Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 238

Meeting My Editor And Other Strange And Wonderful Events

I'm going to have my first face-to-face meeting with my editor in eight days.

I just realized as I wrote that sentence that the combination of "face-to-face" and "editor" might have given a few readers a chill.

A face-to-face is serious, right?

Does serious have to mean bad?

The editor, that horrible person who has some perverted need to hack away at my pristine creation, tells me I can't be inventive with my punctuation, and shows disrespect to my artistic integrity.

That last sentence is fiction since my editor is a delightful young woman who found a bunch of typos, suggested a few sentence rearrangements that will make the story flow better, and actually thinks I've written a very good book.

We'll be meeting at the Starbucks inside the Kroger's just past the Veteran's Park. She'll have come from one of her classes at the University of Dayton and I'll have just emerged from my writer's cave.

I look forward to that conversation.

I'm also looking forward to the May publication of Notes from An Alien. I'm self-publishing with FastPencil so I call the shots on when to release the book (if you visit FastPencil's site, getting an account is free and so are many of their writer's services :-).

The delay in publishing, since it might take me all of two days to incorporate the edits from Laura and get a little final formatting done, is necessary because I need to do more social networking–a strange and wonderful thing–before the book is born.

I gave a little hint at the creative side of publishing in a previous post but the actual path I've traveled, since well before I sat down to write the book, is very strange and quite wonderful to me.

First the on-going experience with my main character and "co-author", Sena Quaren, in the virtual world Second Life.

Next, the experience of building a web site for the book. I even included a slide show of the Worlds of Notes from An Alien.

Then, the rather awful experience of wading through how to integrate Facebook and Twitter into my social networking efforts. It might be that I'm such a massive introvert but the blatant and brazen extroversion of those spaces took some creative throttling to fit into what I consider social activity.

Next was the creation of this blog, separate but integrated with the book site, and the search for folks for my Blogroll–people I communicate with and promote on Facebook and Twitter.

That little boy who was born on the southern shore of a Great Lake almost 6.5 decades ago is still in here, an important part of my consciousness, marveling at all this activity to create an audience for a book we wrote. Yes, little Alex is still here. I lost him for a bunch of years but he got my attention again and we're both goin' to a party with a nice lady named Laura in eight days!!!

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Tagged: alien, book, promote, promotion, publication, publishing, self-publish, self-publishing

What *Not* To Do If You're Looking For Writing Advice

I remember when the Internet was a baby–a brilliant, wide-eyed, baby with limitless potential for positive growth.

The Internet was born to Scientific and Military parents. It soon showed its independence and became the playground of creative, intelligent folks who took its potential and shaped a carnival of information amazement.

One of the most famous slogans back then was, "Information Wants to be Free …", and this leads me to the first thing I feel you should not do when looking for writing advice.

Don't pay anyone a penny until you've written the equivalent of a novel and even then you should probably wait much longer.

There's a growing trend [in some fields, it's a cancerous riot] of people with no credentials to speak of trying to woo unsuspecting novices into costly nets of stolen information–advice that could have been found for free.

If you're the novice's novice, you might start your explorations with our recent post, Resources for Writers ~ Readers Welcome :-)

My second suggestion for what not to do is:

Don't listen to people who are willing to give you free information until you've read some of their writing. { blogs actually count as writing :-)

When it comes to blogging-writers who give advice, you may find some who don't have a ton of published work. Still, you have their blog as evidence of how they handle words. If they're fiction writers and they don't have examples of their fiction in the blog or available through a link, you could, if you appreciate the things they say, ask if you could review some of their work.

My third thing to not do is:

Don't get caught up in reading writing advice until you've given yourself the chance to write what you feel is the best work you can produce.

This may be a small collection of poems or three novels. If you're really listening to yourself and letting your resident spirits guide you, you should know when you've produced something good. Sure you may doubt it's "good enough" but that kind of thinking is married to the need for approval. You need your own approval for your work before you consider changing it based on others' opinions.

