Village across the street update

The gate at the corner was wide open one morning. It was unusual. Then suddenly, the next day, one of the families across the street was gone. The shacks torn down, except for one in the far corner. My neighbor asked the family of squatters on the next street what happened. They just shrugged, he reported. Where did they go?

Writing Tips

I was emailing my friend, Linda Case, in Connecticut, to thank her for encouraging me with my writing. I confessed to her that I have always been somewhat intimated about my writing, since I seem to have many friends, like her, who are professional writers. I often struggle with doubt when writing; does this really convey what I am trying to communicate? Linda replied with the following writing tips, which I thought were terrific, and wanted to pass them on.

Regarding writing...the best advice I can give: Keep on doing what you’ve been doing. The key thing is to do it without pretense, without needing to sound hifalutin’ “for a book.”

If you effect a style, or consciously try to make the material Important, capital I, that will not make things better. In fact, it would hurt the venture.

One trick I do, when facing the blank page is to say to myself: “This will be my ‘pretend’ copy.” I even mark the file as PRETEND, at the outset. That way allows me to plow right in, and to move forward without that censoring voice in the background that can always be there:

I don’t have anything to say.

Who would want to read this?

This is no good....and all the other kill joys your mind can go through.

This fast-writing principle is a tip of Natalie Goldberg, a wonderful coach.

You always know you can throw the thing away because it’s only your “pretend” copy. However, I have found nine times out of ten, the momentum totally gets me going, and the material (freed from the bonds of hyper self consciousness and condemnation) can be pretty good.

Of course, you can still tweak it; pare it down, whatever. But your original voice has a good chance of being in it.

And she added in a follow up message:

Sometimes, in a modified way, I try to use these tips with the kids in middle school. I say there seems to be nothing so daunting than a blank page. If they have to write as little as three paragraphs, they can sit there for a half and hour immobile.

That describes me in middle school and high school; I spent a lot of time starring at blank pages.