PAW PRINTS

The Professional and Amateur Writers' Society
Kelli McBride, Editor   October 1998   Volume 4  Issue 10

GREETINGS!
Kelli McBride

    I’m so excited at the articles we have in this month’s Paw Prints.  Pat found a piece about writing romance short stories.  If you’re interested in making some money writing shorter pieces, then this is the market for you.
    I found a fantastic piece by Roger Macbride Allen on some basic writing problems and how to correct them.  The article is long, but if you take it in chunks, then you’ll sail through it great.  Allen is a well-published science fiction author that many of you may be familiar with.
    The last article is by C.J. Cherryh, another science fiction author.  She shares with us “Writerisms and Other Sins.”  These are annoying things we do that bog down our writing.
    Remember, deadline for November articles is November 7th.  E-mail you contribution to kellimcb@chickasaw.com or snail mail it to the address on the cover.

Presidential Reflections
Pat Millette

    For those of you who were unable to attend our last meeting, we have a bit of a change in our officers.  Ann Huguenin was unable to continue as our treasurer, due to a conflict with her schooling.  Sorry to see you leave, Ann.  Fortunately for us Karen Anderson has changed jobs and will be attending meetings on a regular basis and was willing to finish the year out in Ann’s place.  Whew! What a relief.
    I am happy to add that the workshop went well and everyone went away filled with good food and enthusiasm.  That in my opinion means it was a success.
    Elections are coming up, so if you can attend the meeting to put your two cents worth in be sure to come. We welcome all suggestions and ideas that the membership can bring to the meetings.
    We’re raffling a hardback, autographed book - Homeport by Nora Roberts.  It’s another great story by Nora and a wonderful addition to anyone’s collection, so if you’re interested in purchasing tickets come to the next meeting or contact one of the officers.  They all have tickets available.
    Linda Goodnight is one of our rising stars.  She now has an agent, and her book is being looked over by an editor - GREAT GOING, LINDA!!
    If you have any news, like you’ve finished a story, submitted a ms, entered or won a contest, let us know.  Then Kelli can get it in the newsletter so we can brag about you.  We’re proud of all our members who keep trying to get their work finished and hopefully one day soon PUBLISHED.
    See you all at the meeting, Monday.

Program Notes
Elaine Wells

    We only have four months until the OWFI contest deadline, so it’s time to get out last year’s category list and decide what you will be entering.  I’d like to see everyone enter at least one category - and more would be better!
    Now, for the rest of the story. In order to help us prepare for the OWFI contest, we will be having a critique session at the October meeting.  Bring no more than about four pages of something you’ve been working on.  If you have a particular area you’re worried about, maybe we can help you with it.  We don’t have the time to have a really good critique session at the monthly meetings, and that’s why we have to limit the number of pages that you read.
    Before the critique session, we will conduct a short writing exercise, based on something Lorraine remembered Sharon Sala doing when she was program chairman at Shawnee Writers.  So, bring your thinking caps, and we will see just how creative a roomful of writers can be.
    Don’t forget the book raffle PAWS is having. Sharon Sala has donated an autographed hardback edition of Nora Roberts’ romance novel HOMEPORT. Tickets are $1.00 each, and members need to help us take this opportunity to raise some money for the club. The drawing will be held at the November PAWS meeting, so that only gives us another month to sell tickets.
     Also, please bring or mail your ticket stubs and money in time for the November meeting.  If that is not possible, you can call me with the names on your stubs and we will make sure they get in the drawing.  If you can’t make it to the October meeting and you need some tickets, give me a call or e-mail me.  I’ll get you some.

The Standard Deviations of Writing
By Roger MacBride Allen
http://www.sff.net/people/Roger.Allen

Introduction

    Some years ago, I had a chat with a man who repaired high-end fax machines for a living, back when fax machines were still a bit of a mystery to most people. He reported the appalling statistic that fully 95 percent of the service calls he made were unneeded, because the consumers could have fixed their problems with no help from him.  Nineteen out of twenty calls involved such technical challenges as machines out of paper, machines not plugged in, machines not hooked up to a phone line, and machines not turned on.  In short, if these folks had used their plain common sense and been willing to read and follow instructions, they would not have needed to call for repairs.  The bad news, of course, was that the legitimate service calls only received five percent of the available time and attention of the repair technicians.  The folks who needed the help most were denied it thanks to the people who did NOT need help and yet screwed up anyway.
    It is in the spirit of preventing such needless service calls that I offer this list of mistakes made in writing.  To the degree that you can avoid these standard deviations, you—and your editor and workshop partners—will be able spend more time on other issues of greater substance.
    Read over this list.  Understand what these errors are, and try and see how they can get you into trouble.  Learn to avoid them.  I promise you that getting past these errors will represent at least half the battle of becoming a writer.  Learning the craft of writing consists in large part of learning how not to do these things.
    I have schlepped through a lot of student manuscripts in a lot of venues.  I would estimate that the errors listed below comprise at least 90 percent of the problems I encounter.  Most are fairly simple to avoid if you are aware of them, and can be easily fixed, once you know how to spot them.

For the rest of this article, click here.

Writerisms and other Sins:
A Writer's Shortcut to Stronger Writing
C.J. Cherryh
    Writerisms: overused and misused language. In more direct words: find 'em, root 'em out, and look at your prose without the underbrush.

1.   am, is, are, was, were, being, be, been....combined with "by" or with "by....someone" implied but not stated. Such structures are passives. In general, limit passive verb use to one or two per book. The word "by" followed by a person is an easy flag for passives.

For the rest of this article, click here.

If you describe things as better than they are, you are considered to be a romantic; if you describe things as worse than they are, you will be called a realist; and if you describe things exactly as they are, you will be thought of as a satirist.
Quentin Crisp (b. 1908)

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