Of course, in my elementary gifted classes there were some moments that were not as enjoyable.  Like the day I found out Santa Claus was not real.  I suppose I cannot really blame the teacher.  I mean, we were all supposed to be pretty advanced, so why would a group of advanced and gifted ten year old kids still believe in Santa?  I got over that though and moved on to middle school.

Still a part of the gifted classes, I would leave behind my regular classmates to go learn with the “smart” crowd.  But I realized that maybe I did not fit in with these intellectuals after all.  While I was at home writing my first research paper in MLA format in sixth grade, my friends were on the cheerleading team and going to sporting events.  This really got to me and put me in a funk, yet I kept going.  Then, I had to write a speech that I have conveniently blocked from my memory as it was so awful to write and then memorize.  All I can remember is what my paper said when my rough draft was handed back to me:

Needs more SPARKLE!

Um, what?  Sparkle?  What was wrong with this woman?  I am a twelve year old in sixth grade and you want me to write a speech while my friends have sleepovers and play outside; a speech with “SPARKLE?”  I did not even know where to begin to find this sparkle, and frankly I’m not sure if I ever found it.  That speech was the first time she asked for sparkle from me and it was not the last.  I spent three school years with Ms. Sparkly McSparkleson as my teacher, and those three years were lackluster and sparkle-less as far as my writing was concerned.

I wonder how Ms. McSparkleson would feel about my writing now?  Then again, maybe I don’t.

Instead of saying words, they will simply spell out the abbreviations used to text their friends — and yet, when these students are polled, most agree that writing is incredibly important, a skill which, left un-mastered, could result in missing out on the job of one’s dreams.  How do we get these students out of the trap of using slang and back into a more appropriate formal dialogue when the occasion calls for it?  There seems to be no easy answer, but enjoy the following infographic anyway.  It sheds some light on what kind of language students are using and in what situations.

Fanfiction is frequently published in a serialized format, online, as a “work in progress” or WIP.   New chapters are published in a sequential order, sometimes the moment they are completed, and stories following some of the most popular series’ enjoy large followings of readers. A fan fiction writer sometimes elects to have editorial work done to his or her writing;  the editor is called a beta reader.  Writing a new chapter may take anywhere from one single day to half a year or more.

The Internet is the best natural medium for fan fiction writers to share their work.  For example:  we all know that the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling is complete.  It ended with the seventh book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  But in the world of fan fiction, hundreds more adventures of the young wizard and his friends and enemies can be found — some as sequels to the existing canon by the original author, and others featuring alternative story lines. The same can be said of Stephenie Myers’ Twilight Saga and it’s enthusiastic fan fiction following.  Most fan fiction authors enjoy getting feedback from their readers, and actively solicit it as payment for their work.  They do not, and legally cannot, be paid money for writing the stories, since their creating authors own the copyrights.

Writers often use bulletin boards, forums, and weblog software such as Livejournal or Blogger to post their serialized writings.  These offer the perfect place for their stories to receive attention, and where readers can give them feedback instantly.  Some fan fiction authors are famous on the Web for their lengthy and well written stories, often rivaling the authors who created the characters and worlds they have decided to write about.

Free-writing is probably the easiest way to get yourself into writing, and can be revisited time and again to break through bouts of persistent writer’s block. In free-writing, you can do no wrong. There is no prescribed structure, so you can’t mess it up.

Don’t be discouraged at times when writing a story seems too difficult to even attempt. Choosing the type of writing for your story can be important to how confident you feel about it: short stories are limited by constraints of length, and by when and where certain plot aspects should make appearances during the flow of the story. You have to get everything into the smallest space possible for a narrative can be intimidating. You might do well to consider a longer form that gives you more freedom to meander and wind your way back around to the basic plot devices.

