Love of Writing discussion
Writer's Block Café
message 51:
by
Glenda
(new)
Nov 01, 2021 02:22PM
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I like it.
Glenda wrote: "So it is the eve before New Year's eve. Thought I'd change out the home page graphics. I hope it is to everyone's liking. "Do what you love, love what you do" should be our mantra for 2022. Everyon..."
Glenda wrote: "So it is the eve before New Year's eve. Thought I'd change out the home page graphics. I hope it is to everyone's liking. "Do what you love, love what you do" should be our mantra for 2022. Everyon..."
Hello All who are reading,I have not been active here for some months, and like the group slogan as it applies to writing. It is a pleasure most times even if the fiction reveals some life challenge or obstacle that points back to oneself. The theme this month about a long lost family member is perhaps poignant to both of us. The challenge is to write the scenario in such a way that it remains fiction even if some truth is unfolded.
Over the past several months, I have had stories in some random anthologies, published online, and am in my eighth year for writing general articles for a "content mill." I recently registered with scribd.com and am enjoying the reading opportunities that provides one. At the moment, am reading, The Great Gatsby, which means more now than when required in college some decades ago.
I am also playing piano part-time for diners at a restaurant nearby. The income is nice and allows me to consider myself, semi-retired.
All the Best,
David Russell
Looks like you are doing great with your writing, David. Good on you.
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Hi all,Terry, thanks for the reply and comment. A while back I read something in a book on writing by author, Margaret Livesey. In her essay, she brought others reading what we like down to one word, luck. I think fortune would be a better word choice, but either one hits a very real conclusion. As a writer, we are fortunate to have our work published and fortunate to have it read. I look at each time a story of mine is selected for an anthology as a small fortune.
Glenda, I am sorry to hear of your brother's passing but know you look forward to the reunion in heaven. My story for this theme will surround something ongoing and yet to be determined.
I think just about every family has its own set of issues and vexations as well as joys and reason for celebration. Enjoy that stew, and know you to be a skilled crockpot connoisseur.
Best,
David
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Best,
David..."
Thank you for your condolences. Seeing we made it in the 30's here in the Florida Panhandle & it's chilly today, I've got chili in the crockpot. Ha, ha!
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Glenda wrote: "Emerald wrote: "Hi everyone,
Thank you for the invite, Glenda! It's an honor and pleasure to be able to chat with all of you and be part of a writer's group again. I'm planning to take Glenda's in..."
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Glenda wrote: "Yes, Rejoice. I believe she passed away on Mother's Day. I was connected to her on Facebook. Last year was a rotten, bad year. Not only did Shae pass away, my brother passes away Sept. 6th, and my ..."
These 14 titles have been under attack for doing exactly what literature is supposed to do.
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/arc...
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/arc...
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Some of these SHOULD be banned - such as Gender Queer,
"Through illustrations and tender writing,... Its exploration of sexuality and gender, especially in illustrations depicting oral sex, made its inclusion in school libraries a prime target for criticism last year."
All I can say is that I'm glad I don't have children in public schools to not only be forced to wear masks, but to be indoctrinated with whatever loony ideas the teachers have.
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In addition to what I commented on in February, I have seen a couple of videos from Project Veritas where teachers are on video admitting they have special agenda's when it comes to indoctrinating children. Here is a recent one about throwing bricks and not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance https://rumble.com/v1jon0n-throw-bric... Here is another with a Vice Principal of a Harlem school that says he won't hire conservative teachers https://rumble.com/v1iy2nn-project-ve...
Here is a video of news person Megan Kelly explaining to Bill Maher about New York schools on racial and sexual identity https://rumble.com/veeei3-kelly-schoo...
This world has gone nuts.
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I am really looking forward to fall weather. We live in the Florida Panhandle. Our central AC has been broken now for 6 days. Small window units help some. But I work from home with the window facing the sun. It does heat up. They are coming at 8a.m. tomorrow morning to replace the central air unit.
Hope you guys are having a good week. Catch you later, gators.
On a different note.......... I would like all stories for the months to have a max of 1500 words.
We have had 1500 words many times. Last month for one.
I am not favorable to a fee in place to enter, to gamble for a jackpot. I liked that we could always freely enter when we could manage it, and work at showing what could be our best writing for given parameters. I do like the idea of having an upper limit of 1500 words. When I have entered a story I wrote, I kept it within the word limit, even when, while the word limit was 1000, it was a extra time it took me being put into cutting out what I knew would have made what I would have contributed better writing, though I was learning to write concisely.
