Karen GoatKeeper's Blog, page 20

Writing My Haikus

Every school English class seems to have a section on poetry. The teacher talks about rhyme and meter. Then students read poems. And hate it.
Even worse are the free verse poems. Students struggle through these.
Then comes the dreaded assignment: Write your own poem.
One year my English teacher introduced a different kind of poem – the haiku. This was challenging and interesting. Even better: it was short.
A traditional haiku has three lines. The first and third have five syllables. The second has seven syllables.
The first two lines are often used to set up a picture, a mood, a happening. The last line is at odds with the first two.
The lines often speak of a season. Nature is a popular subject.
Walking my Ozark hills often evokes a mood or feeling or something happens. Putting this into an haiku becomes a mental challenge. Words must be chosen carefully to not only create the situation, but stay within the required number of syllables. The words must dig deep into the feeling or mood of the time.
“My Ozark Home” has haikus to go with each of the almost one hundred photographs. Do all of them live up to an ideal haiku? Probably not.
What I can say is that I tried.

Sample pages of “My Ozark Home” can be viewed on my website. The book will be available in print or as a pdf July 7.

Locked Into Page Size

Novels are easy to self publish. There are many companies to choose from.
Books filled with photographs are different. Digital publishing doesn't do well with these. Commercially these are done with offset printing. Private, expensive offset printing leaves the author with boxes of books to store.
My nonfiction books are filled with photographs. Offset printing is not an option for several reasons. I print them on my home printer which produces an acceptable copy.
As my new nonfiction book, "My Ozark Home," nears completion, I started thinking about using a size other than letter size for the book. Commercial books come in several sizes. I went hunting for paper in different sizes.
Special photography paper comes in different sizes. Copier paper comes in two sizes: letter and legal. It comes in various colors, but only two sizes.
As I formatted "My Ozark Home" for 7 x 10 pages, I will now reformat the pages for letter size. This is not a disaster, only a snag.
Now, if only the day lilies would bloom for that last picture. The brush cutter is coming someday in the not too distant future. That would be a disaster.

Writing Fan Fiction

Everyone’s seen a movie or read a book with an ending that grates, one not the one wanted or expected. If you write out the ending you want, you are writing fan fiction.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to kill Sherlock Holmes off. There was such a wave of protest, he brought the detective back to life. Even though he is long gone, new Holmes stories keep appearing. All of these are fan fiction.
There are countless examples of fan fiction. With the advent of the internet, hundreds of writers are busy writing stories for their favorite characters.
I’d never thought much about fan fiction. I do fantasize new endings from time to time. I prefer to write my own stories.
A young friend recommended a book to me. She has good taste in books, so I checked the book out.
“Fangirl” is about Cather, a girl starting her freshman year at college and an avid writer of fan fiction. Her fiction centers on two characters from a fictional series with the final book due out the next year. She has an outline, an idea, a plotline, all the things a regular writer would have. She has a deadline: the release date, the culmination of two years of writing.
Much of the book does center on college freshman problems. The parts on fan fiction explain what it is, how it works and the challenges it gives to a girl who loves to write, but is afraid she can’t create her own characters and settings.
This is one problem with fan fiction. It is based on someone else’s characters and settings. That author has the last word about these. This author can destroy whole reams of fan fiction with a single scene. And the fan fiction writers can do nothing about it.
Another problem is not being able to publish the results of writing these stories. Fan fiction, according to the novel, is only legit if the author of it does not sell it. Fan fiction novels can only be published if the author or estate gives permission.
Why write fan fiction?
Cather wrote her story because she loved the characters and wanted to create her own story revolving around them. She wrote her story because she felt safe using a known set of characters and setting. She loved to write and this gave her a chance to write and have other people read and comment on her work letting her improve her writing and find her voice all within this safe setting.
Cather’s English professor didn’t like fan fiction. In her opinion concentrating on fan fiction writing kept Cather from developing her own stories.
Lots of people find writing fan fiction rewarding. They don’t want to write their own stories except in the given framework.
For myself, I am glad to have a better understanding of fan fiction. I will continue to create my own stories.

Writing the Ending

Life has a way of throwing a writing schedule off track. My goats have discovered a break in the fence. This lets them wander down the road and into the yard.
My next day home will be spent putting up fence as the break is not fixable. The road crew opened up the ditch so flood water goes down to the creek through what used to be a fence.
I was planning to finish Mistaken Promises that day. The end is so close, a mere 4000 words away.
At this point I know what is going to happen, mostly. There always seems to be wiggle room. characters say or do something unexpected.
Still, the ending is there, a few words away.
And that is the problem.
Normally I can easily add a thousand words to the draft in a couple of hours. Now I struggle to add five hundred words.
This isn’t an attack of the “This is stupid” demon. No, it’s impatience. The ending requires solid set up. And my mind is on the ending, not the lead up to the ending.
Why not write the ending, then fill in the other?
Those pesky characters will undermine the ending with some remark.
So I will soldier on. I’m to the closing day, even to noon with the climax looming in only a few hours. The characters involved now must have reason and opportunity to arrive at the point of interaction at the same time.
This will take finesse. After all, the county fair is in full swing and all three are participating in the fair in one way or another.