And, because the Internet has grown into a many-headed, commercial beast and we all seem to love looking for approval and there are so many wolves in sheep's clothing out there, when you do have some work you feel good enough about to have other minds check it out and offer advice, put it aside, resist the temptation to get advice, let it sit a month or two, and work on a new piece. When you come back to it, you'll probably find things that you feel need changing. Change them and then, maybe, offer it for critique.

I know at least six writers who regularly read this blog and I trust they'll offer their advice in the comments :-)

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Tagged: advice, edit, fiction, novel, story, writer, writing

Really, No *Really*, What The Heck Is Writing?

So many things in life are taken for granted. So much is automated. Even things like Love can suffer from a lack of proper awareness.

Ever walk down a street you've been down hundreds of times and wonder at some detail that seems like it just appeared yet has always been part of the landscape?

Perhaps I can do that for you in this post–give you a fresh vision of what the heck Writing really is.

I often find that checking an Etymology Dictionary gives me fresh perspectives on words and concepts that have become a bit stale. "Write" has roots that mean carve, scratch, cut, or paint.

Pardon me while a let the poetic side of my personality take control for a minute:

Authors can sometimes be said to carve a place for themselves in our culture.

There are also many writers barely scratching out a living.

Many wish they could cut a swath of recognition through the crowd of other writers.

And, our favorite writers are those who paint images in our minds with their words.

Anyone who ranks high on tests of left-brained activity is probably cringing at such a poor example of the application of word roots to an understanding of the meaning of writing.

You right-brained folks are probably creating other, equally-poetic examples :-)

"You! Citizen! Step away from the keyboard!!"

Keyboards aren't real good at carving, scratching, cutting, or painting. But the many former instruments of writing did all those things.

This attempt to go back a few steps so we can advance our understanding of writing has just reminded me of the many comments I see in the Twitter stream for #amwriting declaring, sometimes with boldness, sometimes with an excuse, that the Tweep is actually using a pen and paper for their WIP.

Just like my glee at saying my favorite word is "word", I find an absurd pleasure in perusing written attempts at defining "writing". Kind of like reciting the Kama Sutra while making love. Or, even better, putting two mirrors face to face and creating an infinite regress. And, possibly, best, the self-importance of this example of self-reference: I think the first word in this sentence is egotistical.

Seems like I've written myself into a corner: Carved a cul-de-sac, Scratched a non-existent itch, Cut off more than I can chew, Painted something non-representational…

Still, writing exists and I'm doing it now.

Your Feelings, Thoughts, Written Affidavits, Rants, or Explanations??

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Tagged: read, reader, reading, write, writer, writing

Do You Write For The Reader or Should You Write For Yourself?

As usual, I won't write a post that claims ultimate wisdom. My goal is to share ideas that get you thinking and, hopefully, sharing what you think in the Comments :-)

Should a writer write for the reader?

Who is the reader?

What value is there in writing what you consider necessary in spite of what readers may think?

Some writers will tell you to do research about your potential readers and find out what they want when they read. This is fairly straightforward if your goal is to produce books that fit into an accepted genre. If you write cross-genre or your writing is actually creating a new genre, the only reader you can consult is yourself and, possibly, that weird group of people who actually understand what you're up to :-)

The value in writing what's necessary, in spite of potential reader turn-off, is helping elevate the conversation our Human Family is engaged in. Some of the most enduring reads are books that were first misunderstood by the general public but trumpeted valiantly by those who saw the Value. Some things in life are worth fighting against horrendous odds to achieve higher ends…

I'm tempted to pull a little rant here about the formulaic method of writing that caters to formulaic readers, all spiraling into a slush fund of wasted resources–pimping your talent to make a buck. Oops, I did let a bit of rant slip, didn't I :-)

There are honest writers who create within and give value to a niche market of readers. Plus, with all the burgeoning opportunities for self-promotion and publishing, these dedicated artists can reach their dreams of sharing their unique perspectives.

My personal solution for this seemingly contradictory situation of choosing either the reader or yourself as the motivating impulse for why you'd spend so much time alone creating something that might reach a large audience is:

Read as widely and deeply as you possibly can. Read till you're bored and then read more. Absorb as much of our Human Family's hopes and dreams and challenges and fears and dangers and failures and quirks as you possibly can–absorb it into what you could call your internal Meta-Reader.

