Two weeks into The Daily Run On, I posted a lovely post where I posted a photo of myself and how in shock I was at my little blog’s growth. Now I’m seriously surprised. With 171 posts and over 200 followers I am blessed to call this my hideaway and thankful that I came back to continue writing!
~ Always Elle 
Step back, step forward.
Be careful don’t trip, don’t stutter.
Don’t look back, don’t turn around
step forward, don’t stutter, don’t turn around.
I usually I don’t count months.. but this isn’t for a boyfriend( sorry dear) its for this blog! So much has happened over the last month. 6 reblogs and 70 lovely followers. So thank-you very much for reading 🙂
The hands are dealt, the dealer knowing all yet he says nothing. But Why?
He is quiet, his hands moving faster than the deadliest twister. But How?
One of the players has the worst hand of all, it will soon show on their face. But Who?
Something is coming, life is coming, struggle is coming. But What?
Lives will change, because the tides have changed, the winds have switched directions. But Where?
Who what where why and how, none of these questions can be answered now. But When?
In Time.
It’s 4 o’clock on a Monday and the college crowd.. oh wait I’m alone and not at college anymore. There is no crowd, there is NOTHING to do on a Monday to separate it from the rest of the week. I never thought I’d miss the business of college so much. You go from having ten things due everyday to having nothing due the entire summer. I’m not interning this summer or working yet so I’m currently just sitting at home slowly fading into my bed that I sleep in almost all day. This isn’t exactly ‘living the high life’. Sure I’m not doing anything and I’m not pressured and busy, but I’m also not DOING anything. I’m literally a bump on a log, hell I’m as useful as a bun in the oven. I can’t do anything at all. I just sit around and write articles and try to be kind of entertaining. One thing writing in college HAS taught me is that readers like lists, so here’s a list for you so this rant wasn’t a complete waste of your time:
How to Not Be A Bump on a Log:
And since its going to be a hot one this summer, this is what I leave you with:
If its Popsicle its Possible.
Popsicle logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Given to you this Sunday evening is a Sunday Nugget of Wisdom delivered straight from Solomon. You may ask me what I’m talking about or what this is about, well its about a section of the Bible called Proverbs. Now wait.. please don’t stop reading just because I said the word Bible. I’m not going to throw facts in your face. Honest. Proverbs isn’t like the other books that people usually quote to you, in fact you might have even heard one and not known it was from the bible. Its not about God or Jesus directly, they are just nuggets of wisdom that are useful. In fact they can be read in small chunks, each line separately, and if read in a more modern context they can be applied to our lives very easily.
So here is Sunday Nugget #1:
Proverbs 11:22 ” A beautiful woman who rejects good sense is like a gold ring in a pigs snout”
English: This photograph shows the carat inscription on a gold ring. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
You’re probably thinking to yourself what does a beautiful woman have in common with a pig… well here is the same thing in a more modern way.
A woman is beautiful yes, but when she doesn’t use good judgement all of a sudden that beauty that she has is shadowed and doesn’t matter just like a gold ring when it is in a pig’s snout.
The author, Solomon, used a simile to compare a beautiful woman rejecting good judgement ad good sense to a gold ring that is now in the nose of a dirty animal like a pig. It looses its value and appeal not to mention i certainly wouldn’t want to be something that would be compared to something in a pig’s nose..
These things can be useful so ladies and gentlemen please use your good sense.
Image of a modern fountain pen writing in cursive script. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So as someone who has considered writing for a living and then came to the realization that it just wasn’t going to pay the bills this article interested me. It was written for Publishers Weekly by Bestselling author Chelsea Cain. I was curious, how did this woman do what I couldn’t. How could she make writing for a living work and not have to find something to fill in the slack. Well here’s my thoughts on Chelsea’s article and why trying to be a writer and a journalist just isn’t working.
Alright it starts out with the comparison of writing tips are like mini skirts, which is the nice way of saying that some of them will work for you and others will not work at all. Its a rather clever way of putting it, and despite the fact that I’m a pretty skinny person, mini skirts have always ended up looking like potato sacks on me. Either way, here are Chelsea’s tips and how they’ve worked for me thus far: ( bold is Chelsea’s tip, plain is my smart as* opinion)
1. You won’t make a living writing until you learn to write when you don’t want to. That’s true. I wasn’t feeling it a majority of the time mainly because at college, I am currently learning to be a journalist and its squeezing the creativity right out of my veins. I might as well be getting ready to work in a cubicle when I’m older because I barely feel like I have any power over what I write. Its facts, straight, no adjectives, nothing. Just straight words. No fluff, no flowery stuff nothing. No more ” The watch felt cold in his hand as the wind blew against the nape of his neck, chilling his skin”. None of that. If we mention the wind at all, its just because it was windy out.
2. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
She basically says its okay to continue writing cliches. Yeah its okay.. but we’ve heard them all a thousand times. I mean the stories get old don’t they? Don’t publishers get sick of hearing the same stories? The newest one is the female cop. I feel like there are like tons of shows and books out there that are trying to get on that new topic. From the TV series Unforgettable, to Castle where the character is an Author writing about a female cop, its all about the new tough female genre. And ever since twilight came out there has been a overload of the supernatural. There are a few things that have broken the mold( Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, Beautiful Creatures,) But there are tons of people getting onto the new craze of the supernatural by just writing about vampires, werewolves and anything that isn’t human because it has been on the rise since Edward Cullen came out into the sparkling spotlight several years ago. Talk about Cliche, she’s a cop writer. Almost every cop book is the same. Unneeded sex scenes, love affairs, and tons of the typical things that make up a crime story. Its downright down to a skeleton structure that all you have to do is put on new names, new faces and pop on a new crime and evidence and you have a crime story.
Publishers Weekly (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
. 3. Always remember that you are the boss: don’t let your characters push you around? I promise to never let them do that.
4. Write the stuff that makes you feel nervous. This I agree with, If you stay too safe, then the book itself will be too safe. It won’t have that jump out of your seat feeling or any of those moments where you grab the book or want to close it and walk away. Unless your writing something like the notebook.. then steer clear away from those moments cause talk about a mood kill.
5.Details are not created equally. I liked this last tip from her actually, its quite interesting. Its about putting details in all the scenes, again something that wouldn’t be allowed in the jail cell that is the inverted pyramid of journalism structure.
I do encourage you to read her tips completely as much as I do vary with a few of them, the last one certainly makes me think, which is certainly what this is created for. Food for thought. I do believe this is a bit of a run on.. comments and thoughts below – Elle
You’re a reader as well as a writer, so write what you’d want to read.
Cassandra Clare
Food for thought from a favorite author. I dislike reading newspapers, they don’t keep my attention. Articles hardly keep my attention the way they should because I’m just not interested in the content. And I want to be a journalist…
Maybe if the same stories, same facts, same hard unbiased things were presented in a way that I’d rather read then maybe like a story it would keep a reader’s attention and they’d remember what they read. Just a thought. It’s not like all the stuff that happens in the news is boring. There’s scandal, murder, violence and wrong doing going on all over the place, just like there would be in the plot of a good book. So why not write it like one?
Just food for thought. Its late and I’m tired. Consider this a first rant. – Elle
The Daily Run-On 