Author: admin

As writers, we all have that place in our house where we tend to be more creative and the words just come a little easier for us. If you are serious about writing as a career or even a side job, it’s extremely important to find this place. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Just somewhere that you can think and go about practicing your craft without interruption or intrusion. I find that people tend to impede my writing if I am just sitting on the couch and typing away. They may think that they are only interrupting me for a second, but they may be putting a halt to a flood of creativity that was just about ready to pour through me. And this is just as much my fault as theirs, as I should be in my Do Not Disturb spot while working.

If you don’t have a perfect spot in your house to do your writing in, now is the time to create one. In the film Funny Farm, one of Chevy Chase’s last good ones, he plays a sports writer that moves out into the country in Redbud, Vermont with his wife so he can write the next great american novel. Chase’s character is excited about a room upstairs with a gorgeous view that will be perfect for him to write in. But soon, there are constant interruptions and he can’t write anything substantial. The birds outside his window are driving him crazy. The maniacal mailman is disturbing him enough that he often stops writing completely so he can get his mail and some revenge. They find a body buried in their yard. He starts to go fishing instead of working. And then, he finally gives up on his dream of writing that novel that he has been talking about for years. Don’t let this happen to you. Draw some inspiration from the writing spaces that successful authors have constructed for themselves. You might even be surprised that some very famous authors choose to write outside their house instead!

1. Charles Dickens

British novelist Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. Over the course of his entire writing career, he wrote the forever classic novels Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. This is quite a resume of beloved books. For most of them, Dickens would insist on writing at his familiar desk and chair. He felt he did his best work at his beloved desk, and would often have it shipped with him when he knew he would be gone awhile from home. If you are interested in seeing the desk and chair in person, they are on display at the Charles Dickens Museum at the author’s former home in London.

2. Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer born in 1882 who is considered one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. She is best known for her novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927). Every morning she would walk down to the basement and into a storage room with a cozy old armchair that she loved. She would write away sitting in the armchair in her peace and quiet.

3. Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on September 15, 1890 in the southwest part of England. The youngest of three children, she was educated at home by her mother who would always encourage her daughter to write. Christie was an author who would churn out classical detective stories at an astounding rate. In fact, she is tied with William Shakespeare as the best selling fiction author of all time. Where did Christie conceive all of her masterpieces? She most often would be sitting in her large Victorian bathtub eating apples as the created the plots to her novels.

4. Edith Wharton

Edith Newbold Jones was born into a wealthy New York family, and later in life married a rich banker named Edward Wharton in 1885. After her marriage ended in divorce in 1913, she began to write stories set among turn-of-the-century New York society. She did not have her first novel published until the age of 40. This did not slow her down though, she eventually wrote 38 books. The most well known book was the Pulitzer Prize winner The Age of Innocence. Most mornings, she would write while still covered up in bed. It was her preferred spot. She would have her dog on one side of her, and an ink bottle on the other. Her secretary would later type up all the pages she had written by hand.

5. Stephen King

Before Stephen King became recognized as one of the best horror writers of all time, he was a struggling English teacher living out of a trailer with his wife Tabitha. She worked at Dunkin’ Donuts on the second shift. King couldn’t even afford his own typewriter, so he used his wife’s as he worked at his makeshift desk that was sandwiched between the washing machine and the dryer. He would literally lock himself in the laundry room to do his writing. It was there that he created his first hit novel Carrie. It just goes to show you, you do not need a fancy spot to complete your writing in. You just need a location that is suitable for you!

6. E.B. White

E.B. White is best known for writing his book Charlotte’s Web. Everyone loved that little runt Wilbur and the spider Charlotte. White did not believe in picking out the quietest spot to write. He would most often work in his living room as the bustle of life went on around him. He would say that his family never bothered to be quiet as he wrote, they would continue acting as if he wasn’t even around. He once said,  “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” Perhaps you write in a similar environment?

7. Ernest Hemingway

Every serious writer knows who Ernest Hemingway was because he was definitely a like-minded individual. He took his craft seriously. He was well known for novels like The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. In 1954, Hemingway even won the Nobel Prize. He committed suicide on July 2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho. He never had a set place where he liked to write, but he did have a time of the day that he favored. Hemingway would often write as soon as it first became light in the morning. He cherished the quietness and the chill in the air. He would usually try to write for six hours a day, and then stop and wait until the next morning where he could continue on with his craft.

