Brooks Mendell

Writer, Teacher and Forestry Professional

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Four Ways to Strengthen Non-Fiction Writing

January 22, 2023 /

This post introduces an essay on improving the clarity and power of blogs, essays, and articles. 

My go-to resources for writing advice include books such as The Elements of Style by Strunk and White and On Writing by Steven King. (My two-phrase summary of The Elements of Style would be “Omit needless words; let every word tell!”)

In this 700-word essay, I summarize years of reading, writing, revising, and editing into four guidelines intended to help you strengthen the sharing of your ideas and analysis, through the written word, with others. The ultimate aim is to dispense with the garnish and deliver the meat. Clear writing communicates clarified thinking. 

Click here to read the essay.

Brooks Writes Stories: How Did It Go in 2022?

January 1, 2023 /

In mid-2017, I started submitting and tracking my fiction writing, and have since posted updates in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. How did it go in 2022?

  • In 2022, I submitted versions and revisions of 26 stories 74 times to 46 different outlets. This included three contests.
  • Between January 1 and December 31, 2022, I received 64 rejections (including seven for stories submitted in 2021) and nine acceptances (12.3%, which includes one acceptance for a story submitted in 2020). 
  • Select comments from editors included:
    • “I liked the ease of the dialogue. However, I wasn’t convinced of the significance of the…”
    • “…we would encourage you to submit your piece to another journal…”
    • “Though quirky and funny…the story is trying to tackle too much in flash…”
    • “The family relationship here — everything feels so natural and real. I’m sorry to say no, but it’s not quite right for [us].”
    • “Love the title.” 🙂

Stories Published in 2022

Eight stories were published by six different venues in 2022.

On January 13th, 365tomorrows published “Aliens and Leftovers” (273 words, 2 minute read). The story, inspired by a true event, combines a brief ode to composting with the pull of suburbia.

On February 6th, Aphelion published “Protecting the Bean Farmers” (341 words, 2 minute read).  An interview with the late and prolific writer Harlan Ellison sparked the idea for this story (which survived 16 rejections and revisions). He said unless you spend most of your days “living life…You’re nothing but a beanfield hand.”

On March 25th, The Rye Whiskey Review published “No One Told Me” (227 words, 1 minute read). This knockout of people who talk cheap shit about people and cultures of which they know nothing, holds my record (to date) for rejections and revisions before finding a home (25).  My experience in college as a cast member of Children of a Lesser God, which included hearing and deaf actors, inspired this story.

On March 31st, The RavensPerch published “Tip Jar” (221 words, 1 minute read). Inspired by a trip to the Athens Farmer’s Market and my older daughter’s volunteering at ESP.

On April 18th, Mystery Tribune published “Family Picture” (689 words, 3 minute read). The mother in this story, her life spent betraying and abusing others, finally pushes her daughter too far.

On May 11th, Maudlin House published “Aliens at Rest” (531 words, 3 minute read). The editor accepted it with, “We love it and would like to publish it…” Thank you, Ms. Smart!

On September 5th, Aphelion published “Aliens Have Dads, Too” (285 words, 2 minute read). Accepted on the first try, this is also the first time I “made the cover” of a magazine with a story.

On December 1st, 365tomorrows published “Birthday Apples” (273 words, 2 minute read), a story I salvaged from the slush pile and revised with a new twist.

Finally, I would like to thank Michele-Lee Barasso and Jonathan Laden, the founders, publishers and editors of Daily Science Fiction (DSF), the source of my first professional sale, “Water Carrier” (2018). On August 11th, Michele and Jonathan announced that, after more than 12 years, DSF “will go on a hiatus, either temporary or somewhat longer.” Thank you for the support and encouragement you provided to me and other writers, and for the fun, diverse, and touching stories you chose for us as readers. While selfishly hoping your hiatus is temporary, I send to you the best and warmest of wishes.

Happy New You to everyone, and thank you for reading!

How to Write a Blog Post: Zero to 500+ Words in One Hour

December 7, 2022 /

You wake at 5:40 in the morning to write for an hour before the family circus starts. Several ideas fight for space in your head, eating your limited time. Finally, you pick one and plow ahead. Here, I focus on how to quickly produce an editable and operable blog post when time is tight.

