Cursive writing flows across the paper like a magical song reverberating through the strings of a harp. Cursive lettering is more difficult than block lettering (or casual style writing). Lines, loops, spirals and swirls work rhythmatically in slants and rollercoaster hoops.

The formality of cursive writing was used in professional correspondence before the development of the typewriter in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cursive connected words in a single stroke are quite distinctive from “printing” or block lettering. “Joined up writing” is a common phrase for cursive writing in British English. “Running Writing” is the term sometimes used in Australia.

There are different types of handwriting styles in two categories:

? Manuscript (print)

? Cursive

I remember during first and second grades, using the white tablet paper sectioned by solid blue and red lines, with dashes of a blue line running through the middle of the two. The area between the line of dashes down to the solid red line at the bottom of the section was the perimeter for small letters. The range between the solid blue top line and solid red bottom line was the designated area to write capital letters. The continuous development in personal penmanship brought a sense of pride in your written work.

Let’s step back into history for a moment and examine the signatures on the Declaration of Independence, signed by members of Congress on July 4, 1776. Notice how the printing of this document flows with influences from a combination of Cursive, Script, Old English and Manuscript lettering. Frequently, I always heard a phrase when someone made a request for my signature, they’d ask for my “John Hancock.” No one could ever give me an explanation on the origins of this saying, so I came up with my own summation. After looking at the image of the Declaration of Independence, the one signature that pops out at me located in the middle of the bottom portion of the document was that of John Hancock. Perhaps his creative and bold style brought forth some bantering from his colleagues. But if you look closely at each individual signature, it is clearly evident that these Congressional members were extremely meticulous about their stately penmanship.

With the advent of computers, cursive writing became unstandardized across different school systems in a variety of English speaking countries. It seems like handwriting skills are declining primarily due to the convenience and assortment of fonts stored on computers. Anyone can combat that claim by fine tuning your handwriting when you practice slanting your letters consistently and make the letters continuous. The partnership between pen and paper are used as an avenue to promote personal writing expressions, just like a paintbrush is to canvas – allowing the hand to sway and glide with creativity.

Many people look to re-popularize great and monumental things from the past that have been instrumental in the progression of modern technology and human development. We often hear this saying: “Everything old is new again.” This is clearly evident as we see car manufacturers going retro in their body styles, fashion trends rotating full circle, today’s commercials are using many popular songs from artists of yesteryear and anything vintage is a collector’s haven!

Now-a-days, “rarity” is an asset. Some creative traditions like cursive writing should not be deemed as becoming completely blas?. Despite the fact that cursive writing lost its popularity due to the lack of demand and modern technology, why not sit down and take time to rediscover the elegance and personal satisfaction of what this invaluable talent has to offer. Who knows if cursive writing will become retroactive? You certainly wouldn’t want to be left in the dark if it does.

Popularity: 14% [?]

I have an 8-year-old friend. She’s a lively third-grader who has a strong sense of self. One evening I was babysitting her and she shared a list of odd-sounding names. “Back Stand,” “Over-Under Flip,” “The Round About-er,” “Twist, Un-twist,” “Upside-down Split.”

“Gymnastics,” she explained. “I made up some cool moves.”

I was already curious so I was happy when she offered to demonstrate. The “Over-Under Flip” turned out to be more of what most people would consider a flop.

The “Upside-down Split” had her jumping up and down, twirling around and making a run for the couch. She plopped on the couch, on her back, and lifted her legs in the air, splitting them apart, and waving them around. (Then she fell off the couch, but she assured me that was not part of the move.)

Cool moves, indeed.

My grown-up mind recognized that each of her moves was merely a failed attempt at some other real gymnastic move.

My creative mind jumped for joy at her way of turning a challenge into a personal, unique success.

She could not perform a cartwheel, flip, head stand, or split so she adapted them to suit her abilities. Suddenly, she was a success. In fact, it’s safe to say that she is the best Over-Under Flipper around!

When we put our writing dreams into motion, we are often given specific rules to follow, steps to take and books to read in order to make it big. In fact, we are also often handed someone else’s definition of making it big.

We could follow someone else’s map to success.

Or we can look at where we are and what we are interested in, and build our own “cool moves” as food writers. My best friends flip through Bon Appetit for inspiration to create their own magnificent dishes. I look through farmer’s markets and my pantry to uncover exciting, fresh recipes. Good news! We’re all correct in our approach.

Early on in my food writing, I ran into someone who told me that there were only five food magazines available for food writers, and nothing else mattered. On the other hand, I’ve seen food writers start with a free newsletter and turn their weekly recipe offerings into a cookbook. Others write for sites, weekly newspapers, online syndicators and ezines to build up both a following and published clips. Still others write articles about food for camping, leisure, parenting, regional, and travel magazines.

My 8-year-old friend’s philosophy helped me refocus for the new year. Instead of focusing on a few markets for food writers and comparing my work with others’ successes, I plan to return to writing culinary mystery shorts, personal essays (always about food) and working on my cookbook. These are the “Over-Under Flippers” that fill me with joy.

