If You Wrote Like I Write.... ;)

Do you want to know some of my writing secrets? Not like writing tips, but secrets of the way I write? They'll make you laugh, and make me blush. Ready? Okay.

1.) I use a superfluous number of exclamation marks. This quote from "Cranford" could be said about any of my writing:
"She wrote in such distress--there were exclamation marks!" ;)

2.) I hate writing with pencils. If I am forced to use one, I sharpen it every couple of minutes. I absolutely *cannot* use a blunt tipped writing instrument. :P You want a quote to go with this? Okay. Here's one from Puddleby Lane:
"Of course she knew that writing with a pencil would be far more practical—she would be able to erase mistakes. But there was something stimulating in the scratching of the pen’s nib. It liberated her fancy and the words flowed freer. A pencil humped along like a bored snail but an ink-pen skimmed the surface of the paper like a gull winging above the ocean waves"

3.) I am guilty of plugging in synonyms of "said" at the end of my dialog to make the writing sound more prestigious, and ending up sounded the direct opposite. Believe it or not, "said" is invisible, and therefore doesn't ruin the flow of your writing like other, longer words might.

4.) I vow that a glass of homemade (or Chik-fil-A) lemonade is the best companion for inspiration. Hot tea makes me sleepy, you need hands to eat anything and there's something about the zing of lemonade that wakes you up... ;)

5.) My brain freezes up when there is a sister looking over my shoulder at the progress of my story. I can't think quite so well. Especially when I know they are casting silent darts of disapproval over the fate of certain characters...ahem.

6.) I scribble poems and story ideas down on random scraps of paper and stick them in random books, and come across them later on long after I had forgotten about them.

7.) I apparently make faces and generally act out my book on my face while writing. (Or at least, my sisters tell me so.)

Was that at all interesting? I hope so. What are some weird things you all do when you write? Any strange habits? Have a great Memorial Day weekend! I'm entering a pie-contest. :) Even authoresses are not above dabbling in pastry-making. ;) -Rachel

Facts of Fame- 10 things you never knew about your favorite authors ;)

I am sorry I haven't posted for awhile...the growing season is creeping up on us, and with it less time for writing and blogging! :) But since I just discovered that it has been two weeks since I have posted anything on here, I feel rightfully ashamed of myself, and I mean to reform. I thank every one of you who hasn't forsaken this blog, even though it has dabbled too much in inactivity!
If you are anything like me, you love random facts about people, places, anything! And that's a key to writing: finding out the things that others pass over, and twining them into your stories somehow. :)
So here are 10 facts that I hope you won't already have heard about famous authors. ;) Enjoy them! :)

1. C. S. Lewis's gardener, Fred Paxford, was the model for Puddleglum in The Silver Chair. Upon finding out that he only inherited 100 pounds after Lewis's death he remarked: "Werl, it won't take me far, wull it?"

2. Dickens was obsessive-compulsive over his hair- he looked in the mirror and combed it hundreds of times a day!

3. Mark Twain considered Lucy Maud Montgomery's "Anne Shirley" to be the best girl in literature since Lewis Carroll's "Alice"

4. Jane Austen first tried to publish Pride and Prejudice with the title: First Impressions

5. Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote over 5,000 poems in her lifetime

6. The famous abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, took his name from Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake

7. Poet Walter de la mare, for the last 17 years of his life, lived in the same street that Alfred Lord Tennyson had lived in

8. Laura Ingalls Wilder, although falling into ill health in her early eighties, told everyone that she wanted to live to be 90 "because Almanzo had". She achieved the goal, dying 3 days after her 90th birthday

9. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, believed in fairies, partly convinced by some photos of fairies, taken by two young cousins. The cousins, though they admitted the pictures were a hoax, were too embarrassed to admit it publicly, after fooling such a man as Sir Arthur

10. Thornton W. Burgess wrote at least 169 story books about woodland animals for children :)

My Thoughts On Poetry, And A New Something

Hey guys! Thanks for telling me all your opinions on poetry! So here are mine:

1.) First and foremost: Poetry ought to be inspired by something. I have seriously found that unless the idea for a poem pops up in your mind, it usually isn't worth writing. I mean, sometimes you can come up with something, but the really good poems aren't written, they sort of write themselves. I am like Abigail- usually a couple lines pop into my head, and I write a poem around them! :)

2.) As for styles of poetry....I am a bit narrow-minded in this area. Usually, I go with poems that rhyme. Now, I do agree that it probably takes just as much talent to write a good freestyle poem as it does to write one that rhymes, but unless you are an exceptional writer the cadence of a well-written rhyming poem, is lost in a freestyle one. I KNOW that many people would disagree with me, but these are just my feelings on the subject, and are subject to change. I have read some free-style poems that capture a thought splendidly, and probably better than a poem in rhyme, but I am typically NOT a fan of Carl Sandburg, Dorothy Aldis, and those sorts of poets. Feel free to disagree with me! Those are just my sentiments! :P
I think I'll start a monthly post of interesting facts about famous authors! So the rest of this post will be devoted to the subject: Ladys and Gents, Welcome to the Very First: "Dickens did NOT!" ;) If I think of a better name, I'll change it, but that sounds sort of catchy! ;P

1. Jack London, author of White Fang and The Call of The Wild was once a freight-train hopping hobo, and was arrested for vagracy at Niagra Falls

2. The word "boredom" first appeared in print in Charles Dicken's "Bleak House"

3. William Shakespeare's tombstone reads: "Blest be the man who casts these stones, and cursed be the man who moves my bones." There has been some speculation that several unpublished works were buried with him, but no one has followed the theory with any evidence- possibly because they are afraid of the epithet on his tombstone!

4. Louisa May Alcott as a child, was friends with the famous Henry David Thoreau, and would often take walks with him in the woods and fields of Concord and the surrounding countryside.

Alright! That's all for now, because my computer time is up! :) -Rachel