Susan T. Creations

Here’s my second official rant

Prepositional Endings

As in: She sidled past the group Joe was talking to.

I read a lot, at least two books a week, and I see this horror in almost every tome I open. What is with today’s writers? And our educators? Doesn’t anyone teach proper English usage anymore? The worst part of it – after the fact that the writer hasn’t actually learned his or her craft – is that we’ve become so used to seeing and hearing this egregious usage, it feels right. It sounds right. We no longer see it as a total grammatical snafu. And writing (or saying) it properly sounds awkward and wrong: She sidled past the group to whom Joe was talking. No one talks like that anymore; we’re way too indolent.

I think this whole thing started because people were too lazy to figure out the whole who-whom thing. So they simply did an end run around it by sticking the preposition at the end of the sentence. I ask you, how much intelligence does this show? How many English classes did someone have to skip before this brilliant epiphany struck? Let me state this clearly: Two wrongs do not make a right, no matter how many people take up the preposition-at-the-end chant.

Okay, I can hear you saying, “Yeah, but if we start writing it right, readers will say, ‘Huh?’ We’ll confuse the heck out of them. They’ll hate it. They’ll hate us and our writing.” Well, I could say, “So what?” But I won’t. As much as I hate to admit it, you would have a valid point – valid in our lazy-daisy, instant gratification, you-expect-me-to-actually-think? society. (Which doesn’t at all make it a truly valid point, but at least it’s worth a line or two of ink.)

But following the incredibly dumb madding crowd isn’t the answer. Trading your principles (I’m assuming we all have some, right?) for readership isn’t, either. But a little creativity is. Some judicious re-phrasing – She saw Joe talking to the group of investors. She sidled past them, hoping they wouldn’t see her. – and you have depth and interest and mystery instead of an addlepated, grammatically incorrect sentence.

So, no more laziness. No more bowing to dumber-than-a-doornail convention. You can write it right and still please your audience. Still be read. Still be lauded. And even maybe get paid for good writing! And I’m still waiting to hear your writing peeves. Email them to me: susantwriter@yahoo.com and spout off!

I took a trip a couple of weeks ago, to visit my son for his birthday. As he lives in Buffalo, New York and I’m on California’s Central Coast, it’s a nine-to-eleven-hour journey of rushing for connections mixed with sitting for hours in airports. Fun times, especially if you don’t have a laptop to keep you occupied. And you finish reading your book in record time. And nothing goes right from the get-go.

Under such circumstances, most people would go into high-stress resistance mode, which includes carping, complaining, pacing, sighing, grunting, and even yelling at the poor employees behind airline counters who have no more control over things than passengers do. But going postal isn’t a writer’s style. We’re above all that, right? Being a writer lifts us from mundane reactions, because everything that happens is grist for our story-mill. Every interruption, delay, time crunch or reversal of fortune is not a tragedy in the making, it’s simply an opportunity to add to our “stash” of ideas, another line or six added to the trusty-dusty notebook (traditional or electronic) in which we jot down our triggers for inspiration.

To wit: I am not a morning person. Still, obedient traveler that I am, I arrived at the airport at the airline-advised ungodly hour of 4:00 am, the requisite two hours in advance of flight time, only to discover the terminal hadn’t yet opened for the day! (No joke, this really happened.) Did I get upset? Of course not (not much, anyway). I just imagined what Janet Evanovich or Joan Hess would do with such a situation, and aha! Into my notebook it went, an idea sparker for that humorous story I’ve been contemplating attempting. The fact that the plane then developed mechanical problems and takeoff was delayed for almost two hours past the original 6:00 am departure time only added to the farce.

And so it went, for the entire trip. Every setback – missed connections, lost luggage, lack of email access, a minor car accident, my mother ending up in the hospital (she’s fine now) – it’s all fodder to feed my imagination. It’s all part of the “What if…” process: What if my protagonist missed the plane? What if the antagonist lost her luggage? What if the cops had an accident on the way to the 911 call? What if the meeting place hadn’t opened yet? What if, what if?

