Roland Yeomans's Blog, page 147
April 6, 2016
F IS FOR TRAUMDEUTUNG?
“Words and magic were in the beginning one and the same thing, and even today words retain much of their magical power.”
- Sigmund Freud
Now looking much younger, Freud tapped the floor with his cane, still holding the unlit cigar in his fingers.
I studied the man who was likewise studying me.
Freud couldn’t cure himself of the very complexes and defense mechanisms he coined.
He claimed anxiety came from the unconscious and so to reveal and analyze led to a cure.
But this depended on a person’s willingness to change
and although Freud exhibited many neuroses he was unable or unwilling to cure himself.
His terms to describe human behavior are used every day
(passive-aggressive, repression, denial, defense mechanisms, ego, the conscious and unconscious)
and many came from his personal experience.
"We are now at F," he said. "What occurs to you at that?"
"Traumdeutung."
Freud closed his eyes as Mark Twain, eavesdropping though still playing poker at a distant table, began to chuckle.
"Roland, yours is the most Byzantine mind I have ever run across."
He tapped his cane harder on the floor. "Traumdeutung means dream interpretation and literally has nothing to do with the letter F."
I shook my head. "But it does."
"Because of your 1899 publication of The Interpretation of Dreams, you became the Founder of a single school of thought.
Rarely does one individual become a founder of something like that."
I nodded my head.
"By 1902, you were hosting weekly discussions at your home in Vienna.
These informal meetings would eventually grow to become the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society."
I nodded firmly, "So F is for you, Freud the Founder of Psychoanalysis."
Freud muttered under his breath, and Mark Twain called out,
"Did I just hear you use the F word, Freud, old chum? I thought Roland was supposed to be doing the free associating?"
- Sigmund Freud
Now looking much younger, Freud tapped the floor with his cane, still holding the unlit cigar in his fingers. I studied the man who was likewise studying me.
Freud couldn’t cure himself of the very complexes and defense mechanisms he coined.
He claimed anxiety came from the unconscious and so to reveal and analyze led to a cure.
But this depended on a person’s willingness to change
and although Freud exhibited many neuroses he was unable or unwilling to cure himself.
His terms to describe human behavior are used every day
(passive-aggressive, repression, denial, defense mechanisms, ego, the conscious and unconscious)
and many came from his personal experience.
"We are now at F," he said. "What occurs to you at that?"
"Traumdeutung."
Freud closed his eyes as Mark Twain, eavesdropping though still playing poker at a distant table, began to chuckle.
"Roland, yours is the most Byzantine mind I have ever run across."
He tapped his cane harder on the floor. "Traumdeutung means dream interpretation and literally has nothing to do with the letter F."
I shook my head. "But it does."
"Because of your 1899 publication of The Interpretation of Dreams, you became the Founder of a single school of thought.
Rarely does one individual become a founder of something like that."
I nodded my head.
"By 1902, you were hosting weekly discussions at your home in Vienna.
These informal meetings would eventually grow to become the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society."
I nodded firmly, "So F is for you, Freud the Founder of Psychoanalysis."
Freud muttered under his breath, and Mark Twain called out,
"Did I just hear you use the F word, Freud, old chum? I thought Roland was supposed to be doing the free associating?"
April 5, 2016
E IS FOR EASY MONEY? and IWSG by the ghost of MARK TWAIN
“The creative writer does the same as the child at play; he creates a world of fantasy which he takes very seriously.”
- Sigmund Freud
The ghost of Mark Twain had flitted away to play poker with Oscar Wilde and Eudora Welty.
All three cheated terribly, but they played for the conversation not the money.
After all, being ghosts, where would they spend it?
I wondered why Freud was so intent on this Free Association with me.
Jung thought Freud analyzed others to avoid his own problems.
Jung once demanded of him: “Who has the neurosis?”
Freud’s daughter, Anna, agreed,
noting that the very act of being a psychotherapist is a defense from your own neuroses.
Now, fully white in both hair and beard, Freud sighed,
"Finally, perhaps we can get some serious exploring done in your unconscious."
He adjusted his glasses more firmly on his nose.
"We are at E. What occurs to you immediately upon hearing that letter?"
"Easy Money," I smiled.
Freud fought a grimace. "Even though he is not here, Twain is still contaminating the process."
"I mean it. I thought of Easy Money."
"And why do you believe you thought of that phrase, Roland?"
