My Christian Writers Conferences

We Pray Your Christmas Will be Full of Christ and His Love.

 

The Leadership team of BRMCWC

Alton Gansky, director

Edie Melson, co-director

Eva Marie Everson, contest director

What I Look for When I Edit #4: Serial Comma

by Alton Gansky

When I was in elementary school I came to believe (and was probably taught) there was a right way and a wrong way do use grammar. Is and ain't. Black and white. Up and down. Apples and oranges. The idea stuck with me through high school, college, and grad school. It was a persistent belief. It is also wrong. It turns out there is the right way and the other right way. In the world of fruit, there are apples and oranges and this thing called a tangerine.

One of those "right way" verses "the other right way" items is the serial comma. Some use them; some don't. I'm a user--of the serial comma I mean.

What is this strange beast? Consider the phrase, "red, white, and blue." The last comma is the critter we're talking about. Commas are used to separate items in a list. Coffee, sugar, and milk. Writer, teacher, and bungee jumper. These are called serial commas or the Oxford comma. The one before "and" is the one that gets all the attention. Many newspaper and magazine editors prefer to avoid the little bug in order to save precious space, so, "coffee, sugar and milk." This works much of the time, but it can go horribly wrong.

"To my parents, Ayn Rand and God." Huh? Better: "To my parents, Ayn Rand, and God."

From a newspaper account about the country and western singer Merle Haggard. "Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duval." Unexpected. How about, "Among those interviewed where his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson, and Robert Duval."

Sometimes it gets tricky. "For lunch I had tomato soup, a banana, macaroni and cheese." No comma before "and," or we end up with, "For lunch I had tomato soup, a banana, macaroni, and cheese." Macaroni and cheese is considered a single item.

Imagine sitting in an attorney's office as he reads the will of your rich uncle: "My billions of dollars shall be equally divided between Larry, Moe, Shep and Curly." And you're Curly. The sentence means that Larry gets a third, Moe gets a third, and and Shep split a third. That missing comma cost you a hunk of money.

It costs nothing to use the extra comma but dropping it can lead to confusion. Most nonjournalist use the seriel comma without hesitation. I'm one of them.

Wikipedia has a great article on the subject, as does Grammar Girl.

I Lost My Mind Last Weekend

by Alton Gansky

I lost my mind last weekend.

I spent most of Saturday morning working on small things, then having breakfast out with my wife, mother-in-law, daughter Chaundel, and my grandbuddy Dylan. It was a great time, but even while I was awash in family love, something evil was boring into my brain. Unwanted images popped into my mind. Oh, I tried to drive them away but they kept coming back, unbidden and unwelcome.

I was a goner.

When I returned home I began--oh the humanity!--to rearrange my office. I'll give you a moment to get over the shock.

It started innocently enough. It occurred to me if I cleared out my office closet, I could clear out the hall closet and move some stuff from the garage into it. That would allow me to move some things around in the garage so maybe I could set up my wood shop again. From such foolish ideas come disaster.

It may not sound like much but rearranging my office is akin to one of the Labors of Hercules: cleaning the Augean stables, just not as smelly. The other difference is that I am nothing like Hercules.

Moving bookshelves means moving books and my two desks. Clearing out one closet means clearing out another. I sez to myself, I sez, "Al, you can knock this out in a few hours." I've never been accused of being the sharpest crayon in the box.

Well, I did it and only received one injury in the process (I smacked my head on the side of the glass top desk and pinching my ear between my head and the edge of the tempered glass--don't ask).

Unfortunately, I'm not done. My books are on shelves but need to be placed in order. My desks are in their new spots but need to have all the clutter removed from the surface. Still, I like it.

Sports fans are fond of saying, "Baseball is a metaphor for life." I agree, but I also think life is a metaphor for writers and writing. After putting in three times the number of hours I thought necessary it occurred to me that the work was much like the writing life. Maybe it's because the New Year is just around the corner but I felt compelled to make the change in my office, something that got me thinking about how often we take time as writers to reevaluate our past work and the direction of our art. I often take time to ask, "Am I on track? Is this the path? Should I be trying something new? What could I do to improve? Do I need to rearrange a few things?

