Is your meter running?

Meter is one of those words with several meanings. It's a measurement of size, though we spell it metre in Canada. It's a device like a parking meter, measuring time. It's also measurement of rhythm and pace. According to my Funk & Wagnalls dictionary, a meter is: "A measured rhythm constituting one of the chief characteristics of verse."

Meter isn't just for poetry. There is some form of poetry in our fiction and nonfiction writing. The words you choose, how you arrange them and how they sound when they come together, are all part of writing something people will want to read more of. Think about it.

Recently in the BackWash message boards PussNBoots, one of the Adult columnist's said:

"Every writer searches for their own "voice." The best way to find it is to write. Also, pay attention to the voices of writers you admire. Read their work out loud to hear the rhythm and meter. Listen to why they chose particular words."

I thought that was brilliant. Reading your work out loud is the best way to check it's meter, the rhythm of your words. That doesn't mean you need to make your writing longer or chop it down, just choose different words or arrange them differently. See how your words flow, does the rhythm change or get monotonous? Is it dramatic and fast paced when you write about action? Or are the sentences you use kind of long and clunky? Do you tend to start sentences with the same pattern or rhythm? Vary your sentence structure.

"Tom went to the market, at Guildwood, everyday" Could be "Everyday, Tom would go to Guildwood's market." Not great examples but you get the idea, I hope.

There isn't much talk about writer's cramp any more. Writer's block is still around but the crampiness is becoming a thing of the past.

I wonder what writers, of the feather pen era, thought about when those newfangled typewriters came along? What changed for them, if they took up the new technology? What special skills were lost as the typewriter grew in popularity? Likely, there was some skill to dipping your pen into the inkwell just right, to avoid drips. There would have been skill involved in knowing when the ink on your page was dry enough to be handled.

I sometimes miss writing long hand. It's nice to feel the flow of my words smoothing over the page. Creating stylish swirls and tall towers from the alphabet is almost as much fun as making the letters into words. Pens are fun too. I've been writing with a couple of gel pens in unique colours. In the past I've experimented with various pens, Bics were my high school pen of choice. As I evolved my pen selection became whatever was on sale at the time. Still, I always preferred black ink.

My penmanship has taken a turn for the worst due to all my time on the keyboard. After a few minutes writing long hand my words become chicken scratchings, something even a doctor would struggle to decipher.

Will penmanship become a lost art? Will calligraphy just be something you do on the computer with fancy fonts? Then of course, I wonder what the next advance will bring. Will computers have their own turn at being obsolete?

Deadlines sound like a fisherman's term for a bad day.

How do you handle deadlines? Are you a procrastinator, like me? Sometimes I do get started early, with all the passion and enthusiasm for the topic I'm undertaking. But, I get too caught up in the research and the ideas. The actual article doesn't start taking shape until I suddenly realize the deadline is looming over me like big black clouds over a tiny fishing boat on the lake. Then, I rush and worry that I haven't done the article as well as I could have, should have. Days like those your spellchecker can be your good friend.

Undertaking is another good word. It definitely sounds like what the undertaker does and I guess it really is, just not quite the same thing when applied to a funeral parlour. Yes, I'm full of bad witticisms today.

Anyway, a writing assignment/ project/ job/ career requires undertaking and deadlines on a regular basis. Deadlines keep you from poking around, if you're like me. Undertakings get you started. Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. Any time you feel overwhelmed by the job (writing or otherwise) it's a great idea to step back and break it into bite sized pieces. That way it's manageable instead of horrifyingly huge and a massive undertaking. You can also put the least appealing things first, get them done and out of the way so you can enjoy the parts you like and have a better chance of being finished for your deadline.

Keep things simple and work on your deadlines, especially good advice to all the fishing types.

How many different kinds of writing can you think of? Beyond the non-fiction and fiction there seem to be an endless variety of genres and styles and mediums for writers to get into. This week I'm trying to find a good cross selection of links to get your brain thinking. Why not try something new? After all that is the best way to beat writers block. If you keep trying new ideas I doubt you will ever feel you can't write.

Having options is the best revenge.

If I'm wrong in your case, try some writing exercises. Those are options too.

Deadline!

Did that scare you? Well, it scares me. Not to the extent that my hair is turning white... well, not all at once. But enough that I feel the pressure to procrastinate.

How do you procrastinate? I tend to play computer games. At least it keeps me in the right area, if not very focused. Sometimes I snap out of it, grab ahold of myself and tell myself (sternly) that this is not a good thing. Most of the time I begin planning my article then. Being stern with myself seems to give me inspiration.

I think most of us come to a point where we have to force ourselves to write. For whatever your own personal reasons are, its not easy to create something out of an idea and a blank page. You aren't going to feel that orgasm of inspiration and lust to write for each and every article you work on. Or you might reach a point where you don't have more to say about a topic you write about frequently.

How do you get new ideas, new angles? Try procrastinating, but in a good way. Read the newspaper, take a walk outside and see what you come up with. Sometimes all it really takes in combining ideas. While you are outside you see a few birds and think about how birds often fly into buildings. Could that be a new article for your architecture column? Or a new fiction story about what drives birds or doesn't drive them? Its up to you to twist things around and put them into print. Just don't procrastinate too long, you've got that blood thirsty deadline, remember?