AN INTERVIEW WITH NADENE CARTER

Marilyn: I understand that you've recently had a craft of writing workbook published.

Nadene: Yes, The Sense-bile Writer was released for publication the first of June 2007 by ePress-online Inc. http://www.epress-online.com

Marilyn: How long did it take you to write The Sense-ible Writer?

Nadene: I’ve edited other writers’ work since 1999. When I found an error in a manuscript, I made note of it to the author, along with what the author needed to do to correct that error. I also moved that entry to a folder I created especially for problems. As my editing work progressed, whenever I found an error, I checked that "problem folder" first. If I had already created verbiage about that error, I copied, pasted, and personalized it for this particular author.

Soon, it became time-consuming to locate an entry, so I created subfolders and organized the topics within the subfolders. In 2005 I recognized that the information I had saved in those subfolders might be worked into a Craft of Writing book. I worked on it occasionally when I had downtime from my other work. Then during the 2006 Christmas holidays, I had a good chunk of time to work on the book and realized that, with a bit of polishing, I could have the rough draft of the book completed quite soon. I made the work a priority, finished the rough draft, worked through three rewrites, and handed it off to my editor. I’m thrilled with the end result.

Marilyn :What is different about this writing-craft book?

Nadene: Several things. First, I walk with the student, step-by-step, from idea conception through to the revision of his manuscript. The second may be the most important, and was incorporated as a request from my editor-in-chief at ePress. I address the three modes of learning--visual, auditory, and tactile--and provide writing examples and exercises to make this material useful to a broad range of individuals.

Marilyn: Would you explain a bit about the learning modes?

Nadene: Sure. The person whose major mode is visual learns through his eyes: reading from the printed page, studying charts and graphs, looking at pictures, or watching a video.

The person whose major mode is Auditory learns primarily through hearing. He focuses his greatest attention on the spoken word, he hears and pays attention to the sounds around him. Some may want music playing in the background.

The person whose major mode is Tactile perceives his world through the sense of touch. He runs a hand across a surface to experience the roughness or smoothness, explores an object by holding it in his hand, reads by following a line of text or the path of a graph or a chart with his finger.

Many individuals use more than one learning style. One mode is usually dominant, with others in secondary or helping positions. For example, the Visual Learner may also use the tactile as a helper. It could manifest itself like this: A person is reading material that he needs to remember (use of the visual mode). He might take notes, or maybe underline or highlight important information in the text (use of the tactile mode as backup) to reinforce his learning.

The Auditory Learner might also use the tactile in the same way as the visual learner. During a lecture (use of auditory mode), instead of relying completely on learning the information through his ears, he may take notes (use of tactile mode) to reinforce what he has heard.

The Tactile Learner will need his hands to be doing something during a lecture. To reinforce the information, he may take notes or outline the information, but he may never need to look at his notes again, because the very act of doing something with his hands during the learning process makes it easier for this person to assimilate the information. The tactile learner will also likely find it helpful to have something in his hands while reading from the printed page--something as simple as a holding a pencil or playing with a paperclip can help.

Marilyn: This sounds like excellent material for the beginner and intermediate writer. Do you plan to teach classes?

Nadene: Yes. I have a website: http://www.thewritersniche.com/ where I will be teaching classes. I will also contact the community centers in the nearby cities and towns to see if there is enough interest to maybe teach group classes next fall and winter.

Marilyn: Thanks for the information about your new book and your classes. It sounds like information any writer could use. Good luck with your book and your teaching.

Comments

Donna Sundblad said…
What a unique way to bring together pertinent information for anyone who wants to learn how to write--no matter how they learn. The problem with many writing books is that they offer a helpful set of guidelines that don't work for everybody.

Looking forward to reading this one.

Donna

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