The Novelist’s Thank You List

My Saying

I have a question for you. How has your writing been going?
• Downhill?
• In a slump?
• Stalled out?
• As good as can be expected (under the circumstances)?
• Nowhere?

As I said in my last post, writing is a strange occupation: Novel Writing – Indulgence or Obligation. It’s a strange business to be in.

But hey, I have a saying about writers. My saying is this (and unlike some of the other quotes you find in my Be A Novelist blogs this is truly an original):

A writer can go further on a tiny smidgeon of encouragement than any other creature on the planet.

And that’s the truth.

Typewriter Keys Constantly Needed Cleaning

Making Corrections Was a Pain in the Neck!
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The List

So, if you’re in a bit of a funk today regarding your writing, I want to give you a few reasons to be thankful. Let me be your encourager today.

• Be thankful you do not have sitting on your desk, a ream of fresh clean paper ready to be rolled into your typewriter. Argh! I’m not too proud to say I remember doing exactly that.

• Be thankful that you do not have to sit on the floor with paste and scissors and and pages strewn about, and actually cut out and move around bits and blocks and paragraphs of writing in order to make your edits. (We called it cut and paste. Did you really not know where that term came from?)

• Be thankful you do not have to be concerned with keys jamming, ribbons fading, keys filled with ink that need cleaning, a typewriter that when moved required a crane and winch.

• Be thankful that making a correction doesn’t require tiny little bits of white-out papers. (Liquid white-out came later. Correcting ribbons came even later.)

• Be thankful that page numbering need not be done manually. Try to imagine a 200+-page manuscript that has been edited midway through and now every page must be edited. Yikes!

Love the Word: Paginate

I remember vividly how enraptured I became at automatic paginating with my first word processor. (NOTE: that was a word processor, NOT a computer.) I even fell in love with word: paginating, pagination, paginate. I could say it over and over as I fell asleep listening to my new dot-matrix printer in my office grinding out my manuscript overnight. (Yes it took all night. But before that, it took days for me to type up the final copy. Overnight was an incredible miracle.)

Don't Forget

• Oh, one more. Don't forget to be thankful that you don't have to sharpen your quill or fill your ink bottle. (And no, I don't remember doing that. smile)

Be Happy; Be Thankful

There you have it fellow writers. Reasons to be thankful today. (And every day for that matter.) I think it calls for a celebration! Don’t worry; be happy. Actually, be thrilled! The ability to create your novel (or whatever writing project you’re working on) has never been more unencumbered!

So get busy. Shake off the doldrums and...
Keep on writing!

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Writing/Publishing Sites

http://www.beanovelist.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BeANovelist/
http://www.cleanteenreads.net/
https://www.facebook.com/CleanTeenReadsNet/