Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 205

Writing Resources & Advice ~ Tread Carefully…

There's so much writing advice swirling around now that anyone trying to read it all would never write anything.

Plus, trying to do what everyone says would drive you bonkers :-)

So, I'd suggest you limit the time you spend on advice or resources, say two hours on the weekend , then use the rest of your free time to WRITE.

I've done a number of posts in these areas and one called, Yet More Writing Resources . . ., has a link to another post called, Writing Resources, Revisited…, that links to three more posts, "…some with writing tips and some with writing warnings…".

I recently found a post by J. J. Hebert that has many recommendations for reading about writing, links to videos and articles by writers, plus a link to even more resources. Check out 20 Valuable Writing Resources.

But, before you Tread Carefully through all that, try some of the videos Hebert has in his lists:

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Tagged: Anne Rice, J. J. Hebert, John Irving, Michael Connelly, Nicholas Sparks, Writer Resources, writing advice, Writing Resources

More from The Writing Challenge With The Most Common Words

For some people, writing challenges are something they can't refuse.

I'm not one of those people but I did create one :-)

In June of 2011, I wrote the post, Writing Challenge ~ Use The 1200 Most Common Words To Write A Story…

Then, in July, Gwenette WriterSinclair wrote the first chapter of a story with the first 100 words in the list of 1200 most common words in English. < That link will let you download a Word .doc with the list.

Gwenette's chapter is in the post, First Response To Our Writing Challenge :-)

Gwenette seemed to indicate she was going to write 12 chapters with 100 words each but time went by and I suppose other things grabbed her attention.

Then, the other day, Barbara Blackcinder gave me two more chapters using 100 words each from the list of 1200. She put them in the Comments sections of the two posts linked-to above.

Well, I couldn't avoid pulling Barbara's chapters from the Comments and creating this post.

The thing is, Barbara decided to start from the end of the list so we now have the beginning and end of a story :-)

Barbara's chapters are below but I must now ask—anyone feel challenged enough to write the middle of the story??

Ch. 11 – Words 1000-1099:

I picked up a pencil and turned over on old stage program that happened to be located there. I began writing down how we had arrived about our present condition. Even though I hadn't intended to, I had used a pamphlet out of our library for my rough copy. I was thankful that I had an extra copy since I had gone with my husband before he slipped out of the realm of ordinary. To classify him now would take a dictionary.

I was determined to discover a way to clear our names. I blew a feather away with the back of my hand and looked for an angle that would get us out of this serious difficulty. Whenever I wrote seriously I needed a cup of coffee, and a turn of the thermostat to lower the climate in the den. I fiddled with the model of an athletic statue standing on the desk, noting its muscles and the details of its bronze casting.

Nobody was allowed in the den when I wrote. I had used all the force I could to convince the family to stay out, and I hoped I wouldn't have to review the rules like I would with a bad employee. Actually I had used the newspaper to find my latest part time job over on Pacific Avenue. It was one instance where I wanted to prepare to be just where I needed to be and didn't need to repeat a multitude of telephone calls before the job was settled. The best part was that it was doing one of my favorite things and I immediately grabbed the opportunity. My mind was swimming with the anticipation of the job.

But first I had to iron out this chapter in our past history, spelling out some form of prose to make peace with our numerous debtors, especially with the leader of the pack, the bankers holding our mortgage. In any event, if that wasn't put off soon, I would not be able to take this job and our whole family would be put in a dangerous position. There would be no place on the planet to live together. I threw out my plan of action to escape our demise and made fifty copies of it. Surely I wouldn't need that many, if the bakers would agree I wouldn't need the rest of the magazine of ideas that I had entered on my pieces of paper. I suggested all kinds of calamities to them, including the dissolution of my married status, a knife that would cut off my family from each other, and even suggested that the bank might be trying to railroad me into this disaster (I did indicate that this was just something that they might observe during the height of my rant, not something I was accusing them of).

