Final thoughts of 2008

“Writing is easy, all you have to do is sit at the typewriter until drops of blood appear on your forehead. ( Sportswriter Red Smith)




The Rant 'N' Rave Section

First of all, Merry Christmas to everyone. Well, we're rapidly approaching the end of another year. Did you complete the list of resolutions you made last January? No? Ha, join the club. I fully intended to have my first novel completed. Not. (Working on chapter three.) I won't go in to all the other resolutions that somehow faded off into the realm of good intentions. I did, however, have a couple of short stories published. I also managed to finish a couple of writing courses at M.T.S.U.(Middle Tennessee State Uniiv.) I got the hardest part of my home remodelling finished, (major construction) and am left with the easier things like wall boarding etc. Sounds like something for my next new years resolution list. Hmm.

The last of this month will be spent re-thinking my writing schedule. Having a set time to write, daily, (like three hours a day) and sticking to it is imperative. My shedule fell apart a couple of months ago and I've been floundering about ever since. Oh well enough angst. May all of you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Taking notes, the best way to capture those brief moments of humanity that make your characters come to life. I must admit that I'm one of the world's worst note-takers. I hate to walk about with a notepad and pencil and for the most part, do not. The exceptions are anywhere that I know I'll have to wait, like the doctor's office, etc. I always take a notebook with me on those occasions. I've picked up some very useful snippets of conversation and colloquialisms from such places. The next step is to transfer them into my Writers Project Organizer under the Dialog Notes tab. Once transferred they are there, waiting for me when I need to add color to character by way of dialog.




Word of the Month:
Obambulate: To wander about (aimlessly). Something I do when I've got writer's block.




"TIDBITS"
Barbara Bush once accompanied her husband, President George Bush, on a state visit to Japan. During a formal luncheon at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, she found herself seated beside Japan's Emperor Hirohito. "Was the former palace so old that it crumbled?" she asked, noting the building's apparent youth. "No," Hirohito tersely replied, "I'm afraid that you bombed it..."

Thanks to Anecdotage.com.

Last but Not Least
"I didn't know that!"
William Faulkner


"Most of the time Faulkner couldn't pay his grocery bill, and the grocer, among other local businessmen, was forever sending somebody out to his house to hunt him down. Faulkner was used to this, and to other unannounced visitors, so when one drove up the driveway, he began sweeping it like a workhand. "'Where's Faulkner?' the visitor would inquire. And Faulkner, in overalls and a straw hat, head down, following the swish and swoop of his broom along the driveway would answer, 'Ain't seen 'im. Been sweepin' all day an' I ain't seen 'im-a-tall.'"
Thanks to Anecdotage.com for this one also.

Well, that's it for this time, see ya later gater…..Aelf
Sites to see, places to go and groups to join

Long Story Short: http://www.alongstoryshort.net/
Fantasy Gazetteer: http://www.fantasygazetteer.com/My Writing Friend: writingfriend@yahoo
Pindersoft's Writers Project Organizer: http://www.pindersoft.com/wpo.htm
Nick Daws Writers Circle: Nick Daw's Writer's Circle.
Wridea: http://www.wridea.com/
J.D.Vine Publishing: http://www.jdvine/com/index.html
Tennessee Writers Alliance: http://www.tn-writers.org/
USA Patriotism, Poetry: http://www.usa-patriotism.com/
Poynter 30 Writer's Tips: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=103943
Freebie Writers Tools Idea Cruncher: http://www.ideacruncher.com/
Freemind: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Auto Crit: Automatic manuscript checker: http://www.autocrit.com/
Word Web download: http://www.wordweb.info/


I’ll be adding to the above list as time goes on and I find more newbie friendly sites.Copyright © 12/21/08

Character Checklist

"Writing is just having a sheet of paper, a pen, and not a shadow of an idea of what you're going to say." --Francoise Sagan


The Rant 'N' Rave Section

Well, the first thing up is a rave. My short story, "Hop Village, a Christmas Story,." has won first prize in the Fantasy Gazetteer Short Story Contest for December. Be sure to read it for a little Chistmas cheer in December. Go to http://www.fantasygazetteer.com/.