Then, when you sit down to create, let that Meta-Reader decide what is absolutely necessary to write………

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Tagged: books, humanity, promotion, publishing, reading, self-publishing, writing

How Does Talking Help Writing? ~~~ "Read Me A Book, Daddy!"

Talking helps you write?

Well, it's more than likely the first "writers" in our human family were mostly speakers. I could work really hard to do the research to support that contention but I'm reasonable certain; plus, I found a cool Squidoo Lens that can launch you into this ancient art form, still alive and kickin', by the way :-)

And, if you reflect and notice the next time someone speaks to you, there's one heck of a lot going on in your mind as they speak. Folks called "good listeners" have the discipline to let the speaker's words create a story in their minds. These are also the folks who do mostly listening until the speaker indicates relinquishment of their side of the conversation. {Except those folks who never seem to be able to give it up and keep talking interminably… }

In my previous post, Reading Leads To Writing, Even If All You're Reading Is Life…, I made a short exploration into the potentially confusing territory of what happens in our minds when we read. I went further and claimed that we are always "reading" Life. If those ideas are correct, when you listen to someone speak, you're reading them. And, since most writers will tell you that reading is a necessary component of their continued writing, the reading of others you do, as you listen to them, can help your writing…

The other aspect of how talking helps writing is when the writer reads their work out loud. This is something that many writers heartily recommend as part of the revision/editing process. While you read silently read, you activate the writer within. While you read aloud, you have the writer within communicating with the speaker of the words–a self-conversation that often leads to critical insights.

Of course, the, "Read Me A Book, Daddy!", part of the title of this post reminds us that hearing words read to us while we look at the page is a powerful part of learning to read for ourselves. And, as we age, this talking to ourselves as we contemplate what we've written is one of those tricks of Writerly Magic that never fails to please…

Like almost all my posts, I'm not trying to prove a point. I'm merely raising various points to stimulate your thinking. Naturally, I hope your thinking leads you to writing what your mind made out of what I've written here :-)

Care to share in the comments?

{BTW, the link for comments is at the top of the post :-}

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Tagged: read, reader, reading, stories, story, write, writer, writing

Resources for Writers ~ Readers Welcome :-)

Rather different post today but, if you visit the various spaces, you can have hours of hyperlinked fun!

First, a really innovative tool that focuses on what writers have to say to other writers:

Next, a set of links from Accredited Online Colleges:

60 Awesome Search Engines for Serious Writers
The categories they offer at that link are Professional, Writing, Research,
Reference, Niche Writers, Books, and Blogging

Next is a site that focuses on Self-Publishing, Publetariat…

And, last, because Simone Benedict began reading my Work In Progress and said I reminded her of Jeanette Winterson, a short video of Jeanette talking about time–a potent tool for writers…

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Tagged: books, promotion, publishing, reader, reading, self-publishing, stories, writing

Publishing Progress ~ the Highs and the Lows…

Writers, almost all of them, want to be published. Not so many years ago, the only way to be published that let the multitudes receive your work was to find an agent and have them present your work to editors who then might decide to work with you toward publishing.

There are many stories of writers' works being published in forms that they really didn't like; yet, they really wanted to be published so they caved…

To be fair, most respectable publishers worked hard to bring the manuscript to a form that was marketable as well as true to the writer's vision.

Still, this path to publishing depended on people other than the writer making decisions about the most important factor in the whole process. Is the work something people will want to buy?

As I was contemplating writing the book I'll be publishing, I knew that the traditional processes to decide if it would sell would keep it from being published. It's just that kind of book :-)

But I also knew there were many people who would want to read it.

Luckily, the way to publish is rapidly changing and the ways to reach people who want a specific book are easily available.

For the best resource I've found to reveal this new publishing reality, visit Publetariat. It "…was founded by April L. Hamilton, and its editorial staff includes experts in writing, journalism, editing, publishing in both hard copy and electronic formats, book marketing and promotion, web design, podcasting, video trailer creation, author services and social media….we trawl the internet daily to bring you the most valuable content in books, publishing, book promotion, authorship and more from all over the web."

