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The Green Eggs and Ham challenge: Editor's Notes #337 April 14, 2021 |
| Hello, —Robert Silverberg In this issue: 1. The Green Eggs and Ham reading challenge 2. Tickled my funny bone 3. Interesting Web site 4. Writing prompt 5. My Covid-19 offer to you 1.The Green Eggs and Ham reading challenge Years ago I set myself a goal of reading all the winners of six different writing awards. For the most part, I have enjoyed those books. After all, panels of literary experts have chosen them as examples of the best of the best. When I’ve read one that I did not enjoy, I have tried to figure out why that book would have won an award. What was I missing? I haven’t always changed my mind about such books, but the thinking that goes into the analysis has, I believe, made me a better reader, writer, and editor. This year I found myself at a new level of discovery. As I followed the thinking of one of the award panels, I began to fear that it was going to choose a book I had already decided I didn’t want to read. Since I hadn’t yet read the book, I wasn’t rejecting it on literary merits. I was certain I would not like the subject matter. Like the character in Green Eggs and Ham, I knew that I would not like it here or there; I would not like it anywhere. When the feared book won, I had to choose: read all the winners, or pick and choose based on the topic; or in other words, eat what I was offered, or refuse to try green eggs and ham. I gritted my teeth and read the book. Well, not quite like that. I gritted my teeth and began to read the book. Very quickly the excellent writing drew me into an experience I would never have discovered had I listened to my prejudice. Reflecting on this experience, I recalled an event forty years ago. A man hired to renovate my rented apartment told me about a book he had just read and liked. He told me he would lend it to me. I was horrified. It was a Sci-Fi novel! I had never read one and had no desire to read one. But when he brought the book, I took a chance and devoured Dune, a massive Sci-Fi classic, thereby opening a whole new area of literature to me. We can’t read everything out there, so we do have to make choices. Reading something we think we won’t like may open a whole new world of understanding or a new literary genre. If you have been turning up your nose at the literary green eggs and ham being offered to you, take the challenge to try it. You may like it. =========== 2.Tickled my funny bone I went to visit the world's biggest library, but sadly it was overbooked. =========== 3. Interesting Web site If you want to spread your reading wings, here are many lists of writing awards. Choose something you haven’t considered reading before, and dive in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_awards =========== 4. Writing prompt Reading isn’t the only area where we may be restricting our experiences. Write about a character, you or someone else, real or imagined, who takes on the challenge of stretching beyond the comfort of boundaries. =========== 5. My Covid-19 offer to you We are in a race of Olympic proportions: People against the virus. We know the behaviours that stop a respiratory virus in its tracks. Basically, it is to make sure an infected person’s droplets can’t reach another person’s respiratory tract. Variants are making vigilance more important than ever. On the other hand, we have vaccines that limit what the virus can do to us if it does get inside. I am still planning to close my offer in September unless it looks like we are losing the battle. Let’s all hope we are winning so we can get back to our regular lives. What follows is a copy and paste from issue number 309. The offer is still in force for you and anyone you choose to tell about it. Along with the health threat hanging over the world, we are facing a huge financial hit. I’ve decided one thing I can do is to make quality editing less expensive during this trying time. For subscribers to Editor’s Notes and their friends, I am suspending the fee for the sample edit to anyone using the code EN19 until I cancel this offer. I intend to keep this offer open as long as the world is in crisis with Covid-19 and its aftermath, so watch this space. I will give a warning here before I pull this offer. You can submit your writing sample at https://www.writershelper.com/sample-edit.html Be sure to click the link below the heading "Promotion Code" to get to the special form for a free sample edit. If you find yourself at a form before clicking the special link, scroll slowly back up the page, and you should see the link for the code (EN19). But it gets better… When I return an edited writing sample, I include quotes for the full range of my editing services. Until further notice, I will give a true quote, but I will not charge writers the full amount. I am discounting my services 50% for subscribers to Editor’s Notes and their friends. I will give a warning here before I pull this offer. Feel free to pass this offer along to any writing friends you think may be interested. As long as anyone uses the code, I’ll honour the offer. This is what I can offer you in this time of crisis. I hope it encourages you as you face possible illness and financial uncertainty. =========== Join Writer's Helper Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WritersHelperEditor Follow me on Twitter @AudreytheEditor Link on LinkedIn https://ca.linkedin.com/in/audre —Robert Silverberg In this issue: 1. The Green Eggs and Ham reading challenge 2. Tickled my funny bone 3. Interesting Web site 4. Writing prompt 5. My Covid-19 offer to you 1.The Green Eggs and Ham reading challenge Years ago I set myself a goal of reading