There! A flash of white
Not winter snow – autumnal delight
The white squirrel thrives, the albino’s luck holding
I watch in awe, joyed by its bounding flight
Interestingly, the title was a re-release from something published in 2008. Not knowing if this could possibly have anything to do with the problem (which seems unlikely), I can’t help commenting that it felt at times like the writer’s first language is something other than English. There were wrong tenses, misused words, missing words, extra words – you name it.
The story itself was very enjoyable, by an author whose writing I greatly enjoy and admire. And yet, sadly, I am likely never to read the tale again for all the annoyances. Too bad I can’t go into my Kindle Fire and fix the issues. Wouldn’t that be nice?
As for the names of story and author, I’ll keep those to myself. Additionally, I’ll cross my fingers to never find something so botched again. Now I’m going to read this several times before posting and try to make sure I don’t make any of the same mistakes!
Today I’m over at LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers, sharing my post “Chicago Ghosts.” Join me!
Cobalt blue shimmers
A sharp beak pecks small white blooms
The peacock dines well
That led me to ponder what we should call those that we have met in the flesh.
Brick and mortar friends?
There are, however, times when I haven’t been able to help myself. For example, I once wrote a short story with food items as chapter titles. Within each chapter I worked that word into the storytelling. They ultimately tied together as ingredients in a recipe.
The reason I chose to expound on the issue here, however, is because of an e-book I recently downloaded. This particular author, who composed a decent tale, took an odd stance on titling. She actually used the location, month, and year in which the ensuing interval occurs.
Because the storyline sometimes visited the distant past, that might not have seemed a bad choice. However, I found that her habit merely pulled me out of the story without purpose. After all, the flashbacks were just that – flashes – and always appeared in italics. I can’t think of one instance where the title came from the past, either, while the timeline progressed naturally from the end of the previous chapter.
I’ll definitely consider this experience for my future writings. What is your opinion? Do you like chapter titles? Do you use them? Or perhaps I’m odd for even considering the point. Please let me know what you think!
 |
| Boria |
It’s Monday at four o’clock in the morning, almost five. I couldn’t sleep so I got up to write a bit. I figured I’d use the time to share some thoughts on writing and life, at least according to Noony.
First, a digression: the picture above made me laugh this morning when I wandered my archive looking for something to illustrate today’s post. Boria is an odd cat. Raised by our dog, he thinks he is a dog. This is a look he gets on his face when I do things he doesn’t expect – like get out of bed at an unholy hour.
I talked about blocks last time I had a regular bimonthly post, and I’m still in a similar situation vis a vis my story. But this isn’t all bad, at least in my opinion. Why?
Fallow periods are necessary in any artist’s life. Sometimes they arrise because we fish our pond too aggressively and don’t take the time to restock the fish. Other times they arrise because of outside stressors. This latter one is the case for me as I extricate myself from an organization I’ve been actively building for the last three and a half years.
On the other hand, as I sit back and reflect on all I’ve done and learned, I realize I am wealthy indeed. I’ve made friendships that I’ll keep for a lifetime, and, like Thomas Edison is quoted as saying relative to his failed attempts to invent a working light bulb, I’ve learned things that don’t work in running a business. While I haven’t been writing as much in the last two months in terms of story output, I have been blogging quite a lot and working on my social media tasks. I think it’s important to remember that even if we aren’t working on a particular project, it does not mean that we are not working – even if there’s no action apparent to the outside eye.
Fallow periods are necessary and deserve our respect.
One hopes that after this one, I won’t freak out my cat anymore, as well.
 |
| Boria |
In thinking about a topic for today’s post, I am reminded why blogging is good for writers. Of all the forms of social media available to us, blogging is the most flexible and the most adaptable to an individual writer’s style. Not to diss Facebook, by any means, I merely want to point out that if you’re a writer, you ought to be blogging. Why?
Here, then, are Aunt Noony’s Five Reasons Why Blogs Are Good For Writers:
1. Blogging allows you to explore your voice. What is voice? It is, quite simply, the thing you use to talk with. It’s a Zen concept and, for that reason, tough to pin down. But what is definite is that voice is as individual as the writer. The better we can get in touch with our own voice, the better writers we become. We get in touch with our voice by writing. A lot. Blogging lets you do that in a low-pressure, supportive environment.
2. Blogging gives you a platform. Do anything long enough and you begin to develop a set of topics and opinions upon which you can feel qualified to write. If you love coffee, for example, pretty soon you’ll get tired of writing “I love coffee” and start to come up with some interesting coffee facts. Collect enough of those kinds of articles and poof: instand coffee platform, just add water.
3. Topics for blogs are unlimited. Do you enjoy talking about underwater basketweaving? Go for it! Cosplay? Have at it! Knitting? Do it! Any and all topics, both tame and adult-oriented, lend themselves well to blogging.
4. You can expand your skills by blogging. You will, over time, learn a bit of HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language), the language in which websites are written. You will begin to understand how search engines find topics when users are looking for things. You will make friends and influence people though your blog, and one day, maybe help others into the world of blogging.
5. You don’t have to limit yourself to arbitrary character limits. If you only feel like posting a sentence or two and a bunch of pictures, you can. If you feel like writing and writing and writing on a topic that makes you passionate, you can. The sky’s the limit! You can adapt your writing to your moods and, in the process, collect a set of clips that you can leverage later to other blogging opportunities.
Still on the fence? Why not ask your favorite blogger if they’d be willing to let you do a guest post on a particular topic? No one says you have to dive in head-first your first time. You can ease into the blogosphere gently.
I’ll warn you, though. It can quickly become addictive. Enjoy!
Write on!
A knock overhead
Rain pounds a tin roof – divine
The very earth sighs
According to website IMDB.com, Mr. Scott said about “Days of Thunder”, which failed to reach the critical acclaim or financial success attributed to many other of his works, “… you always have to get a story and you’ve got to get character first, and we hadn’t.“
Wow. So simple, and yet so important.
According to Mr. Scott’s tell, putting 1990’s era Tom Cruise behind the wheel of a race car was all creators thought it would take to sell “Days of Thunder” to moviegoers, and that vein struck fool’s gold. I believe all writers kind enough to read this know better, but I still felt the point worth sharing.
Whatever you create, though, enjoy the process first and foremost. That’s a lesson we can all take to heart. I can only hope that Anthony D. L. Scott is at peace now and enjoyed his success while he had it.