"By 1925, your fame had spread so widely that movie producer Samuel Goldwyn offered you, whom he called the 'greatest love specialist in the world,'
$100,000 to write or consult on a film script about 'the great love stories of history.'"
I shook my head in wonder.
"Yet, in spite of that eye-popping offer, you turned it down as you did a $25,000 offer the year before from the publisher of the Chicago Tribune
to psychoanalyze the famed criminals Leopold and Loeb as they awaited their sensational murder trial"
I scratched my chin. "Why did you turn them both down?"
Freud smiled sadly. "Because there is nothing easy to Easy Money, Roland."
Ghost of Mark Twain here to spell the boy for IWSG:
"I haven’t any right to criticize books, and I don’t do it except when I hate them."
- Mark Twain
Ghost of Mark Twain here:
I try not to criticize that Stephanie Meyer gal to Roland, but her books madden me so that I cannot conceal my frenzy from him.
I have to stop every time I begin.
Every time I read any of those Twilight/Good Night books, I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.
Then, I realize that gal ain't dead yet. Maybe I can convince the ghost of Lovecraft to fix that for me, don't you know?
I just flat couldn't finish any of those DEAD books by that filly Charlaine Harris. If she would listen, I would tell her that a successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.
Not that any woman no how ever listened to me when I was talking sense.
That her books sell don't necessarily make them good.
The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail.
The trouble with most fiction of today is that you want them all to land in hell together, as quickly as possible.
I know you friends of Roland are more open to listening than those two fillies, so I have a few hints at how to write yourselves a good novel --
1.) Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.
2.) And while we are on the topic of editing -- NEVER POLISH THE FIRST CHAPTER UNTIL THE LAST ONE IS WRITTEN.
3.) A novel is like a young'un -- it grows in ways you never planned. Just type it out chapter by chapter, letting the growing pains take you where they will.
4.) A novel is like life -- things happen, new ideas suggest themselves, and intriguing possiblities arise. Throw them into the soil of your novel, you will be surprised at what the harvest will be.
5.) A novel to be novel must be novel. Don't have the dog wag his tail. Have his tail wag him.
6.) A novel is a dog house --
So is your house going to hold a small, a medium, a lagre dog -- or just for the husband when he is thrown out by his wife?
The size of the "dog" will dictate how you go about structuring your "house" (novel).
7.) Plots are limited. Characters are limitless. So always begin with the characters.
Your novel will shine, not by what you have going on in it, but by the breath you breathe into your characters.
8.) The characters you develop depend on who you are. Hemingway was Hemingway. Shakespeare was everybody else.
Remember:
A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions:
1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
- Sigmund Freud
The ghost of Mark Twain had flitted away to play poker with Oscar Wilde and Eudora Welty.
All three cheated terribly, but they played for the conversation not the money.
After all, being ghosts, where would they spend it?
I wondered why Freud was so intent on this Free Association with me.
Jung thought Freud analyzed others to avoid his own problems.
Jung once demanded of him: “Who has the neurosis?”
Freud’s daughter, Anna, agreed,
noting that the very act of being a psychotherapist is a defense from your own neuroses.
Now, fully white in both hair and beard, Freud sighed,
"Finally, perhaps we can get some serious exploring done in your unconscious."
He adjusted his glasses more firmly on his nose.
"We are at E. What occurs to you immediately upon hearing that letter?"
"Easy Money," I smiled.
Freud fought a grimace. "Even though he is not here, Twain is still contaminating the process."
"I mean it. I thought of Easy Money."
"And why do you believe you thought of that phrase, Roland?"
"By 1925, your fame had spread so widely that movie producer Samuel Goldwyn offered you, whom he called the 'greatest love specialist in the world,'
$100,000 to write or consult on a film script about 'the great love stories of history.'"
I shook my head in wonder.
"Yet, in spite of that eye-popping offer, you turned it down as you did a $25,000 offer the year before from the publisher of the Chicago Tribune
to psychoanalyze the famed criminals Leopold and Loeb as they awaited their sensational murder trial"
I scratched my chin. "Why did you turn them both down?"
Freud smiled sadly. "Because there is nothing easy to Easy Money, Roland."
Ghost of Mark Twain here to spell the boy for IWSG:
"I haven’t any right to criticize books, and I don’t do it except when I hate them."