I did stop to reflect on the sheer height of the bank's building, a structure standing like a silent soldier, holding my secret and other innumerable secrets within its walls. I would be like a bicycle run over by a tank if they decided to come after me. I might as well forget about any flight and take to drinking and riding the bottle into an asylum rather than go into a jail somewhere for being destitute.

I did belong to several social groups, some of which had connections to big dollars, but I sincerely doubted if they would address my problem. Instead they would run like insects at the sight of my falling out of their financial circles. They were not students of reality and their only concern was to increase their wealth. My chance of being in their service would remain in my ability to keep my appearances intact.

Once I had been in the hospital when they had made a mistake in the charge, and nearly bankrupt me before the president of the hospital intervened and corrected the false charges. It turned out that a certain doctor had a design on me and wasn't shy about ruining my family so that he could take advantage of it for his own foul purposed. The next time I saw him he did receive a stiff knee in the groin. I think I mashed his potatoes pretty good and he didn't continue his assault after that. He barely climbed into his leather chair as I left his office. I don't even think he squeaked to his secretary soon afterwards.

I hadn't given him any quarter for what he had attempted, and I surely wasn't going to thank him for it. I wasn't popular with him after that, but every time I went to buy groceries I had to laugh about him holding ice to his genitals beneath his desk. I'm sure they're still sore. His financial circles included bankers as well.

So I knew the banking industry wasn't exactly going to support us, any more than making some gross symbol or gesture to keep their own image clean. I expected that they would rather use a rubber baseball bat on us rather than sending us a dozen letters with threats for non-payments. At one time I had to consider going to the police when their agents wouldn't accept our word and leave us alone on the street. Accosting my children wasn't going to happen.

Ch. 12 – Words 1100-1200:

I recommend that you get a license if you are going to open this factory, I don't care if it is for a social club or not. The idea of doing this without the legal steps is very frightening to me. Before long you will lose the case and the court will attach our house and combine its worth with everything else we don't own until we don't have a standard of living to cling to.

And if that doesn't ruin our standing and identity in the city, think of the daily grief we will endure from all of our friends and relatives. Our effort to avoid them will be like trying to stop from having kids using the rhythm method. We might as well arrange to move into the poor house cause we will not have the ability to balance our budget, as tiny as it will be.

I swear Roger, you will be the instrument of my death if you keep up with these stupid schemes. Remember that terrible plan you had to ruin the quality of your advertising by using foreign language to make your sales sound more exotic? It never occurred to you that no one knew what you were selling. I admire your courage to attempt these schemes, but could we prevent going bankrupt and collect some money from one of them? I swear I get sick to my stomach every time you try to improve our standard of living.

If you would apply your skills to something rational maybe you would have been offered a financial hand for your skills and could pronounce your project worthy of putting some of their money behind.

Perhaps if you'd connect your brain and get it to function like someone rational you could make a couple of people help you and stop wasting both your time and effort. Our assets are frozen, we have no means of transportation, and worse, our apartment has no curtains and we have an audience every time we walk around the living room in our birthday suits. I had to cancel cable television because the neighborhood kids were watching dirty movies by using their own remote while we weren't home. How is that for a good influence for our environment?

I like being a citizen of this town, but if the police collect any more evidence we will be having a conversation with a judge that will affect where we live, as well as who we live with. We'll be heating up the motor in the car and be flying past the construction sites on the highway. We'll by flying down the road like a disease looking for an accident as an excuse for sympathy. Although we may already need to be barbecued to get anyone's concern with our lives.

I dunno, maybe we should organize some kind of legal papers and author a protest to the city council before they think we are some kind of illegal operation, instead of someone trying to make excellent medicine. That we do have principals, that my husband isn't selling leather furniture made out of dead camels from the Mideast.

