Lunchtime Learning by Andy Scheer

Two minor aspects of the nearly 500-page typesetting project left me stumped. Asking Google and the program's “help” feature had brought me no closer to a solution.

For several weeks I avoided the problem, typesetting all the text sections, which gave me no problems. But this weekend I finished that aspect. Now I had to gain access to the page headers and borders, which remained stubbornly locked.

I had excuses: I was using someone else's layout from a previous edition. Plus, I'd done most of my typesetting with another program. I'd never had training in Adobe InDesign.

But those excuses wouldn't wash. I'd agreed to undertake the project, and now I was on deadline.

So I took the step I should have taken weeks ago: I invited a friend to lunch.

Not just any friend, but a guy I knew from a local ministry who for years had earned his living using InDesign.

Yes, he was willing to meet me for lunch at a first-rate barbecue place near his office. Based on my email description of the problem, he thought he already knew the answer.

Mike did indeed. He quickly pointed me to an aspect of the program I hadn't discovered on my own. He pointed out how the feature worked, then gave me multiple opportunities to practice it.

Then for good measure, he pointed to two more big time-savers.

For years we've both been part of a professional training and support organization. This far into my career, I'm usually the one offering instruction to rookies.

But sometimes I'm the one who needs to learn. How much better when instruction comes with a plate of pulled pork and fried okra.

What You Don't Know by Andy Scheer

I felt confident submitting a sample of my work in progress.

Having studied the craft for years, I thought I had my bases covered.

Reviewing that sample, I could have confidently worked my way through a checklist of common problems, knowing I'd committed none of those errors. Sure enough, my critiquer didn't call me on those.

Instead, he showed me how my prose had fallen into another, less common trap. It's a problem I never heard a writing teacher discuss – until now.

In the days ahead I'll work through my manuscript, eyes open to a tendency I never knew. Once that's fixed, I'll be ready to discover where else I've gone wrong.

I don't expect my prose ever to be perfect. But I sure want it to get better.

What Have You Learned Lately? by Andy Scheer

Veteran writer Bob Hostetler showed no surprise this past weekend during the Writing for the Soul conference when I attended his class on nonfiction one-sheets.

Nor did Jerry Jenkins raise an eyebrow when several faculty members — themselves professional editors — attended our “thick-skinned manuscript clinics.”

One faculty member did say she was startled when another staffer – who’d headed a publishing house and taught journalism for decades — came to hear her teach. What surprised her was that he sat in the middle of the front row.

If you want to grow in your writing craft, Jerry Jenkins told the conferees, you never stop learning.

In Bob Hostetler’s class, I picked up some solid tips on preparing one-sheets. What have you learned lately?