That is the magic we cannot learn. It is part of who we are.

One Secret All Writers Share

One secret that writers share is this:

Reading and writing are, let us say, the backbone of stepping into this world of writing.

One element of becoming a WRITER is something over which we have no control...

it is that ability to arouse others with our words; it is an innate ability to have words work their magic as they flow onto to the page (screen) and become more than just 'words'...they become the messenger that translates and connects us to thoughts and ideas that have been waiting to be heard.

This skill, talent, gift---call it what you will---cannot be learned. It can be improved upon, I believe, but that improvement is unconscious. It just comes from that longing-to-be heard place deep within us.

. Tweaking and editing is one thing...but making the magic happen is quite another.

Your only responsibility as a writer is to be true to the story that has chosen you as its writer.

— Jean Little

Write on...

Another day will dawn in a few hours.

Awakening a new set of opportunities to expand our writer's minds....

Eagerly anticipating the bewitching way that words will fall onto this screen and take on a life of their own

Write on...dear writers...

© 2015 Patricia Scott

working

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