A friend of mine told me about a time she was having difficulty with her writing. She and one her friends were at the book store. He had her buy a book, then told her to tear it up. She didn't understand, so he took the book and ripped it in half down the spine. She couldn't believe it (neither could some of the other patrons in the store). Anway, he told her to start writing, from page one, the book she had bought and he had just torn. Start writing every word. By doing so, she was able to understand a little more about putting sentences together, how paragraphs were structured and a general sense of scene flow.
No, she didn't end up writing the entire book but she benefited by what she had written. I think it is an interesting idea. I haven't yet torn a book in half and started writing it, but my current project is giving me a new view on writing. I'm editing a short story and finding it a unique experience. I won't go into the quality of the work I'm reading, but I will say, even though I've had no classroom training, I think my years of writing, critiquing, taking and offering suggestions has given me a little insight into correcting the mistakes I've thus far found. Reading this piece of material, I've seen what errors I've made in the past and my future writings will be better.
If you are constantly reading your own work, you get blinded and defensive. You need to read other authors and other writers who are trying to get published. Critique and writers' groups are great for this purpose. Sure, you may not be interested in a particular story-it just may not be what you would normally read-however, visualize the writing style, listen to the rythym and flow of the story. Would you change anything to make certain passages clearer, or more exciting? Are there problems with Point of View, run-on sentences, passive voice, etc.
If may cite an example. I'm not a romance fan but I do like Nora Roberts as J.D. Robb and her Eve Dallas series. Sure, after thirty or so novels, they've become almost formulaic, but pick one up and you will see the action and the tension never bottoms out. Of course, there are scenes when she's not taking down a bad guy or discovering a vital clue; usually, they're the humorous moments when she's getting her hair done or tolerating her partner's quirky whims. Even those scenes and the obligatory sexual rounds with her husband are enough to keep up the interest. I've never put down one of her books because I'm bored. I never feel as if I slogging through the book just to get to the end so I can read something better. That's what you're wanting in your own story.
Sure, Robb has some errors and I've discussed some of them with other writers. We can see problems even with the successful authors. Recognizing these can help those who are not as succesful. We can strive to avoid the errors others make.
Am I worrying about my editor's corrections and suggestions for my stories? Of course, I am. However, since Echelon accepted my stories for e-publication, they must have seen potential and the fact that I am able to write something of quality. And...when the changes do come back, I'll still learn something.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
A little hard work
We all remember the saying, "A little hard work never hurt anybody." I guess that depends on your definition of hurt. As I type this, the base of my right thumb feels like I've cracked the knuckle about fifty times in the last two minutes; my neck is stiff; my knees protest on the stairs; and my back won't allow me to tie my shoes without some uttered groaning. However, similar to last week after two days of black belt camp (kicks and punches and situps and countless push ups and a 6:30 am workout) I'm not complaining. Well, not about how it does a body good to get physical once in awhile. I've a been a little irregular recently. I mean as regards my routine workouts in the weight room. Last week, for example, eight hours sleep was a dream what with all the interruptions from neighbors and the landlord.
Anyway, once again, I thoroughly enjoyed the annual black belt camp and the sore muscles and the great ideas for class I received. This weekend was no different. While a friend sawed concrete, I played water boy keeping the blade and the saw cool. Then I hefted a jackhammer and made little pieces out of big pieces. Like a lot of things, you don't notice the effect of a jackhammer upon your body until after you've been at it awhile, stop, then do it again. By the end of eight hours of sawing and jacking and lifting and pounding, those machines were, for some reason, weighing a little heavier than at the beginning of the day. Then I was back at it Sunday morning for a few hours.
So what if the muscles are sore and I ache in several places; I could have told the guy to go take a flying leap. (Course he might have charged me extra for recent computer repair) Anyway, I had fun. I did something I've never done before. Jackhammering is actually kind of fun. Not that I'm apply to a construction crew first thing Monday morning-I didn't like it that much; it's sweaty work and the jouncing it does to your innards can't be healthy. But it was fun. All in all about twelve hours good work, although what we did doesn't seem like much.
