Hand in Hand

I posted on Twitter about this a couple weeks back, but just in case you missed it, check this out.

There is a website called SharedWorlds from Wofford College that has started a photo listing called Hand In Hand with the goal of asking writers to give writing advice written on their hands. Here is the introduction letter:

Some days you just need a little nudge…

a simple reminder that you're not alone on this path you've chosen. Maybe you want help getting out of a plot hole or breaking through a block or you simply need to know that someone else has been there before--behind a different keyboard, holding a different pen, staring at a different blank page or screen.

Other days, it just might be cool to have someone who's been there walk hand-in-hand with you--to urge you to persist, to tell you to write something new, to remind you not to lose faith in your imagination.

Me, I often just need someone to tell me to calm down, sit in a chair, and write.

In preparation for Shared Worlds 2013, we have asked some of speculative fiction's finest artists, editors, and writers to write advice on their own hands and send us a picture.

We gathered up all this advice, all these helping hands, because that’s what we do a Shared Worlds. We bring people together; we bring writers together. For two weeks in the summer, students from across the US and around the world gather at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC, for two weeks of collaboration with fellow students, interaction with professional writers and editors, and everything else that goes into the building of imaginary worlds.

Sort through these images and read through the text. Bounce this advice off your own writing experiences. Connect these words of wisdom like puzzle pieces.

If you enjoy this gallery of advice and images, please lend Shared Worlds a hand by telling your friends and sharing the link to this page. Also, if you'd like to help send a student to Shared Worlds or help with the operating costs, consider making a donation. With the generous support of Amazon.com, we are able to fund a variety of need-based scholarships, both full and partial, but there are always more students who'd love to come to the camp but whose families need a helping hand to do so.

Sincerely,

Jeremy L.C. Jones

Founder & Co-Director

Shared Worlds @ Wofford College

How cool is that? As of this post, they have over 2 dozen writer contributions to their project, including (SQUEEEEEEEE!) Garth Nix and Neil Gaimon. Yes, I'm a fan girl. No, I'm not ashamed one teensy bit. I've mentioned before that I adore Garth's handwriting so his picture was awesome. I decided to make my own version of this concept. Check it out below.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Free College Level Courses for Writers?

No way! Right? Wrong!

Coursera and a growing list of other companies are making college level courses available for free. Colleges from around the world getting involved and their professors are making classes web-friendly for students everywhere. Are you creating a complicated religious system in your work in progress? Consider taking a history course on the ancient Greeks from Wesleyan University or a course on Greek and Roman mythology from UPenn. Need a refresher on basic writing skills? Writing Composition 1 from Duke is available for your current needs. Or, Crafting an Effective Writer from Mt. San Jacinto College could help you too (this one starts May 13th).

All participants that meet a certain standard (ie. do all the work as presented on the course syllabus sufficiently- you know, like real college courses) get a certificate of completion. Don't count on being able to use the courses from Coursera or any of the growing number of companies like it to pad your transcript. But your resume? Definitely that.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Mistakes Writers Make

If you Google “mistakes writers make” then you will find list after list of things writers do wrong in every genre. A lot of those mistakes show up in multiple lists. Trying to hard is one of the ones I read about a lot- try to be funny, try to be relevant, try to be impressive. I thought I’d come up with my own list, based on my experiences and the experiences of a few friends.

• Proof reading is lax: Some writers are so swept up in the art of writing that they forget an important part of a finished piece- editing. Grammar, comma usage, apostrophes, etc. benefit by a few rounds of proof reading. The most common advice is to put the piece away for a few days (or weeks) and come back to proof read/edit/revise with a fresh set of eyes. That is 100% correct advice in my experience. I’ll go one above that- do your proof reading/editing/revising from a printed black and white hard copy. You are less likely to miss mistakes on the printed page. If you like an old school approach, do your hand edits with a red pen.

• Erroneous expectations of instant success: There is nothing “quick” about the writing/publishing industry. Writing takes a long time. Editing and revision takes a long time. Querying/submissions take a long time. Everything in this industry takes a long time to work though. There is a reason my motto is “passion, persistence, and patience” in life and in writing. Have some patience, drink a cup of coffee, and start a new work in progress while you wait for the gears to turn on your work in submission.