- Mark Twain
Ghost of Mark Twain here:
I try not to criticize that Stephanie Meyer gal to Roland, but her books madden me so that I cannot conceal my frenzy from him.
I have to stop every time I begin.
Every time I read any of those Twilight/Good Night books, I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.
Then, I realize that gal ain't dead yet. Maybe I can convince the ghost of Lovecraft to fix that for me, don't you know?
I just flat couldn't finish any of those DEAD books by that filly Charlaine Harris. If she would listen, I would tell her that a successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.
Not that any woman no how ever listened to me when I was talking sense.
That her books sell don't necessarily make them good.
The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail.
The trouble with most fiction of today is that you want them all to land in hell together, as quickly as possible.
I know you friends of Roland are more open to listening than those two fillies, so I have a few hints at how to write yourselves a good novel --
1.) Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.
2.) And while we are on the topic of editing -- NEVER POLISH THE FIRST CHAPTER UNTIL THE LAST ONE IS WRITTEN.
3.) A novel is like a young'un -- it grows in ways you never planned. Just type it out chapter by chapter, letting the growing pains take you where they will.
4.) A novel is like life -- things happen, new ideas suggest themselves, and intriguing possiblities arise. Throw them into the soil of your novel, you will be surprised at what the harvest will be.
5.) A novel to be novel must be novel. Don't have the dog wag his tail. Have his tail wag him.
6.) A novel is a dog house --
So is your house going to hold a small, a medium, a lagre dog -- or just for the husband when he is thrown out by his wife?
The size of the "dog" will dictate how you go about structuring your "house" (novel).
7.) Plots are limited. Characters are limitless. So always begin with the characters.
Your novel will shine, not by what you have going on in it, but by the breath you breathe into your characters.
8.) The characters you develop depend on who you are. Hemingway was Hemingway. Shakespeare was everybody else.
Remember:
A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions:
1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
E IS FOR EASY MONEY?
“The creative writer does the same as the child at play; he creates a world of fantasy which he takes very seriously.”
- Sigmund Freud
The ghost of Mark Twain had flitted away to play poker with Oscar Wilde and Eudora Welty.
All three cheated terribly, but they played for the conversation not the money.
After all, being ghosts, where would they spend it?
I wondered why Freud was so intent on this Free Association with me.
Jung thought Freud analyzed others to avoid his own problems.
Jung once demanded of him: “Who has the neurosis?”
Freud’s daughter, Anna, agreed,
noting that the very act of being a psychotherapist is a defense from your own neuroses.
Now, fully white in both hair and beard, Freud sighed,
"Finally, perhaps we can get some serious exploring done in your unconscious."
He adjusted his glasses more firmly on his nose.
"We are at E. What occurs to you immediately upon hearing that letter?"
"Easy Money," I smiled.
Freud fought a grimace. "Even though he is not here, Twain is still contaminating the process."
"I mean it. I thought of Easy Money."
"And why do you believe you thought of that phrase, Roland?"
"By 1925, your fame had spread so widely that movie producer Samuel Goldwyn offered you, whom he called the 'greatest love specialist in the world,'
$100,000 to write or consult on a film script about 'the great love stories of history.'"
I shook my head in wonder.
"Yet, in spite of that eye-popping offer, you turned it down as you did a $25,000 offer the year before from the publisher of the Chicago Tribune
to psychoanalyze the famed criminals Leopold and Loeb as they awaited their sensational murder trial"
I scratched my chin. "Why did you turn them both down?"
Freud smiled sadly. "Because there is nothing easy to Easy Money, Roland."
- Sigmund Freud
The ghost of Mark Twain had flitted away to play poker with Oscar Wilde and Eudora Welty.
All three cheated terribly, but they played for the conversation not the money.
After all, being ghosts, where would they spend it?
I wondered why Freud was so intent on this Free Association with me.
Jung thought Freud analyzed others to avoid his own problems.
Jung once demanded of him: “Who has the neurosis?”
Freud’s daughter, Anna, agreed,
noting that the very act of being a psychotherapist is a defense from your own neuroses.
Now, fully white in both hair and beard, Freud sighed,
"Finally, perhaps we can get some serious exploring done in your unconscious."
He adjusted his glasses more firmly on his nose.
"We are at E. What occurs to you immediately upon hearing that letter?"
"Easy Money," I smiled.
Freud fought a grimace. "Even though he is not here, Twain is still contaminating the process."
