Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 232
April 12, 2011
How A Story's Integrity Can Save It From Certain Criticisms
Haley Whitehall, in a twitter conversation, suggested the topic of this post :-)
Writers receive, if they let themselves, many kinds of criticism; during the writing, if they're brave, and, almost always, during the final revision process.
Let me give you the etymologies of the two key words of this post:
criticism
c.1600, "action of criticizing," from critic + -ism. Meaning "art of estimating literary worth" is from 1670s.
integrity
mid-15c., "wholeness, perfect condition," from O.Fr. integrité, from L. integritatem (nom. integritas) "soundness, wholeness," from integer "whole" (see integer). Sense of "uncorrupted virtue" is from 1540s.
So, I'm proposing that, somehow, the "wholeness" and "virtue" of a story can save it from certain negative "estimations" of its "literary worth".
As always, I'm not writing this post as an "expert" on the topic. I'm a writer and a published author but I make no claim to being a literary expert.
What I can do, though, is to ask questions and share my own experience.
What is the "wholeness" of a story (insert the word "book" if it makes more sense for you…)?
What is its "virtue"?
Did you notice that the etymology of "criticism" said, "art of estimating literary worth"?
It appears that valid criticism involves artists evaluating other artists.
Any two artists will have two unique sets of values when they approach the art of criticizing another artist's work.
Is the artistic critic evaluating the Whole of the work? Are they sensing the Virtue of the work?
My book was getting criticism well before I began writing it–its theme was shared with many people and their opinions were sought…
As I wrote it, I received feedback from authors and interested readers.
My editor went beyond mere technical appraisal and shared her artistic views of the book.
A special office of review gave me highly-qualified and specific advice.
At each stage of this process I was of two minds: the merely human writer seeking perspective and the Artist, bearing the Book and feeling its Life and Truth…
Sure there were dumb mistakes that the merely human side of me made and they were gratefully attended to.
But my Artist-Self was the Mother of the Book and She, thankfully, was strong enough and clear enough about what the Book needed and deserved.
Does your story or book Speak to you?
Can you hear its demands in spite of well-intentioned criticism from others?
Does your "human"-self interfere with your "artist"-self?
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Tagged: author, criticism, feedback, Integrity, literary criticism, Literature, opinion, writer
April 10, 2011
Must've Taken Way Too Much Time But Is So Worth It…
Got this from Shari Green's Blog…
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Tagged: awesome, creative, creativity, Music video, nature, Touch Wood, video
April 9, 2011
Alien's Book Receives Second Review…
Darcia Helle from BestsellerBound has reviewed Notes from An Alien on GoodReads :-)
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Tagged: alien, BestsellerBound, book, Darcia Helle, GoodReads, Notes from An Alien, review, reviews
Get Back To Concentrating As You Write…
Just found a new version of an older piece of software that strips away bells and whistles to help a person make a better interface between mind and "paper".
It's called OmmWriter and here's some blurb from their site:
A wise man once said "We are all at the mercy of our wild monkey minds. Incessantly swinging from branch to branch." With multiple windows and applications all vying for our attention, we have sadly adapted our working habits to that of the computer and not the other way around.
OmmWriter Dana is a humble attempt to recapture what technology has snatched away from us today: our capacity to concentrate.
OmmWriter is a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again, vindicating the close relationship between writer and paper. The more intimate the relation, the smoother the flow of inspiration.
If you are a scriptwriter, blogger, journalist, copywriter, poet or just someone who enjoys writing, welcome back to concentrating.
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Tagged: concentration, OmmWriter, software, writer, Writers Resources, writing, Writing and Editing
April 8, 2011
The Author's Labor To Give Birth To A Book…
Notes from An Alien will be born on the 16th of May, 2011.
Many have viewed the baby through the wonders of modern communication-"ultrasound".
You can see this fully-formed child of mine, though still floating in the womb of my creativity, by using the link over there in the side-panel.
Labor will begin next week…
The pregnancy was long and loving. I look forward to the labor of asking for reviews, seeking impressions about the book's potential reception in a world full of books…
If the very first review was somewhat predictive, my book's birth should be joyous; but, even if the birth is painful, I will raise my book to be read by as many as possible. The book has a mission–Notes from An Alien will be carrying a Message for Earth…
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Tagged: author, birth, book, Earth, Notes from An Alien, review, reviews, science fiction
April 7, 2011
Mind/Reality & Writers
Yesterday I posed a number of questions about mind and reality and got some fascinating comments from a group of writers.
I promised a follow-up post and feel very good that I didn't have to weave it out of thin air :-)
The thin air my mind is in now is a rarified state of reality I like to call metaphysical funk.
The comments from yesterday began to fill that mental reality with urges and pokes that are helping me turn the funk into a faith that I can make the walking woundedness of pervasive grief over the death of a friend an experience rich with fertile futurity.
If that last sentence made some sense to you, we could probably enjoy a chat in some groovy coffee house :-)
I decided the best I could do, right now, to indicate how helpful all the comments were is to put the urges and pokes here, hoping they prod my readers to check back with yesterday's post and read all the comments…
Shalon said:
"My take on this, Alexander, is that we can't know what's real or what's not real, and that the blind commitment to one form of reality is a type of zombie-hood that sucks your brain out of your mind and eats it….
"I also feel that since reality is unknowable, the smartest thing to do is give it the benefit of the doubt….
"…I'm not saying that there isn't a real 'reality' out there, but that despite the possibility of a 'true' and 'real' reality, there still exists a choice. I believe that this requirement to choose one reality over another means, to me, that reality is unknowable."
