M.L.'s comments (member since Sep 11, 2008)

M.L.'s comments from the Writerpedia group.

If you're not using footnotes and/or a bibliography, but citing the text within the body of your article, you can use italics for the actual quote, set off with regular text that reads something like, according to this website, or according to so-and-so at www.somewebsite.com.

If you're citing a long passage, several paragraphs, from a website and want to do this within the body of your article, you segue in with a line introducing the source, which may be a website, then you put the entire direct reference in italics with larger, yet equal left and right indents than you normally use throughout body of your article.

In other words, you set the direct quotes off so that the reader knows it is a direct quote from somewhere else. The Chicago Manual of Style is also a help in this regard, and if you don't own one, your local library should have one. Depending on what and whom you're writing for, you may instead want to go with AP style, such as writing for newspapers and magazines, and in that case, you can Google AP style and come up with a herd of references to tell you exactly how to format for newspapers, etc.

Really what you're asking about is a formatting issue.

For what it's worth...

Mari

Most writers feel as if their work is not good enough, but there's a big danger in returning repeatedly to a work already published to "fix" it. The danger here is that you can get so hung up on fixing something that's already published, or very nearly so, that you fail to move on. I've seen this happen time and again. Being a perfectionist, I've almost fallen prey to this. But you cannot keep returning to a book to "fix" it as your knowledge of the craft of writing grows. If you keep returning, you do not progress. However, if you think of each book you write and revise and publish as a milestone in your career, then you tend to obsess less over what you could've done better and actually do it better in your next book(s). At some point you have to let go of the old and embrace the new. You must do this. Or you will simply become another author who wrote one book and revised it to death. There are plenty of those types of one-book authors out there. Let go and climb the next rung.

From my first book to my last somewhere in the far future, it's going to be a constant effort to improve. I accept this. That's why they say there are no masters of writing, only journeymen. Even Stephen King is only a journeyman. He would tell you that himself. Now, he could've stayed hung up on Carrie, his first novel, or he could move on. Obviously, he moved on. But if you read Carrie and compare it to his later works, you see the progress. That's what being a writer is all about. If you obsess over one book, you will waste too much time you could've been writing the next one. You won't get far if you don't get a grip and move on. Obsessing over one book, usually your first, is not the sign of a great writer--it's the sign of someone who simply could not let go and failed to move on.

Every author sees the flaws in his or her own work like no other ever will. The truly great ones do the best they can with each one and simply move on.


Mari

No, thank you, Paul, for all your kind words. Those sad endings are probably the toughest to write.

Again, very glad you enjoyed it!

Mari

Paul wrote: "Hehe. Nice one M.L."

Thanks, Paul! Only a writer can appreciate such stuff...LOL

We're coming up to the end of my novel, Tornado Talon. The final installment posted later today at www.montanacrosswinds.blogspot.com

Hope you enjoyed the ride!

Jamie,

Here's a short story that might explain some of why you get frustrated as a writer. In any case, it might give you a good laugh, too. The greatest story in the world starts with the first word.

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/5181...

Money should flow TO the author, not away.

That said, you can, indeed, pay to have your work published, but that's generally the kiss of death in this business if you want your work taken seriously by reviewers and book stores. The publishing companies that charge the author to publish are called subsidy or vanity presses. Some publishing companies, like CreateSpace and Lulu, don't charge anything up front, but they get their money on the back end, the price of the book, doubling the print charge before passing it on to the author. Now, they have their advocates, however, and some are better than others. Two of the better ones are Booklocker and Infinity. Booklocker's business model is built around selling books instead of "services" to the "author" and they're very upfront about what they can or cannot do for your book. They also do not take every book offered to them, and you had better have a marketing plan. www.booklocker.com

You can try for an agent, but being an unknown, you're in for a long wait and a lot of hoop jumping. Still, if you're young enough and reasonably photogenic and have some kind of backstory New York feels is marketable, you might have a shot. You will need patience and perseverance.

There are literally tens of thousands of small and independent presses who function more or less traditionally in that they don't take money from the author and pay a better percentage of royalty than the big guys in New York. My press is one of them.

Or you can truly self-publish--start your own company, buy your own block of ISBNs, learn editing, book layout and interior design, book cover design or outsource all of these services, contract with a printer such as Lightning Source, who prints for most of the independent presses as well as the big guys' backlists in New York. That's how I got my press started.

In all these cases though, all of them, you will have to market the book yourself. All these cases--subsidy, agent to publisher, independent press or true self-publishing--you will have to market your own book. There's no getting around it. No longer can a writer just sit and write and let the publisher do the marketing unless they're Stephen King or some other big name, most of whom made it before all these major changes in publishing took place.

