Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 49
July 30, 2017
Write Like You’re Giving Birth
Today’s re-blog is One Incredible Analogy that reveals a Critical Truth about writing…
By Sandra A. Miller
“Write from your guts,” I told my creative nonfiction students on the last day of class. “Don’t ignore the pain. Don’t act like it isn’t there and try tiptoeing around it. You have to write your way through your own dark woods.”
I recalled the excruciating experience of back labor when giving birth to my son. His head was positioned against my lower spine as opp...
July 29, 2017
First Drafts are Lousy, and That’s Good
The author of today’s re-blog took 20 years away from writing because of how her first drafts turned out…
But, she did come back :-)
Julie, with paintings she made while avoiding first drafts
By Julie Cole
Anne Lamott calls it the “the shitty first draft.” Ann Hood prefers the more delicate phrase, “a beautiful mess.” Whatever your chosen label, it’s that first version of your story or essay, the one James Earl Jones is so eloquently narrating in your head (even th...
July 28, 2017
Friday Story Bazaar ~ Tale Fifty-Four
Break Free…
by
Alexander M Zoltai
~~~~~~~~~
Muzar was carrying his wife, Yaleza, in the glare of explosions, to the refugee spacecraft…
The attackers had arrived suddenly, from the dark side of Bulon’s moon, and devastated eighty percent of the land…
Their children had been killed in the bombings…
Yaleza hadn’t wanted to go—wanted to die on the spot…
Muzar had dragged her from the building and, after she’d passed out, carried her toward the outlawed spaceport.
Muzar laid his wife down near t...
July 27, 2017
The slow-burn writer … What takes literary authors so long?
Regulars will recognize her—newcomers will learn to love her…
Roz Morris, that is—author of today’s Re-blog :-)
You could split the writing blogoverse into two camps. There are those who streak through books, racking up a few releases a year. And there are those who incubate a manuscript for many, many moons. (I’m talking about experienced writers here, not those on the beginning curve.)
This is on my mind after Joanna Penn’s recent podcast interview with Russell Blake, where...
July 26, 2017
Latest News about the #MainStreetWriters Movement
I must begin this post with a “Prologue” something actually hated by some writers…
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If you get bored at any point in this prologue, just scroll down to And, Now The News!
You see, this blog has way more visitors from Google searches than from folks who sign up to Follow it.
And, while I have a natural inclination to “favor” the folks who have opened a space in their digital life that let’s this blog in, I also “favor” folks who just happen to drop by because the words they put in Google se...
July 25, 2017
Confessions of a One-Time Reluctant Reader by Randy Cecil
Two things up front about today’s Re-blog:
It’s ok for adults to like picture books…
and…
This quote from the article:
“I was shocked. I was confused. It had never occurred to me that such a thing could happen in a book. Was that even allowed?”
I was an absolute book fanatic from the start. Or, to be more precise, I was an absolute PICTURE book fanatic. When adults asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always the same: picture book illustrator.
Every week as...
July 24, 2017
O.K., If You *Really* Have to, Go Ahead; Write a Book and Publish It . . .
Image Courtesy of Tracy Olson ~ http://www.freeimages.com/photographer/designkryt-45681
Six years ago, when I’d finished my novel and went through what I’d resolved as the best way to publish (for me…), I was pretty freely telling everyone to write and publish—immediately, if not sooner…
Those six years have seen me do a massive amount of research into the reading, writing, and publishing Scenes—all so I could write this blog…
Before I share four articles that should make most writers think i...
July 23, 2017
Writing as If There Were No Tomorrow
Today’s re-blog is about a writing task every single person should do…
By Marcia Krause Bilyk
After officiating at over two hundred-fifty funeral, memorial, and graveside services, I’ve asked the local funeral director to remove my name from his Rolodex. It’s time to let go of one of my favorite pastoral privileges: meeting with families of the deceased and writing eulogies based on the information and memories they’ve shared. I now intend to reflect on and write abo...
July 22, 2017
7 things you need to know about proofreading
Good re-blog today…
Share it with your writer friends :-)
Today I welcome fellow author, David Powning, who is also an experienced copy-editor & proofreader, to guide us through what we need to know as writers about proofreading. Learn more at: www.inkwrapped.com and find out more about his novel The Ground Will Catch You go to: https://goo.gl/wtkdod (10% of the proceeds goes towards the struggle against breast cancer).
1. Copy-editing and proofreading are not the same t...
July 21, 2017
Friday Story Bazaar ~ Tale Fifty-Three
For the Children
by
Alexander M Zoltai
~~~~~~~~~
We’d travelled to the mountains—found the hidden valley—discovered the training camp…
The sun hadn’t risen yet, but would soon light the valley…
Our film crew was there to do a documentary…
The team had been carefully selected—no one with a record of government involvement…
The documentary was to be about the most fearsome terrorist organization in the world.
They, of course, did their own horrific promotion videos for the Internet; but, my rep...
