Grammar errors that drive me nuts #1: Pronoun agreement

Pronoun agreement.

Oi.

If the teacher is talking, don’t interrupt them.

Nope.

If the teacher is talking, don’t interrupt him or her.

Correct, if somewhat clunky.

In the effort to be gender neutral, too many writers break the bonds of correct usage and resort to using a plural pronoun with a singular noun.

Teacher (singular)

Them (plural)

His or her (singular)

Better to rewrite the sentence:

If the teacher is talking, it’s best not to interrupt.

It’s a simple rule that everyone needs to learn:

Singular noun requires a singular pronoun.

And that brings us to one of those tricky parts of the rule:

Everyone needs their umbrella today.

Nope.

Everyone needs his or her umbrella today.

Indefinite pronouns (such as everyone, everybody, everything, someone, somebody, something etc) are singular and require a singular pronoun.

So,

Everyone is happy. (Not Everyone are happy).

Everything has its place. (Not Everything has their place).

And the trickiest of all the indefinite pronouns in “none”.

None of the cars is washed.

None is washed.

I know, I know. You’re dying to say “None ARE washed.” Well, go ahead. But you would be grammatically incorrect.

It’s a minefield, but you can remember it this way:

Indefinite pronouns that end in “one”, “body” or “thing” are singular. One. Replace the word with a singular pronoun like “her” or “he” or “it” and test it.

For example:

Everyone had their umbrella becomes,

He had their umbrella. (Hunh?)

Pay attention now, and see how often newspapers, broadcasters and the general public get it wrong.

Pronoun agreement. A grammer geek’s dream!

Writing, basketballs, and rain on a tarp

Outdoor office - and just on the other side of that
hedge are basketballs....

There was a debate on CBC’s "The Next Chapter" recently about whether it’s better to write with music playing in the background or not. Some writers can work while a musical sountrack plays in the background, and some can’t.

I can’t.

Well, not completely true. I can – if the music doesn’t have words, and if what I’m working on doesn’t require the streneuous stretching of my creative muscles.

A friend of mine writes to jazz. I know another writer who has the CBC French station Espace Musique playing (she doesn’t understand French, so it’s all just a tapestry of lovely cadences and music to her).

But sounds of any sort are a problem for me. They have to be just right, or I’m distracted. At their worst, sounds can irritate me. Forget any kind of productive writing when the dog is barking, for instance. Or – my favourite – when the neighbour kids start bouncing their basketball on their driveway, just a few metres from our open windows, or the deck, where I love to work in the summer.

Basketballs – they are symbolic of the intrusion that unwanted sound makes into my writing life. They’re bounced by people, and I like to write in solitude. They make a repetitive, reverberating, rhythmic pattern of sound not unlike the maddening drip of a leaky faucet or, as I like to describe it, Chinese water torture.

And it is torture for me. Bounce, bounce, bounce. 

I can feel anxiety rising every time I’m enjoying the natural sounds of my back deck, and I hear the neighbour’s door slam.

Someone has come outside.

Nothing, then…

Bounce, bounce, bounce, clunk (ball through hoop). Bounce, bounce, bounce, clunk. Over and over.

And over. And over.

But I’m the first person to say the sounds of kids playing are good sounds (Hey, I’m a mother, after all). So as much as I would like to stand up on the edge of my deck and holler over the cedar hedge “Can you please give us a break over here?”, I don’t. Of course I don’t.

Instead, I shut up and went looking for an app.

No, not an app that yells at kids over the hedge. It’s an app that allows me to mask the annoying sounds around me with soothing natural sounds. That’s what it’s called – Nature Sounds.

And the Rain on a Tarp track is perfect. Percussive enough to cover the bouncing basketball, and familiar enough to invoke the sounds of rain on a tent roof, camping, solitude, nature.

It's a fabricated natural world, of course, but it works. Be gone, basketballs! Or that loud TV. Or traffic. Or people talking. Rain on a Tarp allows me to retreat to my own writing space, with a soundtrack that supports rather than disturbs.

A tent roof, camping, solitude, nature...

Open that door!

Open door on Writing Life - Today! Now!

So here’s the thing about my writing life. It’s uneven.

Yes, all the experts say writing takes commitment. That you just have to show up. That you need to apply yourself to it every day. That you shouldn’t wait for a muse to get it going. That it’s work. That it’s not just something you do in your spare time.

Yup. All true.

But my writing life is uneven. It’s rough. It’s something that ebbs and flows, and I ebb and flow with it. My creativity sometimes goes away.

Can that really happen? Yes, it can. It has happened to me more often than I would like to admit. It’s as if all the air in a balloon seeps out, and I’m left holding this weary, deflated piece of plastic on a string. Nothing there.