The same could be said about writing. Is writing hard work? Stupid question to those who are serious writers. Of course it's hard work. Sure, your muscles don't suffer (although since I write long hand my left hand sometimes aches, but that's because I'm in the groove, baby) and a lot of times what you've written doesn't look like much in the bigger scheme of things. But as long as something is down on paper or saved in a file, and it's something that can be worked with later, then I think you can consider it a good session and you can enjoy what you've accomplished. Plus, the mental benefits are great.
...and with the cable on the fritz, what else is there to do.
Anyway, once again, I thoroughly enjoyed the annual black belt camp and the sore muscles and the great ideas for class I received. This weekend was no different. While a friend sawed concrete, I played water boy keeping the blade and the saw cool. Then I hefted a jackhammer and made little pieces out of big pieces. Like a lot of things, you don't notice the effect of a jackhammer upon your body until after you've been at it awhile, stop, then do it again. By the end of eight hours of sawing and jacking and lifting and pounding, those machines were, for some reason, weighing a little heavier than at the beginning of the day. Then I was back at it Sunday morning for a few hours.
So what if the muscles are sore and I ache in several places; I could have told the guy to go take a flying leap. (Course he might have charged me extra for recent computer repair) Anyway, I had fun. I did something I've never done before. Jackhammering is actually kind of fun. Not that I'm apply to a construction crew first thing Monday morning-I didn't like it that much; it's sweaty work and the jouncing it does to your innards can't be healthy. But it was fun. All in all about twelve hours good work, although what we did doesn't seem like much.
The same could be said about writing. Is writing hard work? Stupid question to those who are serious writers. Of course it's hard work. Sure, your muscles don't suffer (although since I write long hand my left hand sometimes aches, but that's because I'm in the groove, baby) and a lot of times what you've written doesn't look like much in the bigger scheme of things. But as long as something is down on paper or saved in a file, and it's something that can be worked with later, then I think you can consider it a good session and you can enjoy what you've accomplished. Plus, the mental benefits are great.
...and with the cable on the fritz, what else is there to do.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Somebody save me...
There is an old 'joke' I of which I was reminded during this past week. It goes something like this:
Jesus and Satan were arguing one day about who had the best memory. God suggested they both start documenting every event since day one on a separate computer and after a year's time limit, whoever had the most events documented would win. So Jesus and Satan started in typing out events each on his own computer. Everything was going along fine until about the ninth month when a tremendous rain storm developed with lots of thunder and lightning. During one pretty severe round of lightning strikes, the power surged and both computers suddenly blinked out. After a couple of minutes, Jesus and Satan were both able to reboot their computers. However, Satan, upon returning to the file he had been working on, discovered a total blank. He'd lost all the information he'd been entering. He screamed in mortification and pounded the keyboard. “God,” he cried out, “what am I going to do? I'll never be able to retype all of the information in time.” Then he remembered that Jesus' computer had also conked out. He laughed in renewed delight. “I guess Jesus has to start over again, too.” However, Jesus calmly opened a folder and retrieved all of the information he'd been documenting intact and up to date. “How?” Satan asked. “Simple,” God said.
“Jesus saves.”
Of course, you get the double meaning from that last line. Anyway, my computer conked out last week and this week I've been rebuilding and updating files. I had saved a lot of information on some external hard drives so along with those files, my business accounts weren't lost, although I did sweat for a moment thinking I was going to have to retype everything in from January first of this year. Not a major job, just annoying. However, the external had the back up file, so I was saved. I did lose a lot of my downloaded files and am in the process of downloading them again. I will also have to reinstall some programs. Just a minor set back.
However, the Alpha rewrite, I'm sad to say, was lost. I managed to salvage Chapter One only because I sent it to a friend for critique, but I'll have to open up the notebook and start retyping in my handwritten manuscript. I also lost a bunch of short story edits I had made and will have to go back and do those over.
