HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: miuvdd@lure.latrobe.edu.au
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re: finding time to write
Date: 15 Oct 92 04:15:07 GMT
Organization: VAX Cluster, Computer Centre, La Trobe University

In article <BvvHr0.7G2@unx.sas.com>, sascmc@pecos.unx.sas.com (Christopher Mark Conn) writes:
> How much time do you spend writing per week?
> How do you find the time? 

Finding time to write while working full time is always difficult. I count
myself luckiy that I have a very understanding husband; but finally the
actual time can be very difficult.  Basically for me, it involves a few
sacrifices.

Eighteen months ago I decided that I had to make a choice. I was pretty
good at a lot of things (with music as my other great love), but finally
decided that it wasn't enough. I wanted to be brillant at something. It was
a hard decision, but really there was no contest. Writing won. I haven't
picked up the guitar since...

I'm the sort of person who gets really grumpy if I don't write often enough
(which is not to say that the muse is always there waiting for me!:)  But
I really do think that if you don't have enough time, you have to make time.
Somewhere something has got to give...

How much time to I spend writing each week?  Ideally, say two hours a night,
plus one entire day on the weekend. Sometimes more, sometimes less.  I used to
plan to try and right two to three hundred words a night, but found it a lot
easier to plan by time; say two hours a night, or sometimes as vauge as
simply setting a weekly target.

I would like nothing mroe to be able to give up my day job and write full
time. Who won't? :)  But not for a while....



Morgana
**************************************************************************
Reality is for People who can't handle decent fiction....
**************************************************************************
From: Alan_Barclay@mindlink.bc.ca (Alan Barclay)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re: Semantics of "to be"
Date: 7 Oct 92 18:13:56 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

You are correct, it isn't passive.  However, the use of was is still an
excellent indicator of the passive.


--
Alan Barclay


alan_barclay@mindlink.bc.ca
From: betsyp@apollo.hp.com (Betsy Perry)
Subject: NEWSGROUP: Need FAQ maintainer
Originator: betsyp@astaire
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 20:43:01 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA

I expect to be losing Usenet access fairly soon.   As a result,
I will be unable to maintain and post the misc.writing FAQ and booklist.

Would anyone else care to volunteer to maintain these lists?

The duties are straightforward:

o  Post the FAQ and booklist approximately every two months, and
   mail it to interested parties
o  Join the FAQ-maintainers mailing list for people who
   own responsibility for FAQs
o  Update the FAQ as new books and issues arise.

It's been fun knowing you all; may the non-published achieve
publication soon, and may the published double their royalties!

-- 
Betsy Hanes Perry   (note P in userid)     betsyp@apollo.hp.com
Hewlett-Packard Company
"It seems to us that the readers who want fiction to be like life are
considerably outnumbered by those who would like life to be like fiction."
From: miuvdd@lure.latrobe.edu.au
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re: Long hand.
Date: 9 Oct 92 03:00:30 GMT
Organization: VAX Cluster, Computer Centre, La Trobe University

> At the time, I thought that there was something unique about writing
> stories in long hand first.  Now, I'm not so sure that there isn't a
> kind of mystic enchantment that flows through my hand and creates a
> purposeful story.  One that seems to be less flawed.  With a clarity
> and purpose that I found interesting and yet, I can't seem to bring
> the exact writing over to my computer.
> 
> Has anyone else experienced this when they attempt to write a story
> in long hand first?
> 
> 
> Jon - There was a time when I could spell words in my head, but that
>       was before I learned to spell.


Actually I find for me it's exactly the opposite.  My handwriting has
never been particularly readable; just another case I guess of my
hand not being able to keep up with my mind.  I can type a hell of a
lot fasher than I could ever write. But it's mroe than that.

I know it sounds a little crazy, but when i sit down at my computer,
and boot up my favorite wp program, the muse just seems to be more
willing to open up.

