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Articles
on Writing, Grammar, and Publishing What's on Val's mind now? Val writes articles on grammar, the art and science of writing, and publishing, for budding writers and seasoned authors alike. These articles are not only informative and educational, they're entertaining - written as only Val can. Enjoy this latest of her articles: I
Don't Read Books; I Write Them -- NOT! A writer friend once told me, "I don't read books. I write them." "Well," I responded, "how successful have you been with the writing?" He looked at me a bit sheepishly. "The thing is," I told him, "when you read books written by others, you get a feel for the way we use words. Otherwise, you're only using the way you use words." When you read a wide variety of books by a wide variety of writers, you get a wide variety of experience in understanding writing. After all, writing well is not something to be taught by someone. While I conduct classes for writers, I tell them up front, I cannot teach you to write. You learn to write by... (are you ready for this?)... writing! Write a bad novel; write another bad novel; your third novel should be an improvement; your fourth may have possibilities; but that fifth one. Ah, there's the one that says you're a successful writer. NOTE: Success for a writer has nothing - not a single thing - to do with publishing your work. Success is in feeling you have written the best story inside you. For many years, as I was pursing my career as a journalist, a recorder, a documenter (a writer of nonfiction), I repeatedly proclaimed, "I don't write fiction." What I meant was that I was afraid to venture into a world where I felt I didn't belong. When I finally tried it, I discovered to my delight that writing fiction is more fun than should be legal. Writing fiction is letting your head take your words into realms of fancy, of what-if, of how-would-that-feel/sound/taste/smell/look?, and into a kind of hypnotic state that turns off the world as you write. It's much like the mesmerizing we experience when we get "lost" on the web or involved in solving a sudoku puzzle (I've lost hours over the very difficult ones). As I expanded my reading to include gotta-have books that drew me to them, I added them to my library. The best part of owning the books is I can re-read them whenever the fancy overtakes me (something I often do at 1 or 2 am when the moon is full). If you enjoy unique books, not only with unique stories but with unique design, check out one or more of the following, some of my favorites:
Happy reading - and writing. For your continued reading enjoyment, here are more articles that Val's written:
Please feel free to contact me. I welcome your comments and any specific questions you may have.
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Val
Dumond
P.O. Box 97124
Tacoma, WA 98497
Phone/Fax: 253.582.5453
Email: Val@valdumond.com
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Val Dumond
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