Why does this happen? Life. The many distractions and obligations of Life, and the people I share it with. I guess you could say that I compartmentalize. I sometimes feel the need to put my writing life in a room, where it will be safe, resting, and patient.

And I close the door. I’m actually quite good at it.

So Life goes on, but my Writing Life goes into a deep sleep, behind the door.

To be fair to myself, it’s not like I’m not writing – I’m writing a lot. In fact, that’s my job. I write stories about curling clubs, and curling people. I write news reports from the media bench at national and international events, and I produce media releases and marketing materials and corporate documents for my employer. Lots of variety. Lots of writing.

And while the deadlines loom and the obligations of my job pile up, my creative writinglLife goes to sleep behind that door. I miss it, oh yes I do. But I don’t have the time or energy to open the door and let it out.

Besides, it’s a bit like having secret treat stashed away, just waiting for the perfect moment to indulge myself.

But now it’s April, and there have been stirrings behind the door, recently. Little bumps in the night: whispers, characters, scenes. Quite exciting, actually! It’s like looking forward to going on a trip and enjoying the anticipation of dreaming up the itinerary. The places I’ll go! The people I’ll meet!

Now, today, I have my hand on the doorknob and the hinges are creaking. Yup. The door on my writing life is swinging open...

Google Alerts: Online Research for Dummies...like me!

Does the word "curling" ring a bell?
(Photo Jean Mills)

In my role as online content writer for the Canadian Curling Association, and as a past contributor to The Curling News, I am always on the lookout for stories featuring the people and issues that drive the sport. Yes, believe it or not, curling does have its intriguing celebrities and hot-button issues, and I'm always trolling for something new and interesting.

But you may have noticed this phenomenon: the sport of curling doesn't make it into the headlines - or even on to the sports pages - very often. On the internet, you have to know where to look. That's a lot of research time.

So to facilitate the research and fact-finding process, I subscribe to Google Alerts. It's like having your own electronic clipping service automatically send you links to articles that fit your search criteria. In other words: Online Research for Dummies.

To activate your own Google Alert, go to the Google home page. On the tool bar, select "More". From that list, select "Even More". A page with numerous Search options will appear, with Alerts at the top of the list. Simply click on it and follow the instructions to set up your own robo-researcher.

I have multiple alerts, all of them containing words/phrases that will pick up the stories I need to write my columns and stay on top of the news in the curling world. You might want to set an alert for, say, IT governance, or accounting jobs, or risk management. Or a certain writer or business leader. Or yourself! (But be warned - my classic old-lady name usually results in alerts for obituaries. And there are other Jean Millses out there who write about cool things like Wiccan, and early learning skills in young kids. You might find yourself associated with all sorts of unexpected activities. Just saying...).

Sometimes you end up with obscure items that don't seem to fit but do, actually, contain the words you set for your Alert. For instance, my "curling club" keywords sometimes turn up soccer stories from the UK: someone "curled" a shot into the net, or a particular football "club" just fired its manager. Sometimes the curling club just hosted a book sale or was the scene of a car accident. Oh well. All grist to the mill.

Easy to set up, easy to use, and a time-saver: Google Alerts is a great online tool that you can customize to suit your research needs.

Writer on the rails...

A few weeks ago I went on a trip that I've been dreaming about for a long time:

I rode The Canadian from Toronto to Vancouver. Yes, I was a writer on the rails!

Did I get much writing done? Not really. At least, not on paper.

Writer on the rails...

But what I did do was think. A lot. About what I was reading. About my writing life. About what I might write next, and whether I was up to the effort of rebuilding my fiction-writing life on top of a very busy paying-gig writing life. Writers need to do this sometimes. We need to stop, and think, and fill up that jug that we so quickly empty when we're working. Riding the rails for four days was a gift.

Hour after hour of gazing out a window at a changing landscape of trees, rocks and water. That was Northern Ontario which goes on forever...until you hit Winnipeg.  More hours of watching the rolling landscape gradually flatten into the prairies of Saskatchewan. Flat? Yes. Boring? Never! (I'm reminded of the story I heard from a friend: Family moves from Saskatchewan to BC, from the prairie to the mountains. Kids complain: "But we can't SEE anything! These mountains are in the way!")

Wine country in BC

Then the foothills, and the Rockies gradually rising up and surrounding the railway tracks. The Canadian doesn't do the loopy, side-of-mountain route that the Rocky Mountaineer does (tunnels, spectacular switchbacks). No, we followed rivers, and sometimes the Trans-Canada highway. We sat on sidings - frequently! - as freight trains, sometimes kilometres long and stacked with double container cars, took precedence over our tourist train. (No matter. No rush.) We saw May's "Super Moon" rise over Kamloops during a late-night stop. We watched the lush farmland around Chilliwack soak up the sun as we rocked by. And then into Vancouver, where urban and green hold hands in a unique landscape of cityscape, sea, mountain and rain forest.