8. Mark Twain

Mark Twain had a private study built separate from his house so he could be secluded while writing and also smoke his cigars that his wife hated. Best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), Twain was a living legend back in his day. He followed his routine for writing almost every day. He would go to his study after having a large breakfast. Once there, he would skip lunch and work without interruption until almost five at night. If the family needed him for anything at the house, they would blow a loud horn and he would come.

As a teacher that has taught writing to students all the way from elementary to college, nothing can give me more fits than apostrophes. Reading a student’s writing and seeing a misplaced apostrophe can get my blood boiling. I guess I get so worked up about it because we cover it quite a bit during the school year. All the students appear to master using apostrophes correctly when we are doing it together as a class. But once they are turned loose on their own, creating their own stories, the use of their apostrophes confounds me!

Placing apostrophes is not rocket science. There are only certain times when an apostrophe is needed. There are many adults on social media that apparently have no clue about how to use an apostrophe either. Their posts may say the most profound things I have ever read, but I totally ignore them and focus on the oblivious way they use their apostrophes. Let’s take a look when an apostrophe is needed and when one is not needed at all.

Apostrophes Showing Possession

Apostrophes can show that something belongs to someone or even something. Let’s look at a few examples below for singular nouns and names.

• The car’s door was dented on the side.
• Dusty’s clothes were much too small and tight.
• The dog’s food dish was almost empty.
• As he spoke, Dean’s arms flew around excitedly.

Those examples show a very common and simple way of using apostrophes correctly. Two of the sentences show people that own things, whether it be clothes or body parts. One sentence showed an animal owning a dish. The other sentence is written about something (a car) and how part of it is damaged. What do all of these things have in common? They are all nouns! The people are proper nouns since we are using their names. The car and dog are just ordinary nouns, but the apostrophe shows that they have ownership of other nouns! Everything involved is a noun!

Quite a few of my students become confused when a person’s name ends with an s. They try just to put the apostrophe right before that s and call it all good. Below are some examples of what should be done with names that end in s and are showing possession of something.

• Gus’s thumb was broken during the football game.
• Thomas’s son was tall and skinny just like he was.
• The boy joined Chris’s family for the camping trip.
• Cass’s hair was braided into lovely ponytails.

What do all those examples have in common again? They are all nouns showing possession of other nouns! More specifically, they are all singular nouns showing ownership. So far, using apostrophes is pretty simple! However, it is about to become a bit more difficult.

Plural nouns, as all of us know, just means that there is more than one of something. There are a few example sentences down below.

• The boys ran down to the creek to go swimming.
• When they got there, they noticed the creek was filled with frogs.
• The boys picked up the frogs and placed them in buckets.

Nothing too difficult so far. Everything bolded in those three sentences are plural nouns. Now let’s take a look at plural nouns that are also possessive, so an apostrophe will have to be used.

• The three girls’ lemonade stand was doing great business!
• All the families’ yards on our block were filled with debris from the tornado.
• The horses’ stables all had to be washed out and cleaned.

Notice how the word is still a plural noun, but since they are also showing possession of something, they are actually possessive plural nouns. When dealing with a plural noun that ends in s and that is showing ownership of something, all that needs to be done is placing an apostrophe after the s at the end of the word.

I know what you are saying though. You are thinking to yourself that not all plural nouns end in s, so what happens then. Where does the apostrophe end up going? Quickly look at the examples down below. It really is quite easy.

• The children’s dog ran out of the open gate.
• The women’s dresses were all the same color.
• The mice’s home was a hole in the wall.

Notice that first we made these words plural nouns that don’t end in s. We next had to figure out how to make them plural possessive nouns correctly. All that had to be done was to add an apostrophe and then an s to the words. There aren’t many words that are plural nouns that don’t end in s, but every now and then you will come across one. If you have have understood how to use an apostrophe right so far, give yourself a pat on the back. There is just a little more to learn about apostrophes. Can you think of any words that we have not covered that must use an apostrophe as well?

Contractions

I had my primary students one time do a quick Google search for contractions when they were struggling with the concept. They struggled a bit more when the top information that popped up was about women giving birth to babies. Not the information I was after. A contraction is also a word created by the shortening and combining of two other words. When making the contraction, an apostrophe has to be inserted to indicate there are missing letters. Below are some examples of contractions.

• did not becomes didn’t
• would not becomes wouldn’t
• I am becomes I’m
• he will become he’ll
• does not becomes doesn’t

As you will notice, usually the apostrophe is placed before the last letter. That is not quite always the case, but it is the majority of the time. The common exceptions are when the second word is either have or will.

• should have becomes should’ve
• she will becomes she’ll
• might have becomes might’ve

What the ????

