SEMANTICS
You’ve all heard the well-worn phrase, some would call it a cliché, “apples/oranges.” In other words, some would call it one thing, others would call it something else, while they both mean roughly the same thing.
In this world of political correctness, things can get a bit sticky in that regard, especially when it comes to racially charged, sexually charged, or culturally charged words. On the other hand, there are those that are obsessed with perfection and definition.
As writers, we use and play with words. We communicate to our readers. However, since we’re trying to reach as wide an audience as possible, our goal is usually to piss off as few of them as possible.
We can’t possibly get into the heads of every complete stranger that might pick up one of our books. They’ll read along and love it until they come to a screeching halt because they run across some obscure, semantical word or phrase, used in total ignorance to their experience and/or culture. It somehow offends them.
What to do?
More than likely, not a thing.
On the other hand, just being aware of semantics and having a reasonable knowledge may…and I mean may go a long way to avoiding the issue, if you even bother to worry about it.
IT TAKES ALL KINDS
Some people take offense to anything and everything.
Yup. Can’t be helped. Move on, keep on writing and forget about them. It’s inevitable. You’re going to say something to piss them off. They’re going to be looking for it, or to use a phrase that’s sure to bother someone: they’re gunning for it. Face it. You’re going to write something that’s technically wrong to them.
Don’t worry about it.
The majority of people know the rest of the world has no clue they’re getting it wrong when it comes to semantics, but don’t take offense. They can live with it, and do.
Now, I’ve been rather obscure and general up to this point. Time for an example. I’ll start with me, personally and apologize (yeah, sure) for the rather lengthy explanation.
EXAMPLE
I’ve been into telescopes and looking at deep sky objects, through the eyepiece of said telescopes, for 50+ years (not to give away my age, or anything)! Since 1966, when I got my first crappy Sears telescope, with which I could barely find the moon, I’ve been dedicated to looking up. Not content with that, I wanted more, but since I couldn’t afford more directly, I resulted to building more. I constructed an 8-inch reflector telescope, from the mirror up. Now, that in itself was a whole ‘nuther fun project. In the end, I was able to see more and it grew until today, I now use a 16-inch reflector. The first 16-inch, I also made, but I now use a commercial one for various reasons, mainly because it’s more portable.
Most would call me an “amateur astronomer.” Internally, I cringe at that generally accepted term. I look up, and have since my grandfather took me out one evening back in 1956 and showed me a light moving across the sky. He said, “that’s Sputnik.” To this day, I don’t consider myself an astronomer, amateur or otherwise. I like to look up, but what I do is far from “astronomy,” or as I often call it, “astrominny.” I don’t measure distances, sizes, the what’s and whys of what goes on up there. The one time I attempted some serious astronomy, I was lying on the lawn with my best friend from high school in Palmdale, California in 1968. We tried to visualize the number of miles there were in four (or however many light-years it was) to the nearest star to our Sun, got a headache and quit.
That folks, is the extent of my astronomy. I’ve checked out actual “astronomy” classes at high school and college. They were nothing but glorified math classes. I’m no fan of complicated math.
So, the conclusion to this rather long explanation, is that when someone calls me an “amateur astronomer,” I internally cringe because what I actually do has nothing to do with science or astronomy. I visually observe celestial objects like galaxies, star clusters and nebulae. If you were to ask me how far away they are, how big, or how they formed, I neither know nor care! I “collect” the objects in my database, take notes, draw them and keep this data for my own personal gratification and maybe my OCD need to fill out lists. I love to be out under the stars and to have those real photons hit my eyes, photons that sometimes took millions of years to reach earth.
Semantics-wise, I’m not an amateur astronomer, I’m a “celestial visual observer.” However, for a common term and something others can understand, I don’t take offense to others calling me an amateur astronomer, telescope nut, whatever. I don’t get all fired up and correct people and get offended.
On the other hand, there are people out there with similar stories that do get offended, especially in this world of political correctness and the world of setting the record straight.
SEMANTICS – RESEARCH
When you’re dealing with sensitive issues, it’s best to do the research. Keep in mind that when you’re writing about a particular group, use the terms most acceptable to the group at large. There may be controversy amongst members, but you can’t go too deep into that unless that’s part of the color of your story. Then it may be okay to use that controversy as part of the plot. On the other hand, if you use semantic terms and get them wrong for a certain majority group, you could offend a lot of people!
My example is a long explanation and very personal, but you have to think of others, especially large groups and insider knowledge along with their explanations when it comes to semantics. Of course, you can’t worry about it for everything. There are generally accepted terms we all use every day.
A word of caution. Some generally accepted terms may be more out of ignorance than fact. You should be aware of those, if possible. Once again, this is where research comes in. A very simple example might be how to pronounce Lompoc, California. It’s quite often pronounced as Lom-pock in movies and TV, which will make a native cringe. It’s actually pronounced Lom-poke. Or, often the case on TV, Nevada is often pronounced Ne-vah-da when it should be Ne-vă-da. These are just pronunciation semantics, but is no different than apples/oranges terms.
