Welcome readers, writers, authors, and bloggers!
We’re glad you’re here! It’s the First Wednesday of the month; when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable place to share views and literary news as we record our journeys.
The awesome co-hosts for this month’s posting of the IWSG are: Beth Camp https://bethandwriting.blogspot.com/ PJ Colando https://www.pjcolando.com/ Jean Davis http://jeanddavis.blogspot.com/ Yvonne Ventresca https://yvonneventresca.com/ and last, but never least Alex J. Cavanaugh www.alexjcavanaugh.com
And (drum roll, please) September 4 question – Since it’s back to school time, let’s talk English class. What’s a writing rule you learned in school that messed you up as a writer? As always, the question is optional.
The only writing course I took in college was Expository Comp, It was an honors class and, omg, I was in over my head despite my A in freshman English. As you may/may not know exposition is a style of writing that explains or describes a topic using facts, statistics, or evidence. It’s persuasion. It’s the vehicle for selling, often labeled content in today’s vernacular. I didn’t need to know how to sell to anyone ever, not then or now!
I write sarcasm and satire with a literary bent. I write to entertain.
The writing style of my beloved career as a speech-language pathologist has impeded writing free-flowing and creatively post-career. I’ve written thousands and thousands of clinical reports and some of them contained fabulous fiction. Not to warp the truth, but to get an insurance company to pay.
The professional distance, as typified by “The patient presents as…” There was a guardedness and lack of passion that marked those reports, a thirty-year habit so deeply ingrained that, a dozen years later, I’m still undoing the laces.
Thus, the benefits of write, write, write… until you get it right.
I’m a nurse in my other life, so I get it. Just the facts, ma’am. Describe what you see without judgement or diagnosis. When I write fiction, I get to be free! LOL I can make stuff up all I want.
Thanks for co-hosting.
Yes, we get to make things up, but… my crit partners often note the distance from which I write.
I was also bogged down by the “topic sentence” of technical writing. It’s quite different from creative writing. I loved those classes! Thanks for co-hosting IWSG this month!
I enjoy IWSG – to affinity and beyond!
To get an insurance company to pay – funny!
Thanks for co-hosting today.
It’s always my pleasure to co-host, Alex. I love the interaction –
Thanks for co-hosting. I was a lawyer and am now a writer for a web marketing firm, and I know what you mean about being over your head at first. I love the last line of your post. It’s so true.
Hi, Natalie – we meet again, the first Wednesday of each month. Many fine writers used to be lawyers – must be good training!
Writing and Selling – two opposing talents expected of authors today. I enjoy the write, write, write part but not the selling part.
Thank you for co-hosting today PJ.
Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. Write on –
You know, PJ, sometimes I need to “write, write, write until I get it right” too. Thanks for sharing your professional and creative experiences with us. And thanks for cohosting today’s question.
It’s always a pleasure to meet monthly with the IWSG, isn’t it, Victoria?
Thanks for co-hosting, PJ. You’re always so entertaining!
Storytelling, for me, began innocently enough. I was a swing singer, much to the chagrin of my family and closest neighbors, who endured some of the most outlandish accounts of their own private lives from my swingset at the top of my little lungs, preferably at sunrise, until I was about four years old when the Kindergarten opened. The entire neighborhood made it their business to witness – and applaud – me boarding the bus to school that first day. Before long, I was gifted a dozen pencils and all the paper I could write on 😉 Gotta love encouragement 😉
That a remarkable – and unique – start to being a writer, Diedre! Supremely entertaining, too!
That “distance” writing is typical of those in business, too. Hubs would write our Christmas letter that way. My job was to make the letters sound more “human.” LOL
Thanks for sharing your antidote, Diane
Thanks fo cohosting the Blog Hop with me this month!
Isn’t this blog hop terrific – it’s fun to co-host occasionally.
I like your saying of writing until you get it right. I just need to get writing first! Thanks for co-hosting this month!
“still undoing the laces” : Love this! @samanthabwriter from
Balancing Act
Thanks for the verbiage compliment, Samantha! It made my day!
This part of your post caught my attention, “…but to get an insurance company to pay.”
My daughter is trying to get visitation rights granted so she can see her grandson. The attorney is giving her the same advice, “…include the father’s shocking behavior” for the same reason. Get the judge’s attention.
Words are powerful!
The trite saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword” is true for good reason –
I hope she wins the right!
I’m way behind in commenting this month. It has to do with this weird thing called writing! Anyway, you’ve touched on an important point. There are different writing styles for various purposes. I still have to fight off old academic writing habits while working on a novel. Those “in fact” and “as you might know” phrases are novel-killers.
Thanks for co-hosting this month.
I’m an academic, so I get the “just the facts, and back ’em up with citations” approach to writing. I have taken some lessons from creative writing into academia though–like active voice, varying sentence length, and getting to the dang point already. I’m on a one-woman mission to make academic writing readable.
Thanks for co-hosting this month!
Write until I get it right is something I need to be doing. But I’m currently marinating. I feel that soon I can make those words come true.