I have saved the most confusing use of an apostrophe for last. It can make very intelligent adults look less than intelligent on their social media posts. It will have so many hands raised up in the air when presented to a primary classroom. “But I thought you said…” I know! I didn’t create the English language. I don’t understand it either.

Deciding when to use its or it’s is not too complicated once you hear the rules, but until then I have seen people choose heads or tails on which one they were going to go with.

Only use it’s when creating a contraction of it is or it has. Below are examples for a better understanding.

• It’s extremely cold out today.
• It’s time to go shopping since we are all out of food.

Use its the rest of the time when you are not forming a contraction by combining two words.

• The elephant swayed its trunk back and forth.
• The toy came with its own batteries.

You may look at that first sentence about the elephant and say that its trunk should be it’s trunk because it is showing ownership of the trunk. However, that is not the case. Remember, only use it’s when you are combining it is or it has. I know, I know. I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them! Just by reading all of this you have become an apostrophe expert! It is up to you to educate others on the proper usage. Try not to lose any friends while doing so!

 

English is not an easy language to master. There are words that sound alike, are spelled alike, but have totally different meanings. It’s always important to use the correct word since using the incorrect one will have people doubting your intelligence. Teachers can tell you firsthand that anytime they spell a word wrong on the board, it is the only time when all students pay attention. Everyone is quick to point out mistakes, so it is best not to give them ammunition. Study this article closely and you will be using the right words in the correct situation without giving all the haters in the world a chance to bring you down!

Lose and Loose

This is easily two of the most commonly confused words in the English language. I notice well-educated people on social media who gets these words mixed up. Loose is almost always an adjective. Lose is a verb every time. These two words, while commonly misused, should be easy to decipher which one is correct for your sentence. Look at the examples down below for a bit more guidance.

• The man had lost so much weight that his pants were becoming loose.
• Did your team win or lose the softball game?

Than and Then

The word than is used for the sake of comparing something. Then is used for sequencing. However, once again, these two get switched around frequently. Below are examples of the proper way to use them.

• The tree is taller than the house.
• First I went to the park, then I went to go get ice cream.

“Who’s” and Whose

Everyone should know that an apostrophe in a word means that it is either a contraction or it is showing possession of something. “Who’s” is a contraction that is short for who is. Whose is a possessive pronoun.

• Who’s that boy that is holding hands with Anna?
• Jack, whose house is the nicest one on the street, is having a birthday party this weekend.

“Should’ve” and “Should of”

The phrase “should’ve” is a contraction consisting of the two words should and have. Unfortunately, people mistakenly write it wrong on a consistent basis. Down below I have an example of the wrong way and the right way to use these.

• WRONG:  I should of gone to the store today.
• CORRECT: I should’ve gone to the store today.

Advice and Advise

Once again, the parts of speech of these two words are different, so it can definitely assist you in figuring out which one to use. Advice is a noun and advise is a verb. Check out the two sentences below to get a better grasp on which one to use.

• The parent offered advice to their young daughter on choosing the right college.
• The parents advised their daughter not to date the troubled young man.

Affect and Effect

These two words are so commonly switched for one another that sometimes it goes unnoticed. However, by taking a moment, it can be simple to determine which word should be used. Affect is usually a verb and effect is usually a noun. Remember that all sentences must have a subject and a verb, otherwise, it is an incomplete sentence.

• When the doorbell rings, it affects my dog greatly!
• The effects in the movie were amazing.

Literally

No other word has been murdered as much as the word literally. Literally means that something actually happened. The word that should be used in its place most of the time is figuratively. Let’s look at some of the ways literally was misused.

• My heart was literally beating out of my chest.

No. No, it wasn’t. You would be dead now and wouldn’t be able to use the word literally so wrongly. Just because you like to ramp up the drama, that doesn’t mean you get to butcher the English language.

• I am so hungry that I could literally eat a horse.

I seriously doubt it. Hooves and everything? Not going to happen. Simmer down on the dramatic phrasing and tell us how hungry you actually are. Below is an example of how literally could be used correctly.

• The Titanic, the supposed unsinkable ship, literally sank on its first voyage.

Do you see how it is stating a fact? Let’s cool it with the exaggerated use of literally. Literally.

Accept and Except

I can accept how people confuse these two words, except when they are English majors. Did you see what I did there? I used both words correctly in the same sentence. Genius! Accept is a verb that means willing or agreeing to. Except is a preposition that means excluding. These words sound exactly the same, but the definition of the two are almost complete opposites.

• I will gladly accept cash or credit card.
• My team has won all of our games, except one.

