TheWritersBag.com

I was hiking with my daughter when I saw the sign on the side of the trail. I quickly realized that the first sentence was not only for hikers. Its message was for writers.

The fact is, every year the world exacts a toll of writing victims from the unwary, the unprepared and the unfit….

• Literary agents and publishers turn up their noses at wonderful story and book ideas because the writers don’t know how to present their ideas and make glaring punctuation, grammar or spelling mistakes in their queries.
• Superiors at work shake their heads and make negative performance notes on employees who write rambling, error-saturated, off-target reports, sales letters and other business communications.
• People turn away from blogs they would otherwise subscribe to because the blog writers haven’t learned how to convey ideas in succinct, logical, compelling and interesting ways.

This list could go on and on. The point is, too many people with the raw talent to become excellent writers – perhaps even famous authors – fail to achieve their goals because they are unwary, unprepared and unfit in terms of writing skills. Too many people in the business and professional arenas are “held back” because they are unwary, unprepared and unfit when it comes to the foundational communication skill that has become so deadly important since the advent of the personal computer and e-mail: writing.

Why do so many would-be authors, bloggers and business people who must write at work think they can survive and prosper without learning the basic skill sets involved? Would brain surgeons keep their licenses if they just “felt their way” through surgeries? Would accountants stay in business if they depended on their intuition alone? Would fine artists sell any paintings without knowing the basics of drawing, perspective and color?

I’m amazed that so many otherwise intelligent men and women think they can become successful writers without first learning and practicing the basics of grammar, spelling, punctuation, style, organization, format, point of view and so on! Such an attitude is the height of hubris.

Be wary of the dangers lurking out there in wait for those who haven’t taken the time to learn how to write effectively. Prepare yourself by learning the rules, the techniques and the strategies of powerful writing. (Read good writing books and manuals, such as those you’ll find here.) Make yourself a fit writer by regularly giving your writing muscles a good workout. (The Word Shot exercises I publish on this blog every Monday are just one excellent way to do this.)

Learn. Practice. Sharpen your skills. Be a winner – not a victim.

I loved the submissions for last week’s Word Shot, few though they were. (Check out what Tombo wrote. It should make you laugh out loud. Glanda’s might startle you with a O’Henry-like twist at the end, and Tim’s is a pleasure to read. Good for all of you!) You can read these comments here.

Okay – on to yet another Word Shot … another opportunity to give your writing skills and imagination a good workout. Here’s the image:

As you probably know by now, here’s what you do: Look at the photo (really look at it), then think about it, then write down what comes to your mind. Submit that as a comment to this post. You can submit anything from a single word to a full story. And if you participate in 10 Word Shots, I’ll e-mail you my three e-manuals on writing.

Though there are no rules to this, here’s a tip: Ask yourself obvious questions, then answer them in non-obvious ways. For example, obvious questions for this photo would be, “Why are these people lined up? What are they waiting for?” Obvious answers might include, “They’re lined up to sign up for a race, or to buy tickets to an event or ride in the park.”

Those are boring answers. Stretch your imagination as come up with answers that are not obvious. For example, your answer might be that these young people are waiting to board a time-travel module because each desperately needs to escape a particular problem in his or her life. Such an answer could be the premise of an entire book.

Take a shot at this one. What can you come up with? Even if it’s just a word or a phrase, we’d all like to hear from you.

Only one of the following sentences is correct. Which?

1. I decided not to go to the inauguration; it would be incredibly crowded; with the rest of the committee.
2. I decided not to go to the inauguration (It would be incredibly crowded.) with the rest of the committee.
3. I decided not to go to the inauguration – it would be incredibly crowded – with the rest of the committee.
4. I decided not to go to the inauguration (it would be incredibly crowded) with the rest of the committee.
5. I decided not to go to the inauguration, it would be incredibly crowded; with the rest of the committee.
6. I decided not to go to the inauguration, it would be incredibly crowded, with the rest of the committee.

If you chose sentence #2, you were … close. Sentence #2 is not correct. But it comes closer to being correct than the other four incorrect sentences. Sentence #1 is flawed as well. So are sentences #3 and #5. Sentence #6 is wrong, too. (What I’m doing here is giving you the run-around, because if, after listing the six sentences, I were to come right out and say sentence #4 is the correct choice, that would take all the fun out of it. But there you have it. Sentence #4 is the winner.)

But why?

The reason is simple: The others are incorrect. Sentences #1, #5 and #6 make a valiant effort to push commas and semicolons to do what they cannot. Sentence number three – the one with the dashes – comes closer to acceptability, but not nearly close enough. Using dashes to embed a complete sentence within another sentence is tricky (if not dangerous) business, and should never be attempted at home.

Sentences #2 and #4 are essentially the same, except that the embedded sentence in #2 goes obnoxiously far in trying to make itself look like a sentence. My grandmother used to say that if a complete sentence is cowardly enough to try to hide inside another sentence, it doesn’t deserve to take its beginning capitalization and ending punctuation with it. In short, it should be stripped of its sentence-ness.

That’s why sentence #2 is not correct. Its embedded sentence has ostentatiously clung to its first capital letter and ending period. Yes, it made the right choice in pulling parentheses around it – rather than commas, semicolons and dashes – but that doesn’t excuse it from the other infractions.

So the next time you’re sitting around embedding complete sentences inside other sentences (some enthusiasts do this every Friday night) remember the rule: Don’t capitalize the embedded sentence, and don’t use the ending punctuation. If you follow these rules, you will live a long and happy life.