New Year

As I post this message, it's already 2005 in Australia. These are my annual resolutions, entry, and my Best Wishes for your New Year:

"This year, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion; replace it with trust. Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Find the time. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand. Flout envy. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Appreciate. Be kind; be gentle. Laugh a little. Laugh a little more. Deserve confidence. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still once again."

Seen many places in print with no author given--if you know the original source, please comment with a verifiable citation. Thanks!

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Penultimate

Penultimate is a word so misused that I cringe whenever I find it. Seldom is it clear from the contexts whether or not the users mean what they say. Most often the word is confused with ultimate, exactly what penultimate does not mean. The "pen" part comes from the Latin paene meaning almost. It's not a word to guess about. You might think a more appropriate version would read "preultimate" in contemporary vernacular. Would it be premature of me to wish all of you a Happy New Year on this penultimate day of 2004?

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Going Postal

John Carney won in the NaNoWriMo this year.

Yes, yes, I know you're ALL winners if you show and tell that you've written 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. Carney did with "Postage Required". What's interesting is that he also documented the process. Here are some excerpts:

The novel is pretty rough, as you might expect from NaNoWriMo's quantity-over-quality approach, but I have to say there are parts of it I'm surprised by.

I thought it was appropriate to add one more sentence, in which another character offers some encouragement to my central character: "Keep it up, Miller." That line took me over 10,000, and it's as if I was telling myself to "Keep it up."

My goal right now is quantity, not quality. I am developing work habits which are improving my creative output.

I'm starting to at least feel like I can write a novel if I want to. I may or may not get to 50,000 words this month, but I've definitely accomplished something, and maybe if this one doesn't work out I can get a running start on another one.

My favorite statement is: I have just finished writing a very emotional part of the novel. It is either very good or very bad, and I'm not sure which. This feeling is the consequence of mining your own experience for material. Objectivity is almost impossible. Still, Carney used the impetus of a heart-wrenching experience to start his book, then allowed "what if" to build it into a different story.

Carney told me "the novel reads like it was speed-written. After the holidays, I plan to buckle down and start rewriting it. I want to see how good it is, and if I really have a hope of being a creative writer." He has already won awards for his journalism and proven he has the strength and dedication necessary to switch fields and extend his skills.

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Style

A new writer asked me about style. What about style? It's a word loaded with meanings as applied to writing. It can cover everything from punctuation, grammar, syntax, to word choice and self-expression. It can make or break your book, short story, article. "Could you be more specific?" I asked. He wanted to know how to write so that people would want to read his book. I needed more detail. "Who's the audience?" I asked. "Business people." Ah, now we were getting somewhere. At least, we could rule out the purple prose of romance and love poetry. I advised him to take a look at popular business books, not necessarily those on the best seller lists, and notice how they are organized, how information is presented, and what it is about the book that appeals to him (a business person himself).

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Review: Ariel

The three "R's" of poetry--writing, reading, and reviewing--are personal processes. In this way, poems resemble paintings, their right-brain correlates. more

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Writing Resources

Some may notice the Writing Resources link and page are gone from the website. Keeping up with other people changing their links became too time-consuming and annoying, as I had feared. The resources will return with original material sometime in the future. If you're having difficulty with or want to learn more about some aspect of writing, I'd suggest searching the websites of The Writer and Writer's Digest magazines. Fiction Factor and Writers Write also offer comprehensive resources.

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Blurbs

American Heritage defines a blurb as "A brief publicity notice, as on a book jacket". You have about 100 words in which to grab readers and entice them into your story, buy the book, or check it out. Writing blurbs, like headlines and titles, is an art. You can use a blurb at the beginning of the process, however, to consolidate and clarify your concept. It's like an "elevator speech" in which you have 30-60 seconds to explain yourself to a stranger (and perhaps get a new job or make a big sale). If you can't come up with a compelling blurb about a book, fiction or nonfiction, maybe your idea needs more work, either in development or clarification. If I'd told my friend that my cookbook will "save money, relieve stress, and boost the immune system" of readers, perhaps she would have been more receptive to my yen to teach youngsters how to cook from scratch. By writing the blurb, I would have fulfilled two or all three of her criteria for a good book idea: title, concept, and hook. The same process can apply to writing articles and short stories.