Ironic

I blame Alanis Morissette for the incorrect way that this word is often used. (In fact, when it is convenient, I blame Alanis Morissette for all my problems. It’s just easier that way.) If it is raining on your wedding day, then that is not really ironic. It’s coincidental at best. Maybe bad luck at worst? But there is not any irony there. If you have just met the man of your dreams, and he introduces you to his beautiful wife, then that again is not ironic. Perhaps it is bad timing. It would be ironic, however, if a man deathly afraid of flying takes his first flight ever and the plane crashes and he dies. Irony might be choking to death on a daily vitamin. There are several examples of true irony when you really put your mind to it.

• Isn’t it ironic that Morissette wrote a song titled Ironic and there were not really any true examples of irony in it?

To, Too, and Two

All three of these words are homophones. They sound exactly the same but have a different meaning. Two, of course, is referring to how many of something.

• There are two dogs at my house.

Now we are left with to and too. To means to be going somewhere or moving towards something.

• We went to the store to buy a gallon of milk.

And now there is one. The word too means also or very.

• I was too nervous to ask the pretty girl on a date.

There, Their, and “They’re”

Again, these words all homophones, but their definitions are different. The word there means a location.

• Go over there and grab me a sandwich.

“They’re” is a contraction of they and are.

• They’re looking at houses to buy in the city.

Lastly, the word their means something belongs to them.

• Their dog was a mixture of schnauzer and terrier.

By, Bye, and Buy

I thought it was appropriate to wrap up the article with this last one. The boy band ‘N Sync sang their song Bye Bye Bye hoping that all of you would buy, buy, buy it. Let’s break down the proper usage of these three words.

• I went by the park, but I didn’t see anyone playing there. (by means location)
• My wife has a bad habit where she will buy too many shoes. (buy means purchasing)
• It is time to say bye because this is the end of the article. (bye means so long)

Writer’s block hits us all at some point. There are days when we sit in front of our computers and words just start pouring on to the page, but then there are other times when everything is a struggle. We can’t get more than a sentence or two into it without feeling frustrated. Writer’s block can last for hours, days, weeks, months, and some famous authors have stated it has lasted for them for years!

Living a writer’s life can be a bit lonely. We are holed up in our rooms with just the voices of our characters in our heads. A writer can be a bit of a lone wolf. But they need to venture out now and then. Being alone for so much time is not good for anyone. There are quite a few ways to experiment with when overcoming writer’s block. Look at the list below and see which one will work the best for you.

1. Take a Nap

The world just seems to be a better place after a nap. As a writer, sometimes you write so much that it feels like your brain is about ready to pour out of your ears. You need a little bit of a break. There is nothing like a two hour nap that will make you feel more refreshed. A reinvigorated writer is a better writer!

2. Send the Writing to a Friend

Writer’s block can often be cured by someone with a new perspective. Ask a friend what they would add to the story or article. Post on social media that you need an idea about some sort of subject, and watch all the comments come flying in. Most of the replies may be garbage, but there might be one that sticks out that you can actually do something with.

3. Go on a Trip

Writers are notorious for being in their rooms for long periods of time. Even if you are an introvert, getting out of the house to go on a short trip can energize you. You don’t have to travel to another state or even another city. You could go visit a friend that you haven’t seen for awhile. Grab a lunch with someone and have a couple drinks. Go see a movie in the theaters and sneak in as much food as possible. Check out the new museum in town that is getting rave reviews.

4. Go to the Library

Just because you are having a difficult time writing does not mean that you wouldn’t enjoy a good book. The library is the perfect place to lose yourself for a couple hours. It can take your mind off of your struggles, and perhaps provide inspiration for your own writing. Some day your books will be on their shelves, too!

5. Create an Outline for Your Writing

Whether you are writing a novel or just doing an article, creating an outline can help guide you along the way. Your outline can be broken into sequential topics or chapters. Once you finish one, start on the next. Remember though, the outline is just an outline for your final draft. If you need to add more sections to it once you are doing the actual writing, then add more! Nothing is set in stone.

6. Find a Muse

We always hear how various authors will have a muse that inspires them in their lives at certain points. Maybe you need a muse to break the writer’s block? If you are single, ask someone out on a date. Maybe they can get your creative juices flowing. If you are not single, do not ask anyone out on a date. That could be a very bad thing and the least of your worries would be about your writer’s block. But still, a muse could be the person working down at the local pizzeria, a family member, a kid, or even your pet.

