My guess is you've all had someone in your life who's offered advice. Some worked, some didn't, and some stayed with you. That "some" for me came from Bob Early, a former editor of Arizona Highways and the guy who really tuned me in to travel writing in 1999.
In his previous life, he was the city editor at the Arizona Republic and was involved with the investigative team that worked to uncover who killed Don Bolles. (Did you know there might be a movie about this?)
Bob Early gave me several good tips in a class I took that he used to teach at Arizona State University-West Campus. And I still use or think about at least three of them to this day. Now I pass on all three to you. If you're a writer of some sort, you'll understand:
1) If you send out five pitches a week, you'll always have work.
2) Always carry a small notepad in your pocket or purse to capture the great lines you hear, the great ideas you have, or the funny stories that happen.
3) Your writing comes alive if you remove the "to be" verbs.
Hope some of this inspires you.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
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5 comments:
what are the 'to be' verbs? is?
i had a theology teacher in high school who pounded it into us that the questions were worth pursuing in this world, not the answers. then we'd ask if the questions were really the answers, and he'd say that's a great question:)
a classmate of mine recently reminded me that this teacher said we'd better like the person we marry becuz there was gonna come a day when we no longer were in love with that person and everything pretty much depended on how much we liked each other.
I think both of your instructors made good points. ;-)
My advice, the stuff I try to remember is to keep it all in perspective. There are so few things in the world that are worth some of the worry I put into them. VERY few.
Barb, that's beyond true. I used to worry about everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. Wisdom and age changes all that. You realize your time can be better spent. Like on baking that cinnamon roll before your daughter trashes it. ;-)
All 3 items make for excellent advice. I especially like the notebook idea. I have one in my bag, but I rarely jot my thoughts down! Need to work on that...
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