Tag: E.B. White

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The Creative Tool Kit

5 Habits To Spark Your Creativity in 2017

The creative tool kit

Spark Your Creativity

“Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.” Twyla Tharp

Every break of daylight offers new and fresh opportunities to start again, to improve, to overcome. Celebrating the start of a new year is the proverbial cherry on top.

Because practicing good habits is a springboard to increasing our creativity, what better way to start the new year than to review our current habits and priorities in order to make our 2017 the most creative ever?

In today’s post, let’s look at five specific habits that are sure to spark creative energy into your daily endeavors.
  1. Join Instagram. Give your followers an idea of what goes on behind the scene of your creative work. Where does your creative energy take flight? Snap and share! Spiff up your camera skills and share your work (and others, as well.) Follow people or businesses that you might not normally follow to gain a deeper perspective of the world around you.
  2. Learn to Maximize your Minutes. E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web gets right to the heart in his popular quote: “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” Ouch. There’s plenty of detailed information on the Web as to how you can make this happen. The point is, it needs to happen.
  3. Define Your Peak Time and Stick to It. Most creative types are early risers. This fact has been documented numerous times but there are others, like Carl Sandburg, who worked late into the evening after everyone had gone to bed, writing till early morning. If you’re not sure when your energy level is at its peak, jot down how you’re feeling throughout the day – and do this for a week. By the end of the week, you should be able to tell where your peaks and plummets of energy occur most days. Define it, then do your best to do your most creative work during those hours if possible. If you hold a day job during that time, see #2 above. Arrange your break around that time. Get creative!
  4. Slow Down. Henry James nailed it with his quote, “A writer is someone on whom nothing is lost.” Our pace may be frantic for a season but even in the busiest of times we can shift our sensory panel into low gear by choosing to breath deeper, stare longer, listen more carefully. Take notes…a lot of them. No detail is too minute.
  5. Exercise. A little goes a long way in helping our bodies to stay fit as well as our minds.

 

Which of the above habits do you plan to begin in 2017? If you have a different one, please share!

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History in the Making

What I Learned from the Author of Charlotte’s Web – Part 2

by Sandra Merville Hart

 

Last month we talked about the author of Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White, and the influence of his writing professor, William Strunk Jr.

Strunk devised and White revised twenty-two Elementary Rules of Usage. The whole list deserves an author’s attention but this article focuses on three rules that most altered my writing.

A writer must first select a design for the piece and adhere to it. I had written several books (unpublished) and many articles before reading this advice. According to White, effective writing follows the author’s thoughts but perhaps not in the same order. Deliberate planning precedes writing.

For instance, certain forms of poetry follow a predetermined frame, but most writings are flexible. Considering the shape of the finished work allows greater chances for success. The intended audience and the message affect this decision.

Make positive statements. This second rule underscored one of my weaknesses that I’ve worked to correct. Avoid indefinite language. Commit to your descriptions.

[bctt tweet=”E.B. White advises #authors to make positive statements and avoid indefinite language when #writing an article or novel. ” username=”@Sandra_M_Hart”]

Writing not very often hesitant to speak is wordy and better stated as usually spoke his mind.

Another part of this second rule is to express negatives positively. Did not go becomes stayed. Not happy is sad. Is your character a little mad or is he frustrated?

A third rule from White deals with loose sentences. These are two clauses joined by a conjunction, common in unskilled writers. His advice is to avoid a string of this type of sentence.

Connectors such as and, but, or which occasionally are fine. A paragraph filled with loose sentences grows monotonous.

Rework these paragraphs. White suggests rewriting enough sentences to relieve the repetitive feel. Replace them with simple sentences. Rewrite entire sentences. Join two clauses with a semicolon. Choose the best way to remain true to the thought.

When I originally read this book about five years ago, I began to apply as many of White’s rules as feasible to a recently completed draft. I discovered the best way to utilize the rules was to take them one at a time.

I hate to mention how many loose sentences were in my manuscript. For someone so unfamiliar with the term I certainly excelled at writing them. Realizing that using too many connectives was considered easy, unskilled writing, I rewrote many sentences to improve the work.

Then I went on to another rule that exposed my weaknesses and began the process all over again.

Though the continuous editing required more time and effort than anticipated, working through each rule solidified the learning impact. Whether or not my manuscript was good at the end of this process, hard work improved it.

