Recreating the Wheel—Or Not! by Jan Powell

Recreating the Wheel—Or Not!

by Jan Powell

“Listen to me now. Give me your closest attention. Do farmers plow and plow and do nothing but plow? Or harrow and harrow and do nothing but harrow? After they’ve prepared the ground, don’t they plant? Don’t they scatter dill and spread cumin, Plant wheat and barley in the fields and raspberries along the borders? They know exactly what to do and when to do it. Their God is their teacher”

(Isaiah 28:23-26, The Message).

I returned to my writing pursuit writing later in life, scribbling at night with a pen and yellow legal pad. Meandering words and once-discarded ideas filled pages. Although I loved to read, I didn’t know how to organize my ideas and thousands of words into an attention-grabbing form. When I attended my first writing conference years ago, I got a glimpse of the structure needed to corral my jumbled thoughts.

Plan. Write. Edit. Write. Rewrite. Repeat as often as necessary. Finish. Submit. I still struggle with the last two steps, except for short pieces.

My desire to “get it right” led to a slavish adherence to the restrictions of “rules” and “guidelines.” These edicts thrust terror into my mind that I would “do it wrong.” As a result, I overwrote narrative portions in a desperate attempt to include vivid language while avoiding those dreaded passive verbs.

A writer friend who read my work relished slashing every was, were, is, and are as though I’d committed composition felony and literary arrest loomed in my future. Without guidance, I penned a devotional book with the intensity of a category four hurricane, assaulting my potential readers with active verbs. A few years later I’d gained enough wisdom to rewrite the entire manuscript and tone down the pounding.

Successful writers learn and use patterns. Effective styles today often differ from the lengthy descriptions of writers of the past. Today we cut long sentences. Heavy descriptions with too many modifiers call for reduction. My plowing rendered folders of ideas and preliminary works. I turned over those words, unearthed better ones, and weeded out the clutter. I scattered various seeds by writing non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and devotionals. I included, as appropriate, fields and borders of instruction, plot, character conflict, and encouraging words.

Agricultural patterns can mold our writing habits from our planting to our harvesting. I follow many suggestions from books on this craft, because employing the insights of experts always helps. I don’t need to recreate the wheel of words to avoid ruts on the writing path.  I rely on God, the master of all words, to continually provide instruction and direction.

Father of patterns, help me learn and follow good practices in my life and in my writing. Amen.

Jan Powell, a graduate of the University of South Florida, helps writers through Writing with You, offering editing, rewriting, and coaching for fiction and non-fiction. Published in The Wordsmith Journal and Splickety, she has written for Inkspirations since the beginning. Her in-depth editing includes poetry, devotionals, memoirs, fantasy, murder mysteries, thrillers, romantic suspense, and flash fiction. She has hosted Tampa Word Weavers for almost two decades and has served in its leadership.