Maybe she just likes her tales neatly presented! :)

Who know? :)

But what I do know if that if something every happens to my PC, I am
in BIG trouble! :)




Morgana
**********************************************************************
Reality is for people who can't handle decent fiction...
**********************************************************************
Newsgroups: misc.writing
From: marcy@sqwest.wimsey.bc.ca (Marcy Thompson)
Subject: Re: Usage: To try and find the answer.
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Surrey, British Columbia, CANADA
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 18:14:50 GMT

In a recent misc.writing article, Bonita Kale wrote:
>
>The trouble with the "picayune error in grammar or punctuation" is that it
>sometimes isn't.  I've only sold a few stories, but I've run into times
>when changes that seem small aren't so to me.  What seems an error in
>punctuation may be the result of trying out that sentence six different
>ways, printing them all out, staring at them, reading them aloud, sleeping
>on it...  

Not only that, but sometimes the editor is just plain wrong about grammar.
For instance, I once wrote a piece which had a sentence in it which read
something like this:

  "If I were fifteen years old, I would be younger than I am today."

The editor sent it back to me with the comment:

  "The future tense of the verb 'to be' is 'will be', not 'would be'."

I had to explain the construction I had used before the editor would agree
not to change my sentence to:

  "If I were fifteen years old, I will be younger than I am today."
  
And although most such examples I can come up with out of my own
experience were not such egregious errors on the part of the editor,
there have been plenty of times when an editor has tried to "correct"
a grammar error which wasn't.

(I should add that if an editor I respect -- note the qualification here
-- objects to a perfectly grammatical sentence, I *do* seriously reconsider
the sentence, because the fact that it sounds wrong to her means it just
might sound wrong to other readers. I sometimes choose to recast the sentence
rather than running the risk of letting something be published with a
phrase in it which might cause readers to loose the thread of what I
have written because they suddenly scratch their heads and say to themselves,
"There's something wrong with that sentence." The example I give above
does not fall into that category of sentence, however. It was published
as it stood.)

Marcy

-- 

Marcy Thompson		
  SoftQuad (West)			
    marcy@sqwest.wimsey.bc.ca (preferred) or marcy@sq.com
From: twriter1@pencom.com
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re: Technical Writing...need advice
Date: 9 Oct 92 13:23:03 GMT
Reply-To: twriter1@pencom.com
Organization: Pencom Software

In article <Bvpw5G.IJ@acsu.buffalo.edu> oispeggy@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Peggy  
Brown) writes:
> I've been reading the responses about Technical Writing and hope 
> more technical writers will respond and give me advice on how to 
> get started.

I think a good first step is to contact your local chapter of 
the Society for Technical Communication (STC), the professional
organization of tech writers.  (If you can't find them, e-mail me
and I will try to find our their phone number.)  The one here in
Austin has a job bank and holds a monthly contractors' networking
meeting in addition to a monthly chapter meeting.

Also, try checking in the yellow pages for companies that do
technical documentation preparation.  You also may have luck
with recruiters.  Ask around of people you know in technical
fields.

I work in the high-tech industry (many of us here do), but there
are other types of tech writing.  To find out what the job
market is like in Buffalo, your best bet is to check out the STC.

Tanya
twriter1@pencom.com
From: bf455@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bonita Kale)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Electronic Frontier by Tom Maddox
Date: 8 Oct 1992 18:32:50 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc10.ins.cwru.edu



My October Locus just came, carrying a very good column by Tom Maddox,
called, "Introducing Information Spaces 2".  (There must be a IIS1, but I
don't think I read that Locus.) He does a fine job of introducing BBSs and
information networks, a subject that's awfully hard to get into words. 

And he achieves what I consider the ultimate in reviewing/consumer
reporting--describing something he finds not to his liking (in this case,
the "personality" of GEnie) in such a way that I can form the opinion that
-I- (Middle American that I am) would probably like it.  Good work, Tom.


