Updates on Life and Writing

This weekend I am going on a tubing trip! Some friends and I are going to float down the Deerfield River in oversized inner-tubes for four hours. The people who run the shuttle/rent out the tubes even supply a little tube attached to a rope for your cooler. There’s an island in the middle of the river where you can stop and eat. It’s going to be an amazing day. I can’t wait.

Even better—as of today at noon I am officially on vacation! Of course at my office today at noon translates to today at five-thirty, but I won’t complain. The key words here are: today and vacation. I haven’t taken time off since last October when I showed my friend New York City for the first time (we went at Halloween—needless to say, she got the full experience!)

Don’t expect much from me with regard to the blogosphere or my typical forum haunts—I will have very limited access to the internet/my computer. Blue Journal will be by my side, of course, but I am limiting my use of technology and instead opting to explore the world. I encourage you to do the same every once in a while. It works wonders for inspiration.

As far as my story goes, editing is coming along somewhat nicely. Work, as usual, still infringes upon it, but I’m taking those precious moments I have and utilizing them to the best of my ability. When I have spare time, I turn off the TV, hide the 3DS and get to work. I’ll confess: I do fall asleep with my laptop on my lap sometimes—though I’m sure every writer does that now and again. It’s what makes us such a crazy dedicated bunch.    

I’ve also been doing a lot of reading/ fact checking. My story has to do with world-mythology—it doesn’t just focus on the ancient Greeks or Chinese or Sumerians. It is an amalgamation of many different religious, cultural and historical beliefs all chocked into one neat package. I love the idea of cross-pollinating, which is why I did it. I am reading to learn more about and understand the ideals I am writing about. I plan to learn much, much more during my time away.

Last night I was reading World Mythology: The Illustrated Guide by Roy Willis, Robert Walter. As I read I thought about how much I ingrain my own interests into my work.  I wonder: does a particular Author input an innate curiosity/interest into his or her subject matter? Or does he or she merely think it a good topic to focus on and learn from there? Do other Authors allow their interests to transfer into their writing? Do you?

Let me know how you come up with your ideas and whether or not they tie into your personal interests. I’d love to learn more about how other Authors think about and choose ideas. As you know, I’m all about learning. Understanding your peers is one of the best ways to do it! It also further contributes to that sense of writer-ly community we are establishing with one another. Why not firm that bond even more?

Until next time,

—R

  

The First Line is The Most Important Line

The first line is the most important line. Be it a query, your work or even a job interview, this line can be the life or death of your efforts. Don’t waste your chance to shine with what may immediately turn off your listener. Give the oomph, the bang, the sizzle and pop before anything else. You will thank yourself for it later.

I’m in Marketing, by the way. Finding the first line is what I do. Sometimes finding the first line takes longer than researching and writing an article together. It is worth it in the end; page hits and media requests confirm it.

This month marks the anniversary of when I first began work on Lightbringer. It has been a long and wonderful journey, though I have struggled with this work in many ways. The main thing I have struggled with is the first line. I can’t tell you how many revisions of this sentence I have been through. If I wrote them all down I am sure they would sum an entire page of notebook paper.

One complete year has passed and I’ve finally settled on a first line! Once again, it took the same amount of time to research and write a piece of work as it did to settle on one simple sentence. Just as I’m happy with myself for finally getting it right, I’m over-joyed with the line. It does the thing it’s been trying to do for a year: succeed.

It’s a very simple one, too. It isn’t gimmicky or clichéd or superfluous or a run on sentence that packs far too much detail into a limited amount of space and just keeps going and going until it is the size of an entire paragraph insert even more detail here.

See how irritating that is to read? There’s no beat, no pause, no punctuation. It doesn’t give the reader a chance to breath, nor does it allow time to process the information the reader is given. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of reading the same sentence thrice.

Clichés are no-no phrases. They’re boring, they’re unoriginal and they spark little interest. Why re-read something you have read so many times before? I don’t want to spend my money on a rehash of something I just spent my money on.

Here are a few examples:

“Once upon a time…”

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

“The battle was bloody and…”

“No one knew that [pronoun] was actually a(n) [noun.]”

Is you first line something that’s been ‘done to death?’ Consider finding a way to rephrase it—put it in your own words. Or replace it entirely. I had a clichéd first line that I almost immediately cut. It was a hard decision at firts, but I haven’t looked back on it since.