In the world of political correctness, semantics is becoming more and more prominent. I deliberately stayed away from those examples because any of those alone could stir a pot that’s not meant for this forum!
The gist of this is beware of what you’re writing. Do your research. You can’t be perfect, but the more you know, the better your story will be and the wider your appeal. Well, that is, unless you’re out to piss people off, or just don’t care. There are those authors.
Happy writing!
WRITERS HAVE FEELINGS TOO
Woe is me! We’re always getting picked on because we’re writers! Nobody likes us!
Waaaah!
Okay, things aren’t that bad…usually.
The inspiration for this article came from several celebrities who’ve sworn off Twitter in recent months, mainly because of trolls who like to throw cruel and senseless (at least to them) comments designed to drag them down. I won’t mention names, but…
When you throw yourself out there, into the world, display your art, your personality, your whatever, you’re leaving yourself subject to not only the adoration or attention you hope to get, but also the “other side” of the coin. The haters, or those that don’t quite see you as the cat’s meow (okay, a cliché, but it’s my article, so I’ll say what I want!).
This goes for actors, musicians, painters, and yup, us writers.
When we put our art out there, we’re exposing it and subjecting it to both side of the coin. The positive and the negative.
GOTTA DEVELOP A TOUGH SKIN RIGHT AWAY
I’ve said this plenty of times in the past. If you want to be a writer, you have to develop a tough skin.
Why?
Well, ahem…nobody writes perfect, especially starting out. Sure, one day, you could come close to that. Maybe get to the point where you could get by most people and be called a perfect writer, but those individuals are rare.
For most of us, we need a bevvy of editors, critiquers and others to help prop us up along the way. That means, there are people to tell us when we screw up! Yes folks, when we write, there are going to be people who need to be there to constantly tell us when we’re wrong and what to do to fix our mistakes.
That may be a bit tough on the ego, though it shouldn’t be. Are you such a person where you think you’re all that, and don’t need any help?
Are you perfect? Let’s not even go there. If so, you need psychological help.
For the rest of us, suck it up and get used to being told your wrong once in a while!
Your ego will survive just fine.
PEOPLE DON’T HAVE TO BE ASSHOLES
This folks, is the gist of this article.
There’s a way to tell someone something and there’s a way not to tell them.
I go back to the celebrities who get off Twitter. I think of the trolls who “sling shade” at said celebrities, to use the latest vernacular. This is cruel and unusual crap no individual needs to read or hear, whether deserved or not. These people are just plain assholes.
As writers, we get critiqued all the time. That’s no big deal. However, what bothers me, is the old “can’t help but be blunt” excuse for being cruel.
Blunt is one thing. Stupidly cruel and hurtful goes beyond blunt.
Luckily, that’s something we don’t allow in my writer’s group. We have that rule, “no blood on the floor” and will kick a member out of the group because of it.
I think back to the writer’s group from hell that I was in when I first arrived in Las Vegas. It was their job to intimidate you, make you feel like crap, to “toughen you up for the harsh world of publishing.” What bull!
Folks, I hear anecdotes all the time from others, especially when I attend writer’s conferences, or from the forums on line that I participate in. Some people are reluctant to join writer’s groups. That’s exactly what they ran across when they joined a writer’s group, sometime in the past, somewhere in this country.
People don’t have to be assholes, but often are.
For those of you that don’t know, yes, there are critique writer’s groups on line as well. Honest criticisms are one thing, but harsh and cruel derogatory comments are just plain unnecessary. The most worrisome thing about the on-line groups is that because the people are not face-to-face, comments can be a lot more harsh and cruel. If it’s a good group with good moderators, they’ll keep a handle on these assholes, but if not, it’s up to you to quit and find another one.
Writers have feelings too.
This is the same with reviews on line, but in this case, there’s nothing you can do about them but suck it up and roll with the punches. If you have enough fans, turn yourself into a glass is half full type person!
We’re not really here to talk about reviews, though. This is mainly about before the book ever gets to print.
I’VE BEEN PRETTY LUCKY SO FAR
It’s not that I haven’t been touched by this senseless crap before. I’ve received several harsh and nasty rejection letters. One was from a writing contest when I asked why my manuscript did not make the cut. As it turns out, it happened to be for Lusitania Gold, the book that’s currently being published.
I had a short story I once submitted that was rejected locally and received a very nasty and snarky rejection from a local publisher. She keeps trying to friend me on Facebook. I keep ignoring her request. I don’t need to deal with someone who supposedly works with writers but can’t consider feelings as well (not that I really cared, I got it published later, anyway).
I’ve had some very harsh and nasty comments at writer’s group meetings. Those individuals, who did the same to other writers were hence disinvited from the group. This is besides the writer’s group from hell.