Bonita Kale
From: pasc1961@altair.selu.edu
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: PLEASE READ THIS!!!
Date: 13 Oct 92 08:19:55 GMT
Article-I.D.: altair.1992Oct13.141955.849
Reply-To: pasc1961@altair.selu.edu
Distribution: world
Organization: Southeastern Louisiana University


>> 
>> 	I need help with an interpretation of William Carlos Williams' "The Red
>> Wheel Barrow".  I would like to hear other impressions on the form, rhetoric,
>> imagery, and meaning as well as personal responses on the value and excellence
>> of this work.  I apologize for not having a copy of the poem to post as it is
>> very brief and would not take long to read.  If you are familiar with this
>> work, I would very much appreciate a reply.  Please send replies directly to
>> me.  Thank you for your help.
>> 					Christopher K. Gilbert
>> 					pasc1961@altair.selu.edu
> 
>>
From: kabir@kabir.Eng.Sun.COM (Ihtisham Kabir)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: submission questions
Date: 7 Oct 1992 17:20:39 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Distribution: world
Reply-To: kabir@kabir.Eng.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: kabir

Please bear with me if these are trivial questions, but I
am completely unfamiliar with the legal aspects of submissions.

I am about to submit an article/photos to a local magazine
and I will be grateful to any published author who can answer
these questions:

1) What is the correct way to copyright them?

2) Who owns the copyright after publication?

3) If they publish it, will I be able to submit it to other places?

Thanks for any information,

- Ihtisham Kabir
kabir@sun.com 



Newsgroups: misc.writing
From: neile@stein.u.washington.edu (Neile Graham)
Subject: Re: FICTION: Pushcart Prize
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 19:33:52 GMT

The Pushcart Prize requires nominations from the editors of a magazine in
which you've published.  The prize, as far as I know, is publication in
the annual Pushcart Anthology.  

If you want more information on the prizes, I would recommend finding a
copy of the anthology (fairly widely available).  In it they list
participating magazines, other nominations that didn't get selected for
the anthology, etc.

--
neile@u.washington.edu
From: dnewkirk@arrl.org (Dave Newkirk)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re: Arthur Rimbaud, where are you?
Date: 15 Oct 92 08:32:58 est
Organization: American Radio Relay League

In misc.writing, meachem@acsu.buffalo.edu (The Meach) writes:
>In article <Brennan.J.Murphy.53-121092211134@129.74.199.152> Brennan.J.Murphy.53@nd.edu (BRennan Murphy) writes:
>>Has anybody seen Arthur Rimbuad lately?  I need tyo find him mbecause I am
>>doing a report of sorts on his sordid self.  If you know where that
>>Atheist, Drug-running, coffe salesman is, please tell him to send me some
>>instructions on how to interpret his letter to Paul Demeny.  Tell him I
>>need to know what his notion of Poetry was.  If he has email, tell him to
>>send his address.
>>Yer a Pal,
>>brennan
>
>In the spirit of doing some of your own research,  you might try contacting
>him at _A la Rechereche du Temps Perdu_. . .
>
>--jm

My contacts in the Kids-Don't-Try-This-At-Home School of Art 
suggest he is on continuing leave of absinthe.



David Newkirk, WJ1Z                     |  voice: 203-666-1541 X280
Senior Assistant Technical Editor, ARRL |  fax: 203-665-7531
225 Main St, Newington CT 06111 USA     |  net: dnewkirk@arrl.org
Newsgroups: misc.writing
From: olsen@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Diane Olsen)
Subject: What was that comedy writing book?
Organization: Stanford University CSLI
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 19:58:20 GMT

Recently on misc.writing, somebody recommended a comedy writing book.
I saved the posting but lost it before I could make it to a bookstore
to have a look at the book.  Would someone please e-mail or post the
title?  

The only book I've seen around here is "Comedy Writing:  Step
by Step."  Is this the book?  Has anyone read it?  It looks good.  

P.S. -- I'd love to see more postings from comedy writers, 
cartoonists, and anyone else who wastes their time transmuting
silly ideas into art.  :-)

--Diane

-- 
Diane L. Olsen		"A woman with a mind is fit for all tasks."
olsen@csli.stanford.edu		--Christine de Pizan (c.1363-c.1431)
From: sasafw@dobo.unx.sas.com (Fred Welden)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re:    It, as a subject.
Date: 13 Oct 92 20:49:06 GMT
Organization: Dobonia
Originator: sasafw@dobo.unx.sas.com


In article <92287.091501KVJLC@ASUACAD.BITNET>, Jon L. Campbell <KVJLC@ASUACAD.BITNET> writes:
|[additional crticism of Stephen King's writing in NEEDFUL THINGS,
|including the fact that King starts sentences with "It" and makes
|grammatical mistakes.]