With the holidays – and the traveling it often entails – coming up, be sure you don’t miss out on opportunities to add to your idea stash. The everyday events of travel – by car, boat, bike, train or plane – that drive most people up the wall offer limitless opportunities to us as writers. Each missed alarm, wrong turn, person encountered, traffic jam, or late arrival can make its appearance – as is or disguised in some form – somewhere in your work, if you remember to jot them down. Each travel event, humorous or serious, can trigger an idea for a solution, a situation, a scene, a character, or even a complete article, story or novel. Fiction may be stranger (and possibly neater) than truth, but it’s life’s messy realities that trigger our story ideas. And if we remember to write it all down, we’ll never run out of ideas.

Notebooks ready? Happy traveling!

Official Pet Peeves (OPP)

By: The Official Self-Appointed Pet Peeve Judge
(and no, you can’t have my job!)

My First Official Pet Peeve

TRY AND: as in, “He will try and make it to the meeting on time.”

Okay, this one tops my list. I see red whenever I encounter it. My blood pressure rises. I have trouble breathing. Smoke shoots out my ears.

An overreaction? I don’t think so. This is an egregious error. As writers, we have the responsibility to know our own language. And we should be smart enough to use it properly, especially if we can figure out how to use today’s technology to crank out our … opuses? Opi? Well, you get my drift. It’s not like the old days when anyone with a pencil sharpener could jot down a few hundred thousand words or so. I mean, if we can figure out not only how to open the box the computer comes in (let’s not even discuss the printer and other indispensable adjuncts!), but also to get the computer out of the maze in which it nestles, and then hook it up sans directions of any kind (except for maybe a confusing picture or two, or a bewildering sentence written by someone who’s never heard of English before), we should be able to write a grammatically correct sentence.

Let me make this clear: try and is not only ungrammatical, it’s illogical. By its very nature it’s impossible to try and do anything. You either try to do it (and thereby succeed or fail) or you simply go ahead and do it. No “try and” about it. I suppose, to be fair, if it’s used as part of dialog, I’d be willing to overlook it once or twice. People do have a tendency to be sloppy about grammar and verb conjugations, et al, when they talk. But within the body of the prose? No. Never. Those guilty of such trespass on erudite sensibilities will be sentenced to an eternity of nails-screeching-on-blackboard torture. Therefore, remember: it’s “try to” or “do” only, never “try and.”

So, now it’s your turn. What are your pet peeves? What, in the world of writing, makes you see red, raises your blood pressure, makes steam come out your ears? I may be self-appointed but I’m not greedy – I’ll share space with anyone whose peeve measures up. What, tell you the criteria that makes a peeve “official”? Oh, I’d never make it that easy for you.

So, unless you want to continue hearing my pet peeve rants (and I’ve got a thousand of them), email me your entries at: susantwriter@yahoo.com

In order to make ends meet, I’ve  been typing manuscripts for an acquaintance who loves to write. She is not anywhere close to the twenty-first century; all her manuscripts are written by hand, in pencil. Luckily, she has excellent penmanship even if the pencil is at times a bit difficult to see.

This writer is very prolific. In the three years I have known her, she has POD published over thirty books. She hand-writes faster than I can type. She never seems to run out of ideas, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. But it’s not all a bed of roses.

When I started typing for her, she wasn’t very good. Rank beginner, that’s where I placed her skill level. Therefore, I was looking forward to watching her grow as a writer. After all, if you spend most of your time writing, you have to improve, right?  That’s what I thought, anyway; the very act of constant writing would result in experimenting with different and better ways of putting words together. But that’s not the case. Her thirtieth book is no better than her first book. She expresses herself in the same, stilted way, uses the same favorite words and phrases constantly, holds onto the same awkward sentence structures, and makes the same mistakes over and over again. Rank beginner, still.

After I got over my astonishment, I began to wonder why there’s been no improvement in her work; no growth in word usage, no development in style, no freshness of expression, no advancement of theme, no depth of exploration. As I got to know her better on a personal level, the answer finally hit me: She doesn’t read. She’s a television watcher who eschews fiction. She watches travelogues, history programs and some science if it resembles travelogues. She has forgotten how words look on the printed page, seems ignorant of the interplay between story concept and dramatic tension. She is totally unaware of how other writers express ideas, how they play with sentence structure to lead a reader deeper and deeper into a story, how they use words to entice, entrance and captivate their reading audience.