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9-11 Numb

The full moon blasted me awake in the middle of last night, jangling many chords of memory: poems, sights, stories involving moonlight. Dylan Thomas' poem was one, where he says he writes "When only the moon rages ... for the lovers, their arms/ Round the griefs of the ages," and another of my favorites "For G." by Wilfrid Gibson begins "All night under the moon/ Plovers are flying". I remembered how in moonlight the white sand along Florida highways looks like drifted snow (to one raised in a temperate climate). Then, because of the season, I thought how the sands around Bethlehem would have resembled snowdrifts in the moonlight as Mary and Joseph approached (and Mary, nine months pregnant riding on a mule--ouch!). My notion of Bethlehem-in-desert comes from my introduction to Christmas in the Sand Table Class at church, where endless Bible stories were played out in the raised sandbox. I felt the weight of the ages, and all the griefs this time of the year sums up for me, deaths of beloveds and beloved relationships. The last months of the calendar have been sad for my lifetime, and now it begins with September, remembering 9/11/2001. One of the losses was my mother's partner of decades. I heard myself telling someone that he'd died "two years ago" at this time last year. "Five years ago!" my mother snapped to correct me. Recalling that interchange, I realized that the griefs of all my ages became crystallized and condensed into the 9/11 terror, and that is why I haven't been able to write about it until the moon struck me last night.

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What If

"What if" is the beginning of the creative process. Depending on which part of the brain predominates, the result might be the Millau bridge or Star Trek. Sidewise thinking outside the box requires a willing suspension of disbelief that leads to paradigm shifts necessary to move beyond current conventions. In writing fiction, this is the trading stock of sci-fi and other speculative genres. I noticed this type of thinking in a Blogger Idol entry. John Carney wonders what happened to the gold the wise men brought Jesus. What if Joseph and Mary had to use that gold to escape to Egypt? Sounds like a good story in the making. Could this process apply to nonfiction writing, too? I think so. It is happening already: what if people could publish their books themselves? What if books didn't have to be printed on paper? What if we could read a publication on our cell phone? What if a cell phone/PDA/laptop were as thin as a piece of paper? What if WE were wired, wireless?

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Backstory

I may have mentioned that writers love to read about other writers. People who want to be writers also love to read about how successful writers work, find their stories, get agents, get published! Sometimes the story behind the story is more interesting than the book itself. Writer/blogger M. J. Rose recognizes these voyeuristic tendencies in her newish blog, Backstory. She also writes about the book business in Buzz, Balls & Hype and promotes her latest endeavors on her website, M. J. Rose. Wish I had that much energy! Check out Backstory for the interesting tales of how some books came to be.

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Constructive Criticism

Casually I floated my cookbook idea across the bow of a very veteran nonfiction book writer, more thinking aloud than anything else. She snapped back with excellent responses: "Gotta have a title, a 1 sentence concept and a sales hook," she wrote in a terse email. "Do your research at the bookstore and analyze what's out there and why those books sold." She's an acute analyst. "Your cookbook idea isn't focused enough and the angle is too much what YOU can do, not what the book can do for a reader." I won't reveal how she shot down my half-baked premises, except to say that it jolted me into a more realistic view. Notice she did not blast the notion of writing the millionth cookbook, but sharpened and redirected my aim. This is both encouragement and constructive criticism at its best. It's what you should look for in a writing group, class, or coach.

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Creative Nonfiction

Chip Scanlon, columnist for Poynter Online, defines creative nonfiction as "fact-based writing that can perhaps be best understood as the union of storytelling and journalism." He offers definitions, discussion, and tips for publishing creative nonfiction here, and here he covers query letters and simultaneous submission. Don't miss the readers' feedback to the first part where they list best examples of creative nonfiction and to the second part in which two writers discuss handling rejection and the negative aspects of a critique.