SUMMARY
We need to look at this both ways. As writers, we need to have thick skins, but at the same time, not put up with cruel comments any more than we should dole them out ourselves.
Everyone has feelings and being blunt is no excuse for being cruel. Tempering our responses but saying (or writing them) in a constructive instead of destructive way is the only way to work.
Happy writing!
ITALICS – WHEN AND WHEN NOT TO USE
The other day, someone on one of my forums brought up a question about italics. “How much is too much?”
That’s a great question and I could’ve sworn I’ve covered it before. However, when I did a search of article titles and descriptions, I couldn’t find said article, so maybe my memory isn’t what it was, or I blended use of italics into some other subject.
Probably so.
IRRITATIING
Italics can and sometimes are way overdone. To me, as a reader, there’s nothing more irritating than reading page after page of italics. I mean, we’re talking possible “skip vital information” reading. I know I’m not alone because I’ve seen others voice their displeasure in reviews and on forums. There are books out there that have overdone italics and paid the price with plenty of negative comments, even though there were others who didn’t seem to mind.
Remember my mantra about not going out of your way to alienate your readers? Unless you either don’t care or are deliberately trying to do so, your goal should be to write something that has the widest appeal within and maybe even without your genre or subject.
Italics are just plain hard to read, or if not, a labor in long stretches. If I were to convert this entire article to italics, how many of you would read the whole thing?
PURPOSE OF ITALICS
The generally accepted purpose of italics is to emphasize something, not to be a font!
Just like bold, which is like shouting (as is all caps), italics is another way to emphasize.
What can you use italics for?
Internal thoughts.
Word emphasis (as opposed to shouting or screaming).
Make a particular paragraph or phrase stand out for demonstrative purposes.
Diary entries.
Flashbacks.
Proper titles, such as names of ships, song titles, etc.
LENGTHS
This is where authors get themselves into trouble, when they don’t know when to quit.
For effect, some authors write the good guy in one point of view, the bad guy in another point of view. Other authors write the good guy and bad guy in the same point of view, but with different voices or personalities.
Now, there are authors that’ll write the good and bad guys using the same point of view, but write the good guy in normal font and the bad guy in italics. This can add a lot of italic real-estate which can frustrate the reader.
If an author relies on flashbacks, which is another pet peeve of mine, they often put the flashbacks in italics. This results in entire chapters, like the good guy/bad guy scenario, with pages after pages in italics. I, for one, when browsing, will spot something like this and put the book right back down on the shelf and move on to something else.
HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
Obviously, there’s no set rule. There are plenty of books published by the big six full of pages upon pages of italics. However, as readers, we have the choice of leafing through these books, if we can, and deciding whether to purchase them (at least as long as there are bookstores still around).
Many people find italics irritating and hard to read, especially in longer passages. It’s best to keep them to short bursts. It does no good to torture your readers.
How about the phrase, “too much of a good thing?”
SUMMARY
Remember, italics are an effect, not a font!
Use italics to emphasize, which means, if you use them too much, that emphasis becomes meaningless.
Happy writing!
CREATING ATMOSPHERE
The world your characters live in isn’t static, a flat black-and-white place where everyone just moves and talks. It’s a dynamic environment. There’s color and objects and smells and feelings to go along with whatever they’re saying and doing.
When we’re writing, we sometimes have the tendency to get too much in the action or dialogue and forget about the world itself. I’m sometimes guilty of that. On the other hand, if you’re of a literary bent, it can be just the opposite. You’ll get so much into describing the world, you forget about the characters actually doing something and endlessly drag on with descriptions of the world and the characters. They never go anywhere or do anything.
There has to be a balance.
Since I’m a get from point A to B with the minimum of fuss type writer, I’m all for word economy, so I’m likely to be more action and dialogue and skip out on the descriptions, or not add in enough. I’ve learned, especially through my writer’s group when I’m getting skimpy with atmosphere and how to add it in when I’m not doing it enough. When I read for pleasure, some writers drag on with description and I tend to skip over that if it gets too much. A little I like, so in those examples, I tend to pay attention. That’s what I model my own writing after because I figure, if I pay attention to it, more than likely, others will do the same.
All it takes is a few words or lines sprinkled here and there.
EXAMPLES
Mary walked down the path toward the cottage. She dreaded confronting Roger. It had to be done.
Oh…kay. Something is happening. A little drab though.
Mary walked down the path toward the cottage. The smell of the lavender brushing against her legs distracted her negative thoughts. A light breeze ruffled her hair. She whisked it away from her face. “I don’t want to confront Roger, but it has to be done,” she muttered under her breath.
Atmosphere.
Jorin stared across the gap at the freighter, rolling in the swells. It listed to port, the stern partially raised as the ship took on water. “We don’t have much time.”
“I’ll get the Zodiac launched. I hope there’s someone alive over there.” Lars turned without another word and headed for the hatchway.