Finding My Brand

I love to write. I wrote long before I considered self publishing or seriously writing a book.
Circumstances change. Now I want to sell my books. That means learning how to market them. That means finding out what my brand is.
There’s lots of advice on the internet on finding your brand. I peruse it whenever I find a few minutes extra. And walk away frustrated.
My writers group has a person doing a series on marketing for us. She talked about branding, finding and creating our brand. I listen. And walk away frustrated.
As near as I can understand, my books create my brand. I need to analyze the main themes in my books, their main genres and build my brand around this. So I take a look at my present nine books and three definitely scheduled for release this fall.
What are their main themes?
Four of them are in the upper middle grade to young adult age range. All of these seem to have some aspect of bullying in them. All have the characters making difficult life choices on the road to becoming adults.
That leaves me with Broken Promises, Old Promises, Edwina and Running the Roads needing a brand reflecting coming of age and bullying. One of this year’s books, Mistaken Promises, will fit into this as well.
Great! I have a brand to develop.
Not so fast. There are five more books. Will they fit?
Capri Capers and Dora’s Story are goat novels. Goat Games is a nonfiction goat book. There is a bullying aspect and a coming of age aspect to parts of Dora’s Story. Capri Capers is a soft thriller, an old time melodrama with villains and heroes.
These three are definitely about goats. They include lots of information about raising goats. The novels weren’t supposed to be so strongly goat oriented, but are anyway.
They do not really fit into the bullying and coming of age brand.
Pumpkin Project and Exploring the Ozark Hills are definitely not in the bullying, coming of age branding. The one is a science book. The other is a nature essay and photograph book.
So, what is my brand? Or must I create more than one?
Then there are the other two books for release this fall. The first book of The Carduan Chronicles is 1) science fiction; 2) reality and survival; and 3) Ozarks nature. In addition the characters are facing grief issues and coming of age issues.
My Ozarks Home is 1) Ozarks nature; 2) memoir; and 3) poetry. That leaves me with three books about Ozarks nature. Two of them totally miss the novel branding.
There is one more aspect of this branding to consider. Me. Who I am.
I tried to grow up and do not want to be a teenager again. Once was enough. Nor do I want to pretend. The issues still matter to me because I was bullied and dealt with it as a teacher. I still bear the scars.
My goats are my family. Barnyard is not good branding. Barnyards, except in the cleaned up, antiseptic, idealized form, are smelly, dirty, often muddy places. Clothes I wear in the barnyard are ones that go no where other than the barn or people start wrinkling their city noses. And, no, it does not wash out.
That leaves me with the Ozark Hills. I can live with this for branding.
Except I want to sell some of my other books too. And I walk away frustrated.

Concise Writing

School writing assignments are often given a length, a page, two pages, a paragraph. This is the opposite of concise writing.
The objective is length by any means possible. Add extra words. Add extra short sentences. Write bigger. Add more adjectives and adverbs.
The result of such writing is a mish mash burying the topic under muddy wordage.
Serious authors need to abandon this habit. Breaking habits is hard. The cost of not breaking this one is losing your readers and poor reviews.
Where does the writer start?
Pick a topic and write an essay about it. This can be a mere 500 words although a thousand is nice.
Read it carefully making notes of how many times words such as the, and, but, that appear. Delete these and read the piece again adding back only the ones needed to clarify the writing.
Now look at the word count. Calculate ten percent. Rewrite your piece reducing the original word count by that many words or more while retaining all of the original information.
When I began doing this, I had to cut my pieces from 1000 words to 500 words. This taught me to write concisely, but was really hard to do at first.
Now I am doing the exact opposite as I muddle my way through the draft of Mistaken Promises. It will get even worse in the next draft as elements from the series get included such as the learning to live in the country and cooking.
Ultimately I will return to the goal of writing concisely and ruthlessly edit the draft into a publishable book. Not just a publishable book as the sloppy versions can be published, but a readable book, one I would love to read and am proud to offer to others.