Control Your Workspace and Headspace

Productive writing in restricted, inflexible windows of time requires you to do two things:

  1. Destroy distractions. When writing, I turn my phone off and upside-down, and close my internet browser and email. Close doors and blinds. Disconnect from Wi-Fi. The enemy is anything that can redirect your attention and reduce relevant word count.
  2. Give yourself an assignment. Decide, prior to sitting down and preferably the day or week before, what you plan to write about. Plant the seed in your mental soil. When something is due on deadline and must get drafted, we need “no-choice” and the beneficial focus and fertility of planning in advance. 

The above guidelines raise “but, what if…” questions. For example, what if something pops up while writing, like you need to check a fact or look up a name? Answer: I highlight the words or “question to self” in yellow or all-caps as a reminder to circle back later instead of stopping to open a browser and search online in the moment. Again, the enemy, especially, when tight on time, is anything that slows us down. 

Draft the Post[1]

You decided yesterday to draft a post this morning on “if you lock your keys in someone else’s car” or “if you run out of gas” or “how to clean your teeth with a huckleberry branch.” Now start writing. Dump the contents of your brain on or inspired by this topic onto the page. Write until you run out of juice. Pause to cough, then type more. Sip your tea, then keep stroking the keyboard. Focus on volume over quality. This will generate 300, 500 or 1,000 words (1 to 3 pages), much of it drivel and some of it practical, humorous, or ironic with links to personal past experiences.

Next, read the text and find your themes or key messages. Every salad has its berries. Highlight these sentences as leads for paragraphs. Ideally, you’ll have one to three solid ideas. 

Next, cross out the crap and reshape what’s left. We whittle the original draft to the essential worthwhile content. Reorganize what remains around the themes. For me, this usually means I mined two or three themes that will serve as topic sentences for two or three body paragraphs, of which one or two may be formed.

Finally, reshape and strengthen the introduction and body paragraphs. We’ve got a bunch of edited words that need a clean opening, so we put our remaining time into the introductory sentences. This could be a fact, question, or statement, but the first paragraph sets the tone.

By this point, we’ve thought of other ideas or stories that fit the themes, or with better ways to word the themes we have. [I always get these down on paper, sometimes as notes in the margin or bullet points at the bottom of the page because I’ve run out of time…] 

Conclusion

You’re an hour in and have a roughly drafted blog post, or the start of deeper essay to build on, or that letter you’ve been meaning to write to your high school chemistry teacher, fessing up for being the one to blow the Bunsen burner. Open your calendar and block time later that day or week to reread, edit, and incorporate those loose ideas into your post before sending it out into the world…

[1] My total investment in this post (and not including this ~130-word footnote), from idea to writing and editing and formatting and posting, was just over two hours spread out over three sessions. The first was a ten-minute burst of about 150 words several months ago to capture the idea and several bullet points. Most of that content survives in the “Draft the Post” section and was key to driving this. The second was a 50-minute session two mornings ago (at 5:40) to dump my brain, which left me with a rough draft of just under 600 words. The final round was a session of editing, pruning, and formatting for posting the blog itself. Overall, half of the time (about an hour) was actual writing, and another hour plus was spent editing and formatting.

Three Reasons to Pick Up a Pen and Write

March 26, 2022 /

Introduction

Deciding to leverage your lived moments into wisdom, insight, and appreciation rather than choosing the passive habit of regurgitating op-eds or puffery means engaging directly with people and ideas. Forwarding a link or liking a post differs from thinking and creating. An active, original mind stitches together a swatch of learning here with our lived experience there to grow and serve.

When it comes to capturing, conceptualizing, and thinking through ideas, few approaches compete with the act of writing. Just as the wisest people I know read a lot, the most creative and thoughtful people I know write regularly as part of their professional or personal lives. In this post, I encourage you to take up the pen and write.

Three Reasons to Write

First, writing cultivates a fertile mind. For example, the simple act of journaling collects thoughts and observations and, when you close the pages for the day, allows them to mix and mingle while you trundle off to conduct your daily affairs. Then, when decisions arise, the wisdom and experiences captured in the journal have a way of synthesizing our experiences. The act of writing lets those ideas simmer, helping us gain wisdom distilled from our own lives.