I went along with you when you criticized King for failing to develop
and maintain tension in his novel, but I'm starting to feel I have to
take exception with your complaints here.

First, I don't usually respond to spelling errors in net postings
because a good argument is still a good argument even when it contains
some misspellings, and because it is often hard to distinguish a 
spelling error from a typographical one.  But you consistently spell
"grammar" as "grammer," and since you are complaining about the low
standard of King's writing, I feel compelled to point this out.
"Endeavor" has an "a" in it, too.  There are also several grammatical
errors that I could point out, but that would get tedious.  I will
e-mail them to you if you are genuinely interested.

Second, there is no reason a sentence may not begin with the word "It"
as a subject.  Sentences may begin with "I," "You," "He," "She," "We,"
and "They." Why should the neuter singular pronoun (not a modifier, as
you imply) be singled out as an exception?

Third, King's purpose in writing is not didactic, nor should it be.  He
writes to entertain.  It is quite possible that run-on sentences,
comma-splices, and even misspellings make the book more entertaining to
its intended audience.  I'm not saying that they actually do, because I
haven't read the book.  But they might.  Certainly there are books that
use these techniques.  You might try reading THE SOUND AND THE FURY by
William Faulkner as an example.  This is one of the great American
novels, in my admittedly arrogant opinion, and it would have lost almost
all the power of its entire first book had Faulkner been forced to
comply with the standard grammatical rules that apply to a scholastic
essay.

In conclusion, my response is no, fiction need not be held to the common
rules of grammar, spelling, and punctuation.  All these rules may be
broken to great and desirable effect.  It is annoying in the extreme to
read the work of a writer too ignorant or lazy to know or follow the
rules, but not the work of a writer who knows the rules and breaks them
deliberately, with good reason.  That, as the saying goes, is jazz.

-- 
--Fred, or another blind 8th-century BC  |  sasafw@dobo.unx.sas.com
        Hellenic poet of the same name.  |
From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re: Beginning Writing Books
Keywords: writing book
Date: 10 Oct 92 04:57:22 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA

duffy@aslss02.asl.dl.nec.com (Joseph Duffy) writes:

>Can anyone recommend some good introductory books on writing, style,
>composition, technique, etc. that would be good for a new writer? Can
>one book cover adequately address both fiction and nonfiction writing?

Take a look at the FAQ. It's got a pretty good bibliography. No, one book
can't adequately cover anything, much less fiction and non-fiction. Which
mix of books is right for you depends on what your strengths and weaknesses
are. The FAW list will help you figure this out.


-- 
Chuq "IMHO" Von Rospach, ESD Support & Training (DAL/AUX) =+= Member, SFWA
  chuq@apple.com | GEnie: MAC.BIGOT | ALink:CHUQ =+= Editor, OtherRealms
From: nestorm@fedc04.fed.ornl.gov
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re: Technical Writing...need advice
Date: 8 Oct 92 13:54:19 GMT
Organization: MIT PLASMA FUSION CENTER

If you're in Buffalo, NY (interpreting people's locations from their mail
headers is not my best thing), then the Niagara Frontier chapter of STC is in
your neighborhood. The contact I have listed for it is Kevin Burns, (716)
297-1000. (This is apparently CALSPAN Publications, whatever that means.) Or
you can call the national office, in Arlington, VA, at (703) 522-4114. Your
local chapter probably has employment listings, and you may be able to make
contact with people who're doing what you (want to) do.

On a VERY personal note, I have two kids, now adolescents. I was working as a
technical editor when I got pregnant for the first time. After he was born, I
came back as a part-time employee. There were some disadvantages -- at that
time you couldn't work more than half-time, and the benefits were lousy -- but
it was a good arrangement for me at the time. I went back to full time when the
second child was about two, for financial reasons. I still think it was a great
deal for my employers -- and they finally wised up a few years ago and redid
the part-time arrangements, so that people can now work from 20% to 80% of a
full-time schedule, and they can get company health insurance (too late
for me, but that's what I get for having children 10 years before anyone else
in my cohort). You might investigate the possibility with your current
employer.