We get the idea, but it could use a bit of spark to go with the action and dialogue.
Jorin stared across the gap at the freighter, rolling in the swells. A stiff breeze ruffled his hair, salt droplets dribbled down his face and into his mouth. The thick air descending from the southwest hinted at ozone from the oncoming storm. The ship, a possible derelict, listed to port, the stern partially raised as it took on water. He gazed up at the sky. “We don’t have much time.”
“I’ll get the Zodiac launched. I hope there’s someone alive over there.” Lars turned without another word and headed for the hatchway.
Atmosphere.
Now, the above two paragraphs could be further picked apart, of course, but that’s not the point. I’m not out to give you the perfect sentence, the ultimate grammatical phrase. If you can do better, knock yourself out. They’re merely examples to illustrate my point.
Which is…
YOU DON’T HAVE TO WRITE A BOOK…
What I mean is that you don’t have to write a book within a book to describe things. You don’t have to overdo it if you’re writing action-based fiction. Or, even non-fiction. When you’re adding atmosphere to your prose, you don’t have to throw the book at your reader.
You don’t have to beat your reader over the head with minutiae!
Just a few words here and there, a few sentences. Modify a sentence, add a phrase.
Word economy to enliven the action and dialogue.
I admit I’m just as guilty as the next for under-describing at times. I like to get to the point. At the same time, I sometimes will spend an entire paragraph describing something. It may be a relatively short paragraph, especially compared to many of my contemporaries, but considering the rhythm and flow of my own prose, those paragraphs tend to stand out. When I read to my group, they take notice.
“That paragraph’s too long.”
“It’s too listy.”
“It needs to be broken up.”
This “long” paragraph may only be four sentences, yet in contrast to the rest of the prose, it may appear way too large.
You have to keep that in mind with your own style.
I personally prefer short paragraphs when I read. I like to see space on the page. I think long and hard before I pick up a book in the bookstore when I see wall-to-wall words. That tells me the writer is wordy and likes to ramble. I certainly don’t want to do that myself!
SUMMARY
Whatever your ultimate style is going to be, you don’t need to throw the book at the reader to add atmosphere. All you need is a few carefully placed phrases here and there with description, to add in enough detail to set the frame of reference, the mood, the tone, the setting. It adds color and atmosphere.
Happy writing!
TURNING YOUR STORY INTO A MOVIE
Movie sign!
To quote Mystery Science Theater 3000, this is one of many dreams a writer gets along the way when they write and publish a book. That ole’ get the movie rights and bring their book to the big screen dream. It’s hard not to feel the urge, though there are some of us that never get it on our radar. Or, it just never occurs to us until much later in our passion, if at all.
THE CONTRACT
Unless you’re self-published, the time will come when buried in all that legal jargon will be the line about the different publishing rights. One of them will be movie rights. Huh? Yup, amongst audio, foreign and large print is movie rights.
If your book gets out there and is popular enough, or just by dumb luck or happenstance, someone from Hollywood or an independent studio runs across your tome and gets inspired, they may offer to purchase the movie or TV rights to your book.
They’re separate from publishing rights. Different media for one thing. Second, the story will have to be re-written as a screenplay, which brings up adaptation.
WHAT YOU PICTURE AND WHAT YOU GET
Let’s for a moment forget about the purchasing of the rights, the possibilities of it never going anywhere, the multiple purchasing of those rights, the languishing in the vaults, and such and just concentrate on what actually happens if said manuscript actually gets to the point of making it to the screen.
There are two possibilities.
One, you could be tasked with doing the initial screenplay.
Two, a professional screenplay adapter could be hired to adapt your novel into a workable story.
In either case, this is what’s going to happen. Say, you write the initial screenplay. It’s going to go to the studio, where it will be given over to script doctors who are going to at the least, tweak it, where it’ll go to the director who’ll probably ask for changes. Then it’ll go through more changes.
If it goes to a screenplay adapter right from the get go, well…
What this boils down to is that what you pictured, what your original novel started out to be, is likely just the starting off point for what will probably be something entirely different. It may be, at best, the basic story with the same names and title as your original novel, the same plot, but as for the details, not much of what you wrote. None of the cast that you pictured at all.
In other words, unless you just hit complete gold, don’t expect your novel to be too much like what you wrote. It may be similar, but unless you have a huge fan base that will be extremely pissed off if the movie veers way off course, just be glad to take in a paycheck and keep working on the next one. You’ll get a “based on the novel…” and just be happy about it.
Speaking of paycheck.
THOSE MOVIE RIGHTS PAYCHECKS
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. When a studio buys the movie rights, take the money and run. It may languish for the max time limit in limbo, but that’s good money you can spend on a mortgage or whatever. When the time limit is up, whatever is written in your contract, the studio may pay for it again, or you can shop it around to another studio. If it gets made, hey, more publicity for you. If it’s a box office bomb, oh well. If it sells, better for you.