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Changes - I thought of this poem when I saw the topic for January 2023:
The Most Beautiful Flower
The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read
Beneath the long, straggly branches of an old willow tree.
Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown,
For the world was intent on dragging me down.
And if that weren't enough to ruin my day,
A young boy out of breath approached me, all tired from play.
He stood right before me with his head tilted down
And said with great excitement, "Look what I found!"
In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight,
With its petals all worn-not enough rain, or too little light.
Wanting him to take his dead flower and go off to play,
I faked a small smile and then shifted away.
But instead of retreating he sat next to my side
And placed the flower to his nose and declared with overacted surprise,
"It sure smells pretty and its beautiful too.
That's why I picked it; here it's for you."
The weed before me was dying or dead.
Not vibrant of colors, orange, yellow, or red.
But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave.
So I reached for the flower, and replied, "Just what I need."
But instead of him placing the flower in my hand,
He held it mid-air without reason or plan.
It was then that I noticed for the very first time
That weed-toting boy could not see; he was blind.
I heard my voice quiver, tears shone like the sun
As I thanked him for picking the very best one.
"You're welcome," he smiled, and then ran off to play,
Unaware of the impact he'd had on my day.
I sat there and wondered how he managed to see
A self-pitying woman beneath an old willow tree.
How did he know of my self-indulged plight?
Perhaps from his heart, he'd been blessed with true sight.
Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see
The problem was not with the world; the problem was me.
And for all of those times I myself had been blind,
I vowed to see the beauty in life, and appreciate every second that's
Mine.
And then I held that wilted flower up to my nose
And breathed in the fragrance of a beautiful rose
And smiled as I watched that young boy, another weed in his hand
About to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.
unknown author
The Most Beautiful Flower
The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read
Beneath the long, straggly branches of an old willow tree.
Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown,
For the world was intent on dragging me down.
And if that weren't enough to ruin my day,
A young boy out of breath approached me, all tired from play.
He stood right before me with his head tilted down
And said with great excitement, "Look what I found!"
In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight,
With its petals all worn-not enough rain, or too little light.
Wanting him to take his dead flower and go off to play,
I faked a small smile and then shifted away.
But instead of retreating he sat next to my side
And placed the flower to his nose and declared with overacted surprise,
"It sure smells pretty and its beautiful too.
That's why I picked it; here it's for you."
The weed before me was dying or dead.
Not vibrant of colors, orange, yellow, or red.
But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave.
So I reached for the flower, and replied, "Just what I need."
But instead of him placing the flower in my hand,
He held it mid-air without reason or plan.
It was then that I noticed for the very first time
That weed-toting boy could not see; he was blind.
I heard my voice quiver, tears shone like the sun
As I thanked him for picking the very best one.
"You're welcome," he smiled, and then ran off to play,
Unaware of the impact he'd had on my day.
I sat there and wondered how he managed to see
A self-pitying woman beneath an old willow tree.
How did he know of my self-indulged plight?
Perhaps from his heart, he'd been blessed with true sight.
Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see
The problem was not with the world; the problem was me.
And for all of those times I myself had been blind,
I vowed to see the beauty in life, and appreciate every second that's
Mine.
And then I held that wilted flower up to my nose
And breathed in the fragrance of a beautiful rose
And smiled as I watched that young boy, another weed in his hand
About to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.
unknown author
Mod
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When sister "Silk" took the podium, tears streamed down my cheeks several times, especially when Donald Trump said he would pay for the memorial, to include anything she wanted. Silk plans on still being the conservative voice, to continue the TV programs, and tours.
Mod
I haven't been active here for a while, but I can tell you what originally drew me to this group, and that was work on anthologies. I enjoyed that work. We haven't done one of those in a long time, wasn't the superhero anthology the last one? I know there were very few people that took part in that, and eventually it wasn't published, but speaking for myself, work on anthologies is still what I think interest me the most about this group.
Hi Glenda,It appears that many things keep changing that take lots of time to solve in most households; hence, less time to write one story monthly. I'll try to provide a potpourri of little ideas to see what you think:
1. One original story (starting in January) following the usual prompts and guidelines every other month--or monthly for those who prefer to do so.
2. Then, every other month each writer can:
a. Post a new one as per 1. above or one original story previously posted elsewhere where they are the copyright owners... or
b. Post a poem of their own including Haikus... or
c. Post a one-paragraph story following the Group Administrator's guidelines, i.e., to commence the short, short story with, say, "Today is the day..." or "You'll never believe what happened today at work..."