"I mean it. I thought of Easy Money."
"And why do you believe you thought of that phrase, Roland?"
"By 1925, your fame had spread so widely that movie producer Samuel Goldwyn offered you, whom he called the 'greatest love specialist in the world,'
$100,000 to write or consult on a film script about 'the great love stories of history.'"
I shook my head in wonder.
"Yet, in spite of that eye-popping offer, you turned it down as you did a $25,000 offer the year before from the publisher of the Chicago Tribune
to psychoanalyze the famed criminals Leopold and Loeb as they awaited their sensational murder trial"
I scratched my chin. "Why did you turn them both down?"
Freud smiled sadly. "Because there is nothing easy to Easy Money, Roland."
April 4, 2016
D IS FOR?
“In the depths of my heart I can’t help but be convinced that my dear fellow-men, with a few exceptions, are worthless.”- Sigmund Freud
Laughing as tears rolled down his cheeks, the ghost of Mark Twain sat down beside me again.
"It was as delightful as watching a train wreck listening to you as old Coke Head's eyes got bigger and bigger."
Freud said, "Would you stop calling me that!"
Stone-faced, he turned to me. "We are at D, young sir."
Twain chuckled,
"As in your book, Interpretation of Dreams -- you know the one you considered your 'most significant work.'
It produced little fanfare when it was published in 1899. Only 351 copies of “The Interpretation of Dreams” were sold in its first six years,
and a second edition was not published until 1909."
Mark Twain took a deep drag on his cigar and blew the smoke in Freud's face. "You know, that book?"
I knew that Twain felt Freud a fraud, for the man borrowed the "talking cure" from the physician named Josef Breuer
who was treating a woman named Bertha Pappenheim for a number of ailments.
It was she who coined the term "talking cure" for the therapy she was receiving from Dr. Breuer.
Worse to Mark, Freud had taken the concept of "Free Association" from a writer of all people!
"The Art of Becoming an Original Writer in Three Days" by Ludwig Börne.
In it, Börne suggested that a good way to generate ideas was
to concentrate on various topics, and over the next three days write down anything that came to mind.
Freud had read the essay while a young student.
But why was Mark being so contrary right now?
The answer hit me, and I smiled, "Defense by Distraction."
He was defending me as I had defended him.
Freud glowered at Twain. "This exercise is for Roland's benefit."
Mark chuckled, "You wouldn't be so quick to say that if you had been on Roland's side of your eyes a minute ago!"
April 3, 2016
C IS FOR COCAINE, OR IS THAT CIGAR, OR IS THAT CANCER?
“I have found little that is 'good' about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all.”
- Sigmund Freud
Freud stroked his chin beard. "Young man, I asked you -- what is the first thing you think when I say C?"
"Cancer" I said quickly and went cold.
The word seemed to hang in the air in glowing neon.
Man, he suffered with 34 operations over long years struggling with that disease.
"Ah, no! I meant cigars," I sputtered in a panic, immediately making things worse.
I groaned inwardly.
He had tried to quit to stave off cancer but never could despite his knowledge of psychology.
He had quit for over a year but finally went back to it full time.
My mind groped blindly for something else to say. "I mean cocaine."
Ever have one of those times when the more you tried digging your way out of a hole, you only dug yourself in deeper?
Freud loved cocaine so much that he discussed it openly with his fiancé, and performed experiments centered on cocaine with himself as the subject.
It took long, painful months to wean himself off it.
Freud pursed his lips.
"You are a veritable walking parapraxis, young man.
You resent what you perceive as my disapproval of your idol and so your unconscious lashes out at me in what you believe will hurt me."
I sighed,
"Perhaps, I wanted so badly NOT to hurt you with those C words, they were the only things that leapt out at me."
Freud gave me an Apache face and said, “Where id is, there shall ego be.”
He cocked his head at me expectantly. "Shall we proceed to D?"
- Sigmund Freud
Freud stroked his chin beard. "Young man, I asked you -- what is the first thing you think when I say C?"
"Cancer" I said quickly and went cold.
The word seemed to hang in the air in glowing neon.
Man, he suffered with 34 operations over long years struggling with that disease.
"Ah, no! I meant cigars," I sputtered in a panic, immediately making things worse.
I groaned inwardly.
He had tried to quit to stave off cancer but never could despite his knowledge of psychology.