Now it’s your turn.

What would you do if you didn’t feel you had to compare your performance with anyone else’s?

? 2006 Pamela White

Popularity: 9% [?]

You have probably heard about writing scams and say, “I’d never do anything that stupid. How could someone think this wasn’t a scam?”

A writer gets a letter in the mail; send us your manuscript for and instant evaluation. Maybe they’re a new writer, maybe they’ve been writing for a while. But one thing is for certain, they all want to be published. And they want it badly.

So when they see a new agent or publisher in town, it’s like a sign. They don’t think first. They just assume they are dealing with legitimate agent or publisher. But there are no shortcuts to getting legitimately published and getting paid for your writing. You have to be careful at all times.

To keep from being cheated, you’d have to investigate all the prospective agents and publishers, check out their customers, go online to the watchdog sites and call the Better Business Bureaus and attorney generals in their home states. Even then, you could get taken. Makes you wonder if it is worth the risk?

But what can writers do to protect themselves from scams, both online and off? Here are some things that should make you want to do more research about an agent or publisher:

1. Requests for up-front fees. This means any money out of the writer’s pocket before a book is sold, whether it is for expenses or marketing fees. Agents make their money by selling your work to publishers. They shouldn’t need to ask you for money to do that. Remember; “Money flows to the writer, not away from them.”

2. Referrals to paid services, such as editing or book doctors. While recommending you have your work looked at by an editing service is fine, the agent or publisher shouldn’t tell you where to go. Some agents have a list of editing services they deal with, but if you chose to see someone else that shouldn’t have an effect on whether they represent you.

3. Recommendations to use the agent’s or publisher’s own editing services. Legitimate agents don’t do editing themselves. They are much too busy selling their client’s works to publishers to deal with a manuscript full of typos and grammar errors. It’s easier to pass on it than fix it.

4. Offer of a “co-publishing” contract. If you wrote the book and it’s good enough to publish, why should pay your publisher to publish it? A publisher makes their money from the sale of the book, not from the author.

5. Being asked to buy something. If a publisher expects you to buy copies of your book as a condition of publication that should raise a very big red flag. That’s what a vanity press does.

6. Offers of representation or publication that come after reading just a synopsis or a few chapters. Legit companies want to read the whole book, not just a few pages, before they make a decision. How else would they know if the book is as good all the way through as the first few chapters? Or if the book is even completed?

7. An agent who won’t reveal details of his/her track record of book sales, or claims his/her client list is confidential. If they say you can’t know who they represent, then they might have something to hide. Legitimate agents and publishers have their clients on their web pages for all to see.

8. Always have a lawyer look over a contract with an agent or publisher before signing it. It is money well spent to have a lawyer check it out first. Just make sure you pick a lawyer who is well versed in publishing contracts.

9. Avoid agents/publishers who come to you first. If you didn’t submit to them, then how do they know about you? Ask questions; find out why they are contacting you. Remember, mailing lists come from everywhere, even magazine subscriptions. Also, be suspicious of an agent or publisher who contacts you via e-mail only. Some of the more unscrupulous ones haunt the writer’s message boards looking for desperate writer who are willing to believe their lies.

In addition, if the agent or publisher claims to have represented a famous author, then check it out. That’s easy enough to do. Just go down to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of the novel in question. By looking at the copyright page, you’ll see who the publisher is. In some cases, the agent’s name is listed as well. Checking out a writer’s web site will also give you their agent and publisher’s names.

Most importantly don’t let your desire to be published overcome your good sense. Join a local or national writer’s organization and see if they have a list of known writing scams. Get involved with an online writing newsgroup, forum or message board; if you have a question about an agent or publisher, you may get answers there. Be aware and you won’t get taken.

Remember the old adage; if it sounds too good to be true, it is!

Popularity: 22% [?]

The wearily handsome, nervous, stubble-chinned man slowly and carefully got out of bed when he heard the soft, mysterious sound of footsteps in his apartment.

OR

The ex-con bolted up, rubbed his eyes and then the stubble on his chin, and crept out of bed. Those footsteps didn’t belong in his apartment.

Look at the above sentences, and see if you can figure out why the second example is better written than the first. If you still don’t know, look above that. At the risk of stating the obvious: nouns and verbs are the backbone of any sentence, and thus of all writing. I could have made my title really long and added “… and Adjectives and Adverbs Are Your Enemies,” but as you may have figured out, I like to keep it short.

It’s not only about eliminating adjectives and adverbs so that your writing contains few words that aren’t nouns and verbs. After all, if we did that to the first example, we’d be left with:

The man got out of bed when he heard the sound of footsteps in his apartment.

Not very exciting, is it? That’s why it’s important to focus your writing not only on nouns and verbs, but on interesting nouns and verbs. I began my second example with “The ex-con,” but of course, I’m inventing a sentence that has no manuscript surrounding it — no context. If we’ve already met the character, use his name or a more descriptive noun such as mine. If you’re introducing a new character, use the best noun possible. “The businessman” would evoke a completely different image in your readers’ minds, and it would be a stronger image than “The blond, well-groomed, middle-aged man.”

