Six Things Every Writer Should Know

I have been working on and refining a brief handout on the most common writing errors see. Here is the latest version:

Six Things Every Writer Should Know

By James W. Kershner

1. Good writing is simple. Short, simple, clear sentences written in active voice are almost always better than long, complicated sentences.
2. Possessive pronouns, such as its, mine, yours, his, hers, theirs, and ours, do not have apostrophes; contractions do. Its is a possessive pronoun, meaning belonging to it; it’s is a contraction for it is. Their is a possessive pronoun meaning belonging to them; they’re is a contraction for they are. Your is a possessive pronoun meaning belonging to you. You’re is a contraction for you are.
3. Contrary to popular belief, commas do not signal a pause in a sentence. They have specific grammatical functions that can be learned. These include separating items in a series, separating two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, setting off words of direct address, setting off independent clauses from introductory phrases or clauses, and certain conventional uses.
4. Pronouns must agree with their antecedents (the words they stand for). Therefore the sentence. Each student must do their own work is incorrect. The plural pronoun their needs a plural antecedent, such as students. The correct version is: All students must do their own work.
5. The phrases a lot and all right are two-word phrases. Neither should be written as one word.
6. When a comma or period appears next to a closing quotation mark, the comma or period always goes inside the quote. In other words, the comma or period always goes before the closing quotation mark. For example:
   “I love you,” he said.   or
   I like the song “Yesterday,” don’t you?   or 
   He said, “Always put the period or comma inside the quotation marks.”

 

 

Nov. 30 evening check-in:

Writing: Yes I wrote this entry

Running: Yes, I ran on the treadmill this morning

Meditation: Yes, I did sitting meditation after my conference call with the tele-sangha of long-time practitioners.

Early to rise

I feel better when I run early in the morning. So I have gotten up early (5:15) in order to have a good breakfast (Joe's O's), write in my blog (herewith), and get to the gym by 7:20, so that I can still be in my office by 8:30 to get ready for my 9:30 class. So far, so good.

Of course I will be mighty tired by 9 p.m. this evening, when we finish up the drumming circle. But that will help me get a good night's sleep tonight in order to start all over early tomorrow morning. My buddy Len is in the drumming circle too. Last night (or early this morning) I had a dream that included Len. He and I were chest-deep in the water of a harbor. The bottom was an uneven surface of rocks and shellfish. We were discussing the color reproduction of a printed publication. I think it might have been a color newspaper page. The printer came along--also in the water--and Len and I were talking to him about how to make the color better, but he didn't seem to understand the four-color printing process newspapers use, in which the four colors or printing ink are cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow, and black. I couldn't understand how the printer himself didn't seem to understand what we were saying. All the time I was trying to tread water because the rough floor of the harbor hurt my feet. Clearly I was remembering my many years in thenewspaper business and mixing it with my new friendship with Len on the drumming circle and recent experiences swimming in the pond in front of my house and elsewhere on Cape Cod.

I find I do my best writing early in the morning. On sabbatical I plan to set up a regular routine that includes getting up early and writing early in the morning. I wonder if I should save running and meditating until later in the day so that I can get right to writing. On the other hand, meditating before writing is also a good practice. Perhaps I should rise, meditate, write, and then run.

A Mindful Nation

I was out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday and got out of my most beneficial routines. I did not write, meditate or run as much as I would like. I think I want to start keeping track of those activities in a more systematic way.

This afternoon I attended a wonderful talk by Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio, author of A Mindful Nation. He advocates more mindfulness in education, health care, and society in general. He is especially effective because he is so down-to-earth. He looks like just what he is, a respectable congressman from Ohio. He said he played quarterback on his high school football team. It is wonderful to hear him advocating for more meditation and mindfulness.

Mutual Muses

The Mutual Muses potluck was fantastic. It is an annual event sponsored by the Cultural Center of Cape Cod. This evening there were lots of poets and artists together, sharing food and ideas. I believe the director, Lauren Wolk, said there were 26 of each. After a fun potluck supper, we had a blind, random exchange of works in sealed envelopes. I ended up with a photo of a sculpture by the well-known Cape artist Heather Blume. I had a lovely talk with Heather, and I am going to go see the original in the Cahoon Museum of Art in Cotuit, which is one of my favorite museums. I have until March to write a poem inspired by Heather's sculpture. And an artist came running up to me saying she loves my Beebe Woods poem. It was a fun evening. I can't wait to see teh end product in March.