After I went to the college the other day to look for available financial courses, I found some nasty notes in our mailbox. I also listened to a whisper from an excited neighbor. He said he had physical proof that ghosts could account for the recent messages being left there. He didn't realize that I saw him put them there after dark.

I tried to let his wife know the situation yesterday, but she was driving through traffic while I was telling her, so the success of her hearing me kind of disappeared. I get the feeling though that she has issues with our personal character. It's like she frequently tries hard to recognize that we aren't perfect rather than just giving us the benefit of the doubt.

She started saying that we were not healthy for the neighborhood when I tried to discuss it, but we were going by some heavy equipment at the time and she didn't hear me. Instead she said she had just read an article about people who do activities like we supposedly do in the altogether, so I didn't make any progress. She said several individuals, including her daughter had witnessed our cavorting in the living room.

We have no political force since her husband is the city councilman, and has the required signatures to vote us right out of the city. There is no educating these people that this is not our style of living, and that we are good parents. I couldn't talk to her while we picked through the vegetables cause she would lose her temper all over again.

I tried to explain to her that her daughter was with the kids watching television through our window as she drove into the garage, which would explain why she would lie about us running around naked. Finally she said that I had just made an very powerful enemy and stuck me with a title that I didn't think God-fearing people ever used in polite company. Indeed! What a tongue on that woman!

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

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Tagged: 1200 most common words in the English language, common words, Most Common English Words, Most common words in English, Story Writing Challenge, What Are The Most Common Words, writing, writing challenge

Author Interview ~ Lauren Elizabeth

I'm not sure how Lauren found me.

No matter—she requested an interview and I was more than happy to oblige :-)

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Where are you from, Lauren?

Was born and raised in Central Illinois.

When did you begin writing and can you remember how it felt inside, back then?

I wrote all though grade school, about anything and everything. Seventh grade was when I started getting serious about my writing.

What are your hopes, dreams, or goals for your writing?

I just want to get my story out there, my dad always told me to reach for my dreams and I want other young writers to see it's possible.

What do you feel has taught you the most about "how to write"?

Being only 17 years old I've done a lot by myself, or through teachers I had who were writers. I also did some classes at a local community college.

How do you find time to write being a busy 17-year-old student?

Well I actually take an independent study, so everyday I have an hour to write. I sit in the hallway outside the yearbook room and write. It's the best hour of the day!

Well, that certainly shows your commitment, Lauren!

Who are your favorite writers and why?

I love the author David Baldacci, along with Vicki Myron. I read so much I could list pages of favorite authors! Hard to say why; their just inspiring!

Where or how do you get your ideas for your writing?

The book I am getting ready to start publishing started as a joke between my friends and I; then, little by little, came together as a book.

Are you published?

No, not quite yet but I am going to start the process of self-publishing this summer.

So, tell us about your blog: its purpose, how you go about deciding what to post, and what you want to do with it in the future?

I post about writing, particularly publishing. Mainly self-publishing as that is the road I am taking. I hope in the future that I can use my blog to help other writers gain some knowledge about publishing. I am just hoping readers will find it as a place of enjoyment, through my journey as a writer. Also, I plan to put some fun things on it like recipes, crafts, etc. Whatever floats my boat!

Once you've published, how do you plan to promote the book?

Having already started with Twitter, YouTube, a blog and a page in my school's yearbook, I'm off to a pretty good start. I'm hoping that while I begin the publishing process, I can reach out to readers and writers through these sites. Once my book is published, I'm planning on doing a book tour, along with school visits. I want to show the world that anyone can do anything they set their mind too.

Thanks, so much, Lauren, for taking the time to let us know about you and your forthcoming book!

I certainly hope you'll come back after you've published your book and grace us with another interview :-)

So folks, Visit Lauren's Blog and also ask her a question or two in the Comments!

Here's a shot of Lauren writing in the sand :-)

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Tagged: author interview, Central Illinois, David Baldacci, debut novel, publishing, self-publishing, Vicki Myron, Young Adult Writer

My Favorite Word is "Word" :-)

I started experimenting with words as a child—harmless activity that had some social benefit.