I'm a proponent of change; I'm an opponent of ill-considered change. A few things to consider:

1. Are you writing in a genre or discipline you love? If you're writing devotions just because you think they're easier to get published, then you might want to reconsider. If you write articles because they're shorter than books, then you may not be writing to your strength. Besides, writing a great article is hard work too. Write what you love. Write what you read.
2. Are you writing for the wrong reasons? Some want to be writers for the wealth and fame. I have well over 3 million words in print and I've achieved neither. I'm not opposed to fame or fortune. I'd accept the burden if thrust upon me, but it isn't why I write. Why do you write? Can you articulate your reasons?
3. How much time and thought do you give to be a great writer? Not just a writer, but a great writer. This is a discipline, an art, and a craft. Some of the best writers out there produced some miserable stuff on the way to becoming a master craftsman.
4. Do you care enough to change? There was some pain in rearranging my office (especially the whole head-banging-ear-pinching thing) but I was willing to endure it. There are several reasons people change:
   1. The pain to remain the same is too great. A lot of lung cancer patients give up smoking.
   2. A powerful force, like the law, demands the change (think IRS or the motor vehicle code). People don't obey speed laws because they want to.
   3. A compelling view of the future. People change if they can see a benefit to themselves or those they care about. This is where the power is.

My life in general, and my writing life in particular, requires frequent reassessment and rearrangement. I try to be honest during those times and when necessary, I rearrange my office--figuratively and sometimes literally.

So, how's your mental office?

Why My Computer Faces a Window

by Alton Gansky

I do my work in a small bedroom turned into an office. When we moved into this house I struggled with how to arrange the office. I'm still unhappy with the result, so I've been giving thought to rearranging. For a writer, the most important piece of furniture is the desk where the words splatter the paper, or the computer screen. Everything else orbits those few square feet. As I considered moving this over there and that over here, I entertained moving my writing spot to a different area. The thought didn't last long.

To my surprise the idea appalled me. This is odd. I like change, especially if it's my idea. Why the unexpected reluctance?

When I sit at my computer I have a blank wall behind the monitor, a corner to the right, and another wall to the side, but to my left, just a ten-degree head-swivel to the left is a window. It overlooks a small entry courtyard and the street beyond that. I have come to love that window.

When I first set up the office, I feared glare would be a problem. In this house, it isn't. Nonetheless, I installed a nice, accordion pulldown shade--which I usually leave open while working. I harbored concerns about distraction, such as the mid-afternoon stream of teenagers walking home from school, or the passing of the UPS truck being trailed by FedEx. That has never been a problem.

I think I need the window. I need it to remind me that there exists a real world out there filled with UPS drivers and teenagers, and neighbors who work in their yards; flocks of birds, and children on bicycles; joggers and pet lovers walking their dogs. While I pound on my well-worn keyboard reality occasionally waves at me and shouts, "Don't forget me."

Writing is always about reality and about the world and its 7 billion souls occupying it surface. Like a bad toenail, writers can become ingrown, festering in cell of their own making. Writing is about withdrawing from society to better point out its failings, it's about being an observant human being and noticing what is going on then communicating it to the world in well-crafted words.

Perhaps this is why some writers leave their offices to write in coffee shops. When we do that, we may be quenching our thirst for the real world.

Writers take their windows with them. Looking at the world through that special glass only creatives have, seeing what others don't, feeling what others can't, saying what others haven't considered.

I've decided I need my window. My guess is you need yours.

 

What I Look for When I Edit #3: Economy

by Alton Gansky

The movie Amadeus shows Mozart arguing with his benefactor Emperor Joseph II. The emperor has just finished reviewing Amadeus' newest work and is unsatisfied. “It has . . . too many notes.” The young composer goes ballistic. “It has just the right amount of notes!” He argues that to add or subtract would diminish the piece.

I think of the scene often while editing. At times I feel like Emperor Joseph, seeing too many words in an authors work; other times I feel like Mozart wanting to defend what is there. When a publisher hires me to edit another author's work, I take the task seriously. I want the author to look good and the publisher to have a superior product to sell.

Whether writing or editing, I strive for an economy of words. “Economy” here means using the right amount of words. No more. No less. E.B. White of Charlotte's Web and Strunk and White's The Elements of Style wrote:

"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."

The first law of writing should be: Never attempt to sound like a writer. New writers are susceptible to this affliction. They crank out overwrought sentences, purple prose, tortured vocabulary in a vain attempt to sound writerly. It doesn't work. Experienced writers, especially the best writers, struggle to take words and sentences out—and it is a struggle.

I play a game when I edit my work. I see how many words I can take out of a paragraph and still make sense. If I can excise a “that,” an adverb, an unnecessary modifier, then I do—with glee. The first sentence of this paragraph started like this: “Whenever I write, I sometimes play a game in which I try to see how many words I can cut out of one of my paragraphs.” Really, Al? Really? How bad is that? I started of with a bloated 26 word sentence. Yeow! I ended up with a 9 word one (and one that made sense.)

