On Writing About Writing: a guest post by Miriam Hendeles, author of Mazel Tov, It’s a Bubby!

January 24, 2013January 24, 2013beccakinla advice, blogger, blogging, blogs, family, words, writer, writing, writing groups Tags: advice, binah, binah magazine, bubby, fun, grandmother, humor, jewish, mazel tov it's a bubby, miriam hendeles, oma, wacky, writers, writing 2 Comments

Miriam’s Book!

Today’s guest post is from my partner in ~~crime~~ writing, Miriam Hendeles.

What do writers write about? We write about our lives and our families. Some of us write about our struggles and triumphs. Others write about philosophies and opinions; hope and dreams.

We tell stories, and conduct interviews; we compose lists and craft essays.

We even write about “Writing.” Now what is there to tell, conduct, compose and craft about Writing?

So much. We can write about the writing process, solutions to writer’s block, publishing opportunities, strategies for success, online writing techniques, SEO, PLR and myriad other acronyms. Bloggers and gurus craft advice to the masses on how to become the most polished, pithy, and popular Writer. You see, many writers choose to write about Writing, because if we write about Writing, we know we are guaranteed an audience, comprised of the following loyal and faithful readers:

Writers. Wannabe writers. Bloggers. Publishers. Agents. Editors.

But when we do not write about Writing? Then who is our audience?

Random Interested Persons of Non-Writing topic.

For example, Continue reading →

3 Tricks for magazine writers: How to write on a theme and still make your deadline

January 21, 2013beccakinla advice, magazines, submissions, submit, words, writer, writing, writing process Tags: article, assignment, brainstorm, children, cluster, contest, deadline, graphic organizer, help, ideas, idiom, issue, journal, kid, literature, magazine, need idea, prewriting, pun, secret, story, theme, tip, title, topic, trick, what to write, word play, words, writer, writing Leave a comment

Before you start to type, you might want to try one of these 3 things.

One of my writing jobs is penning teen and tween stories for Jewish magazines. Before getting this gig, I had to learn an important lesson: most kids’ magazines select one theme per issue, and they are only open to stories on those themes. That means you have to write what they want, when they want it–but you’ve got to still tap into your creativity to make your story fresh, fun, and readable.

NOTE: Writing contests (although many are scams, there are plenty of legit ones) and classroom assignments frequently require that submissions/assignments include a specific topic or theme and have a deadline, as well. You don’t have to write for magazines to benefit from these 3 tips.

Sometimes, I get the heads-up on what story the editor wants on what theme a month in advance. But sometimes it’s a lot less. How do I come up with a story on short notice? Continue reading →

The 2 Best Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills (with a little backup from Anne Lamott)

January 20, 2013beccakinla advice, writing groups, writing process Tags: advice, Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, bum, chair, community, consistency, improve, improvement, literature, opinion, practice, regular, reliable. help, share, sharing, sit, skill, skills, strategy, support, tush, writer, writing, writing group 6 Comments

I’m going to offer some advice today that seems simplistic, so basic as to be ridiculous. Yet recently, I’ve experienced people who have neglected these 2 important strategies that are pretty much guaranteed to improve their writing abilities. So here I am repeating them.

Almost every book about writing offers the following advice. (The wording might vary according to the delicacy of the audience, but the meaning is the same.)

Okay, so you might need more than a chair. This guy isn’t going to get much writing done if he doesn’t pick up a pen!

1) PUT YOUR TUSH IN THE CHAIR.

By this, of course, we learn that if you tell us you want to write, well that’s a nice sentiment. But we know that you mean it if you sit at a desk, pick up a pen (or keyboard) and actually practice writing. Certainly weekly, and preferably daily, you need to write. A human being is only a writer if s/he is a person who writes. Continue reading →

How Texans lost their accents and the newly religious found one

January 18, 2013January 19, 2013beccakinla research, word, words Tags: accent, american, assimilation, authentic, baal teshuva, becoming frum, Benor, BT, Bunin., change, character, code-switching, dialect, drawl, english, FFB, genuine, immigrant, in-group, jewish, language, regional, sarah, setting, southern, texan, texas, united state, variety 1 Comment

How do we place a person? Partly by the way they talk. But the accents that we use to locate people are constantly in flux.

Apparently Texans are losing their distinct accents. Still others have mastered mainstream American dialects as well as their own distinct drawl and codeswitch according to the demands of the situation, a recent study at the University of Texas asserts. The L.A. Times article on the subject explains some of the reasons, which include exposure to mass media and immigration to Texas from a variety of sources.

