U is for: Under Writer

Hi. My name is Maggie, and I`m an under writer. Not to say I work in insurance, but that I use my words too sparingly. When most writers get done with a draft, they need to cut much of their words to lower the count. I have to come up with chunks of content, mainly in my descriptions. I must have taken `write tight` to literally.

When I write an article, this is a good thing. I liked short story writing, too, because I could say quite a bit in a few words. Novel length fiction, as much as I love it, is a challenge. One writer`s lovely description of a scene may be my babbling like a brooke to beef up the count.

Books I find helpful are Description by Monica Wood and the Flip Dictionary by Barbara Ann Kipfer. Sometimes I just need to slow down and really look at each word I`ve written. There is often a clearer way to say something without becoming verbose.

Are there any other under writers out there? If so, please send me a few words of advice.

T is for: Thick skin, tender heart

Writers must realize that rejections galore from agents and editors are only business, not a personal kind of thing. We grow thick skin, impervious to the sting of the form rejection. Mighty, tough.

Also, we write words sweet enough to bring a tear to Satan's eye. Tender, empathetic.

Mighty, tough, tender, and empathetic. I should also add that we writers are quirky, delusional and frequently not all together sane individuals.

And when we gather together as a pack, well, it`s not for the weak.

S is for: Sister Time

I'm very fortunate to have sisters that are also my friends. We're six different women, in a variety of sizes, shapes, and view points, aged 53 to 66. I don't get to see them all at once very often, but treasure my time with any of them.

Here we are at my niece's wedding in 2011.
I'll match us up for you, numbering us by age, with 1 as oldest (me)

This picture: 5   4   3   1   2   6

This picture is us in 1962.
     1
4   3   2
     6   5


Interesting what time changes in a person, but we're still young on the inside and laugh and play together every chance we get.

R is for: Retirement

I retired from decades of nursing three years ago next month. No regrets, only an occasional twinge of missing my friends or a memory of babies in the NICU. I could live without the work dreams, though, often frantic and confusing, that make me glad to wake up in my own bed.

Retirement has been different in some ways than I expected. I do have more time to do the things I love, but, somehow there is always the stuff I don't get to, even with good intentions. Writing is work, a lot of work. Not to mention the disappointments and frustrations. But, I do love it and consider writing a very good use of my time.

When the Northern Colorado Writers Conference comes around March 2015, I will have my current novel ready to pitch. Maybe this will be the one, who knows?

Will I retire from being a writer? Not until I don't know what any of the words mean anymore.

Q if for: Quandary

To go with independent publishing, pray tell, to release my precious words from their drawer prison and into the world lest they perish, unread, unloved? A quandary of biblical proportions, I say.

Does my traditional-publication-only mindset put me in a confusing yet unquestionably crappy room within my personal mansion of manuscripts and uncertainty?

Answers, solutions, come to me from whence you be.

Not knowing what to do here really sucks.

P is for: People of Interest

I love a good page-turner of a novel, don't you? As an avid reader, I admire an author's ability to weave us a plot we are unable to resist, one that puts us in the story, longing for a great resolution of the problems. But, for me, it's the characters, the people in trouble, in confusion, in dire need, that draw me way in. Love them or hate them, we have to see, feel, and know who they are and what they have or haven't done to get them where they are now.

A writer can't help but wonder where these fictional characters come from and why their story must be told. Are they based on people known by the writer? Delivered to them by a muse? Well, it's often an unsolved mystery of its own.

What are the essentials of a good character? These come to mind:

• appealing
• flawed
• relentless
• realistic
• determined
• lovable or hate-able
• dynamic
• imaginative

What can you add to the list?

O is for: Offensive

Funny how something said or seen can be hilarious to one person and deeply offensive to the next. Television, with its eclectec programming, is a very good example of where this happens. I've always considered myself to be open-minded with a good, though often irreverent, sense of humor. Certainly not a prude. Oh, no. But, lately I've been thinking maybe I'm wrong.

Different people in the same house may as well be from two different planets when it comes to how they view the world. Shows that feature insulting and degrading people, collectively or individually, is not something worth watching to me. I don't see programs that do little more than discredit the beliefs of others as necessarily telling the world the TRUTH we all need to know. Negative, misogynistic, racial slurring, stand up comedy. Jokes that feature ageism, fatism, any ism you can think of, is not hysterical to everyone. It. Just. Isn`t. Maybe it is true that I "don't get social commentary".

No, I'm not in favor of censorship, just the right of each person to view the world through his or her own lens without feeling that they're wrong.

Sorry if I've offended anyone out there. Feel free to click delete.