Active voice is tough

Understanding something and actually doing it is a lot harder than one thinks. I know what active voice is. I have spent hours surfing the internet looking for great examples of what it should read and look like. Now, actually going back to my manuscript and re-writing everything in the active voice is not that easy. I know what I should do, but knowing how to do it is where it gets hard.

Examples of active voice:

•  I walked down the street. 
•  My dog ran away. 
•  I jumped rope today.

I know what I should do, but I don’t have a great understanding about what active voice really is and when I am using it. In certain instances, passive voice still sneaks in. I am not ashamed to admit it, but I am very slow on the uptake. I mean come on, correcting a bad habit is hell, but it doesn’t mean I won’t get it eventually. I just have to give myself the time to understand it properly. I have to accept and get over the fact that it might take me a while to learn all that I need to and I won’t be learning all of it in just a few days. What is my rush anyway?

I need to take it back to the basics

I have figured out why I haven't been in the mood for writing. I am the kind of writer that likes listening to music when I write or even when I 'm simply trying to get into the mood to write. At the moment I haven’t really listened to any new music and none of my old stuff really compels me to write at the moment, probably because I have used them to write my old work. Now I need new inspiration. It also doesn't help that I don’t know what kind of music I am really in the mood for. I will know when I hear it.

I have decided to focus all my attention on learning writing techniques and understanding them. So I won’t be doing any writing until I have learnt how to fix the mistakes that I have been making for the past 10 years. What is the point if I am just going to keep making the same mistakes over and over? So I will be learning and reading. My brother made an interesting point the other day, about how I don’t really understand all the rules about writing, because I write in English and English is not my first language, meaning I didn’t really learn all I had to. I just assumed what I knew would be enough.

Some of my writing mistakes are:

• I tell instead of show.
• I write in the passive voice, instead of the active.
• I am not good at descriptive writing.
• My dialogue writing is not very good either.

These are only a few mistakes, but to me they seem like a huge deal and I am well aware that they are the writing basics. Now you understand why I am rather going back to the beginning so that I can learn how to write. I can’t believe I actually thought my work was good before, when all these mistakes were there all along and the funny thing is that with all my writing books, I didn't realize I was making all these mistakes.

Everything is okay again, I am back

After two days of file deletions and new antivirus uploads, my brother has fixed the problem. He said that the malware somehow got embedded in my internet software and was piggy-backing on that. All of it is just too complicated for me to understand, I am just glad that the person who was making changes to my files can't do it anymore. My brother assures me that everything is sorted out, but I am still a little paranoid about being online, especially since he said that is how the malware got installed. He said that I might have visited a website or downloaded something that was infected. I just hope that this is all over. I kind of feel icky about this whole experience.

I have antivirus software on my computer, but I still feel kind of paranoid about keeping my writing on my computer from now on. I had a backup on the flash drive and I am thinking of keeping it there and working from it. I don't like the idea of someone just accessing my computer and taking a peak into all my private stuff.

Enough of my drama. How is everything with you?

URGENT! I HAVE BEEN HACKED

Hey Guys

My PC has been hacked, so please ignore all blog posts that might appear on my blog until further notice. Also, I am not sure how much of my info was compromised, so please also ignore any emails from mureesdup@yahoo.com until further notice. Thank you.

My brain is jumbled

I am feeling really disorientated lately. My head is filled with ideas for new stories, learning new writing techniques and all kinds of other stuff. For some strange reason my focus is off and I am not really writing anything at the moment. The inspiration is fleeting, I guess. There is no doubt that I will get it back, it is just strange how unclear my ideas and thoughts are right now. Perhaps I just have too much on my mind.

I spent most of the day watching the series Bones. I recently started watching it because my family got me the entire series so that I can educate myself. After that I re-wrote part of my first chapter and ended up looking for freelance jobs.

Does your thoughts and ideas ever get jumbled?

Finding your place as a writer

When it comes to writing, there are many types and forms, there are also various techniques and most of all, there are different levels to writing. I had thought that I was past the beginners level, but sadly, I am still very much a beginner and just as green as I had been when I had first begun.

In order for you to advance in writing, you continuously have to learn and improve your writing and your techniques. I had kept to myself all these years and did not know that I was making the same mistakes over and over, regardless of how many times I had re-written my book or how many drafts I had. Luckily I have been given the chance to learn about what I was doing wrong and fix some of those mistakes.

Finding your place as a writer can be tough, but it is important to know where you are starting from. Me, I am a beginner and I am still on the starting line, the only place I can go is forward.  

Writing can be hard (IWSG)

Sometimes we all feel discouraged and writing can look more like a mountain to concur than a hill. I know I recently felt like this. But I read the road to publication by Sherrilyn Kenyon and I felt a lot better afterwards. If you ever felt dismayed by your writing, please, just read her story about her struggle and you will feel better, because if she could go through all that she went through and not give up, neither can we.

The InsecureWriters Support Group was created by the wonderfully talented Mr Alex J. Cavanaugh, so that writers could talk and communicate to others about the fears and insecurities that they might have. You can visit Alex Here, or if you want to join us in discussing our insecurities on the first Wednesday of each month, you are welcome to join by going Here.