The problem I have is that when I edit something I think it's a pretty good edit and I feel the story is improved. I'll keep editing until I feel that I can't edit anymore and either submit it, have it critiqued (and then edit again) or wait awhile then go back and see if it still sounds good. If I've lost an edited file and have to read the original again and re-edit from scratch I feel as if I'm missing something, that it's not as good as the first time. I'm sure Alpha will be all right and I'll catch some of the errors I made on the long hand version this time as I did last time. It's just annoying to have to go back and do it again.
Writers, please, I implore you to save everything two or three or four times over. Somewhere. Disk, external hard drive, hard copy...somewhere. I'm not pushing any product, but at the time of this writing I have started the free trial from Carbonite.com. I signed up for it today and when I get back from black belt camp on Sunday, I'll delve into it a little more to see what further options I can choose. But, I figure for just about $55 per year I can have my files backed up and be able to retrieve them, even if my computer totally dies and I have to purchase a brand new one.
Think of what kind of power it takes for Jesus to save souls. Surely, we have enough power to make an effort and save, save and save again our important files.
Jesus and Satan were arguing one day about who had the best memory. God suggested they both start documenting every event since day one on a separate computer and after a year's time limit, whoever had the most events documented would win. So Jesus and Satan started in typing out events each on his own computer. Everything was going along fine until about the ninth month when a tremendous rain storm developed with lots of thunder and lightning. During one pretty severe round of lightning strikes, the power surged and both computers suddenly blinked out. After a couple of minutes, Jesus and Satan were both able to reboot their computers. However, Satan, upon returning to the file he had been working on, discovered a total blank. He'd lost all the information he'd been entering. He screamed in mortification and pounded the keyboard. “God,” he cried out, “what am I going to do? I'll never be able to retype all of the information in time.” Then he remembered that Jesus' computer had also conked out. He laughed in renewed delight. “I guess Jesus has to start over again, too.” However, Jesus calmly opened a folder and retrieved all of the information he'd been documenting intact and up to date. “How?” Satan asked. “Simple,” God said.
“Jesus saves.”
Of course, you get the double meaning from that last line. Anyway, my computer conked out last week and this week I've been rebuilding and updating files. I had saved a lot of information on some external hard drives so along with those files, my business accounts weren't lost, although I did sweat for a moment thinking I was going to have to retype everything in from January first of this year. Not a major job, just annoying. However, the external had the back up file, so I was saved. I did lose a lot of my downloaded files and am in the process of downloading them again. I will also have to reinstall some programs. Just a minor set back.
However, the Alpha rewrite, I'm sad to say, was lost. I managed to salvage Chapter One only because I sent it to a friend for critique, but I'll have to open up the notebook and start retyping in my handwritten manuscript. I also lost a bunch of short story edits I had made and will have to go back and do those over.
The problem I have is that when I edit something I think it's a pretty good edit and I feel the story is improved. I'll keep editing until I feel that I can't edit anymore and either submit it, have it critiqued (and then edit again) or wait awhile then go back and see if it still sounds good. If I've lost an edited file and have to read the original again and re-edit from scratch I feel as if I'm missing something, that it's not as good as the first time. I'm sure Alpha will be all right and I'll catch some of the errors I made on the long hand version this time as I did last time. It's just annoying to have to go back and do it again.
Writers, please, I implore you to save everything two or three or four times over. Somewhere. Disk, external hard drive, hard copy...somewhere. I'm not pushing any product, but at the time of this writing I have started the free trial from Carbonite.com. I signed up for it today and when I get back from black belt camp on Sunday, I'll delve into it a little more to see what further options I can choose. But, I figure for just about $55 per year I can have my files backed up and be able to retrieve them, even if my computer totally dies and I have to purchase a brand new one.
Think of what kind of power it takes for Jesus to save souls. Surely, we have enough power to make an effort and save, save and save again our important files.
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