{"id":1375,"date":"2011-08-12T05:14:15","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T09:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2011-08-06T17:56:09","modified_gmt":"2011-08-06T21:56:09","slug":"telling-your-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html","title":{"rendered":"Telling your story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>If you are reading this, you have probably thought at some point in your life.\u00a0 I can write better than this and I actually have something to say.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

While the number one fear in the U.S. is public speaking, my experience has been that everyone would like to be able to write “their story.”\u00a0 It has been said that each person has at least one book in them.\u00a0 After my first book was published, I was astonished at how many people came up to me and said, “I can make you a $1 million.\u00a0 All you need to do is write my book.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some\u00a0of these folks I knew personally and unless I’d missed something extremely adventuresome, their book would be a small\u00a0bedside table volume read to put you to sleep.\u00a0 Of course, a\u00a0few people said, “I read your book.\u00a0 If you can get that book published, I figure anyone can get published.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a couple of years, I learned to smile pleasantly and say, “Hey, the best thing for you to do is\u00a0learn how to type.\u00a0 It’s your book.\u00a0 You are the only person\u00a0who can adequately\u00a0tell it.”\u00a0 It wasn’t merely a way to get the person to leave me alone.\u00a0 This was my honest assessment.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I’ve broadened my advice.\u00a0 In fact, it is remarkable how many people make the exact, same mistakes. Here are a couple of suggestions you might be able to use.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Be sure that you actually have a story to tell.\u00a0 There must also be a point (or a lesson) to your tale.\u00a0 A good question to ask yourself, “What is the lesson I learned from this incident?”\u00a0 Then be sure that you make that lesson the point of your adventure.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Writing is a skill.\u00a0 Learn the basics of grammar and punctuation.\u00a0 You would not even attempt\u00a0to mow the lawn without some\u00a0rudimentary knowledge of lawnmowers and grass.\u00a0 However, we often feel that we don’t need to know the rules of the English language.\u00a0 You don’t have to be a perfect grammarian.\u00a0 You do need to know what the regulations are and how to apply them.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Learn how to type.\u00a0 Sure, you can get up to about\u00a030 to 40 words a minute\u00a0with the hunt and peck method.\u00a0 Yet, anyone who can type that quickly without proper training could be typing at\u00a0120 to 130 words per minutes if you would take a class and learn the correct positioning of your fingers for typing.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 In\u00a0elementary school, when you were being taught to give a speech or write a paragraph, you learned:\u00a0 Tell them what you are going to tell them.\u00a0 Tell them.\u00a0 Then tell them what you told them.\u00a0 The same applies to everything you write.\u00a0 There must always be what is called a “take away.”<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Remember the reader comes to the page with absolutely no knowledge of what you are going to say.\u00a0 You must explain clearly and exactly all the details of your story.\u00a0 I ask myself, “If I knew nothing about this, would I understand what I’m talking about?”<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 There are certain words you don’t use.\u00a0 They are just, very<\/em> and so<\/em>.\u00a0 There are many wonderful words that are equally as effective as these three sorrowful excuses for descriptives.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Unless someone is screaming, “Fire!”\u00a0 Do not use an exclamation point.\u00a0 Never, never use two or three exclamation points.\u00a0 Let the words you use give the emphasis, not\u00a0the misusage of a punctuation point.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 When you break grammatical rules, do it for emphasis, not out of ignorance.\u00a0 And do not start a sentence with “and” unless you are doing it to make a point.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0 Do not use the same word twice in a paragraph.\u00a0 The English language has many thousand’s of words that can and should be used.\u00a0 Repeating the same word again and again is not necessary and it is boring.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0 Buy a Thesaurus and use it.\u00a0 There is a Thesaurus on every word computer processing program.\u00a0 Use it.<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0 Practice your writing skills in everything you write.\u00a0 Don’t be sloppy when you write anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n

11.\u00a0 Reread every sentence you write several times.\u00a0 Prose should flow as beautifully as poetry.\u00a0 There is as much a\u00a0rhythm in your favorite novel as there is your favorite\u00a0poem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

12.\u00a0 “Good writing is rewriting” is a phrase repeated often at writer’s workshops.\u00a0 You should expect to rewrite whatever you write at least four or five times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

13. Read your finished product out loud.\u00a0 Change what doesn’t flow.<\/p>\n

14.\u00a0 Show.\u00a0 Don’t tell.\u00a0 Use descriptive verbs and adverbs to give your writing action and color.\u00a0 She didn’t walk<\/em> into the room.\u00a0 She waltzed into the room.\u00a0 She hopped into the room.\u00a0 Or she sauntered into the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Of course, there is much more.\u00a0 But those are for another day.\u00a0 Remember writing is a skill.\u00a0 Learn the rules.\u00a0 Practicing your skill allows the talents and gifting\u00a0to flow.<\/p>\n

What is a writing principle that I didn’t include?\u00a0 What is a rule that you see ignored often?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are reading this, you have probably thought at some point in your life.\u00a0 I can write better than this and I actually have something to say.\u00a0 While the number one fear in the U.S. is public speaking, my experience has been that everyone would like to be able to write “their story.”\u00a0 It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,40,186,49,243],"tags":[21,688,696,699,715,692,6,700,722],"class_list":["post-1375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-writing","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-religion","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-spirituality","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nTelling your story - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Telling your story - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you are reading this, you have probably thought at some point in your life.\u00a0 I can write better than this and I actually have something to say.\u00a0 While the number one fear in the U.S. is public speaking, my experience has been that everyone would like to be able to write “their story.”\u00a0 It…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-12T09:14:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-06T21:56:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/writers-block1-219x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Telling your story - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Telling your story - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"If you are reading this, you have probably thought at some point in your life.\u00a0 I can write better than this and I actually have something to say.\u00a0 While the number one fear in the U.S. is public speaking, my experience has been that everyone would like to be able to write “their story.”\u00a0 It…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2011-08-12T09:14:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-06T21:56:09+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/writers-block1-219x300.jpg"}],"author":"Linda G. Howard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html","name":"Telling your story - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/writers-block1-219x300.jpg","datePublished":"2011-08-12T09:14:15+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-06T21:56:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/writers-block1-219x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/writers-block1-219x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/telling-your-story.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Telling your story"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/","name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Linda Howard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739","name":"Linda G. Howard","description":"Linda G. Howard is the best-selling and award-winning author of four books, including MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO and THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSEWIFE. Currently, she serves as area director of The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. Additionally, she is the co-publisher and editor of CONNECTING POINT, the ministry newsletter. Her husband is a retired aerospace technologist who worked for NASA. They have three children and four grandchildren.","sameAs":["http:\/\/specialgathering.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/author\/lhoward"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1377,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions\/1377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}