Description is not the key. Originally, the first chapter of Lightbringer was nothing but description. There was no action, no story, just lots and lots of description of the old gothic church by the aged cemetery. It was four thousand words of fluff that I was told time and time again to cut. Eventually I swallowed my pride and did. Chapter one completely disappeared. Chapter two filled the void it left behind, but I still didn’t have that great first line. Happily I have it now. This week I'm in a very good mood because of that.

Want to story off with that oomph? Bang? Sizzle and pop? Here’s how to do it: Show your reader why they should read your work. What’s in it for them? How can they relate to it? Is it something they will be happy they spent $9.99—$24.99 on?

This isn’t accomplished through fluffy words, clichés or run on sentences. It’s accomplished by being honest, by not trying too hard. Don’t attempt to be clever or fresh—what you’ve written has probably been done before. Let the words flow the way they want to. Sometimes the simplest first line can turn out to be the best one in the entire book.

I encourage you to think about your story, your plot, your action. How can you reflect them in your first line? Can you work a little action in to give it that wow-effect? (Remember, though: If the action doesn’t come naturally, it wasn’t meant to be there.) Think about how you can give your first line some sizzle while keeping it as honest and simple as you can. Send it out to test readers, see what they think. If the overall feedback is ‘not quite,’ don’t take it personal, just try again.

Give readers something to relate to. Provide a reason for your reader to want to move on to sentence two.

"The very last thing she said was 'I love you.'"

(People who have experienced loss can connect with this.)

“There was no other choice, he had to jump.”

(Why is he jumping? Why is it his only choice?”)

“Listening to me is in your best interest.”

(Hmmm… will I benefit from listening to her? Let’s see…)

Each of these lines have a purpose, as should yours. Connect with your reader. Grip your reader, or make your reader ask “What’s in it for me?” Your first line is a reflection of your work. Start off with a reason—something that will travel all the way to the final line.

What happens if the words don’t come? No worries. Take a break, have a Coke and reflect on it later. It took many Cokes, many months and many revisions, but it was all worth it in the end. After all that waiting, I finally found my first line.

Until next time,

—R

Independence and Slavery

This week's post is my entry for Absolutewrite.com's July 2012 Blog Chain. Beneath the story is a list of other bloggers participating in the fun! Please take a moment to check out their entries, they're all very good in their own way!

Independence and Slavery

I do what I want. It’s easy. She tells me to do something—or to stop doing something—and I ignore her. Sometimes I even talk back and, oh—the look on her face when I do! What a wonderful thing. Her wrinkles gather like too many ants trying to fit into a single hole. When her jaw clenches her teeth grind in a way that only I can hear. I love that sound.

By the way, it’s my sound and you can’t have it! Go earn your own, this one’s taken.  

After the look comes the chase. How she tries to keep up is hilarious.  I’m much more agile than she is. It always takes a while for her to catch me. When she does she locks me up for a little while so that I’ll ‘learn my lesson.’ I never do. As soon as she lets me out again I do what I want.

I eat when I want—when I want to obey, that is. Dinner is typically served around five o’clock. That’s when we go through this ritual of me acting up and her demanding order. I try to tell her that I want my food and I want it now, but she doesn’t get it; it’s as if we are speaking two different languages. Maybe we are, I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t beg for my food. No, I can never beg. If I beg I don’t eat, it’s as simple as that.  

Before she gives me my meal she demands all of these stupid little things from me. This is to remind me that she’s the keeper of the food and I’m at her mercy. It’s humiliating, really, what I have to do in order to eat. I’m too good for it. It’s above someone as sophisticated as I. But I’m hungry, so I humor her and do what she asks me to do. Once I have my food I’m free to eat it whenever I want.

I go where I want—within the confines of the fences. It’s nearly impossible to surpass them. They’re far too wide and tall for me to scale. Giant rocks have been strategically placed around any weak points where I might be able to dig myself free.

This one time I did find my way out. It was March—you know, the time of year when winter is just tucking itself in for the night and spring has not yet pulled off the covers. There’s a gap in the fence just inside the compost pile. She forgot to close the gate. I snuck out.

The mud felt amazingly slick on my skin as I waded through it. Shameless, I even dove into it once or twice. And the smell of the pine trees! Oh, that smell—it was the fragrance of freedom. I took it in with merry breath. She caught me, of course, but the day was mine. I’ll never forget it.