This introduction of three of the rules simply scratched the surface of the gems found in The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. Next month we will talk about other helpful writing tips from this book. Stay tuned!


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History in the Making

What I Learned from the Author of Charlotte's Web – Part 3

by Sandra Merville Hart

 

Two months ago we talked about the author of Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White, and the influence of his writing professor, William Strunk Jr.

Last month we dug into three of the White’s twenty-two Elementary Rules of Usage.

This article focuses on commonly misused words. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, lists twenty-six pages of them; we will mention only a sampling.

Some speakers or writers use certainly or very to intensify statements. Used often, these words become a mannerism.

The authors considered using contact as a verb as self-important and unclear. Phone, email, or meet someone; don’t contact them.

If you are disinterested in something, you are impartial; being uninterested means indifferent or not interested.    

A three-day battle started in Gettysburg on July 1, 1863 is a fact because it is verifiable information. An opinion such as the greatest president or the worst restaurant shouldn’t be confused with facts.

Folk is the same as people. Folks refer to family or those gathered. Use the singular form of the word in formal writing.

Beginning a sentence with however gives it the meaning ‘in whatever way.’ However doesn’t mean the same as nevertheless.

Rephrase a sentence to avoid using the word importantly.

The authors label interesting an unconvincing word. There is no need to announce something will be interesting; grab the reader’s attention with the writing.

Less (denoting quantity) is sometimes mistakenly used for fewer (a number.)

There is an important difference between nauseous (causing nausea) and nauseated (upset stomach.) Saying I feel nauseous actually means we create that feeling in others. Whoops! Don’t we often say this when sick to our stomachs?  

Writers should avoid split infinitives (placing an adverb between to and the infinitive) unless desiring to stress the adverb. To tirelessly search or to search tirelessly is an example.

[bctt tweet=”Write with the reader’s enjoyment and understanding in mind. #Historical #Writing” username=”@Sandra_M_Hart”]When choosing whether to write that or which, remember that defines the one spoken of and which is nonrestrictive.

When writing of customary actions, would can usually be omitted. Every month she would volunteer at the soup kitchen. Remove would and make volunteer an action verb: every month she volunteered at the soup kitchen.

White dubbed his writing professor “Sergeant Strunk” in the introduction. He taught with authority and assurance of being right and that is the tone of this book that he wrote and White lovingly revised.

One of the greatest gifts of studying The Elements of Style was the emphasis on the reader. An author’s job is to communicate clearly so the reader understands exactly what’s happening.

So writing with readers in mind – people who can’t see what’s going on inside our head – should realign our focus to their enjoyment and understanding. It’s hard work that is worth the effort.

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History in the Making

What I Learned from the Author of Charlotte’s Web – Part 1

by Sandra Merville Hart

 

I wanted to instill a love of reading in my daughter from a young age so we read at bedtime. One novel we both enjoyed during her elementary school years was Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.

When beginning my writing journey, I found a wonderful book originally self-published by one of White’s professors. An editor asked him to expand and revise it. Studying the end product, The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, inspired me.

The learning began in the introduction where White recalled his teacher omitting needless words eagerly from students’ papers as a demonstration to the class. Every writer cringes in sympathy to imagine being the one used as an example.

[bctt tweet=”#Write concisely but don’t avoid details. Instead make every word count. #Author” username=”@Sandra_M_Hart”]

Strunk taught his students to write vigorously. Such concise writing contains no unnecessary words. This doesn’t mean authors avoid details. Instead, make every word count.

The professor worried that readers flounder in murky waters. Authors must write in a way to “drain the swamp” and enable the reader to reach dry land. His main concern was the confusion the reader felt upon encountering unclear sentences and paragraphs.

This compassion for the reader struck me. Surely our most important job is to communicate a clear message. We fail when our audience puckers their brow and reads a sentence a second or third time.

I am a work-in-progress. If you write, you probably feel the same way. Rejections abound in our profession as in other creative careers. Silently listening while an editor or critique partner scratch out phrases or suggest a better way to portray an action challenges us. Like Strunk, some are very positive they’re right.

We owe it to future success to listen and mull over the suggestions after the sting of rejection wears off. Applying their suggestion may affect a later scene.  You know your story. Evaluate their comments and learn from them.

There are more gems to share from this writing book. This article is the first of a three-part series. Join me next month for part 2.

As much as White squirmed under his professor’s editing, he benefited from the wisdom.

May we do the same.