Things That Made Me A Better Writer

There have been several things I've done in my life. Three out of the four I listed below have aided me in strengthening my writing craft. Which one is the exception?

1. Amazon review writing

2. Editorial letter writing

3. Songwriting

4. Toastmasters

Have you made your selection? Okay, let me eliminate the options one by one.

Of course, Amazon review writing is not the exception. Writing honest reviews first encourages me to read. Then, it motivates me to interact. I'm also being trained to see what works and what doesn't so I can apply the lessons learned. For those interested, I've written 452 reviews at this moment.

Likewise, editorial letter writing is another way to strengthen one's writing. It forces you to get to the point quickly. Additionally, being creative in how you express yourself increases your chances of being published. I've been multi-published in both the Nashville Tennessean and the Indianapolis Star. In fact, I got paid for having a letter selected by the Tennessean for being the three star letter of the day. A check for $4 and a nice fancy dinner.

That leaves songwriting and Toastmasters. Obviously, songwriting is writing. Toastmasters on the other hand focuses on oral communication and leadership skills. So if you selected Toastmasters as being the one that does not belong, you are incorrect.

I will concede that songwriting has not hurt. Writing lyrics is writing poetry and writing poetry helps you write stronger prose. Also, I've learned that to succeed as a professional Christian songwriter (one who writes songs as a living rather than one who sings those songs), the rules for marketability are the same. However, from that point on, they are two different animals. I have written a few hundred songs, none published and most of them forgotten.

How does Toastmasters help my writing? There is more in common between written and oral communication than you would guess. On one hand, the most effective prepared speeches have been well written. On the other hand, the most effective writing has a voice that sounds like someone is speaking it.

A Toastmasters meeting has three parts to it, all of which relate to writing. First, there's the prepared speeches. Some of the projects, especially in the advanced manual, can help with your writing. For example, there are manuals on Interpretive Reading and Storytelling. Also, one speech in the Speeches By Management manual instructs you to write out your speech in a way that it sounds like a spoken speech rather than a written. I did that project once and had that manual lost before I received credit for it, so I did that same project a second time.

The second part is impromptu speaking, termed Tabletopics. The Topicsmaster of the meeting asks the other members questions, and with no prep the member answers with a 1-2 minute speech. This helps you think on your feet, a skill that helps with creative writing. Additionally, this helps with interviews/elevator speeches which the author might have to give.

The third section is evaluations. Though not called critiques, a good critique is not unlike a good Toastmaster evaluation. The evaluator points out what the speaker has done well, and also gives them areas they can improve on.

I have earned my Distinguished Toastmaster Award in 2008, the highest achievement possible with the organization (though some have multiple DTMs). But my benefit has not come only from my active participation in giving speeches and evaluating my peers. It also has come from listening to speeches. You will notice different voices, which aids in writing dialog.

Naturally, you also have a wide variety of speeches. I've observed persuasive, informative, interpretive, and humorous speeches. I've heard speeches on creating corn-starch, the differences between the three types of whiskey, the importance of getting sleep, fair-trade shopping, the Underground Railroad, and the brown recluse spider.

I would without hesitation encourage any writer to write Amazon reviews and editorial letters. How about Toastmasters? I would given the conditions the writer has the resources and time to invest. The cost is affordable; it is comparable to being a member of the ACFW and the Indiana Chapter. I would advise setting aside two hours at least per meeting and more if you're giving a speech (the meeting frequency varies per club). Those two things might be a roadblock, causing the Toastmaster club to be an obstacle to writing rather than an aid. It depends on the person.

Of course, I'm talking about my experience. You may disagree with my choices. Maybe you have found songwriting to be a more profitable exercise than I consider it for novel writing. Maybe your recommended activities for writing include scuba diving, ballet, and moving furniture. That's the thing about writing – no two writers are the same. (Sometimes, no one writer is the same person, but let's leave that for trained psychologists.)

Life in the Second Act

On May 19, 2011, I began life’s Second Act.

I turned 50.

A lot of my peers are afraid of turning 50, but I’m excited to make it this far. Some of my other friends, due to illness, accidents or disasters, never knew the privilege of walking the planet for half a century.

Now I’m an official Golden Girl, excited about what lies ahead. I plan to live to 100 because I have much to do, stories to write, places to explore.

I’m not alone in embracing the second act of life. I find myself in good company.

• At age 50 Joy Adamson wrote Born Free.

• When she was 51, Harriet Monroe founded Poetry Magazine.

• At age 52, Ludwig Van Beethoven composed his Ninth Symphony, Isak Dinesen published Out of Africa, Pytor Tchaikovsky composed The Nutcracker, and Ayn Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged.

• Seuss wrote The Grinch Who Stole Christmas at age 54 and Johanna Spyri wrote Heidi.