Why is one noun stronger than three adjectives (and one verb stronger than three adverbs)? Sure, we can picture a guy who’s blond, well-groomed, and middle-aged, and we might guess from that description that he’s a businessman. We can picture a “wearily handsome, nervous, stubble-chinned man” and perhaps guess that he’s an ex-con. But using the noun rather than a string of adjectives accomplishes two important things: First, it adds action to the character’s description. “Ex-con” not only calls forth a set of physical attributes, but also, by definition, tells you something about the guy’s life outside of this moment: he’s trying to recover from his time in the slammer and go straight. A “businessman” probably looks a certain way, and presumably spends his days doing business.

Then again, maybe the guy isn’t trying to go straight. Maybe he wants to return to a life of crime. Which brings me to the second advantage: involving the reader’s mind in the storytelling. If you string together a list of adjectives, you’re feeding a character to your readers without allowing them to draw their own pictures. Part of the fun — and the fascination — of fiction is the fact that everyone who turns the final page of a book has read a different one. And the more you allow people to be cocreators of your characters, your settings, etc., the more enveloped in your novel’s fictional world they will become.

Or in your nonfiction book’s world — nonfiction writers must leave less to the reader’s imagination, but editing using this principle will make nonfiction stronger as well. As with any other tips, customize it to your writing. It’s also, as I mentioned, about brevity. I don’t need to explain why “crept out of bed” beats “slowly and carefully got out of bed.”

Of course, adjectives and adverbs have their places. Otherwise languages wouldn’t contain so many. You might even find a few in this article (only a few). Again, customize this editing technique to your writing. Read a few pages and see if you find yourself using dull nouns such as “man” or “thing” a lot — chances are they’re surrounded by adjectives. If not, the potential book sitting in front of you may be dull indeed. Don’t go crazy with your thesaurus looking for obscure nouns to replace “man,” but do use this technique as a way to vary word choice. And, if you don’t have a thesaurus, for god’s sake, get one. The thesaurus in Microsoft Word, or anywhere online, won’t hold a candle to the old-fashioned bound kind.

Replace adjectives with more interesting, descriptive nouns, and watch your writing become streamlined, subtly evocative, laced with intrigue, varied in word choice… Oops, those are all adjective phrases. Just think of this noun: “bestseller.”

Popularity: 20% [?]

Jenny was being served her apple martini by the bartender just as the front window was shattered by a speeding Humvee, and Jenny was thrown from her stool.

OR

The bartender was serving Jenny her apple martini just as a speeding Humvee shattered the front window and threw Jenny from her stool.

Which sentence jumps off the page? Notice that I didn’t alter a single word, aside from changing each verb from passive to active voice.

If you haven’t heard those terms before, here’s a simple definition: Passive voice makes the subject into the (passive) object of the verb. Active voice means the subject is the (active) person or thing performing the action of the verb. In the second clause, the window isn’t doing the shattering — the Humvee is. The window is the object of the shattering. So shouldn’t the Humvee be the subject? Ancient grammar swamis say yes.

But, you say, the sentences don’t seem that different to me. Wrong. Try this: count the words. Okay, fine, I’ll do it for you. The first example contains 28 words, the second 23. Multiply that difference (five, math whiz) by the number of sentences in a manuscript. My example was extreme, so let’s be conservative and say you save one word every fifth sentence by going through your manuscript and changing as many verbs as you can from passive to active.

Take a manuscript of 300 pages, with an average of 300 words per page, and sentences of about 10 words… that’s 9,000 sentences. Damn. No wonder finishing a manuscript is hard. Result: you’ve just cut 1,800 words, or six pages, from your manuscript.

Why would you want to cut six pages from your magnum opus? Maybe you don’t. Maybe you want to fill those six pages — or twelve, if you’re one of those ambitious people who writes 600-page manuscripts — with useful information about plot, character, or theme, instead of useless words such as was, were, by, and that annoying suffix -ing. But it’s okay to simply cut. Honest. Quality is more important than quantity.

Even if you don’t see the difference in my one example, use active verbs consistently and your writing will pop as it never did before. The reason is self-explanatory: it’s more active, and useless words aren’t bogging it down. Repeat after me: useless words are bad words.

The Exception That Proves the Rule

F. Scott Fitzgerald used the passive voice. I’m sure of it. But when he did, I’ll bet he had a good reason. My example might be taken from a novel in which Jenny is the protagonist. Her true love, perhaps, is driving the Humvee. (The Humvee is not “being driven by” her true love.) So Jenny, not the bartender, should be the focus of the sentence. With this rule, as with all others that are meant to be (occasionally) broken, always be aware of why you’re breaking it.

You’ve gotta know the rules before you can know how to break them. And no one knows all the rules. Not even me.

Popularity: 15% [?]