Now, I'm totally addicted to words and, worst of all, I've actually become an author, selling words to others…

So, with that tongue-in-cheek opening to this post, is my favorite word really "word"?

Yes!

As a child, I was an avid dictionary reader and swiftly moved on to Etymologies. And, when you look up the word-history of "word" you find it traced back to, well… back to speech, talk, utterance, and… word!

This self-reflective quality of the word "word" has always made it my favorite.

And, even though dictionaries with their word histories may seem like the ultimate authority of what words Mean, I've written a series of posts that explores an Origin for words that goes beyond sifting through old manuscripts…

But, if you want to explore the fruit of search in available histories you might like to visit Michael Quinion's World Wide Words and perhaps even subscribe to his newsletter.

Or, you could follow the blog, Inky Fool, by Mark Forsyth.

Mark also turned some of his blog into the book, The Etymologicon.

Here's the elevator pitch from GoodReads:

"The Etymologicon springs from Mark Forsyth's Inky Fool blog on the strange connections between words. It's an occasionally ribald, frequently witty and unerringly erudite guided tour of the secret labyrinth that lurks beneath the English language, taking in monks and monkeys, film buffs and buffaloes, and explaining precisely what the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening."

And, as a favor to my best friend, who's Australian, here's Mark explaining the word "Barracking"…

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Tagged: English language, Etymologicon, etymology, Inky Fool, Mark Forsyth, Michael Quinion, words, World Wide Words

For Writers Who Don't Think They Can "Do The Business Side" of Self-Publishing

Traditional publishing is far from dead but self-publishing is one helluva scrappy kid.

Seems, though, that either method now demands a writer get up and do some "Business"…

I really don't like current connotations of the term Marketing, Promotion can sound like a selfish activity, Building An Author Platform can seem an insurmountable task, and Gathering A Tribe could scare the most introverted writers.

In a post back in December, Getting Published Is Easy ~ Getting Readers Is Hard Work, I posed a few questions about the effort writers need to find readers:

"Is all this talk about the hard work of finding readers going to make you give up?

"If you have a book, in your head or written out, does its Life justify lots of hard work?

"Does it seem unfair to you that sensitive, creative people need to roll up their sleeves and build a sustainable author platform?"

Plus, that post has a link to the article I wrote for Joel Friedlander about my unique process of finding readers.

It may seem like an over-simplification but, to me, having a readership is having relationships…

What kind of relationship is engendered when the Woo-er dresses up in flashy clothes, flagrantly promises huge returns for Immediate Action, and leaves the Woo-ie high and dry after the one-night-purchase?

If you're a writer, will you only write one book?

If not, wouldn't it be nice if those who bought your first book actually liked the relationship they have with you and are breathlessly awaiting your second and third performance?

So, grabbing myself by the ears and making myself pay closer attention to the title of this post, I offer an article orriginally published in Fortune magazine then republished in CNN Money.

It's written by Ben Casnocha (serial entrepreneur) and Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn) and gets deeply into the nature of one's business relationships—what works long-term—what gains traction for the long-haul—what writers could really use for the present-day challenges of getting books read.

It's called, The real way to build a social network, and here's a brief excerpt:

"Old-school networkers are transactional. They pursue relationships thinking solely about what other people can do for them. Relationship builders, on the other hand, try to help others first. They don't keep score. And they prioritize high-quality relationships over a large number of connections….it's only when you put yourself in the other person's shoes that you begin to develop an honest connection."

Hope you check it out and hope you come back and Comment :-)

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Tagged: A Writer's Business, author platform, Ben Casnocha, book promotion, Business of Writing, Finding Readers, Joel Friedlander, Reid Hoffman

Where In The World Is This Blog Going?

Back in February, I shared the statistics for which posts and pages got the most "views" here in 2011.