Series Considerations

So many authors now write series. I must plead guilty to doing so too. As a reader, I find this annoying. As a writer, series have advantages.
My reading is very eclectic. My reading time is restricted due to many other obligations. Often, if I read the first of a series, even if I like the series, I will never get to the second or third book.
Another problem with reading a series is where to start. Many series books do have a separate plot line and can be read separately. Yet the characters continue and develop from one book to the next leaving some things in the book confusing or, worse, described in boring detail.
Other series must be read in order. I like used book sales and get many books that way. I find one that sounds interesting, buy it, start to read it and find I must track down previous books in the series to know what is going on. And the plot ends hanging so the next book must be found to find out what happens. I now bypass such books.
Writing a series lets an author develop characters over time, adding and changing relationships, having the characters grow up and age. The settings are familiar offering plot opportunities and easy development. Most importantly, in this time of trying to find and retain a group of readers to buy, read and review books, a series builds that loyal audience.
Problems do come up writing a series. As Mistaken Promises takes shape, I find I have forgotten to introduce the characters well or describe the settings. This is the third in the series and the second set in Crooked Creek. I’m familiar with the characters and setting. I forget readers may not be.
As I reviewed the beginning of the draft, I began adding descriptions. Cooking is part of the series too, so this is being worked in properly.
Once the draft is finished, descriptions will be a big part of rewriting and editing.
Then I face the next problem with writing a series. I like Hazel. The setting and story have lots of plot ideas in them. The question is whether or not I wish to pursue them or move on to other ideas.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got tired of Sherlock Holmes and killed him off. His readers were outraged. He had to resurrect Holmes.
Maybe Hazel will gain such a following someday. Then I know I will pursue some of those story ideas.

Dealing With Bullying

I raise dairy goats and chickens. Both have pecking orders. This makes sense for them in terms of their wild ancestry.
Living wild is a matter of finding and keeping enough food to survive. Sharing is a ticket to starvation. Bullying, being high on the pecking order, is the means used.
People are hardwired for bullying. Except we no longer need to bully others to have enough to eat or survive in much of the world. The consequences of allowing bullying are now higher than the rewards so society wants to discourage it.
Why this interest in bullying? It is an underlying theme for the books in my Hazel Whitmore series. Two of the books are published - "Broken Promises" and "Old Promises." I want to complete the third book - "Mistaken Promises."
People become bullies for many reasons. Some like the sense of power it gives them. Some are copying their parents. Some have underlying problems or beliefs that trigger it.
The reason for the bullying is very important for the writer. It determines who the character is, how the character will behave, what the character will be willing to do, how determined the character is and the final outcome for the character. The reasons for the bullying were not known to me so the book languished, waiting.
Now I know the reasons. "Mistaken Promises" will be finished and published this fall.

Writing Needs Motivation

I sit down at my computer and stared at the screen. There are two books I'm working on plus website posts plus writing group writing topic plus book marketing plus pictures and pages for the botany project waiting for attention. And I sit there.
Why does a writer do that? I love to write. I like my different projects. Why do I stare blankly at the screen?
There seems to be two reasons. One is life in general. When the mind is too occupied with happenings and events going on around me, I find it hard to mentally walk away and into the world of a writing project.
Overcoming this takes several approaches. One is having a regular writing time. This is what I do from time x to time y. Baring total disaster, the outside world can exist without me for a couple of hours.
Next is distraction from the outside happenings. I use my Ozarks book to take my mind into another place. Once there I can move to other projects and concentrate.
Another way is to work on a project like the botany one with a definite format. It is like filling in the blanks and takes minimum thought, only looking up facts, rewording them and writing them.
The second reason for staring blankly at the screen is confidence. This usually troubles me when I am tired so getting enough sleep helps. Otherwise my mind is filled with negative thoughts denigrating my writing and me. None of this is real. It feels real only because I allow it substance.
Denying substance to such negativity is difficult. I at times let it fill my head and a piece of paper to toss in the stove letting the negativity go up in flames. Other times I slam a mental door on the thoughts and go back to my Ozarks book relaxing in memories of my beautiful hills until my mind is filled with lovely thoughts.
Then I look at that screen, click on a writing project and write because I am a writer and I can write.

The Challenges of Writing Prompts

I never had time for writing prompts. I had lots of writing ideas to work on. Prompts seemed just a way to clutter up my writing time.
A writing buddy needed someone to trade prompts with. Somehow I volunteered. So we alternate weeks coming up with a prompt.
First I noticed writing to a prompt can be interesting. Then I noticed I had to write outside my normal areas, my comfort zones.
Different groups do prompts differently. Many use them at meetings with a short time to come up with a written piece. We have a prompt for the week with a piece due in three days and a critique three days later.
My prompts tend to be events. My friend's prompts tend to be single words. Each of us tend to stymie the other, force the other to think.
Prompts can help with writer's block too. Force the issue. Even if the piece is one you never want to see again, it gets you creating again.
Writing to a prompt isn't easy. It is challenging. And it can result in much better writing skills along with some new story ideas.