He had quit for over a year but finally went back to it full time.
My mind groped blindly for something else to say. "I mean cocaine."
Ever have one of those times when the more you tried digging your way out of a hole, you only dug yourself in deeper?
Freud loved cocaine so much that he discussed it openly with his fiancé, and performed experiments centered on cocaine with himself as the subject.
It took long, painful months to wean himself off it.
Freud pursed his lips.
"You are a veritable walking parapraxis, young man.
You resent what you perceive as my disapproval of your idol and so your unconscious lashes out at me in what you believe will hurt me."
I sighed,
"Perhaps, I wanted so badly NOT to hurt you with those C words, they were the only things that leapt out at me."
Freud gave me an Apache face and said, “Where id is, there shall ego be.”
He cocked his head at me expectantly. "Shall we proceed to D?"
April 1, 2016
B IS FOR BOXES?
“No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.” - Sigmund Freud
The ghost of Mark Twain had wandered off in search of pretty young girls with innocent, trusting eyes.
I looked back to the ghost of Freud.
He looked younger. Meilori's was like that.
Few ghosts remained the same during a conversation with them.
His lips wrinkled as if expecting trouble. "All right, young man, what first enters your mind when I say B?"
"Boxes," I said.
He glared at the retreating form of Mark Twain.
"No wonder he left. He was afraid I would upbraid him for contaminating this exercise!"
"It's more like braids than upbraids, sir. He's after Alice Liddell over there."
Freud sighed, "The man's obsession with his Angel Fish Club saddens me."
"I know it might strike you as a perversion, sir. But it isn't.
Towards the end of his life, he suffered quite a lot of loss. In 1896 his favorite daughter, Susy, died.
His wife passed away in 1904 and a second daughter, Jean, followed in 1909."
I looked sadly at Twain making Alice Liddell giggle.
"So he created a club of sorts made up of surrogate granddaughters he called the Angel Fish Club."
Mark Twain and Dorothy Quick Freud glowered, "You are naïve."
"I choose to think of it as believing the best of a friend."
Freud snorted as if to blow away irritating gnats.
"What is this nonsense of you thinking Boxes when I say B?"
I said, "You left the Library of Congress 153 boxes of your correspondence. Of those, 19 boxes can’t be opened until 2020, 2050 or 2057.
Another 8 boxes are sealed forever. Why would you give them boxes that could not be opened? And why on earth would they accept them?"
Freud showed me his teeth in what wasn't in the same galaxy as a real smile. "Why indeed?"
He showed me a mortician's face. "Shall we proceed to C?"
March 31, 2016
A IS FOR ... ELIZABETH SECKMAN?
“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful, and out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”- Sigmund Freud
The hiss of the palm tree leaves above me was like the rasp of claws in desert sands.
Meilori's had been quiet this evening: only three exsanguinations and one disappearance.
I sat at my table and muttered, "Twenty-six days. What am I going to write about?"
The ghost of Sigmund Freud sat down opposite me.
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”
I felt in danger of a nosebleed but then the light slowly dawned.
"Oh, you mean I had the freedom to accept or decline the A to Z Challenge, but now that I've accepted it, it is my responsibility to keep my word."
He toyed with the cigar he never smoked. "Is that what I meant?"
The ghost of Mark Twain sat down beside me and chuckled,
"Don't mind the old Coke head. He is constitutionally unable to give a straight answer."
Freud paid Twain all the attention which he felt the author was worthy ... which was none at all
as Freud said, "Why not write your posts using Free Association?"
He tapped his bearded chin with his cigar. "What do you first think of when I say the letter A?"
"Elizabeth Seckman," I said.
Freud looked at Twain. "You are a bad influence on the young man. He is jesting with me."
"No, I'm not," I said.
"A made me think of April Fool's Day, and April 1st is the next stop on my "Don't You Hate Book Tours?" Book Tour -- which is Elizabeth Seckman's blog:
http://eseckman.blogspot.com/
Freud sighed, "I can see this is going to be a very long alphabet."
NOTE:
Stop over and find a free "SIX STRINGS: BLOGGING AtoZ CHALLENGE" I think I might even be in it. Here: http://www.jmhdigital.com/
March 30, 2016
HOW TO GET YOUR BOOK NOTICED
{Cover courtesy of the genius of Heather McCorkle}http://www.amazon.com/The-Not-So-Innocents-Abroad-Roland-Yeomans/dp/1530302722/
Buy the paperback andGive to the "HELP ROLAND REPAIR HIS CAR" FUND!