The fact is, once you sell it to a studio, you have no control over it at all. It’s a gamble, but it’s also a paycheck. It’s a blurb on your resume. If nothing else, it’s a blurb on your resume and a check!
Happy writing!
VANITY PRESSES
Those of you that have been following me for a long time know I’m not personal fan of self-publishing. I have no beef with those of you that pursue it for yourselves, it’s just something I’d never do. That’s why it took me so long to get published. I’ve gone into the reasons a multitude of times, so I won’t go into that again.
For those of you that want to self-publish, this article is for you.
On a recent forum, the question came up about vanity presses.
Oh…kay. What’s the difference between a vanity press and self-publishing? I hope to clarify that for you today.
SELF-PUBLISHING
Self-publishing is an umbrella term that encompasses a method for authors and writers to get your work published without going through a traditional publisher.
What does that mean?
In a nutshell, it means that you foot the bill for everything.
In traditional publishing, the publisher pays for the editing, the cover, the ISBN number, the initial promotion and all the groundwork to get your book out there, exposed to the world. Since the traditional publisher foots the bill, they have incentive to sell books. Therefore, they’ll promote your work and put your best foot forward up to a point. After all, they’re a business and they’re out to make money. The larger the publisher, the more they can afford to push you. Does that mean they do everything, marketing-wise? Heh heh heh… not a chance. However, they do have mechanisms in place to make it a lot easier and cheaper for the author to get started. Once again, it depends on the size of the publisher.
In self-publishing, the publisher simply provides you with the means, but you pay for everything. I mean EVERYTHING. You opt to pay for what you get. The publisher provides no editing, no cover, no ISBN, no marketing, no distribution, no NOTHING unless you pay for it. Even then, they do NOT provide any marketing.
They don’t provide any marketing for several reasons.
Why? #1
Distributors usually look down on self-published books as the bastard children of the industry.
Why? #2
Self-publishers have no access to the book distribution network because they’re not part of the big five in the industry. Being independents, they rarely, if at all have any foot in the door to get books in the distribution system to bookstores (small publishers have the same problem).
Why? #3
Since the authors pay for everything, the quality of the product varies so much that self-publishers often can’t be trusted to put out a quality product. Distributors shy from that.
Why? #4
Returns. Since the author pays for everything, they have to pay for all the books that get distributed to stores. If they don’t sell, the stores want a return on their investment. Who’s going to have to buy back all of those books? The author. Do you have several thousand dollars lying around to buy back all of those returned books that didn’t sell?
There are a few more why’s I haven’t covered, but those four are a few of the biggies.
To say the system is biased, slanted to the big five, is moot. This is just the way it works. Now, there are many success stories with self-publishing and there are many self-published authors, some that used to be with the top five, that are doing quite well. After all, once you’ve paid the initial outlay to the publisher, and paid for your books, all the profits are yours and yours alone. This may amount to you going around the country and selling the books out of the back of your car, or selling them in e-book form on the net, but your cut is a lot more than taking a chunk with the rest going to publishers and agents. In this case, more than likely, it’s called your primary form of employment.
There’s good and bad with going the self-publishing route. The choice between that and traditional is tough or easy, depending on your outlook and patience.
THE VANITY PRESS
Now for the gist of this article.
There’s the self-publishing publisher and then there’s the vanity press. On first blush, they sound like the same thing. However, there’s a big difference if you look close.
Some self-publishing outfits should be called vanity presses because in essence, that’s what they really are. Why I say that’s best outlined in my definition of a vanity press.
A vanity press is a publisher that will publish whatever you give them.
Let me emphasize that.
A vanity press will publish whatever you give them.
In other words, if you give them the phone book, they’ll print it for you.
They don’t care. They’ll print any old crap. They’re a vanity press.
By definition, they’re there to stroke your ego. You may be the worst writer in the world, but they could care less. They want your money. Period. You could give them “See Tom run.”
Several thousand dollars later…
Ding.
You have your book.
Another thing. Don’t expect a quality product, independent of the words. The font, the print quality, the binding, the cover and a host of other things may be of such poor quality, it may look like a high school class project gone wrong.
Unfortunately, and I’ll leave the names unmentioned, there are several self-publishers out there that do the same.
Self-publishers with integrity will screen their submissions. They’ll raise the bullshit flag when they get something that’s just too awful to put in print. They’ll advise the author it needs major work, or if they get an author that’s too hard to work with, they’ll drop their contract if they have any integrity.
A vanity press doesn’t care. Give them the file, they run the presses!
No wonder distributors and even Amazon are wary of some self-published books!
Vanity presses are money pits. You can keep throwing money at them and still end up with crap. How about spending thousands on an edit or edits and still end up with “see Tom run” quality?
SUMMARY
There’s self-publishing and there’s vanity presses. It’s up to you to do your research and educate yourself to know the difference. One will work for and with you while the other is just out to collect your money.