I have what I want: Shelter, security, plentiful meals—the ability to cause a multitude of problems with little recourse. Not many can say they are afforded the same luxuries as I. So many suffer a far worse fate than adhering to the rules now and then.

Sure, I have to play puppet for dinner and spend some time in a cell when I go overboard. Yes, I’m only as unfettered as the fences allow me to be—but that’s okay. No matter what I do to her she still loves me—and that’s freedom enough for me.

Check out these amazing posts!

orion_mk3 - http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to this month's post)
knotanes - http://knotane.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
meowzbark - http://erlessard.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
Ralph Pines - http://ralfast.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
randi.lee - http://emotionalnovel.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
writingismypassion - http://charityfaye.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
pyrosama - http://matrix-hole.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
bmadsen - http://hospitaloflife.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
dclary - http://davidwclary.com (link to this month's post)
Poppy - http://poet-slash-writer.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
areteus - http://lurkingmusings.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
Sweetwheat - http://gomezkarla.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
ThorHuman - http://knikriverstatic.com/ (link to this month's post)
Tex_Maam - http://tex-maam.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
MelodySRV - http://createamelody.com/ (link to this month's post)

Until next time,

—R

Thanks for the Support!

“Have you finished with your temper tantrum?” she asked.

He threw the tennis ball across the room. “I am not having a temper tantrum!”

-an excerpt from Lightbringer, one of my    

 current works-in-progress

Man, I was mad the other day—the whole week, in fact. After re-reading my post I’m honestly surprised my member count didn’t go down! Just goes to show that ‘we all have one of those days.’  

Now I’m not sure if it was the day off, the blog awards from the always wonderful and ab-fab Diane Carlisle, or the delicious meatball sandwich I had for lunch, but I’m feeling pretty okay today! My outlook has changed a bit, my creativity is coming back and I am a little less stressed today than I was on Monday.

In fact, I think my temper tantrum might even be coming to a close—I hope it is, at least.

This could also have to do with the great support and feedback I received from the virtual world, so I’d like to thank all of you who cheered me up with your encouraging comments. If I knew you lot in person I’d ask you all to come over for movie night.

I have a couple of things on today’s agenda. Number one was to give an update on my mood swing. Check. Here’s number two: I want to sincerely thank Diane Carlisle for giving me two awards: “The Book It Award” and the “Fabulous Blog Ribbon,” which I will explain below. For those of you who’ve never read Diane’s blog, I absolutely recommend it. She has a way of teaching me life lessons while keeping things light and funny.

To receive The Booker Award the blog must be at least 50% about books (reading or writing). The recipient must share their top five favorite books (at least) and then pass the award on to five other bloggers.

I’m going to do this in the same fashion as Diane did it, by giving both awards to five different blogs. The bloggers will be listed once I’ve gone through both awards.

My 5 Favorite Books—in no particular order:

The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom

Anything written by David Sedaris

August: Osage County by Tracy Letts (screenplay)

Dean Man’s Cell Phone by: Sarah Ruhl (screenplay)

Hater by David Moody

For the Fabulous Blog Ribbon the rules are to post the rules, name five fabulous moments (either real life or in the blogosphere), name five things you love, name five things you hate, and pass the ribbon on to five other bloggers (and let them know in their comments!).

My 5 Fabulous (Blogger) Moments
—in no particular order:

The first time I hit ‘post.’

Receiving my first comment

Snagging my first follower

Being acknowledged for acknowledging the ‘little guy’

Receiving this image from Candilynn Fite (She was trying to cheer me up and it worked!):

My 5 Things I Hate

People who put others down/ bullies

Loss

Vampires (sorry, gang—but I can’t stand them!)

Refusing to understand the other person’s point of view

The fact that Suzanne Collins basically re-wrote Battle Royale to a T and made millions of dollars off it.

My 5 Things I Love

My family

My job

My friends

My dogs

Myself

Here are the bloggers I’ve selected to receive these two awards:

Alan Ford

Candilynn Fite

Tonja’s Musings

Simon P. Clark

JW Alden ( I know you said you aren’t doing awards anymore, but you’re getting them anyway!)

Finally: How is this post relevant to you? Well, it might not be—but I hope it is. This post has been about the power of support, something I firmly believe in.

