Melda Beaty's Blog, page 4

College Personal Statements and You

I invite you to read my guest blog on college personal statements. Click or paste into your browser the link below if you are a parent of a high school senior, teach/counsel high school seniors, or are a high school senior. Feel free to leave your comments.

http://standardedu.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/college-personal-statements-you/

 

 

Online Instruction: Bells & Whistles or Personal Touch?

Click or copy and paste the link below into your browser to read my guest blog on online instruction and technology. Please leave your comments

http://elitewritingconcepts.blogspot.com/2012/10/online-instruction-bells-whistles-or.html

To Help or Not to Help?

From my understanding, karma is an effect from cause. There is good karma and there is not-so good karma. The point is we should always strive to impart good karma so that we receive good karma…effect from cause.

 

Let’s take the verb “helping”  as an example of imparting good karma.If we follow the karma principle, when we help someone, help or some form of its goodness should come back to us. With me so far? So, why am I in a conundrum about helping others when I need help? How do we help others if we are the very ones who need  a helping hand? I’m referring to the process of making your dreams come true. Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur, singer, actor, athlete, dancer, writer, etc.,  your dream is your “ticket” out of your current situation, whatever that may be.  We are just starting out on this path to success and need someone to believe in our dreams and help us to achieve them, so how can we be expected, in our journey, to help someone reach their dreams?

 

This  notion of “to help or not to help” came to me, when a “stranger” posted information about my book on her FB page for her large network of friends. She is also a fairly new author who writes in a genre totally different than my own. She offers a “Sunday Shares” feature on her FB page where she highlights an author, just because. Her payment was to encourage me to…and here’s that word again, help…someone else. I immediately thought to myself, how can I? I’m trying to get the word out about my own book and business.

 

The truth is it doesn’t take much to help someone when you need help. You can offer a word of encouragement, a referral, a tip, be a mentor, give a presentation, or even tell your network about another aspiring artist. It’s quite simple actually and takes absolutely nothing away from your dreams and goals in life. I learned a long time ago that what God has for you is for you. I plan to impart good karma by availing myself to fellow and future writers now in the midst of pursuing my own literary dreams. Who will join me?

 

 

 

Passion or Day Job?

I recently posted this question to my fiction writing group on LinkedIn: What is the reality of becoming a full-time writer and live or should I keep my day job?

The responses were informative, practical, and depressing I was referred to an online article in the May 2012 The Guardian from the United Kingdom. Much like my LinkedIn writing community, the numbers were shocking. Researchers conducted a survey with about 1000 self-published authors (SP) and found that in 2011 the average amount of money earned by SP authors was less than $500/year. They also reported that romantic fiction earned about 170% more than writers of other genres.

My fiction writing community suggested numbers around 4-7% of writers make a living exclusively from writing and only about 2-3% of writers are traditionally published. In a word, they suggested that I keep my day job, because full-time writers must work harder and work their writing profession like a business to be successful and “live.”

Depressing, huh?

Instead of soaking my keyboard with tears, I made myself read further and came across these promising lines. “Money isn’t the primary goal for SP authors…only 5% of SP authors consider themselves ‘unsuccessful.’” Hmm. My mind flashed back to all the years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, I’ve sat at my computer writing, revising, researching, and writing some more, while I maintained a day job. I wrote because it’s my passion. It’s what I know and more importantly what I want to do…more than anything else. I wrote for free. Now don’t get me wrong, I want to be compensated for my writing talents just like I’m compensated for my day job, and in my prayers, I ask that it supports me and my family, just like my day job. However, IF for some reason it doesn’t, am I not successful?

We all have a passion for something. Many of us never pursue it for common human reasons like fear, finances, others, etc., but it is the thing we would do if it were the only thing we could do. If you haven’t discovered yours yet, here are some hints:

It is the thing that makes your heart beat faster when you’re doing it.
While you’re doing it, you look up and realize day has turned into night.
It puts your soul at ease.
Although you would love if everyone appreciated it, you would keep doing it if no one ever found out about it.

I’m not advocating that anyone walk into their job tomorrow and clean out their desk on their own volition, but I am advocating that you/we always consider ourselves successful because we have a passion and it is worth pursuing even if you have to keep your day job.

I would love to know your passion.

 

Tip of the Week: Critical Thinking & Synthesis…

I recently conducted some college writing workshops for a senior summer college prep program in Chicago. The students volunteered for the program, so I applauded their willingness to be proactive in their preparation for college. During my presentation, they answered my questions and even laughed at my clever jokes I stressed the importance of essay writing basics: Introduction/Thesis Statement, Supporting Paragraphs with Transitions, and Conclusion. When I discussed this basic structure coupled with the writing process: Freewriting/Brainstorming, Drafting, Revising, and Final Product, I didn’t get those “deer in a headlight” looks.

 

However, when I asked for definitions of critical thinking and synthesis, you could hear crickets in the room although it was mid-afternoon. Critical thinking is how you think beyond your frame of reference. It is how you prudently question what you read and make sense of it in various contexts. Synthesis is when you can take the relevant views and research of others/text and incorporate it properly into your writing. Students need to know that college English professors expect to see some knowledge of critical thinking and synthesis in their writing assignments. You don’t have to know it all, but be able to demonstrate that you at least understand the importance of thinking critically and the value in the expertise of others.

Happy Writing

Dream Inside

Q: How can you write a book with three children and teach?

A: How can I not?! It’s a dream inside.

It took me seven years from concept to hard copy and now Kindle to complete, Lime. In that time, I had twins…wrote, went through a divorce…wrote some, moved…wrote often, worked…wrote more , traveled…took a break, taught…wrote sporadically, cried, gave-up, cried some more, attended writing conferences, submitted to literary agents, revised, revised, revised, and then got an epiphany.  In 2012, the epiphany was I’m tired of Lime sitting in my USB drive. I’m tired of everyone telling me what else Lime needs. I’m tired of supporting other author’s work and ready for some authors and readers to support my work. 

 

I began writing at nine years old, way before the concept of children ever entered my mind. I loved storytelling before marriage, children, divorce, moving, traveling, teaching, etc. It consumes me. I learn best when life is presented as a narrative and my children and degrees and teaching profession can’t trump that love. I/we are more than just mothers. We are people with gifts, desires, talents, and ambitions and YES we can have it all.

 

My dream inside will ultimately benefit my children, readers, and me, so how can I not write?! How can I not create? How can I not honor my dream inside?  What’s yours?