I’m a natural-born reader. I read everything I can get my eyes on, even the fine print on cereal boxes. It’s a dry week for me if I haven’t finished at least two books. So I’ve never had any problem with the notion of reading being important for writers. But I don’t think I ever until now realized just why – beyond knowing what’s out there so I don’t duplicate it – reading is so inextricably woven into good writing. Each time we read, we absorb alternate ways of viewing our world. We discover new ways of putting words together and turning phrases to bewitch our readers. With every word, every sentence we read, we analyze – on a subconscious level – what works and what doesn’t, so that when we sit down in front of our piece of paper (computer) and pick up our pencil (keyboard) we don’t duplicate the mistakes any more than the successes of someone else. Reading is what turns the spotlight onto the path, so that we can see our way to developing our own unique vision and style.

Good writing doesn’t just happen in classes, critique groups or through solitary midnight angst. The ground is being prepared everytime we open a book, periodical or newspaper and start to read. Reading is the fertilizer we need to grow as writers. Without it, whatever seeds of talent we possess may sprout, but they will stagnate in the seedling stage. They will never reach, stretch or grow into the full maturity of vivid, exciting, compelling writing. And with that, I’m out of here. There’s a new J.D. Robb mystery calling to me. Gotta go fertilize!

Can one be one’s own spirit guide? I ask, but the answer is as the wind, a fleeting sense of motion, caressing fingers of reply glimpsed from the corner of my soul’s-eye.

Silence, my constant companion, hand-mate of isolation as I await the sound, the picture, the word, the touch of the guide with whom my heart longs to connect. In meditation I seek, through the distance of eternity: harmony, joy, peace, fulfillment, balance.

In silence I write, my head filled with the multitudes peopling my imagination: voices unheard knocking at my soul; fingers unfelt stroking through the essence of my life. In isolation, I am never alone. My being is crowded with the stories that layer my existence. Sometimes, I am lost even to myself. My spirit guides, I know not where.

Solitude is only bearable with God. “How still is he who knows the truth of what he speaks.” (A Course in Miracles)

Listen to the silence. Listen to the voice that is without sound. That is where the answers lie.

The fabric of reality… We create reality, but what exactly is it we create? What, indeed, is reality? Is it matter? It is energy? Are either real?

Quantum physics says that matter is merely a local condensation in the field (the field being an omnipresent entity). Perhaps, then, we are merely Universal Dewdrops, beautiful, insubstantial, ephemeral drops of Cosmic Condensation.

Or ponder this definition of reality: matter is energy reduced to the point of visibility, reduced to limitations, become finite. That would make energy matter expanded to limitlessness, to infinity. Yin and Yang. Equal and Opposite. A flipped coin.

“In the beginning there were no words, yet heaven and earth arose (Tao #1)

It was a vision, a dream, that gave form to energy, that gave matter to reality. Perhaps, then, Reality is Energy focusing on its own Dreams.

Dream Big.

Realization is not a noun; it is a verb – the act of making real.

What is reality? What is it not? How often we think of realization as a noun, as something we have, rather than as a verb, as something we do. How often we limit the limitlessness of our being.
By the very act of being alive, we are realizing – bringing into reality – the world around us. What a disservice it is to realize passively! To let reality evolve without our conscious input, without our conscious direction. What irony to then complain about the end product of our own apathy.

What a world we could have if everyone actively realized their being! Imagine the result of life’s essence brought to fruition through active realization. Could we perhaps create the Biblical “Paradise on Earth”? Could we create everlasting joy and peace and beauty?

Could we dis-create war and hatred and poverty?

Is that not the heart of creativity? Realization … bringing into being that which is not, that which could never be without us.

Heaven is not where we find it. Heaven is where we create it. Where we realize it.

Incorporate your dreams … bring them into being … give them corporeal form.

Realize life!

My muse – my secret self – so lovely and ethereal – life bursting forth in shy glory, reaching for the light, reaching for me.  She tends to the miracles that spring from my subconscious, my vibrational energy: witnessing, approving, validating, nurturing. Yet I feel so sad within as the sparks burst in myriad directions. How do I follow them all, keep them safe, experience the joy, the growth, the wonder? So much to do, so many places to be, so much to learn.

