Nonfiction

MEET ELAINE L. ORR

NONFICTION

If you're really creative, even your grocery list is a joy to read. You sow the seeds of your idea with herbs and vegetables. The plot thickens (with the cream of tartar), and the ingredients culminate in a mouth-watering Beef Wellington or Baked Alaska. I'm not that kind of creative.

Instead, you can take a gander at some of my published products and I will sometimes add some "gee-I-wish-someone-would-publish" list of projects.

MONETT

Arcadia Publishing issued Elaine's book, titled simply Monett, in 2006. It is a pictorial history of this Barry County, Missouri town that was born because of the Frisco Railway and continues today with a vibrant economy and friendly atmosphere. You can purchase Monett at most online booksellers as well as local retail outlets in the Monett, MO area. The include The Lawrence County Record in Mount Vernon and the Barry County Historical Museum in Cassville.

Words to Write By

Putting Your thoughts on Paper

The Approach to this Book

There are two key factors for adults who want to learn to write well.

Ø Don’t be afraid to write badly while you learn.

Ø Practice by writing about what you know.

In school, you had to learn about a subject before you began to write (such as term papers in high school), and your grade depended on how well you learned it and expressed what you knew. In this book, you will be encouraged to write about topics with which you are already familiar. Thus, you will not struggle with unfamiliar facts or ideas. You can focus on how to put these ideas on paper.

Pick a subject and think about it as you read this book, and use that subject to do the suggested exercises. If a subject does not come immediately to mind think about what you like to:

Ø      Read about

Ø      Talk about

Ø      Play

Play? Yes, play. Do you like to play basketball or Yahtzee? Maybe the topic you pick will have to do with strategies for winning a game. Perhaps you enjoy giving gifts and work hard to select them. The important thing is, pick something you like and know a lot about. If it seems like a trivial topic – no problem. Be assured, there is no topic so mundane that someone has not written about it. Why not you?

If you are reading this under the pressure of a deadline (“I have to finish the memo by tomorrow afternoon”), it will still benefit you to take a step back and write about what you know as you work through the practice sessions in this book.

Check out the Table of Contents to Words to Write By.

Would you like to order Words to Write By? The easiest option is to go to its Amazon.com order page and get the Kindle version for only $1.99. Remember, you can download the book to your computer, you don't need a Kindle.