Janet Q. Glaser, the Wordwright
The Writer's Life of Frivolity and Philosophy

Caught a cold this week and I am feeling bad.  I took a day to feel sorry for myself (and blew up every Kleenex in the house!!).  A runny nose and fever does not inspire great writing.  Add cold medicine to this mix and my brain was addled and could not connect words to make a sentence, nor did  feel like sitting in a chair and writing or researching.  So I gave permission to sit out for the day.  I watched TV and blew my nose.  Oh joy joy joy. 

I hate wasting a day like that, but sometimes a writer has to realize there is no way she can be productive in this situation.  You can’t use a snotty nose to stop writing forever.  Today my nose is not dripping and I am not taking cold meds, so I am off again to compose words of inspiration and information to share with the world.

Free anti-virus program for your computer. I have installed free AVG and used it for years, but our computer club had a virus attack all of the computers in the hands-on lab, so members spent days ridding the machines of these relentless viruses.  Since then, our club has decided to drop free AVG and install MS Security Essentials. According to the website “Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.” I just downloaded this MS program to my laptop and <crossing my fingers> believing it will be a good idea for me.

You are the only one who can tell your story, your life story.  Call it a memoir, an autobiography, a life story.  This special writing is written by you in your voice.  You can tell your story as you lived it and tell it truthfully.  Honesty is what will connect you to readers.

Why bother to tell your own story when you can imagine worlds and characters and situations that the muse urges you to write into the night?  Your own life story may be the guide that your friend or family member needs to know that she can make it through this life.  She can count on your wisdom, your life experience.

Susan Wittig Albert, founder of Story Circle Network, calls writing your story your soul’s work. 

Our lives are filled with extraordinarily ordinary moments.  Our souls are illuminated by them.  Sharing them around the hearths of our hearts, we become tellers of sacred tales, artists of our lives.  –Dr. Susan Wittig Albert, Writing from Life

I present workshops on writing life stories to folks who are not rocket scientists or didn’t develop a life-saving vaccine.  They are ordinary people who know how important it is to keep a record of their lives for future generations. Learn more about writing life stories at my writer’s site . Workshops begin again in February.  If you are in the Brooksville, FL area, email me for more information.

Katrina Kennison, a memoir writer, says it sounds cliche, but she advises to “write from the heart….People will respond.”

Free books.  I know this is a writer’s site, but if you are going to be a writer, you really need to read.  You need to read books in your genre and books not in your genre.  You need to study how a writer puts her story together, how she develops her characters, how she builds her world, how she describes events, places, people….you know all that stuff that goes together to make good storytelling.  You also need to read good writing and bad writing through the eyes of a reader.   Trust me you will be able to discern the good from the bad, then employ the good stuff in your writing.

Twilight Times Books has a page with freebies…free e-books…that you can download in an instant.  Different publishers list their free items, not just TT.  So you can get a sample of what a publisher likes as well as a free read.  Don’t you love free???  This may spark you to finally write that query or book proposal for a publisher you find on this list or purchase more books from a publisher after reading their titles.

Please share with us if you know another site for freebies.  Thank you.  Enjoy your books!

Can it be possible that I have been working at my computer as a freelance writer for 15 years?  Right after we sold our flower shop and garden center business, I screwed up my courage to walk in to our local newspaper office and ask to talk to the editor.  I asked him if he could use some stories for the paper.  I gave him some of the ideas which I thought would be of interest to the community.  And he said okay.  It was just that easy.  My first story was an interview with a family I knew well, so I was comfortable with them.  When it was published in the newspaper with a photo, my heart soared when I saw my byline.  What a thrill.  My editor gave me a chance to write a news story and many more followed that first one.  Oh yes, he had to do editing and revising, and I learned something every time I put the story together, then read his polished version in the paper.

I queried several magazines with article ideas and received many rejections.  But I persevered and was accepted to write several articles through the years.  Unfortunately the main magazine dealing with camping closed its doors this year, a result of the downturn in RVing and camping in this economy.

I tackled writing for an online magazine too, now known as e-zines.  This was completely foreign writing to me as there had to be a certain standard of get in and tell the story and get out.  No extras, just the information.  The format was different but also the new idea of including keywords and SEO was a daunting task until I understood the necessity of that if I wanted to have anyone find and read the articles in this vast cyberspace of information.

Some of my short stories are floating around the Internet, but I have not pursued them because they don’t earn much money. They are fun to write.  I guess that’s why I have begun writing fiction novels.  It is exciting to create a world and characters and play with them.  I would never have tried a novel except that I was spurred on by the challenge of Nano—the 50,000 word novel written in a month known as the annual National Novel Writing Month.

I have written a non-fiction book for middle school girls that is now under consideration at a publisher.  Keep your fingers crossed that it will be contracted for publication this year.

Fifteen years ago, the Internet was in its infancy, no social networking sites, no Messengers.  There was no demand for information like there is now.  I don’t remember laptop computers that a writer could take anywhere to compose a story in a library or coffee shop.

So much has changed except that a writer always needs a good story to tell.  It is still true that to get the work published,  follow the rules of good grammar and punctuation, as well as be vigilant for accurate spelling. Don’t rely completely on spell checker.  (Remember their, there, and they’re.)  

Now go out there and write the best story you can.  You can do it.  Perhaps not in one month or one year, but you will be a writer if you keep working toward that goal.