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If you’re a beginning writer who needs a little help getting started,
the following article by Valley Writers secretary Ken Thornsbury might be helpful:
TEN STEPS
FOR YOUR DEVELOPMENT AS A WRITER
by Ken Thornsbury
These steps need not be followed in this particular order, although
some of them don’t make sense unless others have been done first. They are not necessarily
the first ten or the only ten, but they will definitely help put you on the right track.
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Discover why you write. Are you one of those people who’ve
been compelled to put pen to paper since childhood? Have you kept journals for years,
or did the urge to scribble come to you later in life? The question of “why”
also encompasses what inspires you.
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Discover what you write. Poetry or prose? Fiction or non-fiction?
Romance, mystery, science fiction/fantasy, thrillers? Perhaps humor is your forté,
or the essay. There are many choices. Try something new, you may like it.
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Discover where you write. There are two aspects to this: physically,
whether you function best in a cozy study, a coffee shop, or a green park; developmentally,
meaning where you are on your path of writing. Are you a novice, a veteran knocking
the rust off after a break, a gifted amateur, or an old pro?
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Discover how you write. This is about your process.
Some writers plot everything out before they write a word, while others just put their
fingers on the keyboard and go. Which are you? Speaking of keyboards, “how” also touches
on the way you record your words: longhand, typewriter, word processor, voice recorder.
There are many choices here also.
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Discover when you write. Are you a morning person
or a night-owl? Do you have a houseful of kids or are you an empty-nester? Finding time
to write, and being motivated to write when you do have the time, are vital to your success.
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Commit to writing something every day. The craft of writing,
like many other things in life, is one that is best learned by doing it. Whether it’s a
page, a paragraph, or just one sentence, forming a daily writing habit will move you
forward faster than almost anything else.
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Acquire some tools: The Elements of Style by Strunk & White,
is highly recommended by many. Use the internet; there are many valuable resources online
these days. Pay attention to what you read: you probably have several favorite authors,
but have you ever considered why they’re your favorites? Your own bookshelf can be a
great help to your growth as a writer.
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Join a writer’s group. Most communities have at
least one, and many have several (and if you live in the greater Roanoke Valley or
nearby, you should check out the Valley Writers!). No writer’s group where you are?
You can be the catalyst to get one started.
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Enter some contests. Sometimes the requirements of a
contest are just what you need to kickstart your writing. You may be one of those
people who thrive on competition. Think what a successful contest entry could do for
your self-esteem! It would look pretty good on your resumé, too.
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Get educated. Learn about the publishing industry,
agents, markets, editors, and more. Attend a conference or three. The rapid progress
of technology has brought change to every corner of the writing world. To say “you
have to run to keep up” is not overstating the case! Become a student of the craft.
Dick Raymond, Valley Writers Unofficial Poet
Laureate, has won numerous awards for his poetry. If you don’t know what a villanelle is,
the following poem by Valley Writers Unofficial Poet Laureate, Dick Raymond, both tells
and shows you.
“IF I HAD A HAMMER . . . ” A Celebration of Versifying
by Richard Raymond III
Few verse-forms wring the mind or ring the bell
For finding fun in formal poetry
Like the vivacious, virile villanelle.
Right now I'm matching feet—as you can tell—
The stretch is there, as anyone may see,
How “formal” wrings the mind or rings the bell.
Okay, perhaps no minstrel raptures swell
When verses come together, but for me
The outcome is a vibrant villanelle.
For I can patch iambics, I can spell,
A neat construction brings a whoop of glee
At having wrung the mind or rung the bell.
But stuck for stanzas—that's a trip
through hell,
No wrenching makes them mesh in harmony,
Hammers don't dent a villainous villanelle.
Yet . . . use the hammer willingly and well,
And voila! zip-zip-zip and one-two-three—
Few verse-forms wring the mind or ring the bell
Like the vivacious, vibrant villanelle!
***
Dick won the Poetry Society of Virginia’s 2009
Edgar Allan
Poe Memorial and provides an interesting bit of insight into Poe’s work:
HUMORESQUE
On Edgar Allan
Poe’s Unlikely Employment of the Comic
in the Midst of the Tragic and Grotesque
by Richard Raymond III
“Every body knows, in a general way, that the finest place
in the world is–or, alas, was–the Dutch borough of Vondervotteimittiss.” –
Poe, “The Devil in the Belfry”
Concerning the humor of Poe–
Underrated, as humorists go,
His wit is ironic,
Yet serves as a tonic
To the general burden of woe.
As a matter of actual fact,
There’s little his intellect lacked,
His gifts analytic
Served well for the critic–
If only he’d matched them with tact.
Contrary to popular rumor,
Poe’s output was not entirely devoid of humor.
One may say, though carping critics are inclined to sneer,
That an elfish streak surfaced early in his career.
As a West
Point cadet, seeing an order to report for parade
in uniform of shako and white cross-belts,
He did so, wearing nothing else.
And while one searches his works in vain for a poem of
jollity,
Several of his stories, or essays, exhibit a distinctly comic quality.
The “Thousand-and-Second Tale” of the unhappy Princess Scheherezade
Brings as much of a smile as the limerick “There Was an Old Maid of Cape
Cod.”
Likewise, in the rollicking “Devil in the Belfry”
He calls Old Scratch a “nincompoop” for making of such hell free.
And “X-ing a Paragrab” is an x-ercise in the absurd
By his substitution of x for o in every word.
But wait! I stand corrected–
In that
ridiculous ballad, before which generations of poetry-lovers
have all but genuflected,
Are detectable flashes of what must be understood as wry wit, to be
relentlessly parodied by every self-important maven.
I refer, of course, to “The Raven”.
The serious critic reserves for it his niggliest niggles–
Who could not read its burlesqueries to the final “Nevermore”,
without bursting into an uncontrollable fit of the giggles?
John Koelsch, another Valley Writers poet, uses his
life experiences for the basis of creative writing. For instance, he has used his
Viet Nam combat experience to produce many poems, such as
"Bugs"
and "Silent Thunder."
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