So, did all those hours of watching and thinking clarify my writing life?

Not sure. But it didn't hurt. Riding the rails - taking time out to just sit. And think. And watch. And read. And luxuriate in it all.

It didn't hurt my writing life. Not a bit.

*******

Okay, I did do a little writing. And I mean a little...


The Canadian: Day One


View from the window:
Trees, water, and low grey clouds.
Nothing? Everything.


Watching for wildlife.
Beaver? Moose? Bear? Eagle? Nope.
Fellow travellers.


Train life: one long line,
See only the car in front -
'Til the curve. Then - all.

Looking back...

Elora Writers' Festival Writing Contest: A Journey...

Where will your journey take you....?
(Photo T.J.R. Mills)

“The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair,” claimed 20th century American writer Mary Heaton Vorse.

If you’re a writer – or you want to be – then the time has come to adopt Heaton Vorse’s credo as your own because, yes, it’s writing contest season.

Start thinking about this year’s contest theme: A Journey. Let your imagination wander. Feel the creative energy start to flow.

Then apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair, and write!

Contest Details:

Enter your short story (1500 words maximum) or poem (75 lines maximum) in the 2012 Elora Writers’ Festival Writing Competition by Friday, April 27.

·         Title Page:   Category, Title of Entry, Writer’s Name, Address, Email

·         Short Story or Poem:   with title (Writer’s Name on Title Page only)

·         Category 1:    Include Entry fee

·         Category 2-4:    Indicate age on Title Page

·         Deadline:    Postmarked by Friday, April 27, 2012

Send double-spaced, printed entries (with entry fee for Category 1) to:

EWF Writing Competition

c/o Elora Arts Council

Box 668

Elora ON N0B 1S0

Winners will be announced 12 p.m. ET, Saturday, May 26, 2012

on the Elora Writers’ Festival blogsite

You can find entry details on the contest flyer here,

and a list of Frequently Asked Questions here.

Questions? Contact Contest Chair, Jean Mills, at jrmills@rogers.com

My Favourite Client: Highlights of a Season of Champions

On the job in Saskatoon: Writing World Junior reports
 while waiting for the Bronze Medal game at the
 2012 Tim Hortons Brier to begin (Photo D. Mills)

When I took on the role of writer/editor for the Canadian Curling Association website last summer, I was looking forward to a season of writing about - and helping other writers write about - a sport I love. The job was everything I thought it would be, with some unexpected challenges thrown in.

Where to start? How about with some of the challenges:

1. With five high-profile national/international events being held in Canada this season, and a number of others involving Canadian teams on the world stage, the website was the hub for news as well as marketing. That meant at least five - usually more - stories a week requiring editing, photos, links and posting on the website. Because each post involved individual event teams made up of mostly volunteers, an event coordinator, a writer, and an editor, the process relied on clear, timely communication among all participants - and that communication chain sometimes snapped. More than once I found myself doing a last-minute edit late on a Sunday night for a post that was scheduled for first thing Monday. Part of the job, and we all got it done, but not my favourite way to operate, particularly when I juggle other jobs and clients along the way.

2. Some of the writers I worked with this season were not writers - they were contributors with essential expertise and experience in aspects of the sport. They sent me copy; I had to turn it into something readable, entertaining and informative. That's not always easy - especially when I was determined to maintain each writer's distinct (and sometimes quirky!) voice. What a challenge, and what fun for the writer in me: playing with other voices. 

Highlights? There were many!

1. Writing about the grassroots of curling in my bi-weekly column, Around the House, allowed me to speak with curlers and curling club managers around the country about the sport we all love. I had a chance to tell their stories, and that's my favourite thing to do. From writing about the brand-new club in a little town in Quebec, to the massive sports and entertainment complex that just opened in Moose Jaw, I loved sharing curlers' stories - and they were generous with their efforts to answer my questions and provide photos.

2. Writing summaries of games at The Dominion Curling Club Championships, the first-ever Youth Olympic Games, the World University Curling Championships, the World Juniors, National University and most recently, the World Men's Curling Championship. Did I get to attend these events? No - this was long-distance reporting. It was exciting to follow the action online, using line scores from the event (sometimes in the middle of the night for international events!), then incorporate news from the official media release into the story, wait for photos to be posted on the CCA or event image gallery, write, edit and post the story - quickly! And when Canada won medals, as they did at every one of those events, it was even more exciting. 

As a writer/editor, this has been one of the most satisfying and enjoyable contracts I've ever worked on, and here's hoping there will be more in the future. Thanks, CCA! You are my current favourite client!