What Playing Big Actually Means for Writers

 by Suzanne Lieurance

"Play big" gets used so often in creative circles that it's started to mean almost nothing — or worse, it's started to mean something intimidating: louder, more visible, more relentlessly self-promotional. No wonder so many writers hear it and quietly opt out.

That's not what it means. For a writer, playing big has very little to do with volume and everything to do with scope — the size of the questions you're willing to ask on the page, the size of the truth you're willing to risk saying, and the size of the audience you're willing to imagine reaching.

A quiet, private, deeply personal essay can be an act of enormous scope if it says something the writer has spent years avoiding saying. A loud, highly marketed book can be tiny in scope if it never risks anything the writer didn't already know how to defend.

Scope is measured in risk to the writer, not decibels to the audience. It's the difference between a project that could embarrass you if it fails and one that couldn't, because you never really put anything on the line.

This reframe matters because it changes what expansion actually requires of you. It doesn't require becoming someone louder, more confident, or more comfortable with self-promotion than you currently are. It requires becoming someone willing to write closer to the edge of what you actually think and feel — regardless of how quietly or loudly that gets published.

Ask yourself, honestly: if scope is about risk to you rather than volume to the world, where have you been avoiding the bigger version of a project not because it required more visibility, but because it required more honesty?

That's usually where the real expansion is waiting. Not in getting louder. In getting braver about what you're willing to say. 

And now, visit writebythesea.com and learn how to improve you writing through revision. 

And get your free subscription to The Morning Nudge for weekday emails with additional writing tips and resources. 

Suzanne Lieurance is the author of over 45 published books and a Law of Attraction transformational coach for writers.

Basics & Strong Writing

 Basics Make Strong Writing by Deborah Lyn Stanley

Writing as close as we can to the way we speak, tends to lead to lively, engaging and powerful sentences. Once that’s down, we revise and polish our composition.
I find the following list of revision tips helpful.

1.    Keep the focus, the theme of the piece consistent throughout,
2.    Sentence structure is a subject—a noun or pronoun, and a predicate/verb that explains what the subject is doing,
3.    Use nouns rather than adjectives (nouns: people, places & things—the info readers want.) Remove over used adjectives such as very,
4.    Verbs are where the action is—choose strong ones and avoid adverbs that diminish the strength of the sentence.
5.    Write shorter sentences for clarity; yet long enough to express the point—rather than long ones. Then vary sentence length within the piece.
6.    Write in a professional manner but make it personal to convey the message. Also, be specific, avoiding general statements which can be less useful.
7.     Choose common words that keep the flow, rather than fancy ones that slow the pace.

Sentences build paragraphs; utilize sentence emphasis. Here are tips to consider:
1.    Sentences close with emphasis through punctuation, the period, a pause. It’s the strongest point of emphasis.
2.    Lead a sentence with a strong statement, not a preliminary intro to launch it: in order to…
3.    Not every sentence needs emphasis. Some must be subordinate, use clauses effectively for this. Although, when, if, and because are useful for subordinate clauses.
4.    Grammar checkers don’t approve BUT, sentence fragments are instrumental in making a point. (Got it? Enough said?)
5.    Your topic has a coherent flow, now consider ending with the thought you intend to develop next.

Build Stronger Writing 
Enrich Your Everyday Practice

Helpful Tools:
Melissa Donovan’s 10 Core Practices for Better Writing
https://www.writingforward.com/books/10-core-practices-for-better-writing
Mastering the Craft of Writing by Stephen Wilbers
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Craft-Writing-Clarity-Emphasis

Deborah Lyn Stanley is an author of Creative Non-Fiction. She writes articles, essays and stories. She is passionate about caring for the mentally impaired through creative arts.
Visit her My Writer’s Life website at: https://deborahlynwriter.com/   
Visit her caregiver’s website: https://deborahlyncaregiver.com/

Mom & Me: A Story of Dementia and the Power of God’s Love is available:
https://www.amazon.com/Deborah-Lyn-Stanley/
And at  https://books2read.com/b/valuestories

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