WordPress just recently added stats about which country visitors come from, but the data doesn't go back into 2011…

So while you're waiting till 2013 for a year's worth of places, here are the numbers for the last month :-)

Country
Views


United States
1,426


United Kingdom
111


Canada
91


Australia
67


Germany
32


India
28


France
24


Philippines
20


Spain
18


Italy
15


Sweden
12


Pakistan
12


Norway
11


Netherlands
10


Singapore
10


Ireland
8


Mexico
6


Finland
5


Puerto Rico
5


South Africa
5


Brazil
5


Romania
5


Portugal
4


Luxembourg
4


Indonesia
4


Argentina
3


Colombia
3


Yemen
3


Czech Republic
3


Belgium
3


Ukraine
3


Greece
3


Egypt
3


Turkey
3


Bosnia and Herzegovina
2


Malaysia
2


Serbia
2


Denmark
2


Hong Kong
2


Saudi Arabia
2


New Zealand
2


Peru
2


Russian Federation
1


Trinidad and Tobago
1


Poland
1


Viet Nam
1


Rwanda
1


Croatia
1


Ecuador
1


Cambodia
1


Aruba
1


Slovenia
1


Sri Lanka
1


United Arab Emirates
1


Algeria
1


Afghanistan
1


Cyprus
1


Armenia
1


Bangladesh
1


Thailand
1


Bulgaria
1

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Tagged: Australia, blog, blog statistics, blogging, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, United States

Success In Writing, Publishing And Marketing

Even though this post is primarily for writers, readers, who are gaining more power in the promotion of books, could definitely benefit from checking out the links and video.

As far as "Success" goes, try these previous two posts:

How Do You Measure Success?

"Success" Is Vastly Over-Rated

Plus, this blog has dealt with Writing, Publishing, and Marketing in numerous ways—try putting some words in the Search Box at the upper right :-)

The video I'll be sharing here is definitely in the category of Advice, and you may find these two posts helpful:

Writing "Advice" ( Good for Readers, too :-)

Even If The Experts Are Right, You Might Have To Do Your Own Thing…

The video is a conversation between Joanna Penn from The Creative Penn and Jane Friedman from Being Human At Electric Speed.

I've referenced Jane Friedman many times on this blog :-)

I heartily recommend you keep a pen and paper (or, your handy electronic notebook) close at hand…

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Tagged: book marketing, Creative Penn, Jane Friedman, Joanna Penn, publishing advice, self-publishing, Writers Resources, writing advice

Writers Going Global ~ Expanding The Story

Do you know writers that always keep their stories' contexts close to home–their neighborhood, their city, their state or province, their country?

Do you know writers who constantly work to expand the context and settings of their works—strive to relate to the wider world?

Some writers seem to be writing in a global environment but every country is shown through the filter of their home territory.

The Internet has been said to be making the world a global community yet many writers are staying home and creating parochial tales, shunning a growth in consciousness that could spawn attempts at a new "genre"—Global Fiction…

Certainly, I'm not advocating that All fiction be global or that all writers must expand the territory of their creativity.

Yet, with the world struggling to learn how to be a global community, it would seem valuable to have more writers working to expand the borders of what they consider as themes, contexts, and settings…

My previous post, Writing Fiction To Make A Difference In The World, began an approach to this topic and another post, Can Fiction Aid Global Peace?, took the idea a bit further.

Of course, writing in the genre of Global Fiction would mean that the writer was thinking Globally—thinking of distant lands being populated by other members of the same Human Family…

I'm putting a video in this post with Homa Sabet Tavangar talking about thinking Globally and, if nothing else, it could give writers any number of Prompts for stories :-)

Homa has written the book, Growing Up Global: Raising Children to be At Home in the World, but the video is definitely for adults considering adult issues.

