Writing: Rules, Advice, and Grammar

Writing is a solitary event. Your brain and you sit somewhere and connect words. After this happens you write these sentences down somewhere. You form images for others to see while using words to conjure emotions from your readers. If you are a good writer you write so that your readers feel a connection with your story, words, and characters. You write to evoke emotion. Your words, while now only your words, go into the world fully formed and your readers change their meaning. They infer their emotions, their history, their take on your words based on their lives and you are devastated, or are you?

As writers we set out with a thought, perhaps if we are  lucky a world, a character, or some story line that will resonate with others, the readers. We have a set vision in our words of how they will touch peoples lives. How they will be received and when readers see our words as something different, something more to them, we get mad or hurt, but in reality our words are still well received and the readers are still connecting with them.

I have had numerous sources give me writing advice. The number one thing I know is readers do not do a close reading. Their life, emotions, and history infer into my words, my characters, and my writing. I have learned through all this advice that when I write, I write for me and me alone. I do not write as if I am only writing to 26 year old women. I write for me, to get out the voices in my head, the characters that are building in my mind, and to see my story on the page. Writing advice sometimes will squash creativity. Writing groups and books are all good, but you have to take everything with a grain of salt. Honestly it is your words on the page and practice helps. Writing with imagery, deep description, and building characters readers can connect with takes hours and hours of practice.

Grammar plays a big part in your writing. Yes write grammatically, but also with slang if it fits, or other words if they fit. For instance up north people call a shopping cart a cart, in the south people call them a buggy. Use the proper grammar and dialect to convey your characters and story. Do not be afraid to misspell something. If your character only went to school till he or she was eight, by all means misspell a word. As long as the reader can figure it out, like perhaps write it phonetically, then your writing will still hold meaning.

This year I joined Medium.com
This was one of the best decisions I made as a writer. I am part of 14 writing groups now. I submit to which ever genre of writing I am writing, but there are great editors on this site. People tell me what they like and why about the writing. I have also had people tell me add more here. I have had no one be mean or ugly about anything. I hope to keep growing as an author and to keep being pushed by some great writing prompts on Medium. If you are looking for a great writing platform I strongly suggest you try this. I have written more this year due to Medium then in any other year and I so enjoy the community of like minded writers I have become friends with.

I hope you are busy writing and keep plugging away at it. Those words are not going to connect themselves.

Happy Holidays to you all!!
your story teller/ poet
Debbie
xoxo

PS. You can find the latest chapter of Melanie's life story here: Melanie's Life Story