Guest Blogger: Katherine Harms

How to Turn Personal Experience into an Article

-One of my first successes as a writer was an article about my experience learning to sail. The first time I ever sailed on a monohull sailboat, I was completely flummoxed when the boat heeled over. I thought sailboats sailed across the water the way a car travels on a road – upright. It took a few months and numerous experiences that bordered on terror for me to adjust. An article about my adjustment from fearful landlubber to giddy sailor garnered my first reader responses. It was the food of the gods.
-I got my first writing “job” when a friend decided to start a boating magazine. Based in Omaha, the magazine did not have a lot of subscribers who sailed. As a startup, the magazine could not afford compensation for its writers, but I yearned to find out if anyone would read what I could write. I wrote for love and for the adventure and just to see if I could do it. My second article, “Living on Tilt” incorporated my initial fear of heeling with a little humor and concluded with a testimonial to the pure joy of sailing. Readers responded with delight and asked if I would write more such stories. Would I!
-Personal experience can be the foundation of many great articles. A single adventure or personal trial may be the meat of the whole article. One of my best-liked articles told the story of how my husband and I learned the importance of knowing weather signs. The article chronicled our survival, confessed our mistakes, and summed up our lessons learned. In another one I told about the first time I cooked Thanksgiving dinner in a marine galley. I found my first paying market with an article about the way forgiveness heals in a family crisis. Humor and pathos are as valuable in articles as they are in novels.
-Sometimes you will find that numerous personal experiences deftly illustrate a theme you want to explore in an article. Everyone knows that communication is critical to the success of a marriage, and when I decided to write on that topic, I was able to share numerous illustrations from my experience sailing with my husband. By using illustrations of the way failure to communicate interferes with successful sailing, I presented the destructive effects of poor interpersonal communications with a lighter touch.
-It is important to remember that people are not really interested in your family, your friends and your opinions. They are interested in stories that engage their emotions, entertain, challenge or even teach them something. A memorable article might be set in Yellowstone Park during last summer’s vacation, but it won’t be memorable if it is a simply a diary of your daily travels. Just as a novel needs a plot that piques the reader’s attention, an article must continually make the reader ask, “then what?” Readers will snooze before finishing the first paragraph that begins, “Day 1 – we pack the trunk.” A story that starts with a bear at your tent door when you wake up will be more intriguing. That great story could lead very naturally into an article that elaborates on the role of bears in the environment, or strategies for hiking and camping in nature preserves, or the National Park policy for managing the bear population.
-Your life is a treasure chest of memories and great stories. If you use your best writing skills to share your adventures, the treasure might add up in your bank account.
© 2009 Katherine Harms
www.katherineharms.com

Katherine Harms lives and writes aboard the sailboat No Boundaries in Baltimore, Maryland. A liveaboard sailor for the past 8 years, sailing provides a lot of material for her writing life. She and her husband have cruised the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic coast between Delaware and Maine, and the Caribbean. Future plans include cruises to Nova Scotia and the Amazon.

All Over But The Selling

Publishers and literary agents are becoming increasingly selective about the books they are willing to look at. As fewer books are purchased it is even more important to submit your best work. Yet revising, editing and polishing can be daunting. There is so much to look at.

For hints, tips, techniques and services available please stop by:

Reflections on Editing is my new blog

http://patriciapunt-writing-coach.blogspot.com/

Read Like A Pro

Ocassionally, I'll meet a would-be writer who claims they are not readers ... never have been, don't have time. Huh? This doesn't, well, this doesn't make sense to me. I can't quite comprehend wanting to have a life in words and not enjoying words. How will they ever learn to write I wonder? In my opinion if you want to write like a pro, you must read like a pro.

A Good Editor Is Hard To Find

Cynthia Crossen writes about authors, books, publishing and editors in her Wall Street Journal column Book Lover. Today's column talks about Australian author Steve Tolz's first novel "A Fraction of the Whole" (short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in September). The novel is long, 576 pages.
According to the cover quotes (paperback edition) the book is "devastatingly funny," even "laugh-out-loud-funny" and Mr. Toltz is compared to Mark Twain, John Irving, Martin Amis...even Charles Dickens. Ms. Crossen asks the question "What more could I want?" Her answer is quoted below:
__"A plot, compelling voices, believable characters and an editor with a machete for starters. There were a lot of funny moments and lines, and Mr. Toltz is obviously an exceptionally imaginative and witty guy, but where were his minders? Someone should have sat him down in an interrogation room and offered a plea bargain: Lose 100 pages or go to jail.
"Editors are the invisible heroes of the publishing industry, and as publishing companies cut corners, they cut editors. On the most basic level, that means more typos, grammatical errors and factual contradictions...
"But without strong editors, writers are like cars with accelerators but no brakes. While reading many of Mr. Toltz's long passages, I pictured him at his computer (or typewriter), entertaining himself with his own wit and wisdom. That's as it should be. Then an editor should tell him, "Steve, you're a great writer (always start with the praise), but let's do some judicious whittling and makes this fabulous book (more praise) even better."

I can't say enough about good editors. As a writer I value their feedback and direction. They are, after all, trying to help me write well and connect with the reader. As a reader I appreciate a good editor because they keep me turning the page. Those who read Ms. Crossen know that she has a "strict no-skimming rule." As a reader I don't have the same patience to wade through a novel I don't like, no matter how long or short. I'm not sure why she sticks with the author, I can't. There are simply too many other good books waiting to be read.
My work as an editor however, puts me in a very different place. I can't stop reading. I endlessly turn the pages looking at the story line, picturing the characters and listening for the author's voice. What does the author want me to know about this world that she has created? Why has the author chosen to present the characters in this manner, what changes, if any will I see in their character by the end of the story? Why has he chosen this plot, these characters and this particular setting? And what is this book, this manuscript, really about?
My job as a freelance editor is enjoyable, because I get to choose whom I will work with. I work with writers I think I can help. This is why my initial reading is free. I love being the first to read an author's work. It is an honor. And when I've finished those first five or seven pages and I'm wishing I had more I'll call the writer and say let's get together.
Talk to me I tell the writer, tell me where we're going, help me to see what you see. Who are these characters? Where have they been? And where are they going? And they do. The serious writer can answer these questions. They know what they want to say, they just need someone to listen to them and help them get it down. I think the nicest thing anyone could say about me would be, "She's a good editor."
To quote Ms. Crossen one final time, "It's hard work for both author and editor, but it's only fair to those of us who still invest in books."