7. Write in a Different Place

If you have writer’s block and can’t think of a thing to write, grab your laptop and head out the door. Maybe a park or a cafe can provide you with a new enough setting that your creativity will be on overload. Just be ready for curious people to ask you what you are writing.

8. Go for a Run

Maybe you are thinking to yourself that you do not like exercising, and you definitely hate running. It is time to live outside of the box. Here is the science about exercise helping you to think more clearly. A strenuous workout will have your body producing lactic acid. In turn, that lactic acid will turn into lactate. Lactate is used in the body for energy. During your workout and immediately following it, the blood running to your brain will have increased lactate in it. This is what enables you to think more clearly after a tough workout. Does this mean it will cure your writer’s block? It couldn’t hurt!

9. Go Crazy

Now I don’t mean that you should jump into your car and start smashing into mailboxes. I mean that you should go out and act a bit silly. Go jump in a lake, as long as it is not full of pollution. Stop by a mover’s truck and ask if they need any free help for the next hour. Hang out in a supermarket and eat all of their free samples. Cut your grass wearing nothing but short shorts. Do something that you would not ordinarily do. Acting a bit crazy can be a good thing. Crazy people always seem to have a lot of ideas and are quite interesting!

10. Visit an Elementary Classroom

Teachers love to have guest presenters to pawn their students off on for an hour. I am teacher, so I know these things. If the presenter has something valuable to teach the students, then even better. Since you are a writer, teach the students about writing! Ask the students what they like to write about. Tell them about the problem you are having. Maybe they will be able to give you some advice. Teaching young kids about writing can definitely fill you with ideas. Your number one idea will probably be about how lucky you are that you are not an everyday school teacher.

11. Have a Few Drinks

Some of the very best writers in history were alcoholics. Does the alcohol help with the writing? Who is to say. Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. William Faulkner was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, and was an alcoholic. Ernest Hemingway was one of the best writers of all time, and was also an extremely heavy drinker. Now I’m not saying to drive down to your local bar and drink until you can’t stand anymore. But heading on out with a few friends for a couple responsible beverages cannot hurt anything. Could it cure your writer’s block? Possibly.

12. Release the Endorphins

Endorphins are chemicals in the brain that lead to feelings of happiness and even euphoria. Releasing endorphins is a definite stress reliever and can be quite the cure for writer’s block. Eating chocolate can set those endorphins free. Exercise is definitely a way to increase endorphin production. Ginseng is a herb that has been proven to increase endorphins as well. However, the number one most fun way to release more endorphins is to have sex. Whether it be sex with your husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, or just a “visit” to your local Asian massage parlor. Your endorphins will be flowing like crazy.

Very few writers actually make a living at their craft. If you are a writer yourself, you know this already. People will tell you to give it up and get a real job. This is why most writers write only on the side or totally give up the craft after awhile. It can be quite frustrating. The toughest thing to do is to remain positive while facing adversity.

Many successful writers did exactly that. They kept writing even though it seemed like it was hopeless. Friends and family would often tell them to give it up, and focus on other aspects of their lives. But when you are the person chasing your dream, giving up is often not an option. If you are a true writer, then you realize that writing is something that is in your soul. To give it up would be impossible. Let’s look at some very successful writers who did not start out that way.

1. Dr. Seuss

We all know who Dr. Seuss is! But he didn’t start out with that name. Dr. Seuss was entirely his pen name. The much beloved children’s author’s name was actually Theodor Seuss Geisel. It turns out he wasn’t a doctor at all! However, he is one of the most successful writers of all time. His books have sold over 600 million copies.

His original goal was to become an English teacher. But his future wife convinced him to give up wanting to become an English teacher, and convinced him to pursue drawing instead. They later married, but Dr. Seuss never did have any children of his own. He originally drew political cartoons for papers and magazines. Eventually he turned his attention to children’s books where he did both the writing and illustrations.

His first children’s book was And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. It did not start off a smashing success though. He sent it around to numerous publishers and they all turned it down. In fact, it was the 28th publisher he sent it to that decided to take a chance on it. Vanguard Press ended up selling 6 million copies of the book. It’s a good thing Dr. Seuss did not give up after the 27th publisher rejected it. It just goes to show you that good fortune could be just around the corner. But first you have to turn that corner before you can find it.

2. J.K. Rowling

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 20 years, you have probably heard of the author J.K. Rowling. She is the very well-known author of the Harry Potter series that debuted in 1997. It took her approximately six years to write that first book. Her real name is Joanne Rowling, switching over to J.K. in honor of her mother and as a way to make her books a bit more popular. It is thought that boys do not often read books of female authors, so the unknown J.K. Rowling was born. Going with just initials instead of a first name was a way at the beginning of having all children interested in her books. Now just having her name being on a book is a way to interest millions of people.