No matter what route you choose to travel, you had better start marketing now--you'll need your own website at the very minimum--websites take time to get "found" by the online communities and, believe me, any prospective agent worth his or her salt, or any prospective independent publisher with the exception of the subsidies will Google your name to see what comes up. I am the executive editor of Jigsaw Press and I Google every writer I'm thinking of taking on.

I wish I could just be a writer, but those days are long gone. Now, I wear so many hats I sometimes forget I once was just a writer.

For what it's worth,

Mari

Well, I've just made a new book trailer for Brady's Run by Joseph Collum, published by Jigsaw Press.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vq6KpUT4...

Your feedback welcome!

Mari

Chapter Twenty in the continuing saga of Tornado Talon has been posted at http://www.montanacrosswinds.blogspot.co...

Links to all previous chapters located in the right hand sidebar.

Feedback welcome!

Mari

Well, glad to have helped some, Ellen. Isn't it amazing how stories start out so simple and end up so complex? I love being a writer.

Mari

I guess your biggest problem regarding the false information by a psychic is going to be how to prove the physic gave false information in the first place. Or so it seems to me. And that would give me fits as well.

I have plenty of physic characters in my work, even one who's a Texas Ranger, but nothing he intuits isn't backed by solid evidence if he's after a conviction in court.

Think of it, though. If an agency, any agency of law enforcement, tries to get away with pointing a finger at someone, they have to have hard evidence to prove their case. Otherwise, it's just a matter of guilt because someone at the agency says so. I wouldn't want to live in a world like that. And being a police agency, the Bureau of Preternatural Research and Relations should have the easiest time of all producing said hard evidence because they can, in effect, read minds and thus know where to find the evidence as well as the bad guys, or girls. In fact, I could see some inter-agency rivalry here over turf, as it were, because the psychic bureau is so good at their jobs versus the regular police and FBI, stuck with producing evidence to prove their case the hard way.

Just some thoughts...

Mari

By grounding in reality, I mean I'd make the evidence obtained by psychic means, or the false evidence as such, impermissible in a court of law, just as hearsay is. This gives the reader a base to which he or she can relate.

mari

You know, if I were looking for information about SEAL procedures, etc., I'd be researching not only the Navy website, but also Googling for true stories from SEALs themselves. You might find these in newspapers, on different websites, but barring an expert, Google is the next best option. I did something similar when I researched recovery times from a bullet wound, in addition to talking to medical personnel.

FBI procedures, again, go to the FBI website www.fbi.gov (I think) or Google for true stories. There've been untold numbers of true accounts.

If I were you, in regards to whether or not evidence gained by psychic means is legal, or giving false evidence attained by such means is a crime, I'd ground this in reality, just to give the reader the option to suspend his or her disbelief long enough to enjoy your story.

Just my two cents. Hope it helps some.

Mari

So true, Paul. So true. And to think that was written around the time of the First American Revolution. America's Forefathers did indeed know what they were doing in crafting the Constitution. We only need to follow their example.

Mari

Think of a pot slowly heating to boil. First one tiny bubble appears, then another and soon the bottom of the pot is coated with them. With the continued application of heat, the bubbles join and grow larger until one breaks toward the surface with explosive force and the rest follow.

This country's simmering right now, and if the heat continues to be applied in the form of new taxes and further restrictions on our individual rights, the bubbles of dissent will join and grow larger until...

Again, I must remind you of underestimation. You underestimate the People, but so do both political parties. You underestimate the financial state of this economy, mainly because the media in cahoots with Congress and the White House don't want any of us to know how perilously close this country is to ruin because even broaching the subject would, in fact, hasten its demise. China has cut up America's credit card. The commercial real estate market is on the brink of the same type of collapse as our housing market. The dollar continues its slide toward worthless because the Federal Reserve can't quit printing money, nor will this unconstitutional and wholly private corporation tell Congress where the 2 or 3 trillion of taxpayer's money they've already lent out actually went.

Yes, while our Constitution is a blueprint, it's also a building block for the finest nation in the world and only when politicians in their greed deviated from the Constitution did the building begin to fail. A return to the Constitution is imperative. People of all political stripes have begun to see this.

With the continued application of heat in the form of new taxes and further restrictions of our liberties, the melting pot will eventually boil into a Second American Revolution, whether in my lifetime or yours or my daughter's. And while the world will be stunned, none will be more surprised than Congress and the President who even now ignore the will of the People they were elected to serve.

In studying the recent actions of the last six months, one cannot help but wonder if, in the spirit of "never let a crisis go to waste," the federal government isn't welcoming some sort of major catastrophe to justify the institution of martial law and strip the People of their rights and freedoms completely.

Yes, life has no guarantees. But do not underestimate the power of the People, especially the People of these United States. They will surprise you every time. I have great faith in them.

Ah, youth. "...never wait for something, such as a dream to come true..."