Consciousness seeped back painfully into my dull mind. Where was I? How had I gotten here? And just where was here? I opened my heavy eyelids. Merde. I swayed slightly as I hung by my wrists linked to a silver chain strung from the ceiling. My nose wrinkled from the stench of sulfuric acid. The interior swimming pool beneath me was filled with it. The diffused sunlight from the shaded windows cast weird reflections on the marble walls from the lethal surface of the rippling acid beneath me. My wrists were handcuffed with silver cuffs. I smiled bitterly. Someone didn’t know exactly what I was. That someone spoke gruffly, “The great McCord finally helpless. I have lived to see it.” I studied the portly man in elegant evening clothes sitting in a white wicker chair beneath me. The chair was far enough away from the pool’s edge that me dropping in would not splash acid upon him. He sipped fine brandy and studied me back. I may not drink the stuff, but I knew President Ulysses S. Grant would not drink any brandy but the best.
You can write the most beautiful novel ever crafted ... but it will die if you cannot draw internet attention to it.
Most self-published books sell fewer than 100 or 150 copies.
GETTING YOUR eBOOK NOTICED IS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT SELLING YOUR BOOK.
I. HOW DO YOU GET THAT ATTENTION?
1.) Book cover
You can choose a proper image for the book cover that will draw attention to your eBook.
a.) You need to choose the proper thumbnail with a theme that reflects the contents of your
eBook.
b.) Many readers will be drawn to the book cover long before
reading the description and the reviews.
c.) It helps if you have a book cover that instantly draws attention.
d.) Look at the image for THE NOT-SO-INNOCENTS ABROAD
2.) Pricing
a.) it should neither be too cheap or too expensive
b.) People value what costs them and hold to be inferior what they got cheaply.
3.) TITLE
a.) Pick your title BEFORE you begin (you'll be with your novel for weeks so have a title that inspires you!
b.) It's a marriage - LOVE YOUR TITLE
C.) What a great title does:
1.) Captures your audience’s attention
2.) It communicates what your e-book is about
3,) If it’s your style, it should include a little bit of a “What the Heck?” factor:
Titles tell your audience a little something about you.
Look at these three sets of words:
Epic; Awesome. Remarkable; Brilliant. Elegant; Erudite Each pair of words has a unique flavor. You can almost begin to see the people that would use them in a title or a headline.
Which means that the words in your e-book title need to reflect your style.
D.) WHO'S AN OXYMORON?~!
i.) EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE was a great title to an older book because it linked two
opposites.
ii.) Startle your reader and snare his attention.
4.) YOUR BOOK DESCRIPTION
a.) Most people skim the content.
1.) You’re also one of them (okay, including me)
2.) This is where you need to write creatively
3.) Use short paragraphs
4.) Use short sentences like this.
b.) Divide your content into three blocks
1.) Introduction (first two to three lines or really important. Tell them a story,
make them scary, make them laugh, do anything but don’t make them bored.
They must read your first two lines.
2.) Middle of the content (this is where your actual MEAT of the content comes in)
3.) Ending (end with either a surprise twist or question.)
II. HERE BE MONSTERS
A.) It is the Old West once again.
B.) Remember the Klondike Gold Madness (well not from actual memory, of course -- unless you're Sam McCord!)
C.) Wild-eyed dreamers would race to Alaska where they would fall victim to prospectors
selling fake maps to sure gold mines.
D.) There are no GUARANTEED WAYS TO SUCCEED or
CERTAIN STEPS TO
RICHES WITH YOUR EBOOK.
E.) Once again, just write what you love, what fills your imagination with magic and delight.
March 29, 2016
DEDICATION IS NOT JUST FOUND AT THE FRONT OF YOUR BOOK
DEDICATION MUST BE FOUND ALL THROUGH YOUR BOOK.
Many of our noted writers were journalists.
The two most famous:
Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway.
When the bullets are flying and the forest fire blazing, your editor does not have time to wait for your muse to become inspired.
You could equate journalism with blogging since it is a form of digital journalism:
We have to be concise, engaging, and convey the most information using the fewest wordspossible.
BUT IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR STORY …
Your novel is going nowhere.
It will be buried under “wonderful moments” that tug at the heart and stalls your story.
