I submit the required number of pages to my critique group each week.
Before “turning my submission in” I reread it several times.
Then, I check for white space.
I don’t want my pages to appear black with print. That “turns off” readers nowadays. They want to digest what writers have to say at a pretty fast clip—and move on.
Texting, Facebook, Instagram and others have changed both how we write and read.
Short, chopping sentences.
Bursts of activity.
Lots of white space.
I recently took a trip down memory lane. I reread some of my blogs from five and six years ago.
I have learned some things since then. One of which is to shorten my writing to a few paragraphs instead of several pages.
In the age of texting and Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, we have all become accustomed to short snippets of information. So, for the next few weeks, I am going to take my early blogs (which you may not have read because they were sooooooo long) and shorten them into concise bits of knowledge.
Rewritten, I hope they will be more useful, with the ultimate goal of encouraging you to keep on writing.
Even in isolation, amid Covid and natural disasters, writers can still write and take solace in the fact that your words can mean all the difference to readers worldwide.
brenda poulos 