You don't wait for anything in my opinion, you work toward things, however, and although it may seem as if nothing is happening, there's plenty going on, if you can find a way to look beneath the placid surface.

Like I said before, youth rushes in while age bides its time. Biding your time does not mean, however, that you rest on your laurels and do nothing but wait. The squeaky wheel may get the grease, but then there is the mechanic who took the time to learn how to grease it.

I think America will easily become a third-world country, with its citizens enslaved to a debt beyond your generation to pay, a dollar that is all but worthless, and no manufacturing capability to speak of unless and until the American People decide enough is enough. One or ten or a hundred cannot do what needs to be done. Only the will of the People can accomplish it. Now, if Congress and the President just keep shooting themselves in the foot with all the spending and taxes and cap and trade and forced medical care (simply another tax), it'll make the day of reckoning come that much sooner. But the day of reckoning is coming. The showdown between free citizens and a totalitarian government is coming. We the People are coming for our elected "employees." It's only a matter of time.

In the meantime, I would prepare myself were I you. I'd be stocking up on food and other necessities because if the dollar collapses, (and it seems that's the Federal Reserve's plan to herd us all toward the Euro and the New World Order), then things like flour and toilet paper will be all but impossible to get. Did you know that at any given time there is only a 3-day supply of food in the major cities? What happens when that runs out? What's on your shelves?

One of the most important steps any would-be dictator must take, according to the Fascism101 handbook, is disarming the people. That is why I don't believe gun control is a great idea nor do I believe a majority of the People of these United States would give up their Second Amendment rights without a serious fight, another reason why the Congress and the President has not pushed the issue so far. They know this, too.

But again, I could be totally wrong. I will, however, continue to bide my time, stock my shelves, and see what the American People will do. I'm betting on the People, though, because I have faith in them, in myself, and the Constitution. And I'm betting not only what's left of my future, but that of my daughter's as well. I will not lie down quietly and watch her become a slave.

As Jefferson said, occasionally the Tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of Patriots. One of these occasions might, indeed, be just around the corner for us all.

Mari

In my and many others' cases, we in our old age are biding our time for the fistfight with the Federal government that we were denied in our youth. Now, we're older, wiser, students of the Constitution and many of us, although not all, have come to realize that politics as practiced in Washington DC now by both parties is so hopelessly corrupt as to be unsalvagable. But we will let Congress and the President continue to shoot themselves in the foot until such time as the American People are entirely awake from their American dreams to the socialistic nightmare this nation is fast becoming. Then you'll see why, in World War II, Tojo, leader of the Japanese forces, said in reference to the attack on Pearl Harbor, "We have awakened a sleeping giant."

So, we who are fully awake bide our time for the majority to awaken (which it is doing now, in fits and starts). Then we'll see if out-of-control spending, incredible debt and more taxes levied by the corrupt politicians who've forgotten who they serve sits well with the People who comprise the body of the "sleeping giant." My bet is it won't sit well at all. But I could be wrong.

Mari

Well, I should've said that to examine an issue honestly and objectively, you start with the premise that all sides of an argument have equal merit. Then you do your research.

Regarding the older generation: you appear to equate age and seasoning with a fear of taking risks. And you base this assumption on what? Your interaction with whom? In my opinion, you haven't lived long enough to meet even a fraction of the folk I have, yet you feel safe in assuming. A study of the history of the current and so-called older generation, what they did when they were your age, would go a long way in facilitating your understanding of them.

The great failure of the youth of every generation lies in underestimation. You assume the older generation is content to sit on its assets and do nothing while youth, being full of fire, are the only ones capable of making change. And you'd be dead wrong. But how do I know this much even? Because I was young like you once and we--all of us full of fire and ready to kick butt--knew that much...then.

The difference between age and youth is that youth rushes in while age bides its time.

Mari

I don't agree with your ideology because all you've done is restate the same old Liberal talking points in your own words.

The writing is nice enough. You strike me as an intelligent individual, although I would edit out those parts where you state that you are an intelligent child. You gain more by showing the reader than telling them.

My personal opinion is that you need to read more. But that will come with age and a bit of seasoning and an intense, in-depth study in the history of this country and the Constitution.

I would love to see what you can do, what good solutions you may arrive at, were you truly to rise above the ideologies of all political parties on all continents and think for yourself. But to do that, you first must accept that all sides of an argument have equal merit.

What made America great is not that she followed the Europeans or anyone else's lead, but that she maintained her individuality when all others were losing theirs. Of course, that's just my two cents and you're free to disagree, which is a great part of the reason this country is different (note I said different, not better) and also why the first amendment was first and not second or third.

Mari

Just a small reminder--all the way up to Chapter Fourteen on Tornado Talon http://montanacrosswinds.blogspot.com/

Tall Tale By Missing Boy's Mother Sheds No Light.

Feedback welcome!

And thanks in advance!

Mari