What is the story of LOTR?
Is it Frodo throwing the Ring into the river of fire in Modor, or is it Frodo finding Frodo?
What is the story of GONE WITH THE WIND?
Is it Scarlett hopelessly chasing Ashely Wilkes or vainly trying to retrieve the vanished South she loved?
LEARN TO SEE WHAT IS AROUND YOU.
Take the first face you see in the next crowd. Describe it in ways that would draw in a reader and accurately display what your eyes see.
What follows each major scene in your novel? If it does not turn the reader’s expectation upside down, you’re going to bore her.
DRAW YOUR READER INTO YOUR NOVEL BY MAKING THEM PART OF IT.
How to do that?
Give them a character to root for, to relate to. All humans bleed, hope, have their hearts broken.
Have your heroine suffer those universal blows.
Better yet have your antagonist suffer them as well.
BE A DO-ER NOT A DREAMER.
Write every day. Even if it is only a paragraph. Write every day.
Make a Bonzai tree out of your novel.
If you write 5 pages in the morning, refine them to 3 in the evening.
SAY IT IN QUALITY NOT QUANTITY.
Forget volume. Focus on value.
Have you ever read a novel and groaned, "Just get to the point!"
Don't do that to your reader.
Raymond Chandler once wrote: "She gave him a look that jutted four inches out of his back."
Short. Punchy. Funny.
It made me want to read on.
I hope that this helped in some small way.
Many of our noted writers were journalists.The two most famous:
Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway.
When the bullets are flying and the forest fire blazing, your editor does not have time to wait for your muse to become inspired.
You could equate journalism with blogging since it is a form of digital journalism:
We have to be concise, engaging, and convey the most information using the fewest wordspossible.
BUT IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR STORY …
Your novel is going nowhere.
It will be buried under “wonderful moments” that tug at the heart and stalls your story.
What is the story of LOTR?
Is it Frodo throwing the Ring into the river of fire in Modor, or is it Frodo finding Frodo?
What is the story of GONE WITH THE WIND?
Is it Scarlett hopelessly chasing Ashely Wilkes or vainly trying to retrieve the vanished South she loved?
LEARN TO SEE WHAT IS AROUND YOU.
Take the first face you see in the next crowd. Describe it in ways that would draw in a reader and accurately display what your eyes see.
What follows each major scene in your novel? If it does not turn the reader’s expectation upside down, you’re going to bore her.
DRAW YOUR READER INTO YOUR NOVEL BY MAKING THEM PART OF IT.
How to do that?
Give them a character to root for, to relate to. All humans bleed, hope, have their hearts broken.
Have your heroine suffer those universal blows.
Better yet have your antagonist suffer them as well.
BE A DO-ER NOT A DREAMER.
Write every day. Even if it is only a paragraph. Write every day.
Make a Bonzai tree out of your novel.
If you write 5 pages in the morning, refine them to 3 in the evening.
SAY IT IN QUALITY NOT QUANTITY.
Forget volume. Focus on value.
Have you ever read a novel and groaned, "Just get to the point!"
Don't do that to your reader.
Raymond Chandler once wrote: "She gave him a look that jutted four inches out of his back."
Short. Punchy. Funny.
It made me want to read on.
I hope that this helped in some small way.
WEDNESDAY'S CHILD in THE THING THAT TURNED ME ANTHOLOGY
This May 31st a stellar array of authors can be found in one anthology:S. Katherine Anthony
Imani Allen
Michelle Athy
Madalyn Beck
Diane Carlisle
Alex J. Cavanaugh
Crystal Collier
Cathrina Constantine
Michael Di Gesu
Tonja Drecker
Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
Sherry Ellis
Elise Fallson
Heather M. Gardner
Samantha Redstreake Geary
Misha Gerrick
Krystal Hillsman
Celeste Holloway
Harper L. Jameson
Randi Lee
Terrance Dwayne Mack
K.D. Martin
Tyrean Martinson
Melissa Maygrove
Nana Prah
Christine Rains
Melanie Schulz
Elizabeth Seckman
Tara Tyler
Jenny Vyas
Michelle Wallace
L. Diane Wolfe
Roland Yeomans
HEY! Who let me crash that party?
My Story?
DON'T FORGET MY GUEST POST ON ELIZABETH CRAIG'S ICONIC BLOG: http://elizabethspanncraig.com/blog/