Happy writing!
TYPOS
I blatantly copped this inspiration from a Facebook friend. He ranted that several of his “friends” complained that though he was a writer, some of his posts were full of typos. What gives?
I’ve talked about typos in past posts, directly and indirectly but in the context of editing.
In this article, I’ll just talk about typos specifically.
JUSS CUZ YOU’RE A WRITER…
Maybe this goes back to the days of pen and paper or something. Think technology.
When people had the time to manually write something with pen/pencil and paper, they had to think about what they were doing in a long-form manner. It took manual dexterity and physical ability, effort to form those letters and words. Because of that, more immediate in-the-moment thought went into every word. An experienced writer, if not on a tear, was more likely to spell correctly way back when.
Well, maybe. Given some of the hand-written letters and manuscripts I’ve seen, that’s not always a given.
Today, with keyboards, where you can type a mile a minute, it’s a lot easier to create typos. If you don’t go back over every word, every sentence, those little nasties slip by. Sometimes, EVEN WHEN YOU DO go back over what you wrote, something will slip by.
There’s an old adage. You see what you thought, not what you wrote.
You can be the best author in the world, or to be more realistic, the mostest, biggestest most best selling author in the world. However, by that, you’re that way because you have an army of proofreaders and editors to back you up before any gibberish you write ever gets to print!
THERE’S SELF-EDITING AND THERE’S SPONTANEOUS
When you’re speaking through writing, off-the-cuff, it comes with all your baggage. We all have typing quirks, no matter how good a typist we are. Some of us are a lot better than others when it comes to tapping keys. The better we are, the fewer “tot he’s” we make (that’s “to the”) or “form” instead of “from” and such… leaving letters off etc. Now, knowing or not even knowing all of our typing quirks, how many make a spontaneous burst, like on Facebook, then go back and self-edit before hitting SEND?
Yeah, I thought so.
How many are so sure we already did self-edit and can’t see the forest through the trees?
REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
I recently launched a new Facebook page to get ready for the first Gold Series novel Lusitania Gold. The page is called Detach And His Search For Gold.
I worked at a furious pace, did all the preliminaries, uploaded a few images, set up an initial story and had everything set. Then I sent it out and invited a bunch of friends.
Guess what?
After inviting what I figured was all my interested friends, I happened to glance at the title of my page.
Deatch And His Search For Gold.
Aaaagh! In my haste and quick edit, I misspelled Detach, the main character’s name. I’d just invited a whole bunch of friends to my page and couldn’t even get the spelling of my main character right.
I’m an established author with one book, #2 on the way, and I made a big blunder.
Typo.
Aaagh! Double aaagh!
I fixed the error after going through a process with Facebook to figure out how to do it. Apparently, it wiped out all my invites and I had to do them over again. Maybe those invitees got the invite twice and thought I was dogging them. I don’t know.
My rush, or maybe forest-through-the-trees mentality caused a semi-embarrassing typo.
It was semi-embarrassing because I’ve been at this long enough to know that this stuff happens. You can’t beat yourself up about it.
I repeat.
You can’t beat yourself up about it – stuff happens. So don’t let others.
DON’T LET ANYONE BEAT YOU UP FOR TYPOS, JUSS CUZZ YOU’RE AN AUTHOR
Just because you’re an author doesn’t mean you can write letter-perfect.
If that were the case, why would there be editors?
I rest my case.
Happy writing!
HAVING OTHERS READ YOUR WORK OUT LOUD
I’ve brushed on this before, but because a member of my Henderson Writer’s Group brought it up at a recent meeting, I thought it was time to revisit this worthy subject.
For those of you that attend a writer’s critique group, getting up to read is what it’s all about. Some of you read your own work to get feedback while others prefer someone else to read for you, so you can hear what you did from another voice (or because you suck at reading aloud or are terminally shy). It’s also practice for when you get out to market your book once you get published.
At my last meeting, one member asked if I could get someone else to read my stuff because she didn’t like my “flat” voice. I didn’t have enough “inflection” in it for her. I try to vary the voices of each character, somewhat, but I’m no Mel Blanc or Robin Williams. I’m no voice actor. I try, but no ceegar. Some days I’m better at it than others, but given my work schedule and how late in the day the meeting convenes, I’m certainly not always at my best when it comes time to read my stuff. I think I do better than a lot of people. Others in the group don’t seem to have a problem with it, but not everyone is the same and I appreciate that fact.
I politely declined to have someone else read my own stuff.
Why?
LISTENING VERSUS READING
Have you ever been in a situation where someone asks you which is your best learning method? Have you ever been admitted to the hospital? I know I have. One of the inpatient admission questions I’ve had to answer is:
“What is your preferred learning method?
Audio, visual or written.”