Next up, I have a new acronym." PMF", which stands for Personal Motivation Factor. It works on a scale of 1 to 10 and is sensitive (in my case) to the time of day. Early AM I'm a ten. Lots of creativity and desire to work. By noon I'm about a 5, maybe even a 4. By 3 PM I'm useless (a zero, zilch, nada, worthless, good for nothing except vegetating and promising myself I'll do better tomorrow.)

Next I'm adding a new little section to the blog. It will be Word of the Month. Watch for a new one each month.


Word of the Month

Shpilkis - 2 definitions - {Transliteration from the original Yiddish} Noun: To
'bounce off the walls', nervous energy without purpose. Something we writers tend to do whenever writers block gets the best of us.

And finally, here's a great article I received on the net the other day from Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ


Using Real Life Events in Fiction Stories

You are as happy as you can be: your story, be it short story, novel or novelette, is finally finished. However, when you are using real life events as a source of inspiration, you may not always get a true-to-life effect. Before you send your work to a publisher, first check if the story makes sense as it does in real life.
In order to reach the final draft, you need to be tough with yourself and cast an editor’ eye over your piece. Although real life events have their own logic, when you read your story from head to tail for the first time you will surely notice some plotting errors. However, there are other vital points you should check off when comparing your version of the story to the events that inspired you.

1. Is the behavior of your characters as believable as it should be? Bear in mind that in fiction, the people you describe rarely, if ever, act "out of character." If your character behaves differently, you have to be attentive to this and ask yourself whether this corresponds to a real life pattern.

2. Do your characters relate to each other as they should? As in real life, events in your story may influence the attitudes and emotions your characters have towards one another. Real people would always mention events that happened to them within the story -- make sure your characters do, too.

3. Do your characters manifest believable reactions? If in the same type of situation your character is once enraged and the other time annoyed, there is something wrong. If you have a real person in mind, you should be aware of the fact that real people are usually constant in their reactions.

4. Do readers understand what your characters are doing at the precise time they are doing it? You need to make clear what happens in your story, otherwise your readers will lose the thread and your story may be lost altogether. When transforming reality into fiction, make sure you don’t forget any relevant links, so as to avoid alienating your readers.

5. Are your characters where they should be? You may easily have a character in two places at once if you do not control this critical thread. Especially if you have one or several subplots at the same time, you need to pay extra care as they can quickly spiral out of your control.

Checking all these points will take you a lot of time, dedication and effort. However, is you fail to make sure that your story makes sense according to the real events, you will only manage to waste your own time. Editors expect stories that hang together.
Copyright © Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ
About Shery: Shery is the creator of WriteSparks!™- a software that generates over 10 *million* Story Sparkers for Writers. Download WriteSparks!™ Lite for free at http://writesparks.com
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"TIDBITS"

"Dream Quest Contest"

And now for something entirely different, a hot tip on a great contest. The Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest is open to anyone who loves to arrange words into the beautiful art of poetry or to write a short story that is worth telling everyone! And to all who have the ability to dream... Write a poem or short story for a chance to win cash prizes. All works must be original. Visit http://www.dreamquestone.com for details or to enter!
Guidelines:
Write a poem, thirty lines or fewer on any subject, style, or form, typed or neatly hand printed.
And/or write a short story, five pages maximum length, on any subject or theme, creative writing fiction or non-fiction (including essay compositions, diary, journal entries and screenwriting). Also, must be typed or neatly hand printed.
Multiple poetry and short story entries are accepted.
Deadline: December 31, 2008
All winners will be announced on January 31, 2009
Prizes:
Writing Contest First Prize is $500. Second Prize: $250. Third Prize: $100.
Poetry Contest First Prize is $250. Second Prize: $125. Third Prize: $50.
Entry fees:
Writing Contest entry fee: $10 per short story.
Poetry Contest entry fee: $5 per poem.
To send entries: Include title(s) with your story (ies) or poem(s), along with your name, address, phone#, email, brief biographical info. (Tell us a little about yourself), on the coversheet. Add a self-addressed stamped envelope for entry confirmation. Fees payable to: “DREAMQUESTONE.COM”
Mail to:
Dream Quest One
Poetry & Writing Contest
P.O. Box 3141
Chicago, IL 60654
Visit http://www.dreamquestone.com for further details or to enter!