This blog and my essays are exercises to refine thoughts and capture best practices. They force me to cull the nonessential and reflect on what works and makes sense with the goal of receiving and sharing insights. In this way, writing is a dialogue; it seeks a response.

Second, writing relieves the mind. At times, we get trapped in mental mousetraps, addictively griping over minor grievances, or stubbornly ruminating on things outside of our control. The writing process offers powerful medicine for thinking through a problem in a practical way without perseverating.

The physicality of typing or writing by hand warms ideas and mines the subconscious. It also provides a form of self-administered relief. In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron recommends a practice of “morning pages,” which are “three pages of stream-of-consciousness longhand morning writing” that help us clear the mental detritus before taking on the day. Cameron notes that:

“…The morning pages…must be experienced in order to be explained, just as reading a book about jogging is not the same as putting on your Nikes and heading out…”

Third, writing armors you for battle. Regular writing sharpens your language and strengthens your communication skills. Great leaders and orators, from Winston Churchill to John F. Kennedy to Martin Luther King, Jr built their philosophies and communication skills through reading and writing. Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States, said:

“If I went back to college again, I’d concentrate on two areas: learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.”

Conclusion

Write stuff down. If journaling or letter writing are not your thing, at least carry a pen and notebook for meetings, calls, work conferences, and events at your kids’ schools.  Write down ideas, lessons, and things you want to do. The writing process organizes ideas, identifies questions, and exposes holes. Your value as a thinker, regardless your field, will improve. 

In sum, put pen to paper and build the writing muscle. You will use more of what you write, verbatim, than you ever could realize.

Stories 2020: How Did It Go?

January 1, 2021 /

In 2017, I began submitting and tracking my fiction writing and then posted updates in 2018 and 2019. How did it go during 2020?

  • In 2020, I submitted versions and revisions of 33 stories 128 times to 64 different outlets. This included 5 contests.
  • Between January 1 and December 31, 2020, I received 114 rejections (including several for stories submitted in 2019) and eight acceptances (6.6%).
  • Several rejection notices included brief comments from editors. A few to give the flavor:
    • “Too much to pack into a flash piece…”
    • “Your avenging aunt is, of course, an attractive character, bringing justice…”
    • “It so accurately shows how cruel kids that age can be! [but] …it’s not quite right for [us].”
    • “Some great details put us immediately on stage… [but] …the narrator is lost in this draft.”

Stories Published in 2020

Seven stories were published by six venues in 2020.

On April 28th, Mystery Tribune published “Tour De Forest” (910 words, 4 minute read). This story went through several versions prior to finding a home. One outlet requested a stronger “sense of place” which led me to conduct more research on a mountainous region in France, where the story is set. 

On August 4th, Microfiction Monday Magazine published “Business as Usual” (100 words; 1 minute read). I know a guy who knew a guy that wore corduroys with lobsters on them.

On September 5th, 365tomorrows published “Carried Away Forever” (558 words, 3 minute read). This story started as a contest submission in 2017 soon after the Las Vegas music festival shooting. It was rejected 13 times and went through multiple wholesale rewrites. It came together after switching the narrator from a man to a woman.

On October 30th, London-based Storgy published “Substitutions” (48 words, 1 minute read). The original idea for this microfiction piece arrived while I listened to an NPR story about Thanksgiving family recipes, and a person discussed a few of her favorite (and secret) substitutions.

On November 3rd, Daily Science Fiction published “Holes in the Fence” (935 words, 4 minute read). This story found firmer footing after a wonderful person and friend died in 2019. He made powerful arguments with a light touch. “Holes in the Fence” is dedicated to Jim Fendig. 

On December 1st, Mystery Tribune published “Too Hip to Upgrade” (583 words, 3 minute read). My first published noir story: in a dark, futuristic Beantown, two criminals struggle to cooperate or get the job done.

On December 22nd, 101 Words published my Christmas-themed “Party Crasher” (101 words, 1 minute read). Based on the comments and emails, this has been one of my most popular pubs to date.

Enjoy the stories and thank you for reading!

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