Best of luck!
Bonnie Nestor
NESTORM@FEDC04.FED.ORNL.GOV

Disclaimer: Nobody listens to anything I say.
Newsgroups: misc.writing
From: clb@mistxt.oc.com (Chris Boyd)
Subject: Re: Usage: To try and find the answer.
Organization: OpenConnect Systems, Dallas, TX
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 12:26:22 GMT

In article <Bw2ros.GFv@news.iastate.edu> bible@iastate.edu (Anthony E Bible) writes:
>	The language does change as time passes, of course, and thus my 
>question: does current usage accept, for example, "to try and find" in lieu of 
>"to try to find"?

Oops.  I thought everyone said it that way.  I guess it's a regional
construction.

Changing the subject slightly, I like the "try and" better than the "try to."
It seems to imply optimism and success.  "I'm gonna try and catch that horse."

Maybe that's why so many people seem to think that Texans are confident
to the point of arrogance.  The language we grew up with encourages it.
-- 
(* Chris Boyd          OpenConnect Systems, Inc.          clb@oc.com *)
From: yoshi@nocusuhs.nnmc.navy.mil (D M Yoshikami)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re: Semantics of "to be"
Summary: Passive isn't always that bad
Date: 7 Oct 92 11:52:01 GMT
Organization: National Naval Medical Center

In article <1992Oct6.152841.13733@bcrka451.bnr.ca> nadeau@bnr.ca (Rheal Nadeau) writes:
>> [some stuff about Cats and Tables omitted]
>>Notice that the first sentence is passive and the second, active.  "Was" is
>>an element in many passive constructions.  For that reason alone, hunting and
>>rewriting is a good idea.  (P.S. could I write this paragraph without using
>>"is?" :) )
>
>Could you write this without "is"?  How about:
> [more stuff omitted]
>Done as a quick exercise only - there is still room for improvement
>(uh, make that, these sentences could still be improved).
                                             ^^^^^^^^^^
:-)

>Now, the capital question - are my alternate versions really an
>improvement as far as the reader is concerned?

Good question.  This depends highly on the text involved and what the writer
was trying to say.  We prefer active to passive voice simply because active
is clearer, more forceful, and, uh, active!!  But this does not mean that the
passive voice does not have its importance: a writer or speaker may use it
intentionally when the subject isn't known, to highlight something other
than the subject, or to provide some intentional ambiguity.  The author may
desire ambiguity -- I would guess that Federal Documents have this to 
diffuse the blame :-) -- but whether that ambiguity is really necessary in
most cases, is arguable.

Writing tangly prose presents fewer difficulties than writing vigorously
and concisely, mostly, I would assume, because clear prose requires thinking.
A badly written article often indicates fuzzy or incomplete thinking.
The same goes for many of the articles I have seen in the Computer Science
Journals, where the author will disguise his poor thinking with lots of
nasty mathematics.  However, not everybody has recognised that mathematics
is just another language used to express thought, and like English (or any
other language) follows basic rhetorical principles to convey information.
A page of difficult mathematics often makes the writer look learned and
knowledgeable (not to mention smart), but I often feel disappointed when
having carefully looked over the article, discovering that what the mathematics
describes is not only rubbish, but useless rubbish at that.  

DY :-)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
D M Yoshikami  :-) ;-) :-) | Internet: yoshikami@usuhsb.ucc.usuhs.nnmc.navy.mil
     +1 (301) 295-3304     | Bitnet  : yoshikami@usuhsb.bitnet
***  !!xob X*NU V METSYS T&TA eht ni renosirp dleh gnieb m`I  !pleH  !pleH  ***
From: lippsjj@ucunix.san.uc.edu (John J Lipps)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Myan Indian Book
Date: 13 Oct 92 17:43:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: ucunix.Bw2MKD.98E
Organization: University of Cincinnati


   Is there anyone out there interested in helping a Myan Indian write a
book about the ruins throughout Mexico?  He is presently writting a book
but needs help in cleaning it up before puplication. He is interested in 
coming to tyhe US also to lecture.

   His address is: Jose Fco. Marquez Ferraez
                   Calle 11 Pte. No. 205
                   Unidad Morelos
                   Merida Yuc. Mex.
Newsgroups: misc.writing