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Ten By Ten

Another creativity suggestion to jolt you out of the doldrums: take a look at Ten By Ten . It's another offering from the people who brought you Word Count, which I mentioned previously. Each hour, the site ranks the 100 top news stories and displays images from Reuters World News, BBC World Edition, New York Times International News, and Photography (?), they say. Along the right edge of the screen are listed the corresponding top 100 words, one for each image. (Read the images left to right, top to bottom, ranked for importance.) Other features are explained on the website, which requires a Flash 6 plugin for your browser. It's the words, of course, that fascinate me. See any patterns? Find connections. Start a story.

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Grammar Stickler

Grammar Stickler was perambulating around her community the other day as school let out. A pack of cycle-mounted students, probably about 12 years old, overtook her and she heard one say, "Me and him was ... ". The phrase screeched through poor Grammar's nervous system, and she almost went into cardiac arrest right there on the sidewalk. I don't blame the school, because children that age emulate their parents' speech. Why are the parents using such ungrammatical constructions? Of course it should be "I and he were" (awkward but correct), or "We were", or more politely "He and I were". Grammar picked herself up off the pavement and toddled home to scribble this post before she forgot the incident.

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Books for Writers

Dobler's Dozen is a list of useful books for writers, assembled by Bruce Dobler, associate professor of English in the Creative Nonfiction Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Among those he mentions are:

On Writing Well, The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
Revising Prose, by Richard Lanham
The Elements Of Style, Strunk and White
The Associated Press Stylebook
The Chicago Manual of Style
The Writer's Harbrace Handbook
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
Writing From The Inside Out, Dennis Palumbo

So, if you're still searching for just the right gift for the writer in your life or for yourself, these are sure to please. (I'm giving myself the latest AP Stylebook.)

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Academic Plagiarism

In an edition dated tomorrow, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports rampant plagiarism among people who know better: scholars, professors, the teachers who taught us not to steal others' words. Apparently, it's an open secret in the groves of academe, according to the Chronicle: "Yet academe appears conflicted about what to do about the plagiarist. While they preach against the sin, many scholars seem wary of confronting the sinners." The article names four professors and displays examples of their thefts (with the original material). What a wonderful example, she said, her voice quivering with disgust.

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Tom Wolfe Bad Sex

The British Literary Review's Bad Sex Award went to Tom Wolfe for his carnal descriptions in I Am Charlotte Simmons; a close runner-up was Andre Brink's Before I Forget. For amusing snippets, read Danielle Demetriou's article in The Independent and even more in The Guardian.

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Blogger Idol Winners

The "All I Want for Christmas" non-contest is finished. I looked at all the entries and picked my favorites from:
Confessions of a Girl Geek
Buzzcrash
Blog Business World
Connexions
A Dervish's Du'a'
Lake Neuron

Surfing through other blogs is like tasting a Whitman Sampler (box of chocolates). I drool over those created with Moveable Type, with trackbacks, showing their pings. Foreign blog visits yield more blog bling, like the visitors' world map just added to the bottom of the left column on this blog's website. Mind candy for girl geeks. I stuff my own electronic stocking.

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Book Deals

Apparently you don't have to be a figure of world-renown to merit big bucks for your writing, according to Jacob Bernstein, writing in the Intelligencer column this week. He points out that Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson is rumored to be receiving $500,000 for a book-length rework of his The Long Tail article in which he insists "The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream." Then there's Martha Stewart's memoir, offered for a reputed $10 million (one less than former president Bill Clinton supposedly received.) Let's see, spike in the mainstream of culture, or write about its demise. Which would you choose?

