RECHARGING YOUR WRITER’S BATTERIES

By Jackie King

There’s a certain creative energy that fills the air and even permeates the cracks and crevices at OWFI Conferences. Speakers change, technical techniques evolve, markets wax and wane; but the atmosphere is always the same. Pure electricity. I’ve been attending for a good many years and I always come home physically exhausted (who wants to miss anything?) and mentally refreshed. New ideas seem to spring alive and old ones freshen. Or in plain Okie-speak: I’m ready to hit that keyboard for another year!

Our Speakers this year were excellent. Steven James, award-winning author of The Patrick Bowers Files gave the keynote address and held an audience of about 400 writers (and their spouses and significant others) spellbound. I swear, the man could have been an actor. His talk was not only inspiring it was rib-splitting funny. He spoke of his own struggle to become a published writer and confirmed my conviction that getting to the top in this field is never easy and seldom quick. Most everyone has to pay their dues. Learning to write well is a skill usually learned from hours at the keyboard or with a pen and paper in hand. But the rewards are huge.

Steven James author of The Patrick Bowers Files

THE PAWN

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B001MJ0CSS/ref=sib_dp_kd#reader-link

If you’re one of those whose heart cries out to put words on paper, accept that you’re one of God’s scribes. I’m not talking about religious writing; I’m talking about telling stories about the world you live in. Honesty is what readers want; but we must both remember that my truth may be quite different from your truth; there is a wide variety of readers in the world. Our work will not be everyone’s cup of tea. But we will each find our audience.

The writers at this particular conference are always unbelievably generous-hearted. Authors with over 50 published books to their credit will listen to a beginning writer and make helpful suggestions. Publishers and agents are available for appointments, or if you missed that opportunity, you can catch them in the hallways. “Anywhere but the bathroom,” one quipped.

If you write or if you want to write, don’t hesitate to sign up for such an event; you’ll come home just like me…tired, happy and ready to write.

Spell Check Can't Save You

By Mark W. Danielson

Ever find a typo in a published book? Most people have, and if it’s in your book, you’re mortified. How does it happen? Simple -- computers have made writing so easy that we get lazy. We are so used to reading and writing at the speed of technology that we tend to miss things. The up side is we can type at our thought’s pace. The down side it errors are easily induced.

If you’re like most authors, you use Spell Check and Grammar Check to proof your work. But what happens if your words are spelled correctly and are grammatically correct, but the wrong one was used? Then there’s a good chance it may come out something like this:

“What do you mean he’s dead?” she screamed. “He said he was heeled!” After saying that, she collapsed over his body and wrapped her arm around his waste, feeling the last of its warmth.

The doctor tried consoling her, but she pushed him away. Her actions shouldn’t have phased him, but instead they peeked his interest. “Wear were you when this happened?”

“In bed, of course. He swore he was fine, that the stitches wouldn’t rip, that it was okay to make love. But soon he screamed in pain. I wanted to poor him some water, but he declined. When he winced again, I called 911 and told them their wasn’t a second to lose. Oh, God, what will I do without him?”

“I’m not sure, but you need to weight outside. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

Without claiming this to be great dialogue, it does provide an example of ate dictionary words that sound the same, but are not the intended word. Subconsciously, it’s easy to induce errors, and while most are easily discovered, others sneak in like ants. As you can see, the wrong word can create entirely different images from those intended.

But incorrect words can also be the result of typos or mistakes, and Spell and Grammar Checks probably won’t save you on these. One book I recently finished contained several such errors. In one case, the character is firmly gripping another’s hand demanding he “Sweat it!” Certainly, the intended word was “Swear”, but the error remained. Bummer. The next mistake in this book involved naming the wrong President. The timing and all previous references were of Nixon and Johnson and the author certainly meant to name Nixon, but instead Reagan appeared on the printed page. As Rick Perry would say, Oops.

Writing is easy, but creating an error-free novel seems next to impossible. The solution? Once everything is finalized, find yourself a good proof reader who has never seen your work before. Then, and only then, do you have a chance at submitting an error-free manuscript. Happy hunting.