EXAMPLE using a famous opening line from the 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (See Home | The Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest:
A MAN'S SHADOW IN THE RAIN - By Mirta Oliva
To avoid using the same first line in Paul Clifford's book, instead of "It was a dark and stormy night..." the suggested line would commence with
"I have endured the longest hours hearing thunder and rain...The perfect setting to read by the lamplight. As I was reading a passage from Hitchcock's creepy tale about a man with a black cape coming toward a house amidst a storm, I heard my dogs incessantly barking outside. I never ignored my pets' warnings so I dropped the book, put my robe on, and walked nervously toward the front window. As I looked out to see what was it with the dogs, I saw the shadow of a man in a dark overcoat coming straight to my porch under the torrential rains. "Oh, God, let the dogs scare him away..." I frantically blurted out. To my disappointment, the dogs began jumping jovially on the intruder, trying to lick his face. "What good are you, Ollie and Brandy...! I yelled at my loving pets. The man will surely break the window and that will be the end of me. I was so scared, I must have passed out. When I woke up, my husband was next to me, rubbing my hands and face, telling me his car had stopped a block away."
Of the above suggestions, the one I favor the most is to keep the essence of the group's posting guidelines and prompts even if it is to be done every other month or perhaps four times a year.
Further, and this is also a suggestion, to help moderators with the monthly commitment, to do away with voting. The usual comments on each other writings could continue as usual.
Please feel free to use one, all, or none of the suggestions since you will have some of your own plus other contributions.
Thank you for your commitment to the Group.
Mirta
Mod
Hákon wrote: "I haven't been active here for a while, but I can tell you what originally drew me to this group, and that was work on anthologies. I enjoyed that work. We haven't done one of those in a long time,..."Agree. I have contributed my own stories to three published books. As Glenda mentioned, we have missed Shae both as a 750-colleague and in her efforts toward publishing the anthologies.
I’ve published two books of my own flash fiction on Amazon, and it’s actually not that difficult. It takes a bit of time to format it properly, and to set it up, but the process is pretty straight forward.
Hákon wrote: "I’ve published two books of my own flash fiction on Amazon, and it’s actually not that difficult. It takes a bit of time to format it properly, and to set it up, but the process is pretty straight ..."I published four books via CreateSpace using formatted page numbers, book title, and author name. But CS was superseded by Kindle where authors have their own bookshelves. I no longer have my manuscripts but going to my Kindle bookshelf I can open the last version on record and make any editing right there.
I am glad you mentioned FLASH FICTION of which I had been aware and might use in the near future. For those not familiar, here is a link for readers interested in short stories under 500? ..https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/questi...
I published my books through KDP, so I think createspace had already run its course. I did both kindle, and paperback versions of them. I really like flash fiction, but it doesn’t really sell much, or at least mine hasn’t. If you had your books on createspace, can’t you use the same password to get into KDP?
CreateSpace was superseded by Kindle. I guess I use the same password. I went to my Kindle Dashboard a few days ago to check on how to edit my books with the last version submitted and it seems easy to do. With the BSOD attacking my prior computer, I lost the data. My Amazon books are also in paperback and digital. Without diversified promotion: no sales.
Mirta wrote: "Without diversified promotion: no sales."That’s been my experience too, or very few sales at least. 🙂
Hákon wrote: "Mirta wrote: "Without diversified promotion: no sales."That’s been my experience too, or very few sales at least. 🙂"
Promotion is the arduous part of being a writer... or an artist... Really!
Mod
Glenda wrote: "Yes, unless you belong to an organization that will promote your books, you have to do everything yourself. Most of us don't have a lot of money to pay for advertisements to promote books. That's w..."Another thing, you self-publish your first book and it missed the season so you begin writing the second one since "they" are looking to more than one... No promo for the first one. Then the second is also self-published but you are on the roll with ideas for writing more; thus no promo on sight but more writing. And if you do everything using templates, the cover, etc. who has the time? Too bad... the books have been out more than a year and that makes it more difficult...
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I published some of my short stories at Kindle Vella titled The Enchanted Willow Forest about a boy named Tristin and his cat Pogo that have some adventures. All of this started with a Writers 750 challenge by Heather; one of the story prompts had to be tea bags made of cat fur. So in my story, Mongrelfolk are ugly creatures (a cross between orcs and ogres) who can camouflage themselves as people by using cat fur in tea bags, and they feast on the flesh of men. This is also during the time of King Arthur. So I uploaded a few of these stories, and they are just sitting there. I have no idea if people are reading them. I've never really advertised them. Three stories can be read for free.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/e...