I usually put all three, but my preferred is visual and written, depending on the circumstances. Audio, if it’s accompanied with one of the others. With audio by itself, I tend to drift. Listening to someone drone on and on, even if they’re a gifted speaker, just doesn’t do it for me. Guess why I don’t have any audio books?
So…when this group member asked if I could get someone else to read my stuff, I declined because it’s the same as when another member is reading. If I don’t have a copy of their work in front of me, I tend to drift and blank out. Even if I have a copy of their stuff, I tend to skip ahead, edit their copy and don’t even pay attention to what they’re saying.
The only time I really pay attention to the audio, or what they’re saying is if I’m watching something. Then, the audio is critical.
It boils down to if someone else reads my stuff, even though I’ll have my own copy sitting right in front of me, I’ll be self-editing, two or three steps ahead of the reader, something I’ve already done at home before I ever got to the meeting! The vocal performance of the reader will be useless to me, even if entertaining to the rest of the group.
WHY IS READING ALOUD USEFUL TO ME?
Even though I’ve probably read and self-edited my piece at least once, maybe twice, reading it aloud highlights stuff I never would’ve seen no matter how many times I read and re-read it to myself.
Not only that, but as I said at the outset, not everyone thinks I drone on like that one person. Some people actually have no issue with the way I read. Individual tastes. I can’t please everyone.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Back to that hospital question. What’s your best learning method? Are you a good listener? Do you prefer to read yourself, or would it be better for someone else to read it for you?
Is your issue crippling shyness? Do you just suck as a reader? Trust me when I say that some people are just not cut to read to a group! We’ve all suffered through some of them!
I can say that I was not the least bit hurt, upset, intimidated or put off by my friend’s request. It was a heart-felt opinion and I really did appreciate it. I explained why I won’t do it. She may not agree with or like my explanation, but oh well…
Maybe she did understand.
What I really appreciate is that she spoke up and gave me her honest feedback. That’s the whole point of these critique sessions!
SUMMARY
Whichever method you choose, the goal is to get your stuff read to the group, get your manuscript exposed so everyone can look for the loose ends, help you fix the issues and make it the best it can be. Whether you read it yourself or have someone do it for you, it’s time to get it done.
Happy writing!
CONSPIRACY THEORIES MIGHT MAKE GREAT FODDER FOR FICTION
The other day, I was reading about all the kerfuffle with Megan Kelly and her interview with conspiracy theorist and all around nut job Alex Jones. I understand why her network wants the ratings. I understand why people are upset. I also understand why individuals like him need to be exposed. At the same time, it’s difficult to give them exposure when all (supposedly) the network is doing is exposing them for the nut jobs they really are so people are aware that there are actually such crazies out there. I’m not here to debate that.
If you have more than a few hundred friends on Facebook and they have differing social and political viewpoints, are tolerant to them as I am and don’t automatically “unfriend” them unless they step waaaay over the line, you’ve been subjected at least once, if not more, to a multitude of these crazy, usually unsubstantiated and poorly to not-at-all researched conspiracy theories.
If you’ve been to the supermarket or a convenience store and went to the checkout counter, you’ve passed by the rack with the magazines and the blazing headlines full of conspiracies.
In some way or form, unless you live in a complete bubble, you’ve heard at least one conspiracy, or thirty.
EXAMPLES
This Alex Jones and as a consequence, Megan Kelly is getting press right now because he believes the Sandy Hook shooting was done by actors and was staged so Obama and the dirty liberal weenies could push gun control. Yup, for the one or two of you who haven’t heard yet, Sandy Hook never happened. This is extremely upsetting to the families that lost their kids and the families of those teachers that lost their lives.
The media is concentrating on that one story but that’s only a drop in the bucket. This Jones character has a whole host of deeply disturbing and whacky conspiracies that fit the paranoid and anti-government types like a glove. I have no idea what his actual beliefs are because I’ve never personally watched him, but those of his ilk like to espouse stories, some just whacky, others plain hurtful, racist, and over the deep end. Below is a partial list of some of the more common ones, the crazy, the bad and the very ugly (not all attributed to Jones).
9/11 the twin towers were staged. Yup. A controlled explosion bla bla bla.
UFOs are real and we’re using alien technology to spy on everyone.
They’re putting chemicals in juice boxes to turn everyone gay.
Those strips in all the paper money are so the guv’mint can keep track of you.
The holocaust never happened (a long-held racist belief).
The earth is flat (more people believe this one than you might think).
Con-trails that jets put out are a way for the CIA to poison everyone so they have kids with medical problems and mental issues that turn them gay and into dirty liberal weenies.
Now, on a more obscure but closer to home (at least for me) conspiracy, and one I didn’t even find out about until AFTER I wrote Lusitania Gold, a conspiracy about the Titanic.
Note that this is a conspiracy Jones and his cronies have probably never covered.