Karla said:
"The brain is an elegant and amazing organ, constantly gathering input from our environment and processing it according to ever evolving life lessons. I don't see why we feel the need to attribute reality to anything more than that."
Simone said:
"Well, a couple of children's stories come to mind. One is The Emperor's New Clothes. The other is about the blind men and the elephant."
John said:
"The questions on the floor, of course, are so elephantine (speaking of "the blind men and the elephant") that I doubt I could make much more than a stab in the direction of actually unraveling the questions of "mind" and "reality" enough to even approach an answer or two concerning either….
"Personally, reality appears to be what it is to me; the minute I must related this reality to someone else, voilà! There are difficulties which simply do not exist in the singular; when it comes to the plural of humanity, then, of course, we run into a problem of justice and equity, which is an entirely different kettle of fish, and whole new elephant to examine."
Cassy said:
"There is an inseparable symbiotic relationship between our senses and the reality that is created within our mind….
"Metacognition helps us to evaluate our minds reality as shaped by our sensual experiences….
"So, in short, I would say that the weave of reality and mind is so tight, it would be difficult to identify which is the chicken and which is the egg (though I am writing this before 8am and have only had one cup of coffee – no telling what my reality will be an hour from now :)"
Your Thoughts/Feelings??
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Tagged: comments, faith, feedback, metaphysical, Mind, Philosophy, Reality, writers
April 6, 2011
Mind or Reality ~ Which Came First?
There have been various explorations on this blog about the writer's mind and the reader's mind. And, we've also explored various realities.
Try putting both words , "reality" and "mind" together, in the search box at the upper right, the one with the little magnifying glass, and you can see what we've already discussed.
Today, I want to broaden the discussion out to anyone's mind and how it either creates reality or is created by reality.
I'm not going to state a definite opinion (though, you might infer it from the "voice" of this post).
So:
A child is born with a mind. Does it have patterns already associated with it? Or, is it "blank"?
If it already has pre-existent patterns of operation, does that mean that it reaches out and molds whatever is outside the body into a "personal" reality?
If it's blank, does it just accept whatever exists outside it as fact and build on that?
What about thoughts and feelings? Are they both part of the mind?
Why should it matter what we think or feel about the mind and reality?
If you could read and understand that last sentence you may have a clue about why it could matter…
There are enough studies and articles about mind and reality to build a staircase to the Moon and there seems to be no strong consensus on which came first.
Oh! There's also the debate about whether the brain and the mind are the same thing or if the mind somehow includes the brain but operates "above" it.
And, we probably shouldn't ignore the various views on what the word "reality" actually means and the various "kinds" of realities people postulate: social reality, personal reality, physical reality, imaginary reality, consensus reality, etc.
My reality recently got a kick in its mental/emotional ass. My view of the world and the importance of various supposed priorities is evolving and mutating. I've always wondered about what's real and how I could know it and the last week has taken my wonderment to a new playing field.
The Game continues but the Rules are changing…
If enough of you comment on the questions of this post, I'll weave a part two tomorrow. If the comments are sparse, I may weave tomorrow's post out of thin air.
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Tagged: brain, Consensus reality, imagination, knowledge, Mind, Reality, Social reality, Virtual reality
April 5, 2011
Alien's Book Receives First Review
Tony Riches says:
"I have become used to unusual followers on twitter – but was intrigued to realise I was being followed by an alien. Her name is Sena Quaren, an Angian woman from a star system about twelve light-years from Earth.
"I had to find out more and discovered a new book which stretched the boundaries of the short story yet at 42,000 words is not a novel in the conventional sense."
The rest of the review can be read at Tony's Writing Desk…
Regular readers of this blog know about the challenge I've been facing and those new here can find out by scrolling down through the last four or five posts.
Having Notes from An Alien receive its first review is a perfect topic to help me get back on the horse and ride this range called life…
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Tagged: alien, book, global crisis, Notes from An Alien, Sci-Fi, Sena Quaren, The Writing Desk, Tony Riches
April 4, 2011
A Virtual Memorial That Brings Real Tears…
Jamie was known as Jammers in the virtual world, Second Life.
She passed away on March 28th. If you've newly arrived at this blog, scroll down through the last few posts for some background…
Watching people arrive at her Shrine, pause in silence, then place their flowers or candles…
Hearing them talk about her…
She chose a little kitty as her avatar–Basement Kitteh…
People pass by who didn't know her; quiet explanation is made of the two pictures, her real life beauty and her virtual kitty–rambunctious kitteh :-)
Often, I visit; each time someone new is there…
I took a picture of the Shrine today. The man standing there is Bonchance Longfall. He wrote the Memorial Poem below this picture. In real life, Jamie was mute. I had been her voice for many readings of her poetry:
In the clamor of others to be heard
she expressed herself with just a pen,
her only way was the written word.
We will not hear her words again.
Twenty-seven! Her heart is still,
nevermore will she bear her pain.
One more angel, called for her skill
to a gathering of angels, her new domain.
Her hands now lie on her placid breast
and we think of all she gave us, when
all fear and hurt are put to rest,
and her writing sings out over our din.
Her storm has calmed, so we must abide
as peace now comes, at God's side.
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Tagged: Jamie, Jammers, Jammers Inaka, Memorial, poet, poetry, Second Life, Shrine
April 1, 2011
In Memorium, for Jamie…
I'm deep into my grief for the loss, on earth, of my friend, Jamie…
Gone in a flash in a car accident…
Good friend…
This video is a tribute to her…
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Tagged: death, grief, Grief Loss and Bereavement, grieve, loss, poet, poetry, Sarah Kay