 MIRACLE

“The place where light and dark begin to touch is where miracles arise.”

Where is that place in me, the line where Light and Dark arise, the horizon where miracles arise? If I fear the Dark, keep myself safe in the Light, I will never be a miracle. I will never know my deepest self, never burst forth into true life, never be one who loves and gives and grows and lives.

And writes from the heart, not the mind.

Is this birth into Miracle not a process of purification? The Light bringing purity to the Dark purifying the effervescence of the Light into purity reborn? Where else can that occur expect in the place where miracles begin?

Where do the messages, the stories come from? The Light? The Dark? Emanating from both, caught in their own symmetry, their own purity, they burst forth only where they touch – the place of miracles. Intuition, pure and reborn. Miraculous Life.

As a writer, obviously you understand the crucial importance of knowing your readers. You can spend hours researching your target audience to discover what they already know and what they still need – and hopefully want – to know. Then you organize, write and polish with them in mind. But no matter how polished, are you sure you’ve put the information or story into the proper words? By this I mean words that will give your writing the feel appropriate to your readership.

While English has an amazing root diversity, most of our words come from two sources: the French and Latin used by the upper classes and nobles; and the coarser language of the Anglo-Saxon peasants. Whatever you write, either fiction or non-fiction, it’s important to keep in mind the roots of the words you choose. Those stemming from the French/Latin influence have a more sophisticated sentience; Anglo-Saxon root words own an earthy, everyday feel. A highly educated audience may feel talked down to if the piece is filled with Anglo-Saxon root words. They’ll feel it’s too juvenile and will stop reading partway through. A less educated audience may find French/Latin root words too hoity-toity for their taste, too high-brow or better-than-thou. They’ll get frustrated or even angry enough to close up the pages. And mixing the two often lends an inadvertent schizophrenic feel to the piece, causing everyone to put it down.

Try writing a short piece using French/Latin root words (see the partial list below). Then re-write it, substituting Anglo-Saxon root words. You’ll be amazed at the difference in feel of the two pieces, even though they say the same thing. And it’ll be easy to see why knowing your roots is as important as knowing your audience.

(Key: FL = French/Latin; AS = Anglo-Saxon)

AS = Woman; FL = Female                      AS = Happiness; FL = Felicity

AS = Hut; FL = Cottage                             AS = Bill; FL = Beak

AS = Friendship; FL = Amity                  AS = Dress; FL = Clothe

AS = Help; FL = Aid                                  AS = Folk; FL = People

AS = Hearty; FL = Cordial                      AS = Holy; FL = Saint

AS = Deep; FL = Profound                     AS = Lonely; FL = Solitary

AS = Love; FL = Charity                         AS = Begin; FL = Commence

AS = Hide; FL = Conceal                         AS = Feed; FL = Nourish

AS = Inner/Outer; FL = Interior/Exterior

AS = Leave ; FL = Abandon                 AS = Die; FL = Perish

AS = Mouth; FL = Oral                         AS = Nose; FL = Nasal

AS = Eye; FL = Ocular                         AS = House; FL = Domicile

AS = Book; FL = Literary                      AS = Moon; FL = Lunar

AS = Sun; FL = Solar                             As = Watery; FL = Aquatic

AS = Town; FL = Urban                        AS = Kingly; FL = Regal

AS = Youthful; FL = Juvenile              AS = Wretched; FL = Miserable

AS = Same; FL = Identical                   AS = Weighty; FL = Ponderous

AS = Share; FL = Portion                     AS = Murder/Killing; FL = Homicide

AS = Manly; FL = Virile                       AS = Up; FL = Ascend

AS = Tale; FL = Story                         AS = Come near; FL = Approach

AS = Cold; FL = Frigid                       AS = Freedom; FL = Liberty

AS = Heavenly; FL = Celestial         AS = Give/Hand; FL = Present/Deliver

AS = Darling; FL = Favorite            AS = Sleeplessness; FL = Insomnia

AS = Half; FL = Semi                         AS = Hinder; FL = Prevent

AS = Look for; FL = Search             AS = Put out; FL = Extinguish