Dear Me

Dear Me,

Congratulations!  You finally changed your writing.com membership to upgraded. You have reached another milestone on the roadway to becoming a serious writer. Now it’s time to set some goals.

First go on a tour of the site, join a group, and learn how to write a review. Take advantage of the writing prompts, challenges, and contests found on this site. There are also forums where you can join the conversation with other authors endeavoring to sharpen their writing skills.

Make it a goal to enter a writing contest or accept a writing challenge every month. Write reviews of other author’s work to encourage and help them.  Don’t be unnecessarily critical of their writing skills but at the same time don’t make them think their writing is perfect. You need to keep in mind that you want to build them up, not tear them down. There will always be something you can commend them for. Your own writing skills will also be honed by this constructive criticism. Try to post at least four qualifying reviews each month. 

Set other goals for yourself, such as reading with a view to writing. That means that as you read a story or book remember to notice what makes it interesting.  Check out the sentence structure and word choice. Why do you like their writing? Does anything in particular reach out and grab you? Jot down notes to remind yourself which ideas you might want to use in the future.

Another important goal could be to spice up your writing with descriptive words that paint a picture for the readers mind. Instead of saying ‘the car went around the corner,’ try writing ‘the bright red sports car careened around the sharp corner with all four tires squealing in protest.

You can also spice up your writing by using figures of speech such as personification, metaphors, similes, hyperbole, idioms, and alliteration. There are so many other figures of speech that I can’t list them all. Why not type ‘figures of speech’ in the search box on your computer and see what comes up?

You will need to use these figures of speech carefully and don’t overdo them. For instance ‘the playful puppy’ is a great example of alliteration. ‘The playful puppy proudly pranced to the porch’ would be overdoing the alliteration unless you were trying to write a tongue twister. (Tongue twisters are fun to write, and are a good exercise for your brain, but in my opinion they don’t usually belong in a regular piece of writing.)

Hyperbole is also used liberally when writing or talking. A hyperbole is a major exaggeration of the situation such as ‘there are a million spelling mistakes in my story,’  ‘I will never finish this assignment,’ and ‘the dog dug a hole clear to China while looking for a place to bury his bone.’ (That’s one huge hole!)

Examples of personification are ‘the forest spoke to me’, ‘my dirty car is begging to be washed,’ or ‘that candy bar is calling my name.’

Onomatopoeia is the use of words that describe the sound something is making, for example ‘tick tock’ says the clock, ‘the dog woofed in his sleep,’ ‘the bird cheeped,’ and ‘the floor boards creaked under my feet.’

There are many well-known expressions used in speech such as ‘she rolled her eyes’ or ‘their eyes met across the room.’  These phrases are literal actions and for the most part should be left as written. I don’t believe they can be improved on. One of the books I read on SmashWords contained the phrase ‘their eyes collided’. This did not work for me as I immediately had a picture in my mind of eyes rolling across the floor or flying through the air and literally colliding with each other. (Goodness, I hope they weren’t hurt!) This, in my opinion, rules out trying to improve those particular phrases.

There are many idioms that are over used though, so you might want to make them your own by changing the expression slightly.  Instead of writing “there were butterflies in my stomach,’ try writing ‘my stomach felt like cheer leaders were practicing their routines in it,’ or maybe you could write ‘my stomach was turning somersaults.’

A simile compares one thing to another. A simile is also a metaphor, but all metaphors aren’t similes. A simile always uses ‘like’ or ‘as.’  ‘She was as hungry as a hippopotamus.’ ‘He sounds like a braying donkey when he sings.’ A metaphor doesn’t necessarily use ‘like’ or ‘as’ when comparing two things. ‘Belle was a rocket, but I was glue’ are examples of two metaphors in one sentence.

Check your work for spelling mistakes such as writing ‘meat’ when you mean ‘meet’. Also check for fragments, run on sentences, and punctuation errors. Other words commonly misspelled are ‘tail’ and ‘tale.’ There are also the twos. ‘I am going to town’, I want to go too,’ and ‘I would like two doughnuts.’ (Me too!) ‘Me too’ is an example of a sentence fragment but in this instance it works.

It is very important to have a dictionary and thesaurus on hand. It would also be helpful to have a book on grammar usage and keep it in your work station so you can check words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs that you are unsure of.  Another important writing tool would be a book on figures of speech, or maybe one that contains a list of adjectives and adverbs. Make it a goal to peruse the writing section in a book store and find a couple of good books that would be useful treasures to add to your library. Don't forget to start writing any contest entries as soon as possible so you have plenty of time to edit your entry.

In summary, these are the goals I would encourage you to set for yourself. 1) Become familiar with the writing.com website. 2) Take advantage of the tools provided to improve your writing, such as contests and writing prompts and enter at least one contest each month. 3) Join one or more groups and use the forums. 4) Write four qualifying reviews each month. 5) Read with a view to writing. 6) Spice up your writing by learning about and using figures of speech such as metaphors and alliterations. Also don’t forget to use colorful adjectives and adverbs, but like figures of speech or idioms, don't over use them. 6) Go to a bookstore and find helpful books such as a thesaurus and a book on grammar usage. 7) Don't procrastinate!

These goals are something to work on over the next 11 months. I would like to see you reach these goals by the end of the year or even sooner, but if you can’t, don’t worry about it. Just give yourself another time frame to complete the unfinished goals. As long as you continue writing, your writing will improve and you will reach your goals. So, keep on writing!

Your friend, 
Dixie

1,148 words