Rowling did not have a book deal handed to her on a silver platter. Her life was often very difficult. She always thought she wanted to be a writer though. She enjoyed being alone in her room and creating stories out of nothing. Her mother died when she was 25 years old. Rowling was just six months in to writing Harry Potter at the time, and she had not told her mom about the story she was working on.

She soon married and had a daughter. However, the marriage would end just a bit after a year. Rowling was left penniless, jobless, and living in a rundown apartment with her young daughter. She survived off welfare and continued to write the book that would change her life. Once the book was finished, publisher after publisher turned it down. Finally, Bloomsbury, a publishing house in London, took a chance on the book and the unknown author. Her series of seven Harry Potter books would proceed to sell more than 450 million copies. Forbes estimated her net worth to be over $1 billion in 2011. From a struggling single mother with an idea for a book in her head that took six years for her to write to an amazingly successful author, Rowling has enjoyed quite the ride!

3. Sylvester Stallone

You may be scratching your head right now and wondering what Sylvester Stallone has to do with struggling writers that finally make it after enduring many failures. Stallone’s actual life story is even more impressive than Rocky’s. His rags to riches tale is almost hard to believe, but I assure you that it is all true.

Stallone was a struggling actor in New York for many years. And when I say struggling, I am being kind. He landed very few parts and was financially broke. He once had to steal his wife’s jewelry just to pawn it off so they survive a bit longer. He didn’t even have the money to buy food for his pet dog, so he had to approach strangers asking if they would be interesting in buying him. Stallone sold his dog for $25, and then walked away crying. He was homeless and slept at the bus station for days while he had nothing left to eat. Things could not get much worse.

A couple weeks later, he saw a boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner. Wepner was a serious underdog heading into the fight. People did not think he had a chance at the ever-impressive Ali. Wepner surprised everyone by trading blows and almost going the entire 15 rounds with Ali. Ali knocked Wepner out with only 20 seconds left in the fight. This inspired Stallone so much that he wrote the screenplay Rocky in one 20 hour marathon session.

He started pitching it to some studios and production companies. At the age of 30 years old, according to Stallone, he received an offer of $125,000 for the script. At the time, he had only about one hundred dollars in the bank and a pregnant wife. The studio was looking at having Burt Reynolds or Ryan O’Neal star in the film. Stallone, basically an unknown actor, turned down the offer because he wanted to be able to star in Rocky as well.

The offer reportedly got up to $350,000 for the screenplay Rocky if Stallone agreed he would not act in it. He once again turned down the offer and bet on himself. The studio finally agreed to pay him $35,000 for Rocky and agreed to let him star in it. They had a small $1 million budget and shot the whole movie in about four weeks. The rest is history! It won several awards and Stallone went on to write all the Rocky films among others. He also found the person who had bought his dog and ended up buying it back, according to Stallone, for three thousand dollars.

4. Stephen King

Stephen King is known as one of the most prolific writers of our time. By the end of 2016, he had written a grand total of 57 novels, including the ones that he wrote under his pen name of Richard Bachman. His work ethic with his writing has been nothing short of amazing. However, people may not realize how much he struggled before he became an “overnight” success. King has been known as such a huge talent for so long, people forget that he did not start out that way.

Born in Portland, Maine in 1947, King’s parents divorced when he was still very young. King and his brother David spent much of their youth being shuttled back and forth between their parents in Indiana and Connecticut. He later moved back to Maine with his brother and mother. If you are a fan of King’s work, you may have noticed that his stories are sometimes centered in Maine.

King later graduated from college with an English degree in 1970. He searched for a teaching position, but could not land one. He ended up working in a laundry and wrote short stories during his spare time. In 1971, he was hired at Hampden Academy to teach English. He also married his wife Tabitha that year, also a fellow writer. They struggled mightily the first few years of their marriage with finances. Their phone was often disconnected because they just did not have enough money to pay the bills.

By 1973, things had not gotten much better. King and his wife had two young kids by then. Tabitha was working at Dunkin’ Donuts while King kept teaching English in Maine. Finances continued to be so bad that he moonlighted as a janitor and gas pump attendant. They lived in a drafty doublewide trailer and drove around an old Buick held together by wire and tape. The typewriter he used was actually his wife’s, since he was too poor to have one of his own. His desk located in their trailer was in the laundry room wedged between the washing machine and the dryer. He continued to write faithfully even though he had not received much money from selling short stories to magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse. He found it difficult to share the good news of his short stories being published when they were stuck in these men’s magazines.