Now, my personal Highs and Lows:

A huge high was the realization that I'd finally tripped over a story idea that could successfully present the themes I wanted to share.

Another high was re-discovering the virtual world, Second Life, where I interacted with folks while I was shaping and testing the story idea.

The first low was realizing how much damned work it was going to take to turn the idea into a book. [ It should be noted that I'm a man on a small military pension that just barely lets me eat, pay rent and utilites, and have Internet connection. I was looking at potential amounts of money that I didn't have and hours of interaction with people on the Internet, most of whom I knew wouldn't "get" what I was doing. ]

The process of radically changing my thinking while I was researching intensely and making tons of notes that somehow turned into a rough draft of an outline was a mixed bag of highs and lows…

Actually beginning the writing was the High of highs.

Revision of each chapter as it was finished was a high.

Using FastPencil (my Print and Ebook distributor) as an interactive lab for reviewers and beta-readers as the chapters accumulated was a unique high. Also, discovering that saving $50 a month for four months would let me buy their package that distributes to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iPad, and Ingram was a delirious high :-)

Printing the manuscript out and reading it as I used a pen to mark changes was a blast from the past.

Finding an editor who I could pay with only a tribute in the book was a high (hint: explore your nearest universities for Grad students in the English department).

Kicking my Social Media Pre-Publication Networking into high gear was mostly a high with many low troughs that had to do with sifting the wheat from the chaff–an ongoing slog through oceans of mundane trivialities to find and connect with sources of creative and progressive relationship.

Waiting… for the editor to finish her work was, as embarrassing as it is to say, a low :-(

Seeing that she had only found a multitude of small, necessary edits was a Gargantuan High!

That last event just happened yesterday. Now comes the high of final revisions.

I know there will be more lows as I approach the high of release date but my experience with my past publications and the way that the highs of this recent journey have quickly obliterated the toxic effect of the lows makes the ultimate publication of Notes from An Alien the most important event of my life.

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Tagged: alien, book, promotion, publish, publishing, science fiction, self-publish, self-publishing

"Show Don't Tell"? ~ Hey! Even Showing Demands Words :-)

One of my blogging-buddies and fellow writer, Haley Whitehall wrote, in response to the recent post, Words or Deeds ~ Which One Tells You More About A Person?, "I hope you write that future post of writing's challenge of expressing deeds with words. I would love to read it."

Now, I surely can't promise I'll write every post a reader wants but this one was sitting in my mind/heart and bubbling with anticipation to be written. Haley's gentle nudge felt like a clarion call :-)

So, is it one of writing's inexplicable mysteries that the attempt to show action instead of just telling the reader it happened is "doomed" to depend on words? Movies just Show. Writing is located in that special realm of Words Only.

In response to a comment in the post, How Can You Write About Things You Can't See?, I referenced this site which said: "One of the most difficult and most crucial elements in story-telling is knowing when to give play-by-play action and when to back off and summarize."

Still, giving play-by-play action depends on words…

Are writers really magicians because they can conjure actions in our minds and feelings in our hearts by using words on paper?

Maybe… :-)

I think the easiest explanation of this phenomenon is to just say that words are born in our minds and hearts, spring from the more spiritual aspects of our beings and, hence, have the requisite power to create vivid action in our minds and poignant feelings in our hearts.

I could go on and on with my faux-philosophical meanderings but two examples from my favorite author should work to more effect.

I'm drawing my examples from C. J. Cherryh's, Fortress of Dragons.

The first excerpt is "technically" Telling but notice how she still pulls off a bit of Showing:

A slow procession passed by night, little disturbing the sleep of Henas'amef. Tristen on bay Petelly, two ladies on horses the lords of Ivanor had lent them, with Captain Uwen Lewen's-son and Tristen's bodyguard attending, all climbed the hill in a lazy fall of fat lumps of snow.

That families were asleep and shutters were drawn and latched up and down the streets lent welcome anonymity to their passage … for by day the sight of the duke of Amefel riding in company with the red-haired former duchess and her sister would have alarmed the town.

The next example is "technically" Showing and it needs to be mentioned that this showing is "…within the gray space wizards used.":

"With child, no less", Emuln said, and turned a fierce and forbidding question toward Tarien Aswydd. "Whose, woman?"