all the winners of six different writing awards. For the most part, I have enjoyed those books. After all, panels of literary experts have chosen them as examples of the best of the best. When I’ve read one that I did not enjoy, I have tried to figure out why that book would have won an award. What was I missing? I haven’t always changed my mind about such books, but the thinking that goes into the analysis has, I believe, made me a better reader, writer, and editor. This year I found myself at a new level of discovery. As I followed the thinking of one of the award panels, I began to fear that it was going to choose a book I had already decided I didn’t want to read. Since I hadn’t yet read the book, I wasn’t rejecting it on literary merits. I was certain I would not like the subject matter. Like the character in Green Eggs and Ham, I knew that I would not like it here or there; I would not like it anywhere. When the feared book won, I had to choose: read all the winners, or pick and choose based on the topic; or in other words, eat what I was offered, or refuse to try green eggs and ham. I gritted my teeth and read the book. Well, not quite like that. I gritted my teeth and began to read the book. Very quickly the excellent writing drew me into an experience I would never have discovered had I listened to my prejudice. Reflecting on this experience, I recalled an event forty years ago. A man hired to renovate my rented apartment told me about a book he had just read and liked. He told me he would lend it to me. I was horrified. It was a Sci-Fi novel! I had never read one and had no desire to read one. But when he brought the book, I took a chance and devoured Dune, a massive Sci-Fi classic, thereby opening a whole new area of literature to me. We can’t read everything out there, so we do have to make choices. Reading something we think we won’t like may open a whole new world of understanding or a new literary genre. If you have been turning up your nose at the literary green eggs and ham being offered to you, take the challenge to try it. You may like it. =========== 2.Tickled my funny bone I went to visit the world's biggest library, but sadly it was overbooked. =========== 3. Interesting Web site If you want to spread your reading wings, here are many lists of writing awards. Choose something you haven’t considered reading before, and dive in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_awards =========== 4. Writing prompt Reading isn’t the only area where we may be restricting our experiences. Write about a character, you or someone else, real or imagined, who takes on the challenge of stretching beyond the comfort of boundaries. =========== 5. My Covid-19 offer to you We are in a race of Olympic proportions: People against the virus. We know the behaviours that stop a respiratory virus in its tracks. Basically, it is to make sure an infected person’s droplets can’t reach another person’s respiratory tract. Variants are making vigilance more important than ever. On the other hand, we have vaccines that limit what the virus can do to us if it does get inside. I am still planning to close this Covid-19 offer in September 2021 unless it looks like we are losing the battle. Let’s all hope we are winning so we can get back to our regular lives. What follows is a copy and paste from issue number 309. The offer is still in force for you and anyone you choose to tell about it. Along with the health threat hanging over the world, we are facing a huge financial hit. I’ve decided one thing I can do is to make quality editing less expensive during this trying time. For subscribers to Editor’s Notes and their friends, I am suspending the fee for the sample edit to anyone using the code EN19 until I cancel this offer. I intend to keep this offer open as long as the world is in crisis with Covid-19 and its aftermath, so watch this space. I will give a warning here before I pull this offer. You can submit your writing sample at https://www.writershelper.com/sample-edit.html Be sure to click the link below the heading "Promotion Code" to get to the special form for a free sample edit. If you find yourself at a form before clicking the special link, scroll slowly back up the page, and you should see the link for the code (EN19). But it gets better… When I return an edited writing sample, I include quotes for the full range of my editing services. Until further notice, I will give a true quote, but I will not charge writers the full amount. I am discounting my services 50% for subscribers to Editor’s Notes and their friends. I will give a warning here before I pull this offer. Feel free to pass this offer along to any writing friends you think may be interested. As long as anyone uses the code, I’ll honour the offer. This is what I can offer you in this time of crisis. I hope it encourages you as you face possible illness and financial uncertainty. =========== Join Writer's Helper Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WritersHelperEditor Follow me on Twitter @AudreytheEditor Link on LinkedIn https://ca.linkedin.com/in/audreyowen (Email me first so I know how you know me.) =========== If you know a writer who would appreciate receiving Editor's Notes, forward this issue. If someone has passed this on to you, you can get your own free subscription by signing up at https://www.writershelper.com/newsletter.html yowen (Email me first so I know how you know me.) =========== If you know a writer who would appreciate receiving Editor's Notes, forward this issue. If someone has passed this on to you, you can get your own free subscription by signing up at https://www.writershelper.com/newsletter.html |
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