Last but Not Least
"I didn't know that!"
Hugo Gernsback.

The famous science fiction awards, The Hugo's are named after him.
One little known fact was that Gernsback was noted for sharp (and sometimes shady) business practices, and for paying his writers extremely low fees. H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith referred to him as "Hugo the Rat."

Well, that's it for this time, see ya later gater…..Aelf

Sites to see, places to go and groups to join.

Long Story Short: http://www.alongstoryshort.net/
Fantasy Gazetteer: http://www.fantasygazetteer.com/
My Writing Friend: writingfriend@yahoo
Pindersoft's Writers Project Organizer: http://www.pindersoft.com/wpo.htm
Nick Daws Writers Circle: Nick Daw's Writer's Circle.
Wridea: http://www.wridea.com/
J.D.Vine Publishing: http://www.jdvine/com/index.html
Tennessee Writers Alliance: http://www.tn-writers.org/
USA Patriotism, Poetry: http://www.usa-patriotism.com/
Poynter 30 Writer's Tips: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=103943

Freebie Writers Tools

Idea Cruncher: http://www.ideacruncher.com/
Freemind: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Auto Crit: Automatic manuscript checker: http://www.autocrit.com/
Word Web download : http://www.wordweb.info/

I’ll be adding to the above list as time goes on and I find more newbie friendly sites.Copyright © 11/16/08

Seven Easy Ways to Keep Dialogue Sharp.

"Writing is the voice that calls us from dreams, that peeks out of the corner of our eyes when we think no one is looking, the longing that breaks out hearts even when we think we should be happiest, and to which we cannot give a name." Judy Collins (1939) U.S. Folk Singer, Film Maker….

The Rant 'N' Rave Section

First I must aplolgize for not posting anything for two months. It's not that I didn't try to, it's that I couldn't. Every time I tried to post, I got an error message telling me my article was posted but with errors. When I checked to see if it was on line, NADA, nothing, blank, zip. I tried to figure it out ( that's what took so long) on my own. Finally, I called in the big guns, in this case Kathy at MyHelpHub.com. It was fixed in a flash. "Thanks Kathy." Now, on to the posting.

I thought I'd have lots of time to write over the last few months. I was sure that, with winters cold breath keeping me inside I could skip all the distractions that come with spring, summer and fall. WRONG! I found just as many distractions inside to keep me out of my writing chamber. Oh well, I did get a few short stories written and off to pubs. I also sent some out to contests. Speaking of which, I found a really good site that tracks upcoming contests. It's The Write Place-contests column by Kimn Swenson Gollnick. Now some of you may already know this site but for those who don't, check it out. The site has lots of goodies for new as well as published writers. Be sure to cruise the whole site, not just the contest listings. The web address is http://www.kimn.net/. I've also listed it at the bottom of the page under sites to see, places to go and groups to join.

Next, one of the hardest things for a new writer to overcome is lack of acknowledgment. It's the stuff that life is made of. It's that which tells us we live, we matter, we are noticed by others as being worthwhile. Without it we fade and shrivel up to nothing. Without it our works become meaningless as do our lives. So, how do new writers overcome that first hurdle on their way to success? A mule-stubborn mindset is the key. It doesn't help when friends and family tell you how good you are. Most of the time you know they are just being kind. It's only when, in and among all the rejection letters you get, you find one that says your work has been accepted. That is the key that unlocks the prison of lack of acknowledgment. That is the weapon that fights and conquers the self-doubt that permeates the minds of first time writers. That is the first big step along the path to becoming a pro. Okay, enough pontificating, on to Tidbits......

"TIDBITS"
Here's a helpful article I picked up in my surfing travels.

Seven Easy Ways to Keep Dialogue Sharp

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

1. Keep it simple. "He said" and "She said" will usually do. Your reader is trained to
accept this repetition.

2. Forget you ever heard of strong verbs. Skip the "He yelped" and the "She sighed."
They slow your dialogue down. If you feel need them, look at the words.the actual
dialogue. your character used when he was yelping. Maybe it doesn’t reflect the way
someone would sound if he yelped. Maybe if you strengthen the dialogue, you can ditch
the overblown tag.