Her Bio notes that she "has 20 years' experience working with governments, businesses, international organizations and non-profit agencies in global competitiveness, organizational and business development, and cross-cultural issues. "

I hope you'll listen carefully to her as she unfolds, gently, the requisites for Global Consciousness…

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Tagged: fiction, Fiction Writing, Global Fiction, Global Literature, Growing Up Global, Homa Sabet Tavangar, Homa Tavangar, World peace

The Story of Chaos ~ New Writing Experience

I love introducing people to friends I have who are insanely creative!

Even better to introduce you to the insane character of an insanely creative writer!!

Rebekah Webb is the creative writer.

On Book Island, in the virtual world Second Life, she's Hakeber Haber.

Her insane character, Car Johnson, reads stories from his life at the Writers' Block Cafe on Tuesdays and Thursdays…

Rebekah and Car did a duel-interview for us back in August and Car once interviewed a crayon box.

Well, all three personae have a new venture: The Story of Chaos ~ An insane challenge where you call the shots!

Here's their explanation:

"The Story of Chaos is a challenge, where you help write the story. Part choose your own adventure, part tale, you will have your chance at the end to decide what happens next. The challenge will be mine, to try and make the story as serious as possible, while encouraging you to post the most ridiculous choices you can think of. Have the character attacked by an alien or discover his long lost twin in the form of a talking flea.

"Just make sure that you only post what happens immediately next."

Sound fun?

Believe me Rebekah and Car and Hakeber are up for any challenge you care to throw their way :-)

Oh! I can't leave the post till I plug Car's book—The Life and Times of Car Johnson–only $1.99 for the e-book.

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Tagged: Book Island, creative writing, Insanity, Rebekah Webb, Second Life, virtual world, writing, writing challenge

Music & Writing ~ Kissin' Cousins

Many authors can't even write if their favorite music isn't playing…

Some writers have special music they play for each character in their story…

Even though I treasured books as a youth and considered English as a major in college, until I got to my 40s, Music was my Muse.

I played brass instruments as a child—sang in the church and later on the secular stage.

Even when I did write some poetry or attempt a story, I "thought" of the writing as a performance nearly identical to music.

One huge difference with writing was that I was much more the conductor, weaving and integrating the many voices…

Some folks even ponder the philosophic snares of whether music should ever have words blended with it—those who champion "absolute music".

I've had a number of interesting conversations over the years about the relative Meanings of the music of songs and their words—each can carry different meaning and great conflict can be created this way…

There is, of course, great conflict in the halls of the scholars of literature and music—much debate over what constitutes "proper" literature or music.

Personally, I find the Spirit of Music to be closely related to the Spirit of Literature—word and tone having sprung from the same human Roots…

Still you can find ideas like the following (from Wikipedia):

"Also being investigated is the question of why music developed in the first place. The first attempts to put music in an evolutionary framework were made by Charles Darwin who said in his 1871 book The Descent of Man, 'Musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex.' Today there is active research in the evolution of music, with some evidence supporting Darwin's hypothesis that it was used for mating and other evidence suggesting that music was a means of social organization and communication in early cultures."

Somehow, I just can't see our ancestors using only musical offerings to woo their mates. I feel they had ample provocation to use words as well, and the combined use of word and tone in the drama of the sexes may have been the first pop music :-)

Certainly a blog post is not the place to attempt anything like a complete analysis of the relation of writing and music-making; but, just before I offer some music:

How do you feel about the relation of word and tone?

If you compose music, is it anything like writing a story?

How "similar" do you feel these two arts of humanity are?

As you listen to the music from this orchestra, composed of the cream of the Venezuelan crop of high-school musicians, do you hear a story unfolding?

Are there characters interacting?

Is there a plot?

The two offerings are Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, 2nd movement, and Arturo Márquez' Danzón No. 2



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Tagged: Arts, Arturo Márquez, El Sistema, Gustavo Dudamel, music, Shostakovich, Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra, Words and Songs