"Please prove you are not a robot."

You know you're a person, but several times a week you have to prove it.

You get those "requests" where you have to prove you are a human in order to post a message. You run into them almost every day. It's bad enough to have to prove that funny, intelligent, good-looking, flesh-and-blood you has to show that you are not a machine. But when the proof requires you to try to read blurry numbers that seem to be attached to houses that have a shady past or letters that are so wavy and squeezed together that they might as well be a pre-schooler's scribbles, it can be almost impossible. How many times have you "failed" and had to try again? And again? And again? How many times have you decided that what you wanted to say was not worth the effort of proving you are you?

Yes, spamming can be a problem. But surely there must be a better way of eliminating it than having to try to interpret indecipherable numbers and letters!

Handwritten Letters

Although I email a lot (along with other electronic communication) and phone occasionally, I do still write letters to some of my friends and family. My handwriting is terrible, but I do the best I can. Why? Because I think handwritten letters are special.

I've saved many letters over the years, and when I look at them again they bring the letter-writer right back into my mind, even those who have passed on. When I see my mother's handwriting, I can hear her voice. When I read a friend's letter, I can picture as she was back at the time when she wrote it.

When I was growing up, it was a thrill to get a letter in the mail addressed to me. I still feel that way. I love actual cards, be they birthday, Christmas or whatever, much better than ecards. I can put a real, paper card on the mantle and enjoy it every time I look in that direction. While emails can be saved (and I do save certain ones), it is not the same. They are hidden away. And most people delete their emails as soon as they have read them.

Handwritten letters and cards often contain family and friendship history. Years later letters can be discovered by future generations that will tell them something about the past. But no one is going to look through ancient emails, even if by some chance years from now they could still be read by future computers and electronic devices.

I have letters from my mother dating back to when I first moved away from home. I have letters from my husband written to me before we were married. I even have a letter from an author of a series of favorite books that I read when I was growing up.

My grandmother saved her correspondence, and there is a "letter" from me written when I was very young, before I could actually write. It looks like a row of ocean waves. But I was trying!

Of course, there are stashes of Valentine's and Mother's Day cards that I gave my mother when I was growing up and that my daughter gave to me.

Emails and such are fun, but handwritten cards and letters are pure gold.

Familiar Question--How do you write a whole book?

Answer: Persistence!

Questions and comments I get about writing often revolve around actually finishing a book. A lot of people start writing books, but then never finish them.

I can understand. It's always fun when I have new idea and the adrenaline is flowing. Getting those first few words out is exciting! But. Then what?

Well, then a writer has to make sure the plot has viable beginning, middle and end. Characters must be created and fully developed. Setting has to be described and incorporated into the story. And on and on.

So, how does a writer get to the point of writing "The End?" By going "on and on." By writing one word, one sentence, one paragraph and then moving on to the next.

Don't worry about that first word, sentence or paragraph being perfect. Not right away. Of course, writers need to revise and polish their work. But expecting perfection from the start--or waiting for the "muse" to dictate the perfect story--isn't going to work.

Finishing a book is not easy, but it's not impossible. One word, then another, then the next. Sentence after sentence. Paragraph after paragraph. Chapter after chapter. Pretty soon you'll have written a whole book.

Flashbacks

Flashbacks can give us information and provide insights into situations and characters.

Stories are usually not told entirely in chronological order. Most have at least one flashback, if not more. The flashback can take a story back and provide information that also moves a story forward.

For example, if we find out that a teen had been abused in some way by a parent, teacher or other adult, it can explain his current emotions, actions and motives.

Flashbacks do have to be handled carefully, however. A reader can get so caught up in the past that he/she does not want to return to the present. Or, a reader can get impatient with a flashback and wonder when it will end so that the story can move on. They must written so that they are seamless and enhance the story rather than slow it down.

Reread any flashbacks in your stories and see if you get too involved or too impatient. If you do, so will your readers.

There's More to Life than Housework

In my life, anyway.

The lived-in look is good enough for me. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with reasonably clean and tidy. After all, even if a house is cleaned until it is immaculate, how long does that last, anyway? Not very long.

I tune out when I hear people talking about how to get the dirt out from under their refrigerators. I mean, wait until you move! Who is going to see it? And are there really people who move all their furniture every week to vacuum behind something that requires two people and a jack to move it?

I remember the mother of one of my friends who followed us around the house whenever I was over there, and she would polish the doorknobs milli-seconds after I touched them. She had three perfect birch logs in the fireplace, never burned of course, because that would cause the fireplace to have (gasp!) ashes strewn on the bottom. And I'll bet she dusted those logs too.

Of course, we could never sit on my friend's bed, because that would wrinkle the bedspread. Needless to say, I didn't go over to her house very often.

I clean enough so that no one's going to call the health department. I tidy up enough so that I can find something the next time I look for it. But scrub my toilet with a toothbrush? Wash the kitchen floor every day? Pull out every book in the bookcase when I dust. Uh, no.

There's more to life than a sterile, immaculate house!

Do you want to be a writer?

Or do you just like the idea of being a writer?

I read an article in a magazine once about how people often liked the idea of doing something much more than actually doing it. One example was people dreaming of giving up city life and moving to a farm. While there are a tiny number of people who actually do that, most folks don't really want to give up their city life and invest themselves in the truly hard work of farm life. The idea of it is much more fun.

I felt the same way about a home-made Christmas. I loved the idea of making my own cards, gifts, wrapping paper, dozens of kinds of cookies and candies, Christmas-tree decorations, etc. But I realized it was the idea I liked. I didn't really want to actually do all those things. I could simply appreciate the people who did.

Would-be writers are often in love with the idea of writing. They like to talk about writing and think about writing and read about writing. They may even go to a conference or two. But when it comes to sitting down and actually writing, well, it turns out they really prefer the idea of being a writer. It's so much easier, and fun, to daydream about developing a plot, creating characters, and describing settings than to put those ideas down on paper or computer.

"I'm too busy," they often will say. "If only I didn't have to work/parent/study, why I would write a book." As if it is so easy-peasy that all it takes is just a bit more free time. Well, no harm in daydreaming and liking the idea of something. We all do it. But if you really want to be a writer, there's only one way to accomplish that dream--sit down and start writing and keep going until you finish a manuscript. And don't wait, start today!

Humor--We Need It!

"When humor goes, there goes civilization."--Erma Bombeck “The secret to humor is surprise.”–Aristotle “Humor is truth.”–Victor Borges “[Mark Twain] understood that the source of laughter was not joy but sorrow.”–Ken Burns “Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”–James Thurber "A joke is a very serious thing."--Winston Churchill "Humor is mankind's greatest blessing."--Mark Twain "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It is jolted by every pebble on the road." "A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles."--Mignon McLaughlin