One day the Hampden Academy offered him an extra $300 a year if he would take the extra position of being the faculty advisor to the debate club. It was an offer he could not refuse, he thought, because it would allow his family to buy groceries. His wife, though, refused it for him when she realized it would not give him much time to write anymore. She was willing to risk it because she knew her husband had real talent.

A year later, after more than 30 publishers declined it, King received a phone call at school from his wife saying that his novel Carrie just sold to Doubleday Publishing. He received an advance of $2,500 for Carrie. It was not enough to quit teaching and focus on his writing, but it allowed them to get a better car and move out of the trailer and into a small apartment. They were even able to get their phone connected again. However, the hardback book Carrie only sold 13,000 copies. He was not exactly setting the literary world on fire. He started on a new book and put Carrie in the back of his mind. Then he received a very unexpected phone call. The paperback rights to Carrie was sold to Signet Books for $400,000. Half of that went directly to King. The paperback version of Carrie sold over a million copies. King gave up teaching and his wife quit Dunkin’ Donuts. The rest is history!

5. Laura Ingalls Wilder

Many writers start worrying that by the time they reach the age of 30, and if they still haven’t made it, that success will never come. They wrongly start to feel a bit ancient and grow more and more frustrated. Quite a number of writers will give up on their dream completely. Keep your chin up, for you are the originator of your own story.

Laura Ingalls Wilder is best known for the Little House on the Prairie series of books that she wrote based on her childhood growing up in a pioneer family. Born in 1867, she lived to be 90 years old. However, she did not have her first book published by Harper & Brothers until 1932 when she was well into her sixties. Prosperity and wealth were not even a glimmer in her eyes until then.

If you have read her books or have seen the television show based on her family and her life as a child, you know that surviving as a pioneer family trying to homestead is extremely tough. She would go on to become a teacher in a one room school house a few months before she turned 16 years old. She felt she had to help out with her family’s finances as much as possible. She taught for three years, but never enjoyed it. Wilder did not end up completing high school. 

Wilder married when she was 18 years old, and her husband Almanzo was 28. They had a homestead claim that was doing pretty well. They had a daughter named Rose a year later. They had a son three years after that, but he died shortly after birth. Her husband was left partially paralyzed after an illness during their first few years of marriage. Eventually he regained use of his legs, but for the rest of his life he had to walk with a cane.

Wilder became a columnist and editor for a small newspaper from 1911 until the mid-1920s. Her daughter Rose was also gaining some success as a writer herself. However, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 decimated all their savings and left the Wilders broke. But through her daughter’s connections in the publishing world, Wilder was able to get published some of her memoirs titled Little House in the Big Woods in 1932. Wilder was 65 years old and had just sold her first book. The book eventually led off a series of eight books in total about her family’s experiences on the American frontier.

Struggling Is Not a Bad Thing

Have you ever heard that the ride is the true adventure? Rarely does an “overnight sensation” happen. And even the people that get labeled as such mostly have tried to achieve their dreams for years before. Struggling writers are not uncommon. What is uncommon is the amount of persistence that writers can display. Everyone has doubts. Everyone has doors that will close on them. But don’t let that door close on your dreams. Set a goal and go for it! You will be disappointed in yourself later in life if you don’t. There is not an age limit on success. Continue to write and good things can happen!

Reading and spelling can be difficult for children and adults learning the English language. How can the letters “ph” or “gh” when placed together make the same sound as the letter f? Are you telling me that when “eigh” is grouped together, it makes a long “a” sound? What kind of witchcraft is this? Kids and adults are left scratching their heads when being taught how to read, write, and spell using the English language.

For those of us that are a bit older and have gone through school already, we just know these things. We don’t give it a second thought. But someone just learning English and trying to figure out how to read and spell it, it can be very tough. Hieroglyphics might actually be easier! Deciphering the symbols inside the pyramids could be a simpler task!

Dolch List/Fry Words

Edward William Dolch (1889-1961) was a man that tried to make the English language a bit easier to read and understand. He wanted to improve upon how reading was taught, so he created a list of frequently used sight words. Sight words are words that people should know just by sight alone, without having to sound them out.

Years later, Dr. Edward B. Fry thought that the Dolch list needed to be updated a bit. So Dr. Fry pushed Edward Dolch aside and created his Fry words. Fry words are basically a more modern version of the Dolch list. The first 100 words on the list are used so commonly that they make up 50 percent of all text. That means that 50 percent of everything that you read uses just these 100 words. It does not matter how difficult the text, half of it will consist of just these first 100 Fry words. You can see how this list would come in handy for children and adults learning how to spell and read.

