You have heard it a thousand times. A picture is worth a thousand words. What was that plosive word that Penn and Teller use on their TV show? The one with the exclainmation point at the end? Yes, that’s the one. No way could that idea even be remotely true. Not your writing. Not my writing. There is no way that some digital image that took the consideration, thought process, and decision powers of a moronic gnat is worth a thousand of my carefully crafted and chosen words. A great, big, steaming pile of bovine excrement! A single image conveys the same message as my thousand pearls of wisdom? A giant, huge, steaming heap of bovine excrement with a cherry on top! One takes learning, skill, and considerable practice. The other takes only cash to buy the technology. The first step to that thousand words is choosing a subject to write about. That is not a probem. You can always write about what you see. You can always write about what you have seen. You can always write about what you will see. You can always write about what you feel with your fingertips. You can always write about what you feel with your heart. You can always write about what you hear. You can always write about what you taste. You can always write about what you smell. You can always write about what you know. You can always write about your relationship with another person. Write a love letter to your spouse. Don’t wait for Valentine’s Day! You can always write a letter to God. There are twelve different subjects that you can use to write about every day of your life. You will never run out of things to write about. You will never run out of things to say. As soon as you begin to think that for some reason that you are running out of things to write about, just change the details. Change the names. Change the dates. Change the places. It is now a new story. It is your story. As you do this you will be honing your skills. You will be sharpening your skills. Your wordsmithing skills will grow stronger. You will be hammering those words into shape. You will be hammering those words into new shapes. You will be hammering those words into new meanings. You will be learning the craft. These activities help you max out the “bang” in every word. Above all, keep writing. Write an article specifically for this web site. That is your limited target. A thousand words. A specific goal is good writing practice. That alone makes it a good opportnity to grow. That alone makes it a worthwhile activity. Go to it! Have some fun. Be creative. Try something new. Experiment with a new genre. It is also a win / win situation for you. It costs nothing but a little time to submit your article. If you use already existing work that you have done in the past, it could take you as little as fifteen minutes to post an article on this website. I know. I have done it. These alone are two ways you win. Revive existing and almost forgotten unpublished work. Revive your published work. Good work does not age. Pull it out of the archives and put it to work for you. It can’t do anything for you while sitting on a CD, on a magnetic tape, or on a hard drive. Your material, if accepted, is instantly copyrighted under the laws of the United States. Your material, if accepted, is instantly PUBLISHED internationally. Your material, if accepted, is instantly placed where it can be seen by hundreds, possibly thousands of people who want to see material that they can use. There are three more ways you win. Two plus three makes five ways you win. All of this costs you as little as fifteen minutes of your time. Why “give away” a thousand of your precious words? Because you need to do this. You do this every time you send in a submission. You do this to get your work “known”. How will you ever sell your work if you do not become “known”? You need to give people with a need to know about the quality of your work, a chance to “know” your work. You do this every time you send in a letter of intent. You do this every time you send in a letter of interest (query). You do this every time you send in a manuscript. You certainly do this every time you get a rejection slip. Submission of an article is much faster. You may be minutes away from the editor that needs to “know” about your work, and your skills. Can’t your skills be applied to many specific kinds of writing? Give the poor guy a chance to find you. There are at least five or six more ways you win in the last two paragraphs. Conservatively, five plus five is ten ways you win by writing an article for this web page. Maybe your article is, or will become, the nucleus, the skeleton, of a chapter for a book. Maybe a whole book. Your book. Might it become a screenplay? A Movie? A broadway play? How about Little Theater? The function, its possible uses, and its spread around the English speaking world in minutes is the important thing. To those of you with a scientific bent, think of it like this: are you going to plant one little seed in one little pot and then spend months or years taking care of that one little sprout? Would you rather spread thousands of viable seeds around the world where thousands of people that like little seeds and want to give them a chance to grow will have that opportunity? You take your opportunities where they exist. Join us here on a regular basis and share this opportunity with other writer’s you know. Oops! 1,014 words. Fourteen over. Oh. Well. It is OK.
(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace completed an MA and taught in the public schools for 28 years. He recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, the layers of money sucking priesthood, and their departures from the fundamental ideas and messages of Religion. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will outrage everyone. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com
Article Source: http://www.writerspenarticledirectory.com
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