Support doesn’t have to be a huge endeavor. It can come in the form of a hug or a “Hang in there!” After all, it’s the little things that matter, right? So why wouldn’t that apply to making someone’s day?

Doing something as small as holding a hand or telling someone that they’re good enough can make a larger difference than you think. People appreciate the notice, they appreciate the thought—even if they don’t always know how to say it. The gratitude may be silent, but it is there. Just look for it in the person’s attitude.

You are doing a great thing by being compassionate. Small gestures add up to something that can go as far as changing someone’s life. Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a great illustration of this. The little things do help—and I thank you all for the little things you’ve given me this week.

Until next time,

—R

Insecure Writer's Support Group -July Edition

Insecure Writer’s Support Group – July Edition

Disclaimer: This week’s topic is my monthly entry for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Every first Wednesday of the month the group posts about their insecurities/negativities about writing and/or tries to cheer on fellow writers. I typically like to use this as an opportunity to lift people up, but I did that last Friday. Today I’m using it to get something off my shoulders—forgive me in advance for the following rant… Hey now, I did give you a disclaimer!

I’m really, really mad. I know it’s affecting my writing. Every time I sit down to write all I can think about is how upset I am. This results in me cursing at my monitor for a good twenty minutes before setting off to find a way to calm down. Calming down typically results in a drive and some piano music—but these drives are becoming longer and longer.

Why am I so cross? That’s simple: Day job. Day job has been a complete jerk! Don’t get me wrong, I love where I work and I love what I do but lately that love has been overshadowed by some serious frustrations. Has anyone ever been frustrated to the point of creative shutdown? I’m sure that, at the least, some of you with day jobs can feel my pain. 

Backstory: For approximately nine months I have been working on implementing a new software. This software is supposed to dramatically change how my company communicates both internally and externally while saving a lot of headaches at the same time. I spent twenty hours per week on this project for close to a year and guess what? Turns out the software sucks. A lot.

Now, I won’t disseminate what the product is because this is the internet and I don’t feel right about naming names on such a world-wide level. I will say, however, that after endless hours put into tech. calls and Live Meetings it turns out that I know more about the product than the company’s senior level technicians do. I’m serious. I’ve had to correct them many a time on the very basics of how their product works.

We hit a huge snag today—HUGE snag. This snag upset some very senior level people in my office and has the potential to snowball. I spent all day troubleshooting and then, after a two hour session with a senior level tech, I was told that they’d have to get back to me (again.) This problem has been escalating since the middle of May; I’d assume I’d have an answer to my issue by now. I don’t know—tech people, does this sound normal?

Anyway, it looks like this snag is going to cause me an additional twenty-hours of manual back-outs to fix. Even then the problem will not go away completely. Working on this issue has aggravated me to no end—Me! Miss happy-rosy-look-at-the-bright-side is actually so mad she literally can’t think straight. I swear, if anything else goes wrong with this software I’m going to walk into the ocean.

That was a joke, of course; however, walking into the ocean does sound like a nice reprieve compared to all this!

And that’s all I have to say about that.

When I think about it I guess there’s a reason for all of this ranting: Everyone needs to rant now and then. There are times when I read posts similar to the one above and I think to myself, Good for you. Let it all out. You feel cleansed after a juice diet, right? Getting toxins out of your system and all that… Well, I believe in the cleansing properties of getting those psychological toxins out, too. Letting those toxins fester and grow isn’t helpful to anyone, especially yourself.  

I don’t feel great—my problem hasn’t magically been solved because I wrote about it—but I do kinda-sorta feel better now that it’s out of my system. So based on the relief I feel in my chest I say go for it. If you have something bogging you down or bumming you out, talk. Join the IWSG! Or, hey, even unload in my comments section. I will most certainly be here to read/listen to what you have to say.

Huh—fancy that. I did have a point!

As always, thanks for reading, thanks for responding… and thanks for putting up with Miss Crankypants’ week of non-stop raving. Have a great 4^th of July for whatever reason. Be it your country’s independence or just another day in your week, I hope tomorrow is great to you!

Until next time,

 —R

Update!

I had a meeting with my boss a few minutes ago. She indicated to me that, because of all of the problems we are having, the company is pulling the plug on the software initiative. This invalidates nine months of work and countless hours of loop-de-loop troubleshooting...
 

...And that's all I have to say about that.