After you’ve decided which form of writing you’ll use, get deep into each of the elements. Plot, the first element, is what separates the free-writing from a finished story. If the plot is full of holes, so will your entire story be. Next, make sure your characters are strong and that they help drive the plot along. If the characters are flat, two-dimensional descriptions of what ought to be people, then you’re going to have trouble getting your story across. Finally pay attention to the setting. The setting is such a powerful element, consisting of where and when a story takes place, that it can take on the proportions of a minor character itself.

If all else fails to inspire you, you might consider getting some fresh ideas from a few nights of recording your dreams in a dream diary, looking into trying out some wholesale herbal incense, or trying some new teas to get your imagination moving.

The best freelancing opportunities come from just contacting the editors of publications you already know and read yourself.  This automatically sets you up as someone who will enjoy being able to write about familiar subjects.  Since you already read the magazine, paper, or web publication, it also puts you at a distinct advantage for getting in with the editors, since your knowledge of their audience tastes and preferences will be evident in your cover letter.  When you do make that first contact, just remember that the cover letter could be your only chance of getting a response from someone in a position to help you start writing for the company you have approached.  Make it the best letter you have ever written:  keep things on topic, don’t include anything irrelevant to that magazine or your qualifications for writing for it, and don’t be overly cold or formal in tone.  I’m not saying you should use slang and speak as though you are on familiar terms with this person you have never met — but you also don’t want to sound robotic when you talk to them, either.  Keep a friendly tone, and be sure to sell yourself.

Some freelance opportunities are more difficult to land than others.  Many outlets do not accept solicitations from writers, insisting on dealing with agents only — or worse, only writers with a certain number of published articles of a highly selective caliber under their belts.  This is reminiscent of the days when you first tried getting that great entry level job, only to learn they wanted people with experience.  Well, how do you get experience unless someone will hire you?  It’s the same with writing.  You may need to start working for free until you build up a repertoire of quality articles and make a name for yourself.  Some ways to do this include offering to be a guest blogger and submitting your work for free.  Often a website will give you a few links in return for your work — so you could then link the published articles directly back to your own blog or website, increasing your traffic and also lending more credibility to the marketing of you as a writer.

Any sort of novel outline will alter the character and outcome of this journey for good or ill, since once it is constructed, there exists a construct that the mind will need to defy in the event of the slightest deviation.  Under the best of circumstances, the outline serves to keep the writer grounded and on the path she has chosen to tread for this story.  Under the worst, the writer may find herself overly confident in her initial planning and will fail to defy it, even when the plan shows evidence of producing a dry, lifeless story that reads more like a detailed grocery list than prose.

Feel happy when you strike off on a writing adventure.  Be confident that you can get through a couple of chapters with only the stars to navigate by.  Go ahead and let your wild writing talents free for a while, without all that over-planning that can, for some writers, result in great best selling novels — but for others can completely condemn a story to failure.

“Planning every last detail has worked well for some famous writers,” says Peach Burleson.  ”Take J.K. Rowling, for example.  She probably has entire sub-biographies for every character whose name she ever put into print.  She allegedly has mountains of background information about the plot, characters, and world of her Harry Potter novels locked away in vaults somewhere.  Now, that’s planning.”

Because I am endlessly curious — and if you have a moment to share:  What is the role of the novel outline in your writing?  Where do you draw the line between adherence to your first instincts and letting the narrative take you for an unexpected ride through a strange neighborhood at an unconventional hour of the night?  How detailed do you make your outlines?  What gets you from start to finish?

For some of my friends, the start to finish aspect of writing never really comes up, since the “start” is really as far as it goes.  This is another case in which I feel planning can cause such stress and so much of a delay, a person can be easily overwhelmed and find him or herself stuck before the first words can ever find their places on a blank page.  If planning causes this much grief, then it is clearly advisable that one avoid it at all costs.  It’s better at the end of a day to have something on the page, than nothing.  Many people become impatient if their writing doesn’t seem to be progressing at a rapid clip.  They would sooner abandon it than take a break, walk away, and come back later to finish something off.  Writing freestyle, however, adds a great deal of artistic liberty that permits people to write and write without feeling stymied.