• At age 55 Alex Haley published Roots.

• Handel was 56 when he composed the Messiah in 24 days and so was Mary O’Hara when she wrote My Friend Flicka and Nikolay Rmisky-Korsakov when he composed “The Flight of the Bumble Bee."

• At age 57 James Joyce finished Finnegans Wake, Anna Sewell wrote Black Beauty and Jonathan Swift published Gulliver’s Travels. 
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• Robinson Crusoe was published by Daniel Defoe when he was 59 (one of my favorite classics).

• Agatha Christie wrote The Mousetrap at age 61.

• At age 64 Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the lyrics to The Sound of Music.

• Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t publish her first novel until age 65.

• When he was 69 years old, Noah Webster published An American Dictionary for the English Language. He worked on it for 22 years and it became one of the best-selling books of all time.

• At the beginning of his seventh decade, Nicolaus Copernicus published De revolutionibus obium coelestium (On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres), claiming that the Sun , not the Earth, is at the center of the cosmos; E.B. White wrote The Trumpet of the Swan.

• At age 76, Grandma Moses began to paint.

• Thomas Wilder was 77 when he wrote Theophilus North.

• At the age of 83, Winston Churchill published the last of four volumes of his ambitious A History of the English-Speaking Peoples and Igor Stravinsky composed his Requiem Canticles.

• Sophocles was 87 when he wrote his play Philoctetes.

• Michaelangelo, at age 88, crafted what some deem his most compelling sculpture, the Rondandini Pieta, an old man holding Christ.

• In their 90s, George Bernard Shaw wrote Shakes Versus Shave: A Puppet Play (at age 92), Leopoli Stokowski signed a six-year recording contract (age 94), and Mother Jones, union organizer, wrote her autobiography (she was 95).

• And (do I included this one?) at age 99, Father Abraham circumcised himself.

This list is far from exhaustive. Many other people in their golden years not only wrote books, but started companies (Colonel Sanders was 65 when he began selling KFC franchises), became president (Ronald Reagan was 69), and climbed mountains (Ichijirou was 100 when he climbed Mt. Fuji).

I'm thrilled for the privilege to enjoy this season of my life. How about you? What do you have planned for your second act?

Unfinished People

Have you ever gotten a card or drawing from a preschool child? Maybe you got one last week for Mother’s Day. You know the kind—huge, round heads sprouting arms and legs, but no torso. Googley eyes and a few stick-straight hairs springing from the top. You know they are supposed to be people, but well, they’re sort of lacking--unfinished.

Recently I came across a book written by Ruth Gay discussing the Eastern European Jews that poured into New York during the last century. Many of them were young teenagers—merely children when they left their homeland. When they arrived in the New World, they were thrust into adulthood, ready or not. Gay describes them as “young, single, unskilled, uneducated, and boundlessly optimistic.” She called them “Unfinished People” and described their dilemma. They were “unfinished” because they hadn’t had a chance to be fully steeped in their native culture, yet they were still young enough to embrace the new culture in which they found themselves. They were a hybrid generation.

It struck me how much like these “unfinished” people I am in the beginning stages of my writing journey. I’m not really “young” in years anymore, but as far as my writing career, I’m a mere child. I’m a married woman, but writing is a solitary career much of the time and my failure or success depends largely on me and me alone. In that, I’m “single”. I possess more skills and knowledge about writing than I did last year at this time, but compared to the seasoned pros I’m “unskilled” and “uneducated”. But, like those immigrants who traveled wide-eyed through the shadow of Lady Liberty, I’m “boundlessly optimistic”. I think, “I can do this.” I say, “I will learn this.” I repeat, like Dory in Finding Nemo, “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. Just keep swimming.”

I love when I hear the published authors on the ACFW email loop say they aren’t done learning yet. When they remind us that none of us really ever “arrive” as writers. When they explain that the industry changes and each one of us, pubbed and unpubbed alike, must keep learning and changing right along with it. When the grandmothers-types ask for help with their “technology” so they can “tweet” and “friend” and get “LinkedIn”. That encourages me and makes me thankful for humble mentors who never quit striving to be better; never cease chasing perfection.

I’m also thankful that, although we will never be complete as writers, we have the hope of perfection concerning our faith. No, not in this world, but in the next because we are given this promise in the book of Philippians, “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”. We may ever be “finished” as writers, but God promises us that one day we will be complete.

It delights me that the God who created us, and will some day finish the work he started in us, doesn’t compare Himself to a doctor, or a scientist, or an inventor. No, when He tells us some day we will be perfect, He speaks our language, saying, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith". Take joy, my friends—He won’t leave us “unfinished people”.

Nikki Studebaker Barcus