Writing March 2009

Hi all,

Remember I said I might not be a dedicated blogger. March is almost over and I'm just now getting around to my March posting. Not only have I managed to mess up my blogger address, I can't seem to fix it-that's probably because I don't know what I'm doing. I have hope (a little) but not much because the "help centers" designed to answer all our questions-are basically no help. I need an e-mail address to send my dilemma to. So, don't GOOGLE me-because I ain't there-and yes, I said ain't.

Anyhoo, that was my frustrated rant for the day. Actually I am writing to talk about writer's block. If you are stuck, not a word flows from head to fingertips, then try jump starting your "serious" writing by updating your blog or sending e-mails to family and friends. This gets the creative juices going! Trust me, it works.

Article writing advice

If you sit frozen in front of a blank computer screen, stumped for your first words. Don't fret. Don't have a title? Type: Hey, I don't have a title for this. It will come to you later. Don't know where to begin? Just start! You're the only one looking at your work-no one else needs to know about all the corrections and paragraph rearranging. In writing articles, I just jump right in. 9 out of 10 times my beginning paragraphs are either deleted or moved somewhere else in the piece. Don't worry about writing "in order" just write and rearrange as needed. When writing an article allow yourself enough time to let the piece rest a couple of days. Then look at it again with "fresh" eyes. You'll be (pleasantly) surprised after a little rearranging and tweeking you have a finished piece.

Don't get discouraged if after all your hard work your editor "rearranges" and adds/ deletes to your piece. That's their job-they edit for space and content! I always re-read my submitted article in published form to make note of any changes to form and content. This makes me a better writer.

Now I have to go work on an article for 008 Magazine, and when that's complete I have interviews and research for an Acadiana Lifestyle assignment on the upcoming Airfest in New Iberia.

Check out the April issue of Acadiana Moms for my The Way I See It column titled: The Reading Gene

Happy Writing!