Writing is more than putting words on a page; it's knowing when to take them off.

The worse offenders? Here's a short list:

1. Unnecessary adverbs. Adverbs are powerful things neutered by overuse. Adverbs are meant to bring muscle missing in a verb or to give the verb new meaning. Try first to replace a lazy verb with a well-muscled one. If that's not possible, then handpick a juicy adverb. “She smiled happily,” is awful. “She smiled sadly,” says something.

2. Don't double up prepositions. “She pulled out onto the road,” is redundant. “She pulled onto the road” is what you want.

3. Avoid rickety constructions like, “free gift” (all gifts are free); “She blinked her eyes” (what else would she blink?); “He laughed out loud” (that's what laughter is); “The audience applauded, clapping their hands” (as opposed to slapping their thighs).

There's an old saying: “You haven't written until you've rewritten.” Some writers worry about these things while they write their first draft; others wait until they're done then edit from beginning to end. It doesn't matter when you edit as long as you take up the editor's mantle.

At the risk of being confused with Emperor Joseph II, some writing has too many words. Be ruthless with your writing. Fear not the editorial scalpel. Wade in and have at it. You might enjoy it.

Beautiful Truth

The other day, I was driving through Fresno after doing some writing at my office (aka, Starbucks). It was the middle of the day and I was working my way through the coagulating traffic of Shaw Avenue and listening to National Public Radios “Talk of the Nation.” I happened to catch an interview with National Book Award winner Nikky Finny. She had just won the 2011 award for poetry with her fourth book, Head Off and Split. She came across as humble, confident, and winsome, and she read her poetry as only an author could.

I’m not a poet. It’s an art form that is beyond me. This, however, doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate those who have mastered the art. As she spoke about her path to being a poet and professor of creative writing at the University of Kentucky she talked about those voices in her head that repeated the refrain, “Don’t write that.” (You may have the same voice yammering between your ears. The thing gets around.) When host Neal Conan asked why she persisted Ms. Finny said something that still rings in my ears: 

“I want to write the truth and write it beautifully.”

A simple statement but one that peals like a big brass bell. Writing the truth is important; the imperative of every writer who wishes to make a difference. Write the truth. Shouldn’t that be enough? Most news articles are written to convey facts, but the ones that stick with us are also written beautifully, powerfully, purposefully.

Poets and novelist emphasize the beauty. Reporters and nonfiction writers focus on the facts. Real art comes from blending of the two.

I have read nonfiction books that gleam with beauty even when dealing with obscure or unpleasant content. Why shouldn’t a nonfiction book, a devotion, a magazine article arrive on the page dressed in its finest clothes, its shoes polished, its hair styled?

To write the truth and write it beautifully doesn’t require purple prose, just a spritz of perfume or a dab of pomade will do. Beautiful writing need not be flowery. It can be brutal, harsh, capable of scarring the mind with candor, honesty, accuracy, and authenticity.

What motivates the writer? Tom Clancy once said his first motivation in writing was to see his name on the cover of a book. Nothing wrong there. I shared the feeling. However, that’s not enough. Money? A great motivator. I make a living, such as it is, from writing, so money is a factor. Still, I wrote not knowing if I’d be paid or not. Fame? Most writers work in the penumbra of obscurity. Only a few writers are recognized on the street. Most of us do our work in our little corner of the world, our music the relentless tapping of keys. A few become famous; most slug it out with out fame.

Truth is the best motivator. It has the power to infiltrate the mind of the reader, a mind cluttered with stress, weariness, busyness, pressures, fears, hopes, wonder, anxiety and a hundred other objects that populate the space between the ears.

G.K. Chesterton wrote, “A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.” The same can be said about a nonfiction book, a devotion, an article, a poem, a screenplay, or any other bit of writing.

Write the truth, and write it beautifully. It takes extra work, but good writing always does.

Write the truth about life, about faith, about hope, about loss, about joy, about adventure, about discovery, about history, about anything, and write it beautifully. 

Writing is more than stringing words together, it is stringing the right words together, in the right way. It’s about tattooing the mind of the reader. Writing touches the mind; beautiful writing impacts the heart and the heart has a longer memory.

Write the truth and write it beautifully. Paint on the canvas of the readers soul. Sculpt the gray cells into something new. Write. Write the facts. Portray the truth, but season it with imagery, emotion, clarity, and with economy. That’s how you create lasting, life changing, mind altering art.