3. When you can, reveal who is saying something by the voice or tone of the dialogue.
That way you may be able to skip tags occasionally, especially when you have only two
people speaking to one another. Your dialogue will ring truer, too.
4. Avoid having characters use other characters’ names. In real life, we don’t use people’s
names in our speech much. We tend to reserve using names for when we’re angry or
disapproving or we just met in a room full of people and we’re practicing out social skills.
Having a character direct her speech to one character or another by using her name is a
lazy writer’s way of directing dialogue and it will annoy the reader. When a reader is
annoyed, she will not be immersed in the story you are trying to tell.

5. Avoid putting internal dialogue in italics. Trust your reader. She will know who is
thinking the words from the point of view of the narrative.

6. Be cautious about using dialogue to tell something that should be shown. It doesn’t
help much to transfer telling from the narrator to the dialogue. It just makes the character
who is speaking sound long winded. Putting quotation marks around exposition won’t
draw the reader into the scene or involve him more than if you’d left it part of the
narrative.

7. And magic number seven is, don’t break up dialogue sequences with long or overly
frequent blocks of narrative. One of dialogue’s greatest advantages is that it moves a story
along. If a writer inserts too much stage direction, it will lose the forward motion and
any tension it is building.

For more on writing dialogue check out Tom Chiarella’s Writing Dialogue (Writers’
Digest) and for more on editing in general.from editing query letters to turning
unattractive adverbs into metaphoric gold.find The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book
Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success on Amazon.
----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson is an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writer's Program. The first book
in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books, The Frugal Book Promoter, won USA Book News'
Seven Easy Ways to Keep Dialogue Sharp by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, 478 words 2
Best Professional Book Award and Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award. The
second, The Frugal Editor, was just released and includes many editing tips on dialogue, the use
of quotation marks and more. Learn more at www.howtodoitfrugally.com .

Last but Not Least

"I didn't know that!"

"Sax Rohmer"

Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward (February 15,1883-June 1 ,1959 ), better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist. He is most remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu.

Born in Birmingham, he had an entirely working class education and early career before beginning to write. His first published work was in 1903, the short story The Mysterious Mummy for Pearson's Weekly. He made his early living writing comedy sketches for music hall performers and short stories and serials for magazines. In 1909 he married Rose Knox. He published his first novel Pause! anonymously in 1910 and the first Fu Manchu story, The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu, was serialized over 1912-13. It was an immediate success with its fast paced story of Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie facing the worldwide conspiracy of the 'Yellow Peril'. The Fu Manchu stories, together with those featuring Gaston Max or Morris Klaw, made Rohmer one of the most successful and well-paid writers in of the 1920s and 1930s. But Rohmer was very poor at handling his wealth. After World War II the Rohmers moved to New York.
Ward was often attacked, even shortly after the Manchu stories were published, for creating a character that reflected "racist assumptions". He himself, while "bemused" at the furore, occasionally defended his character by saying that the portrait was "fundamentally truthful" because "criminality was often rampant among the Chinese", especially in Limehouse.
Rohmer died in 1959, somewhat ironically, due to an outbreak of Asian Flu.
*Thanks to Wikipedia for the above.

Well, that's it for this time, see ya later gater…..Aelf

Sites to see, places to go and groups to join

Long Story Short: http://www.alongstoryshort.net/
My Writing Friend: writingfriend@earthlink.net
Nick Daws Writers Circle: Nick Daw's Writer's Circle.
Wridea: http://www.wridea.com/
J.D.Vine Publishing: http://www.jdvine.com/index.html
Tennessee Writers Alliance: http://www.tn-writers.org/
USA Patriotism, Poetry: http://www.usa-patriotism.com/
The Write Place, Poynter, 30 Writers Tips : http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=5408

Freebie Writers Tools

Auto Crit Automatic manuscript checker: http://www.autocrit.com/
Word Web download : http://www.wordweb.info/

I’ll be adding to the above list as time goes on and I find more newbie friendly sites.
Copyright © 05/01/08