An E-magazine dedicated to writing about spreading wings in a complex world

Contents

1. E-zine subscription info.–Insure you’ll always receive Wingspread.
2. Fun at the Dunn Bros. Wingspread reading event
3. Newest article: Part II: Heating Bellefonte House
4. Writer’s Corner
5. Favorite quotes and books

Subscribe  Click here http://jimhurd.com to subscribe to Wingspread  E-magazine (free), sent direct to your email inbox, about twice a month. You will receive a free article for subscribing. Please share this URL with interested friends, “like” it on Facebook, retweet on Twitter, etc.

Wingspread is a memoir about how childhood faith led to mission bush-piloting in South America. Buy it here:  jimhurd.com (or at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, etc.)  See pics related to Wingspread: http://www.pinterest.com/hurd1149/wingspread-of-faith-and-flying/

Signing event: We had a fun time on Wednesday at our Dunn Bros. book-signing event. I read a few excerpts, sold a few books, and we talked about the joy of writing. Wish you could have been there!

New article:  Heating Bellefonte House
We moved into Bellefonte House in the humid heat of August. But we knew that cold winter was coming. The house had radiators whose pipes went nowhere—the furnace was missing. The wooden coal bin in the basement was empty. How would we keep warm in winter? …
Read more here:  https://jimhurd.com/2015/02/28/heating-bellefonte-house/   (*Request: Please leave a comment on the website after reading this article. Thanks.)

 Writer’s Corner:  

Some ideas to help you edit your own stories:

• Be consistent. When you spell a word, when you use italics, and when you hyphenate.
• In dialogue, each new speaker gets a new paragraph.
• Cut out every word that does not do any work.
• Make your formatting consistent: paragraphing, line spacing, use of subheadings, font, ellipses.
• Be consistent with comma use (in series, after clauses, etc.)
• You may wish to put your own thoughts in italics (“I looked at him and wondered, Does he know how silly he looks?”)
• Write out numbers less than 10 (“three”)

Here are some “dead” words. Cut these out: 

a bit
a lot
arguably
in a sense
the fact is
as a matter of fact
in reality
in order to
interesting
irregardless
just
like
one of the most
pretty much
really
kind of
sort of
things
the thing is
very

Wondering how to clean up your writing? Read my “How to revise an article” at:  https://jimhurd.com/category/writing/

Writer’s Word of the week:  epigram
A pithy saying or quote. A short poem with a surprising twist. Use an epigram at the beginning of your piece to surprise or provoke. (Example: “When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I’ve never tried before.” Mae West)

Favorite quotes:

♠   Copy from one, it’s plagiarism; copy from two, it’s research. Wilson Mizner (1876-1933)

♠   Writing is easy; you just stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood appear on your forehead.

♠   Rewriting is like rubbing a dusty window with a cloth. The more you rub the clearer the vision on the other side becomes.   Donald M. Murray

♠  Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.   T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

Good books on writing:

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Joseph Williams, Style: The basics of clarity and grace
Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir

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