Surfing the Blank Page

Every so often, I always refresh my mind from writing by riding the nearest wave. I remember one time that didn’t happen. The water was calm, the wind was still, and the scene was empty. The waves were gone, and the emptiness of the water almost scared me a little.

Writing can be like that too. There’s nothing more daunting than the blank page or the void of white on the computer screen. The white space then acts as a barrier, blocking the thoughts from your mind and preventing you from getting them on paper. Some people think of this as “writer’s block”, some mystical thing that prevents them from being great writers.

However, it’s not mystical at all, and it isn’t unbreakable.

Remember that the journey of a mile always begins with a single step. A single word can break the silence of the empty page. When writing a first draft, you don’t need to worry about whether you’re not good enough, or that what you’ve written doesn’t work, or that your grade will crash into the rocks if you miss that fragment or comma splice. You can always revise those problems in a later draft.

Depending on how you write, you can always find a way to beat the blank space. One way to do this is simply ride the wave and write. Just type whatever is in your mind at that moment. Don’t stop for anything. Be as one with the text.

When you stop and give yourself time to think, your mind may find a way to trick you into not writing. It will tempt you with that beautiful day outside, the desire to sleep after a long class period, or anything else you’d rather do instead of writing. Ignore that urge to procrastinate, however compelling it sounds to you.

Give yourself space and time to write for yourself when this happens. Find a quiet and peaceful place for you to be alone with your thoughts as you write. Use the writing tools that you love most. Some people enjoy relaxing music when they work. What you use is up to you, and it’s okay to experiment. The important thing is that you schedule a time and a place each day to keep writing, even if it’s just for yourself. This will help you put yourself in a positive frame of mind as you work.

The best way to break the cycle of blockage is to get in the habit of writing without fear. Get into the rhythm of your work, and stay a step ahead of whatever is blocking you. Know what holds you back and push against it. Once you break that initial resistance and find the momentum of your wave, the words will come. Who knows? You may even discover the joy of writing that comes with self-expression.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!

Speaking the Language

Groups of people who gather together often develop insider ways of talking - different dialects, slang, jargon, or code words, even when they speak the same basic language as the nation or tribe to which they belong. Those who are part of a group identify with each other and classify those who do not use the same expressions as outsiders.

Academia is one such group and a rather large one, too. Students can be defined as new members of academia and may not be familiar with the insider language at first. Students should become familiar with formal grammar, the rules and regulations and styles of writing and speaking expected by professors, who are established members of academia. Happily, formal grammar is also widely used in business, politics, law, and many other areas of life. Formal grammar is well worth learning, especially since one’s future career may depend on knowing it.

When families and friends gather, their speech may seem odd, maybe even outlandish, to anyone not accustomed to hearing it; and there is no reason that groups familiar with each other shouldn’t have their own ways of talking, their distinct ways to communicate. It is wise, however, to know that places and people are not all the same. While slang and code words and various twists and turns of a language are useful and fun and good, they won’t serve when it comes time for a new member of academia, a student, to write an essay that will be read by a professor who is used to formal grammar and notes if it is not used.

No one type of language or way of speaking is better or worse than any other. There are just different times and places for each. Right, Dudettes?

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!

Is Your Verb Merely Existing?

Is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been – why do writing teachers occasionally note that problems occur when students overuse being verbs? Being verbs do the job. They are easy to use and quick. They require very little imagination and eliminate the struggle to find an expressive action verb.

The simplicity of being verbs, how very easy they are to use, might begin to reveal why English teachers object to finding an abundance of being verbs in a composition. Let’s face it. Teachers read hundreds, even thousands of essays. Is it possible that a piece of writing in which is, am, was, were, etc., repeat in every sentence might possibly bore the reader?

The English language offers almost endless choices of words and expressions. Being verbs may accomplish the task of forming a full sentence when combined with a subject, but writing loses its punch when the reader finds nothing to imagine, nothing to picture.

Action verbs do engage the senses and add extra levels of interest to writing:

She is a swimmer. (OK)

She swims. (Slightly better)

She plunges against the waves. (Closer)

She glides seamlessly through the waves. (Hmmmm)

Variations on the same general idea have proven possible. The choice of how to express an action depends entirely on the writer’s intent.

Action verbs can give the sentence character, flavor, a sense of reality, while being verbs merely state that any given subject exists (in a state of being). Tacking on a predicate nominative or predicate adjective renames or describes the subject’s state of existence but offers no liveliness or sense of activity.

The next time you write, consider checking to see how many times being verbs appear in your paper. If they greatly outnumber all the other verbs, consider how effectively they have conveyed your meaning. If you find that your writing lacks something, use action verbs instead of being verbs to make a noticeable difference and improve your writing.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!

More Uses of the Apostrophe

One use of the punctuation mark known as the apostrophe is to show ownership or possession. People can be said to “own” many kinds of objects, and they can also “own” ideas and other non-material things.

There are (no surprises here) several rules to keep in mind when indicating ownership by placing an apostrophe at the end of a word, before or after an s usually. One rule has to do with whether there is one (singular –‘s) who owns or more than one (plural – s’) who owns whatever it is.

Consider, for instance, the following examples:

“Jim’s surf board” - only he owns it.
“The surfers’ waves” - they all say they own them.

Spelling matters when it comes time to placing apostrophes. Some nouns are already plural, like the word “children,” so the apostrophe is placed the same way it is for a singular noun, before the s instead of after the s – “the children’s teacher.”

Confused yet? The rules start to become even more interesting (in the sense that maybe we should all review them now and then to refresh our memories) when trying to figure out what belongs to whom and exactly how to punctuate to indicate ownership with the right singular or plural possessive form. A dictionary helps at times, especially when in doubt about whether oddly-spelled (irregular) nouns are singular or plural – one woman, many women. A word such as “deer” does not have a plural form (one deer or eight deer, so one deer’s habitat is punctuated the same as fifty deer’s habitat).

Possessive pronouns add to the mix of questions about using apostrophes to indicate ownership. With words like her or hers, his, theirs, our or ours, no apostrophe is needed since by definition the possessive pronouns already indicate ownership.

There are other ways apostrophes are used, too; but right now the sun is shining and the beach is not very far away. Apostrophes, additional uses, can wait until another day.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten, not 10!