Glenda wrote: "Mirta wrote: Another thing, you self-publish your first book and it missed the season so you begin writing the second alone since "they" are looking to more than one... No promo for the first one. ....."I am enrolled in Kindle-vella but have not had the time to write new short stories. I wonder if one could publish stories from published works, such as the 750 anthologies where I have a few and the 18 months passed long ago.
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Glenda wrote: "Hmmm I haven't read the fine print or at least it has been a long time."I had asked the question and--fair enough--there was a period established before contributing authors could publish their story elsewhere. As I recall, it was eighteen months.
I have grown more passionate in writing from my creativity, it ironically has had me left with less time for involvement here with this group for which I wanted to still write what could be shared with friendly competition in contests. I still occasionally made attempts with starts to what might be submitted. Maybe shorter works will help with contributions. But truthfully it might attract me less because I actually like writing long works in which I can use more creativity I find in stories I would write, which can be from a few elements shown for being included or any parameters. What if possibility of writing sequential stories as episodes from previous submissions was encouraged? This seems like it would be an interesting approach, to me.
Mod
Glenda that is not a bad idea, I would like participation in that, it would be giving a lot of motivation. But I did not mean that. I was meaning that after submitting a story, it could be left with things to continue the next time, with further development, they could be like chapters in a longer story. I do that with writing but just not with those done a month apart. But I do like what you were thinking might be meant.
Round robin can be a lot of fun. I taken part in a few of those, but where each writer had submitted a sentence, or a couple of sentences at a time, and then the next writer continues the story. In my view it has been interesting each time. Of course, these kinds of stories can take some really strange turns, because many people with many different ideas try to move the same story forwards, but it’s fun. It’s a good creative exercise. But you idea is also interesting.
Mod
Writing sequential stories is what I already attempted to do with an old writing challenge submitted by Heather Schuldt years ago when we participated at Linkedin Writers 750. The challenge was a transformation from using tea bags made from cat hair. The challenge is too old and can't be found there now because the first story I did is dated February 2014. I have 16 total stories now along this theme that I titled "The Enchanted Willow Forest". Plus I wrote a poem "Death of a Shifter" under the theme and it was published in our "31 Days of October Volume 2" anthology. So I am all for doing that. I just don't know how to go about that in this group.
Glenda wrote: "F.F. wrote: ..."What if the possibility of writing sequential stories as episodes from previous submissions was encouraged? This seems like it would be an interesting approach, to me."Writing seq..."
Glenda, one positive aspect of the round robin story is that usually there are many contributors--the quantity varying according to times of the year or a theme that appeals to the majority. Perhaps there should be guidelines as to when a story begins and ends (Jan-Dec) or ... so that it doesn't linger from year to year. Also, each month the moderator may start with the last paragraph of the story to encourage continued participation even from newcomers. They are fun, I have done it and the imagination can go wild... in a good way.
Mod
I tried looking up info on Round Robins just now:
A Round Robin is a story written collaboratively by a group of authors, each of whom takes a turn writing a chapter or section; the chapters are produced in chronological order, or at least in the order in which they are intended to be read. There is no agreed-upon outline for the overall plot, and the authors are all free to take the story in whatever direction they wish when it is their turn to write a section, without consulting the others, leaving those who follow to deal with the consequences of what they have written. By the same token, each must accept what previous contributors have written.
A classic Round Robin has each person writing multiple parts, repeating the same order of authors each round. Variations include each author writing a single part or the authors writing multiple parts without a pattern to the repetition, perhaps not even producing the same number of parts. Another simple variation is to have the same person write both the first and last parts.
A Round Robin presents a number of obvious storytelling dangers, including Flanderization, Character Derailment, Kudzu Plot, Mood Whiplash, Plot Holes, Retcon, Spotlight-Stealing Squad, and worst of all Dead Fic if someone fails to go through their turn. In general, the most major danger of a Round Robin is that each author tends to be more eager to introduce and concentrate on his own characters and subplots, rather than on the characters introduced previously.
A less common problem is when the Round Robin refuses to get capped off with an actual ending, because it's hard to decide and agree when should the authors stop piling on new plot points and péripéties and just aim to wrap up what has been already written.
I see more interest in having a Round Robin, which also interests me, I would like doing that, yet if not that, I still will like the possibility of posting what I write in a sequence with a submission from me continuing from what I submitted previously, perhaps others making submissions might like that too. It would be fine if they are to be fitted with some parameters to have some certainly of writing being fresh for this.
Mirta wrote: "Glenda wrote: "Hmmm I haven't read the fine print or at least it has been a long time."I had asked the question and--fair enough--there was a period established before contributing authors could ..."
I think I missed this post which just popped up. Yes, that's my recollection to. Thanks!