"The Sessions"

Last night we went to see The Sessions, a wonderful independent film about a man in an iron long. Helen Hunt plays a sex surrogate in a performance that should win the Oscar. The particular showing I witnessed was especially dramatic. There is a climactic scene in which the character played by John Hawkes is all alone at home, lying in his iron lung listening to a baseball game when suddenly there is a power failure in his neighborhood. It not only stops the broadcast of the game but also the iron lung, without which he cannot survive long. At just that moment in the theater--the Cape Cinema in Dennis--the screen went black and all the lights in the theater went off. I thought it was the most dramatically shocking ending to a film I had ever seen. I expected to credits to begin to roll soon.

But, as it turned out, there was a brief power failure at the theater that just happened to coincide with the power failure in the film. Nobody in the theater knew what to make of it. After a few minutes people began talking about it. Finally someone from the management came out and apologized and said they would attempt to reset the digital computer and fast-forward it to the right place and show us the last 10 minutes of the film. It took 15 or 20 minutes to get the film going again, and then we saw the real ending, which was quite good, although it seemed a little conventional, compared with the previous "ending."

I think the film is very beautiful. It depicts kindness, compassion and love with great sensitivity. The subject is sex, and the film shows full frontal nudity, but it is done with such dignity and grace that it very tasteful.

Maashpee Poetry Group

Once a month a group of us (between six and fifteen, usually) gather to share and discuss poetry. This morning Christina Laurie has asked us each to being a six- to eight-line poem to share. I am looking forward to  the session.

Then on Monday, I have been invited to be a judge for the local competition of the national "Poetry Out Loud" recitation competition sponsored by the national Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. http://poetryoutloud.org/


And Monday evening is the annual pot-luck supper of Mutual Muses, where artists and poets form Cape Cod gather and do a random exchange of art and poetry which which to inspire each other. Every poet receives a photo of a piece of visual art, and then we have until next spring to write a poem inspired by the art. Meanwhile the visual artists will be creating artwork inspired by a poem. This will be my fourth year, and it has always been a wonderful experience.

So my focus is on poetry for the next few days, although that is not my primary field.  I suppose as long as I am focused on writing, it is all good.

The speed of soul

Everyone wants "more time." We say "there is not enough time." But--to state the obvious--there is no more or less time. Time is just a way to talk about what there is, We cannot expand or contract it. The only question is how do we use the time we have. We can choose to hurry through life, or we can choose to appreciate it mindfully.

 

My favorite singer and songwriter, Carrie Newcomer, just released a new album featuring the song, "The Speed of Soul." The lyrics are great poetry. Here is what she says about it: 

This song was inspired by Phillip Gulley’s essay The March of

Progress and a Native American saying, “You should never
travel further in a day than your soul can travel.” Just because
we can, doesn’t mean we should.

The Speed of Soul by Carrie Newcomer
 
I found her sleeping in a Kansas truck stop,
In the corner booth.
She'd been waiting there for months,
And that's the truth.
She looked at me with wary eyes,
She'd heard all my lies.
She was not surprised,
She just looked a me
And shook her head.

Chorus:
Come back, Come home.

I’m gathering the crumbs and stones.
Been traveling faster than my soul
Can go.

One subject line, one click away,
But at the end of the day,
I couldn't even say,
The things that I had done.
So I spent the morning sweeping floors.
I didn't want much more,
Then to do just one thing at a time,
And call it mine.

Chorus
 

Before songs were grooves and lines

And caught in jars like fireflies,
The only place a song was held
Soft and razor-sharp
Was in the heart.

Mr. Gatling made a Gatling gun
He said it would end war
For who could send some mothers son
Through such a door

But the bullets move at the speed of cold
Drones do as they’re told
And the men go home at night
And kiss the wife
And watch TV
And never see
All those souls untethered
Floating out to sea

Chorus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxecvvYs4uM