We have heard from many of our new subscribers, writers in particular, who chuckled over last months article, Writer's Block, the block that attacks us all, whether we are writers or thinkers. Because of the many questions I received in the e-mail, I set myself the task of researching a few pointers for you.

Creative writing and creative thinking is a laborious and slow process; the mind is faster than the pen or the computer. You have to keep in mind that the everyday goal is to write and think anyway, about anything. To be successful at this, at first, set your sights low and everyday write down your thoughts a hundred words at a time. Then, over the next days, evaluate your work and rewrite it, if you have to, as many times as you have to, with a fresh mind, until you are satisfied with your own creation. How will you know when your work is satisfactory? When the words say and mean what you want them to. It's a process that you can repeat, day after day, increasing your word output in fifty word increments until you reach what you feel is your optimum production. Most writers feel that six hundred acceptable words per day is a good production day.

A successful author once told me that her technique followed somewhat the same formula. At the end of eight months, she had produced a short novel of 250 pages that was accepted by a major publisher.

Be that as it may, the truth is that, like thinking, there are no rules for writing except there are no rules for writing. Take, for example, Frank McCourt, a retired English teacher, who wrote "Angela's Ashes". Aside from it being a brilliant piece of work, his book was the first one I had ever read devoid of dialogue punctuation; it gave the page a blank look, like there was very little content there. At first, his format bothered me but then, because his story was so intriguing, I soon hadn't noticed the absence of the dialogue hash marks. He utilized the axiom that there are no rules for writing, honing it to a fine tool.

In upcoming issues we will take our reader's responses, sift through their requests and try to answer their questions. For the next coming month's issues, we will plunge into and start a series of alternating articles on plot and character development.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
Thank you for your responses; your comments were welcomed. Right now we have four requests on the books but we look forward to hearing from you with yours. Please direct your email to the Editor.