It was harshly, even brutally demanded, so uncharacteristically forceful that Tristen flinched. In the same instant Orien flung an arm about her sister, who shied from answering and winked out of the gray space like a candle in the wind.

Orien's was a swift, defiant retreat.

The very best writers can Show while Telling and Tell while Showing.

Plus, "Show Don't Tell.", is just a rule and rules are guidelines for those of us who have yet to master the art…

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Tagged: Exposition, fiction, Narrative, reader, reading, show don't tell, writer, writing

True or False? ~ If You Think You're A Good Writer, You're Not…

I saw a tweet the other day that said something similar to the title of this post and I got a chuckle out of it.

But right on the heels of the chuckle came doubt…

I do feel some of my writing is good. I also feel some of my writing isn't as good as I sometimes think it is.

There's a fairly common cycle of feeling that infects authors' minds–I'm Great/I Suck/I'm Great/I Suck…

I think the middle portions of the wave, not the peaks and troughs, are where some truth can be garnered.

My dear, departed father instilled in my tender nature a feature of character that I've spent many decades trying to root-out–Perfectionism.

To be fair, I also got a large portion of respect for discipline from him.

A perfectionist needs discipline if they want to continue on the road toward the impossible destination–Perfection.

I'm a firm believer that anything I write can be better, even if I reach a decision that it's near enough to "perfection" to publish.

"A poem is never finished, only abandoned."

Paul Valery

I'm also a firm believer that discipline can be used to punish yourself when you feel you're not good enough–pushing your efforts past the point of rest and reflection…

So, if you think you're a good writer but you don't think your writing is perfect, you just might be a good writer…

If you think you're a good writer and also that your writing is perfect, think again………

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I really don't imagine you feel your writing is perfect but I do suspect you find the I'm Great/I Suck cycle a somewhat familiar visitor. Care to share :-)

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Tagged: author, best, discipline, perfection, worst, write, writer

Words or Deeds ~ Which One Tells You More About A Person?

Most writers have heard the maxim, "Show Don't Tell".  And, even though action in a book can keep most readers turning pages, I find it oh, so ironic that those actions are being conveyed with words :-)

Language is strange! And strange means "foreign". And, a blog written by someone who's first language isn't English prompted me to write this post.

Before I talk about that, I want to explore this Words/Deeds issue.

I'll leave the strange situation of writing's challenge of expressing deeds with words for a possible future post. Here, I'll ask a number of questions:

Which do you feel more comfortable using to convey your heart-felt principles: words or deeds?

Even though many Holy Texts hold deeds above words, do you find certain situations demanding words more than deeds?

Can deeds "say" things better than words?

What do you do when you find a person's deeds saying something different than their words?

Which can you trust more: deeds or words?

As I write this post, I'm performing a deed. I have to use words to create the result of the deed (this post). The affect of the result of my deed is different for different people. Some folks will respond to the result with other words in the comments. That's the result of one of their deeds…

Are you starting to feel a bit of the bedeviling wonder I'm experiencing as I explore the interrelationship of words and deeds?

…

"But, he said he loves me!"

"Right, honey, but look at what he's doing."

"I know… But I love him…"

"Just watch yourself, baby."

…

So, I started writing this post because someone started following me on Twitter and I checked the link they had in their profile and it led to their blog. It became obvious they weren't very familiar with expressing themselves in English. I noticed they were from Indonesia but much of what they said let me know that, when it came to their daily deeds, they engaged in things nearly identical to people who grow up speaking English.

I have to say that a person "misusing" English is not reason enough for me to ignore what their trying to say. I have a friend from Lithuania. His art says way more than his words but even his words–crafted more from the structuring of his native language than from English–his words are deeply artistic and actually can say more to me than many who write "good" English…

One day, it's likely our world will have one language that everyone learns, along with their native tongue, from their earliest years. [It won't necessarily be English.] Everyone will be fluent in two languages–one that can create challenges of understanding for others and one that will unite our entire human family in the never-boring task of exploring the relative worth of Words and Deeds.

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Tagged: deeds, global, humanity, language, words, world, write, writing