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British Book Awards

The winner of the British Book Awards for Book of the Year is Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss. I've mentioned her and/or her book several times this year (you can Google for them right on the main page of the website) and wrote a little review of the book. Another of the eight nominees was Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, also Best Read of the Year for Richard & Judy. I mentioned the Sebold book in my entry on cats. Now that my reviews on blogcritics.com are in syndication (see today's Books section of The Plain Dealer online, perhaps I should write more extensively about these two great reads. Incidentally, Truss' next book will be a stickler for manners.

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Sitcom Life Slice

This is my entry for the Blogging for Books contest #6.

Our day begins when their majesties arise, usually coinciding roughly with sunup. [read entire entry]

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Writers Influenced

Staggering around in the Amazon website, I stumbled into Writers Under the Influence. Not a 12-Step program for the inebriated, it's essays by new published writers on those books or authors making an impression on them, informing their writings. The essays are more developed and intense than the posting I made last month, and I was pleased to see some of my favorites listed. One surprise is an incredible ode to Wittgenstein by David Rees.

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Nikol Carlson

Hosted entry for #6 Blogging for Books (2,000 words or less on why your life would make a good sit com)

Nikol T. Carlson
1/22/03
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's it! I'm going to sit here and plan our Spring Break vacation. I totally need one right now. (read complete entry)

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Blogger Idol

Sorry, but I can't resist a new blogging contest by . The theme is "All I Want for Christmas", and mine is the list of behaviors for all new writers to change. Please stop:

not sending out material (risk rejection!)
waiting until one piece is rejected before sending out more
ignoring writers' guidelines
not reading a publication/guidelines before submitting
ignoring my advice
not using a checklist of common errors until memorized
fearing someone will steal your ideas/work
not querying when it's required (OTT submissions)
confusing opinion with fact
thinking editors take care of proofreading errors

Now go forth and read other bloggers' entries on the Breaking News Blog by clicking on the contest link above and scrolling down to the entry links.

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Pre-made

"PRE MADE BOXES" reads the sign before a wicker picnic basket, a holiday gift suggestion in a Pier 1 store. I won't quibble that a basket is not a box, as a cat is not a dog. (Comment if you recognize that one.) However, the prefix "pre" denotes a priority of time, place, or rank. See dictionary.com for Webster's definition. I am joining Lynne Truss' Stickler to the Grammar Goddess Diane Sandford. Excuse me whilst I step into this phone booth and emerge as The Grammar Stickler! Dressed in a brown catsuit, orange cape, and armed with the sharp stick of public ridicule, The Grammar Stickler pokes fun at misused words. A box of gifts cannot be "pre" made, not only because "made" is the past tense of a verb (How can an action take place before the past? Was it incipient in the Big Bang?) but also because the verb "to make" indicates preparation. If you PREpare, then there is nothing to do before or above that action. The Grammar Stickler sighs, "If only they'd think of synonyms instead of stopping at the first convenient verb to trip off their stunted tongues: make, prepare--oops!"

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Notes on Ariel: The Restored Edition

Just received this book of Sylvia Plath's poems. First impressions: how exciting to view a facsimile of a ms. of a great poet. None of the five collections of poetry on my shelves contains even one verse by Plath. They all skip from Plato to Poe. Dead white guys. No wonder it's probably been 40 years since I read selections from The Bell Jar. This new collection from HarperCollins begins with a Foreword by Frieda Hughes, Plath's daughter. Then come the 40 poems exactly as arranged in Plath's original "Ariel and other poems" ms. Following the poems in standard print format is the facsimile with all the strike outs and markings by Plath. Interesting additions are a poem titled "The Swarm" with a facsimile, the script Plath wrote for a BBC broadcast, and a section called "Notes" by poet and editor David Semanki on punctuation and word choice differences among various editions of Plath's works. Printed on acid-free paper. Yes! A review will follow later.

