The Modern Wordist Blog

The last couple of weeks have been really busy. Lots of book editing happening. When editing isn't happening, I've been reading tons of articles from independent journalists and non-profit news organizations, and listening to a variety of podcasts to keep up with the everything  of the last few weeks. I also regularly remind myself that kindness and awareness of multiple viewpoints make life easier, and make art more interesting. That's a longer way of saying I'm behind on blog posts this week. Since I only write posts that are fully produced by my own brain and typing fingers, you'll have to wait until next week for a full-fledged post. In the meantime, I can recommend some reading. Two Book Recommendations for this Week If you've turned to creative writing as a form of comfort, good choice! If you want to try editing your work on your own, check out Self-Editing for Fiction Writing by Renni Browne and Dave King. The book contains lots of helpful examples. You...

Want to strengthen your observation and description muscles? Try keeping an observation journal.  If you have kids, for example, or little nieces or nephews, you can use your observation journal to keep a record of the funny and sweet things they do and say. In my family, because we're a silly lot, mispronunciations of specific words and phrases from our learning-to-speak years are still sometimes used in conversations as part of our love language. Out of respect for my family, I will not publish any of those gems on an Internet-wide scale. Your Journal, Your Imagination You can also use your observation journal to record things like amusing mispronunciations or misunderstandings from adults. (We all have those moments, right?) You can use it to practice writing an exact description of your dog’s snore. Or the quality of the sky at different points in the day. Follow your mood. Pay attention to one thing, or multiple things. Write down whatever you like. The goal is to practice pay...

 I’ve been thinking about paper a lot in the last few days. I think about paper more than the average person. Stocks, weights, textures, colors, the smell of new paper, the smell of old paper. I’ve been known to walk library aisles and take long, blissful sniffs.   When I worked for my local B&N, customers would always ask me how I could concentrate with the smell of coffee in the store. I honestly didn’t notice the coffee that much. (I’m not a coffee drinker, and nose blindness is a thing.) But I could always smell paper. And I was surrounded by paper. Yay! Now, I’m in the process of rediscovering using paper to help my own writing process, after many years of word processing software use.  So here’s my question for this week — Why is paper a good idea when Google Docs and Microsoft Word and other word processing software are so convenient? Let me offer a few reasons. Nine Ways Using Paper and Pen Can Help Your Writing Writing by hand stops stage fright. It’s diffic...

A few weeks ago, I noticed how many rough drafts of posts I've written on writing and preparing to write. I also noticed that my topic list keeps getting longer.  Yes, writing is complicated. But yesterday, after I sat down to polish up a final draft of a post on considering perspectives, I just couldn't do it. After the plane crash in DC on Wednesday night, my heart hurt for all the families broken and all the dreams ended.   And given what's happening in and to the US government, I can't bring myself to give you writing tips at the moment. We can work on improving our craft another day. I spent a good chunk of the weekend looking into how to make a difference right now. As I said last week, use your own authentic voice to write. Write where and when it makes sense to write. You may have noticed that certain online chatter is low at the moment. Stay hopeful. Think positive murmurs. Stay on top of what's happening, and contact your reps at the local, state, and fede...