Dr. Fry new he was on to a good thing, so he stepped it up a bit more. Next, he created a Fry list that consisted of a thousand words. These thousand words are so regularly used that they actually make up 90 percent of all written material. Books, websites, magazines, or newspapers! If someone knows how to read and spell these thousand words, then they have accomplished a real literacy achievement.

What Are the Top 100 Words

When you think of commonly used words, most of them are only two to five letters long. Many need to be learned as sight words because there is no way to try sounding them out correctly. One word that is on the list is the. In fact, that is probably the word used most often in the English language. And it is one that gives those learning to read and spell quite a fit in the beginning. It is a total sight word that just needs to be learned through repetition.

Some of the other very frequently used words are: I, of, and, is, you, to, as, are, and in. Finding out the rest of Fry’s sight words is not too difficult. With the following list you can quickly take steps in making anyone learning English a better reader and writer.

1-25	26-50	51-75	76-100
the	or	will	number
of	one	up	no
and	had	other	way
a	by	about	could
to	words	out	people
in	but	many	my
is	not	then	than
you	what	them	first
that	all	these	water
it	were	so	been
he	we	some	called
was	when	her	who
for	your	would	oil
on	can	make	sit
are	said	like	now
as	there	him	find
with	use	into	long
his	an	time	down
they	each	has	day
I	which	look	did
at	she	two	get
be	do	more	come
this	how	write	made
have	their	go	may
from	if	see	part

How Do You Teach These Words?

This is where people struggle a bit. Some parents get so frustrated with trying to teach their child how to read, they just give up and leave it up to the child’s teacher to do. The key is for nobody to get overwhelmed with frustration while learning these frequently used words, least of all the one who is doing the learning. When someone faces such exasperation in learning how to do something, many times they will quit and give up. We don’t want that to happen at all.

How do you teach these words to a struggling reader or writer? You are in luck! I am actually a certified Reading Specialist. This is my specialty. There are research-based strategies and activities that will make learning these words easier for everyone. Sticking with research-based strategies is an intelligent thing to do because these have all been proven to work by professionals.

It is important for someone learning the most commonly used words that a couple different strategies is used for both their reading and spelling. Of course we would use flash cards with sight words and incorporate them into activities, but we also need something more than that. Using a systematic and sequential phonics and decoding program would provide those learning English the skills needed to break apart letters and sounds.

Flash Cards

You do not want to take the first one hundred all at once and run through them as fast as you can with a person learning them for the first time. This will overwhelm them and make them feel inadequate. It will actually slow down the learning experience. Try working with only ten words at a time. Once they master those ten, move on to the next ten, but keep on incorporating the first ten words in as well. You can keep on doing this until you are all the way finished with Fry’s first one hundred words, and then begin on the second hundred.

Make learning these words a fun activity or game for the kid or struggling adult. You can use sight words in almost any game you can think of. You could provide a spinner and whatever number the person lands on, they then must correctly read that number of words. Using a timer is a fun way to learn as well for a kid. Check and see how fast they can go through all ten words correctly without missing any. If you are working with more than one struggling reader, then have them compete against one another. Flip over the word and whoever says it first will get the card. Competition is a good thing. It makes people strive to become better at something than they currently are.

Phonics and Decoding

Saying that someone needs a research-based systematic and sequential phonics and decoding program is quite a mouthful. Just hearing that might make someone run the other way. It sounds a bit scientific and difficult. However, those are million dollar words for quite an easy concept. Don’t let the technical jargon scare you away.

A systematic and sequential phonics and decoding program just means that the lessons all proceed in a particular order. Each lesson will be building off the last lesson. There are usually enough lessons to last an entire year for each grade level. The first lesson might only have five letters to work with. Place these actual letters on the table for the person learning to manipulate. Create words just using these five letters. These are commonly used words. They must also write everything down on an organized paper with boxes for each word. 

At the end of the lesson, they are to take all the words that they just learned and try writing sentences with them. This is helping them with not only sight words, but also with sounding out more difficult words. They will be decoding words like a pro in no time!

The most commonly used words in the English language may be quite simple for most to spell and read, but to children just learning and foreigners arriving from other countries, it can be a nightmare. It is always best to start with the ones that are used most frequently. They are shorter and will be easier to learn. After awhile, whoever is struggling will soon become a master!