The article piqued my interest in part because I happen to be reading Sarah Bunin Benor’s new book Becoming Frum, which contemplates the ways the newly religious adopt the language and cultural markers of Orthodox Jews. Like with the Texans discussed above, some use of the in-group dialect is conscious, while other use is not. But in either case, it marks the users of certain types of speech as members of a distinct group.

What this means to writers: A sprinkle of regional dialect or in-group word choice can help establish a character in the social landscape of our story/book and make them sound authentic. But misuse of language based on out-dated understandings of a community could annoy readers just as much as heavy-handed overuse. Pretty soon, we might not be able to write characters with Texan drawls anymore without sounding ridiculously retro. It’s good to have a handle on these nuances of language use before jumping in to this writing strategy.

Try this wacky avatar hack!

January 16, 2013January 21, 2013beccakinla advice, art, art project, authors, blogger, blogging, blogs Tags: avatar, blog, blogger, blogging, create, digibody, DIY, do-it-yourself, free, glasses, gravatar, hair, hat, headscarf, image, microsoft, paint, tools, writer 7 Comments

As part of a course I’m taking through Carol Tice’s amazing website Make a Living Writing, I received the following homework assignment: put an avatar up on Gravatar to pop up whenever I comment on blogs, etc. Now, I could use a photo, but that would just be no fun, so I decided to create my own Gravatar.

Me, in black and white and nothing on my head to cover my hair. For shame!

I started off by googling “free avatar tools” and discovered a lot of nifty links to different programs to help you make your avatar. The best site I found was Digibody. The results of a picture created with their Avatar-Maker tools look much nicer and more professional than those created with other programs, I found.

However, that left me with a small problem. Or rather three:

The pic was black and white. I thought color might be more eye-catching and engaging.
I don’t leave my house without a hat or headscarf on my head. There was no way to put a hat or headscarf on the picture using Digibody’s tools.
I don’t leave my bed without my glasses. (2 a.m. trips to the bathroom don’t count.) No one would recognize me without some glasses on my face.

Here’s what I did:

Thanks to Microsoft Paint, I added my headscarf, glasses, and a touch of color.

I saved the image to as a jpeg onto my computer.
Then I pulled it up in Microsoft Paint (how I wish I had Adobe InDesign or something fancier, but alas, no) and started sprucing up my avatar.

This is my DIY avatar. It’s recognizably me.

What do you think of the end product? I’d love some reviews in the comments.

Coming clean: sometimes you’re supposed to do housework instead of writing

January 15, 2013January 16, 2013beccakinla advice, authors, family, frustration, how to write, mother, writer, writing, writing process Tags: author, awareness, break, clean, cleaning, dishes, family, friend, God, housework, idea, laundry, mess, mom, mother, motherhood, no housekeeper, opportunity cost, space, stay-at-home, stuck, time management, visit, work, work from home, write, writer, writer's block, writing Leave a comment

G-d wanted me to do the dishes this morning.

I finished a large-ish writing project yesterday, then pulled open another document to begin the next assignment. I got the first paragraph written, and then every ounce of creativity in my brain dried up. Okay, I had a couple ideas, but they weren’t RIPE. More like literary fetal tissue than the next baby ready to be birthed.

Those who know me or who regularly read my blog know that I rarely get writer’s block. I usually have more ideas in my mind than really is good for me. Sometimes I can’t sleep at night, because my mind is so busy that the ideas are dripping out my ears.

See this immaculate kitchen? Clearly not mine.

I spent the rest of yesterday taking care of my kids, feeding them and hubby (not to mention myself), and finishing Bird by Bird. (More on that later this week.) Then I had a Tiferes meeting, but before I left, I checked my email. A girlfriend would be dropping by Tuesday morning.

Oh, no.

You see, my back had been out, and then there had been Shabbos, and then I was writing on a “finish ASAP–please!” type deadline. Result–my house was a wreck. Continue reading →

Rebecca Klempner

Author page of Rebecca Klempner

Author: beccakinla

On Writing About Writing: a guest post by Miriam Hendeles, author of Mazel Tov, It’s a Bubby!

3 Tricks for magazine writers: How to write on a theme and still make your deadline

How Texans lost their accents and the newly religious found one

Try this wacky avatar hack!

Coming clean: sometimes you’re supposed to do housework instead of writing

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: