Better Late Than Never

 

 Copyright Glo Lewis 6/17/2023

 

Dear Readers of My Blog,💜

 

First, I want to take this time to thank Google for the opportunity to create a blog for free. I am extremely grateful to Google for this gift. Hopefully, then, this thank-you is better late than never, as this blog post is entitled.

And again, I am glad to be back writing to you. I have notified Google that my Comments’ box is not working, so hopefully, readers will be able to access that field soon. Apparently, however, one must create a Google account and use their own email address and a Google password that they create to leave a comment. My sister tested the field for me, and even with her Google account, she could not leave a comment yet.

Switching gears: It occurred to me that when I was discussing my in-house walking in my second blog post, I didn’t mention that proper breathing is important to oxygenate the body and to burn calories. One should breathe in their nose and exhale out of their mouth to breathe correctly. The other item in this exercise regimen is that while keeping my arms close to my body, and moving my forearms back and forth, on the backward movement, I thrust my fingers out, and then retract them as I push my arms forward; I think it helps stave off arthritis in the fingers to move them every day in this manner. And if one already has arthritic fingers, I believe that this exercise will help to relieve the stiffness and pain. I don’t use the Velcroed seven-ounce weights for this movement, however, because as a female, I don’t want large biceps. I only use the weights as I walk during the phase where I thrust my arms to my chest and then out to my sides. Currently, I am capping out at about 140 of these chest revolutions, and then I remove the wrist weights for the balance of my walk.

Placing the hands and wrists under a faucet with very warm water a few times per day also helps the hands, fingers, and wrists, in my experience. Just be careful that the water is not hot enough to burn you, which can easily happen if one is not focusing and consciously just warming the hands and wrists.

Moving along now to our continuing study of the basic tool of writing, which is the written word, today, I would like to highlight homonyms. A homonym is “each of two or more words having the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins.” (Oxford Languages) Below is a table of examples provided by Google in a search for homonyms:

accept - take in	except - other than
right - correct; not left	write - scribble
ring - encircle	wring - squeeze
road – street	rode - past tense of ride
role - function	roll – rotate

 

In English, there are a great many homonyms, so it can be easy to make a spelling error, which is why it’s always important to check your finished document for these and other errors by using at minimum Word’s Editor feature, which is located on the far right side of your Word document just under the very top two rows, and then click on each item that has a number, and there view Word’s suggestions carefully, and then click on the suggestion that you find meets your requirements for the words, sentences, or paragraphs, to be accurate in what you are communicating to the reader. But in the case of homonyms, don’t rely exclusively on Word, as it may misunderstand your meaning. Instead, if necessary, check a dictionary as well, preferably an online one, such as Google, because it’s wonderfully thorough and most of all, fast. You can also use Thesaurus.com to find a wealth of synonyms so that you are using more compelling words.

We will discuss more about words in future posts, but I’d like to move on to paragraphs for the moment. When we write, it’s always best to start with the action first --open the scene that way, even if you are journaling or writing a memoir. Get in the habit of starting with the action, because the imperative thing is to grab the reader’s attention. You will likely notice that most great movies use this same technique. And just as it has often been said that an interviewer will decide on a candidate in the first 10 seconds, a reader wants to be wooed just as quickly; they are deciding immediately if the journey through your work will be time well spent, so charm them like white heat right from the moment their eyes meet your first paragraph. Later, you can retreat into a stunning blue flame, and then settle into a comfortable warm flow. But in the beginning and at the end, make it worth the ride. Do that “reach” we discussed in a prior post to razzle dazzle them to the best of your ability. And your best, if you are constantly striving for it, will continue to improve, until you know in your soul that you are nearing the summit of your own writing greatness, even if the world hasn’t discovered your gems yet. Even so, keep polishing each paragraph; but most important, is always that first one. I would suggest that the first paragraph of each page is likewise crucial. The most significant thing, remember, is to keep reader interest. And rightly so, because they are investing their valuable time to read what has sprung from your heart, so always do your best, even in the beginning, when it can be excruciatingly hard and slow, and you will likely be checking dictionaries and maybe a variety of documents or research items, and possibly The Chicago Manual of Style, for punctuation technicalities, which I highly recommend during your editing phase (this book also has an online digital version —for a price, of course). Nevertheless, crawl your own way to your personal best. Every writer has that mandate.

Here, for example, is the opening paragraph of my historical fiction novel, Avezzano and New York, which even today I find to be a beginning point whose every sentence imparts essential information about character, location, and emotional sway, while incorporating intrigue and flair:

 

Her husband had spit in her face this morning, and she was still smarting from the affront. How her incensed spirit had surged like a flame in her silent revolt. He was out of opium now, and that always signaled danger. In a way, she was like the earth that she plowed—unspoiled and cast in a burnished light. Topazia Rosani was only 19, but her weathered and bruised hands were as olive brown as the rural land under her feet, and her blonde hair was a rarity in the provinces. She was a woman who needed the love of a good man, and who longed to escape her arranged marriage, which simmered in Avezzano, a province of Abruzzi, Italy. The region was geographically in the central part of the nation, but the Italian Statistical Authority, created in 1926, considered it part of Southern Italy, a country where divorce was illegal and infidelity a crime punishable by imprisonment.

 

When I included the part about the Italian Statistical Authority, I did it grudgingly, not because it wasn’t relevant information, but rather, because it interrupted the flow of my noble steed as it rode through that vital first paragraph. Thus, as writers, we must sometimes sacrifice moments of artistry to include essential details.

In advanced editing class in college, we learn the expression, “We sometimes have to kill our babies,” which is a gruesome and unfortunate phrase that we didn’t create but must live with; it means that not everything we initially include in our work will make the final cut. Highlight the words or paragraphs that you plan to reconsider later, and then hit the “B” button in the third row from the top of Word on the left side of the page to make bold lettering on areas that you deem need revision, so you won’t neglect them later. Likewise, highlight any area that you have bolded and click on “B” again to remove the bold/darkened lettering. Alternatively, we can make marks, such as /// or /// (bold marks) or XXX to mark paragraphs that need a re-write. I prefer the bold action, finding it more expedient, but frankly, I have used all three of these editing reminders in the same piece. And if you hate to “kill a baby” of your writing, you can create a separate document entitled “Babies,” or any caption that you’ll remember, in case you wish to retrieve it later to use those words and paragraphs in another work or even further along in the same work.

God Bless, and more to come soon…Glo