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Gawker

In a world I seldom visit, the blog Gawker today leaked the N.Y. Times upcoming ten best books of the year:

Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
The Master - Colm Toibin
The Plot Against America - Philip Roth
Runaway - Alice Munro
Snow - Orhan Pamuk
War Trash - Ha Jin
Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow
Chronicles, Vol. 1 - Bob Dylan
Washington's Crossing - David Hackett Fischer
Will In The World - Stephen Greenblatt

Hmm. I wonder if this counts as prize-winning for that person I know who reads only books from prize lists?

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Blogging for Books #6

Is your life hilarious? This month's winner of Blogging for Books will garner W. Bruce Cameron's new book, How to Remodel a Man. You have to describe in 2,000 words or less why your life would make a perfect sitcom. Read all about it at the Zero Boss. No blog of your own? No problem. Send your entry here in the body of an email message with your name and email address, and it will be posted. Type the entry right into the email, too, because if you cut and paste it from a word processing program, it will contain little electronic gizzies that we can't see until it is actually online in the blog. Gizzies are a technical term and a pain to remove.

Also on the contest scene, if you're into bordeaux wine and seduction (ooh, la, la!) enter this contest to win a week for six in the "Chateaux of Bordeaux". Vote for best blogs in The Diarist quarterly and annual Weblog Awards.

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Top Ten Writers' Mistakes

Everyone seems to have a top ten list, and a holiday/wish list. Mine are combined into the top ten mistakes new writers make that I wish they would get over:

not sending out material
waiting until one piece is rejected before sending out more
ignoring writers' guidelines
not reading a publication/guidelines before submitting
ignoring my advice
not using a checklist of common errors until memorized
fearing someone will steal their ideas/work
not querying when it's required (OTT submissions)
confusing opinion with fact
thinking editors take care of proofreading errors

More seriously, Pat Holt, a venerable editor, has a good article about this topic on her website, Holt Uncensored.

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Standing Desks

On page 221 of the first edition of Pearl's The Dante Club is mention of a "standing desk" against which Longfellow leaned. "At last," I thought, "I know the name of the piece of furniture I saw at Hemingway's home." That's where I bought the brick that I've decided is my writer's block as in a base, a firm foundation. Well, it's really a footrest. So I Googled "standing desk" and found that many writers of the 17th and 18th centuries used them. I wonder who Papa was emulating? I'd like to have a standing keyboard desk, especially since developing some lower back problem that hurts worse when sitting. I suppose I could just pile up some of Hemingway's books in front of the monitor and perch the keyboard atop them. What a vision!

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Ariel Restored

During a slight site refurbishment, I discovered someone new has listed this blog on theirs. This brash fellow boldly bares his poetic soul for the world's view. It gave me pause before deleting my own page of verse because someone said: "I don't like her poetry." Well, boo! hoo! Why should I be so sensitive? Such maudlin indulgence could lead to Sylvia Plath's sorry solution. Coincidentally I had just reserved a review copy of her newly restored edition of Ariel and found a post about the same work on Michael Wells' Against the Flow blog. It will be interesting to compare our responses to this fascinating work.

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Self Publishing Whiz

Britisher George Courtauld had to publish his Pocket Book of Patriotism himself. Several publishers "advised him to take out the most patriotic elements of the book - the flags, the Churchill speeches - and to tone down the title. 'My book was just too British' he told the Arts section of the Telegraph. Courtauld insisted all of those parts were vital. "Everyone seemed concerned about the Britishness of it all," he said. "Patriotism nowadays seems to be linked with terrible movements like the BNP." He financed the initial printing of 10,000 copies with the help of friends and published it last month. He needed to sell half to break even, but he took 26,000 orders in the first week! It is now into its fifth print run, and the website Courtauld set up to sell the book received 142,000 hits last Thursday alone.

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Blog as Word

Yesterday Merriam-Webster, the dictionary people, said that "blog" was the word most often looked up on the website. M-W defines a blog as: a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks. Starting in July the website received tens of thousands of hits monthly for the word. Next year, the word will appear in the latest edition of the M-W Collegiate Dictionary. All the "words of the year" are here.

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