Supposedly, the Titanic isn’t the ship that sank on April 14/15, 1912! Yup, that’s right. It’s an insurance scam. Folks, if I got this correct, the Titanic was switched out with the Olympic, its sister ship, because it wasn’t ready to sail or something, and the Olympic is the ship that sailed from Liverpool that fateful day. They switched the names of the two ships. I don’t have all the details, but it was all about insurance or something.
WHY BRING THIS ALL UP?
The last thing I want to do is legitimize the “just because your paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t really after you” mentality, the tin foil hat club, and give these nut jobs a platform, but you have to admit, some of these whacky theories DO make for great plots.
Think about it.
For thrillers and mysteries and even science fiction.
Some conspiracy theories are even too crazy for fiction!
Or…
Are they?
If you can stomach it, and can do so without supporting these crazies, or giving them legitimacy…
Then again, there’s goofy, there’s whacky and then there’s just plain sick.
No, I have another way.
Just wait for some of your paranoid friends to post these theories. I’m pretty sure they will. I get this stuff a couple of times a week. I try to keep politically, religiously and sexually neutral on the web so as not to alienate my readers. Yet, I may privately respond to certain posters or even make an open neutral or logical comment to certain posts.
Even that gets me into trouble sometimes. I rarely if at all respond in kind.
Well, one thing. You can tell what I think about conspiracy theories. So, in a way, I’m giving something away.
At the same time, everyone has a right to freedom of expression, no matter how disgusting or controversial others think it is, up to a point.
We all have to draw a line somewhere. Wherever that line is, if your genre supports it, maybe listening to a small bit of this stuff might give you a spark for your next plot. Maybe not!
One more thing. Think about this. How about the reverse? Have you ever wondered where some of these whacky conspiracies come from? How many of these theories have come from books? Thriller plots anyone? Talk about reverse engineering! Hmmm…
Happy writing!
NEVER STARE AT A BLANK PAGE
For those that know me, that have been keeping track, you know this isn’t an issue with me. I never have a problem with a blank page. However, I know people that do. This is for you!
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
When you sit down to write and pull up a blank page, there’s often something you probably don’t think about when you pull up a blank page.
What does that blank page tell you?
What’s the one thing it might be saying to you that you haven’t thought about before?
What if you’re a glass is half empty person?
Is it coming to you yet?
Okay, here it is, spelled out for you.
I CAN’T!
That’s right. When you pull up that blank page and stare at it, unprepared, with no inspiration, with no idea what you’re going to write, that blank page is telling you “you can’t.”
That blank page is your first roadblock.
No, let me take that back. It’s your second roadblock. Your first was already making up your mind you had nothing to say. Just sitting down and pulling up the blank page isn’t going to make it better. It’s not going to spur you on if you have a blank slate to start out with.
YOU HAVE TO HAVE IDEAS TO BEGIN WITH
As a writer, if this is a passion rather than a hobby, the ideas are in you. They hit you every waking minute, maybe in your dreams as well. You should be brimming with ideas. Whether you keep them locked away in your memory, write them in sticky notes, or record them with a voice recorder for future use, somewhere, somehow, you store these ideas away for future use.
When you sit down at that blank page, it’s all a matter of choice. THAT, my friends, is the real dilemma. Picking which one to start with, rather than not having any.
HAVING TOO MANY IDEAS – CHOOSING ONE
Well before sitting down to that blank page, you should be at least toying with one, of not several ideas of what you want to do, whether a novel, short story, or article. You should be mentally preparing yourself for one if not several possible routes, so that when you sit down, whether it be a spontaneous moment, or a planned session, you can start right away. No time wasting, no dawdling.
DON’T WASTE TIME START-STOPPING
Okay, how many of you started something, thought it sucked and stopped, only to move on to something else? How many of you accumulated a whole bunch of these start stop somethings?
Now…how many of you ERASED all those start stop somethings?
I have a better idea.
How about saving them and keeping them for possible future use? You never know how these aborted attempts might end up being useful in something unrelated to how you originally used them. Ever thought of that?
Just an idea.
My first ever completed novel, The Cave will never see the light of day. However I’ve never tossed it. Why? It’s complete, after all. It sucks, but I finished it. One day, I may drag it out and either fix it or turn it into something else. I certainly won’t erase all that effort for nothing.
In any case, when you sit down, the idea isn’t to start and then stop and start over again. When you get down to it, you should know what you’re doing and be able to get there. Some of that comes from experience and a lot of it comes with confidence. Some of it’s just plain doing, then worrying about editing later, as well.
The whole point is that now you’re not staring at a blank page. You’re actually doing something. The page isn’t blank anymore.
SUMMARY
If you’re prepared ahead of time, you should NEVER sit down and stare at a blank page. Sitting down and staring at a blank page and expecting the ideas to come to you is doing it bass-ackwards. You have to have a reason to sit down in the first place, otherwise you may be creating a psychological barrier you may never be able to break again.
Happy writing!
The Worlds Of Fred Rayworth 