• Focus on deadlines kills quality: This is especially true of established writers. I could cite a dozen popular writers that have eventually caved to the pressure to churn out works for the voracious appetites of their readers. Their work becomes rushed and quality goes down in exchange for popping out a dozen books in 2 or 3 years. I worked on my first book, Journey of Shadows, over nearly three years. The 1^st draft only took a few months, but then I kept going back to it, rewriting until I felt confident that it was ready.

• Timid writing: This is what holds a lot of potential writers back from actual writing. Some people are so scared of being judged for their writing, or of upsetting someone with what they write, that they stare at a blank page until the urge to write just goes away. Writing, despite the genre, is a product of passion. There is no room for fear.

• Writing to please others: This also holds a lot of writers back. Instead of following passion, these writers have fallen into a terrible cycle. They write only what they know will be accepted by their readers. They avoid topics that may upset anyone. Basically, they limit themselves to writing about fluffy kittens. Fluffy kittens are awesome, but I can find those free on the internet. 

As you can see, this list isn’t the traditional “mistakes writers make” list. It is far better to overuse clichés and metaphors than to pander to an audience or stare at a blinking cursor with dread. Writing is an art form that requires a time commitment, dedication, and fearlessness. Practice will help! NaNoWriMo is the perfect place to practice. It isn't too late to join in the noveling marathon. Really, you're only 2 days behind!

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Twitter Hashtags for Writers

I have been doing a lot of research on platforming for writers as I am struggling in this realm of the self publishing universe. I will be instituting my own version of platforming over the next week but I thought I would share some interesting Twitter information.

If you use Twitter then you should be familiar with # or the hashtag. Its purpose is to collect tweets into categories by linking the hashtags. The most heavily used hashtags become the "trending" or top categories listed on the main page, which can be viewed by region or worldwide settings and is updated as a new trending topic emerges on top. Pretty neat to watch, in my opinion.

The writing community uses a lot of various tweet hashtags. Listed below are some of the ones I find more useful and/or interesting as far as the content:


For writing:
#amwriting
#nanowrimo
#wip
#wordcount
#writingtips
#wrotetoday
#writetip
#writerslife

For editing:
#amediting
#editing

For publishing:
#pubtip
#indiepub
#publishing
#selfpublishing

For friendly promotions (not sales):
#promotip
#WriterWednesday or #ww
#followfriday or #ff

Basically, if it is something that interests you, search Twitter and you'll probably find a category of tweets of use to you.

Do you have a specific tweet hashtag that you follow?

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Thursday Thought: Tradition

W. Somerset Maugham, one of the highest paid writers of his time, said this about traditions:

"Tradition is a guide and not a jailer."

I'm a fan of traditions so long as it doesn't become an extreme view on life. Unfortunately, many people keep hurtful traditions over helpful traditions. Maybe that will change one day. It is a work in progress, I think. :)

Tuesday Treat: Favorite Snacks of the Great Scribblers

I ran across this awesome article/cartoon this weekend. Illustrator Wendy McNaughton, writer and illustrator of Meanwhile, pondered the snack foods that inspired some of the greatest writers. The article itself is very short. A single paragraph. The cartoon is the biggest draw of course. Did you know that Walt Whitman started every day with oysters and meat for breakfast? Um... yum? I guess. Check it out!

My newest snack inspiration is bacon and cheddar chips that I found at the Dollar Store. Oh such deliciousness! I still keep pretzel rods and Goldfish snack crackers on my desk (which is now in a bedroom instead of the den and/or dining room!!!). Baby Cat had a kitten on April 1st (what a terrible April Fools Day joke on us lol) and I've been doing my darnedest to keep Baby Cat out of my bacon and cheddar chips while she is "under house arrest" until the kitten is weaned. Huge struggle!

Do you have any new/old favorite snacks that help you focus on your work?

My New Years Writing Resolutions

2012 is quickly upon us. I have a general rule of avoiding New Years resolutions simply because people never keep them, but here we are anyways. Instead of making life resolutions (I'm already doing a great job of taking better care of my health, losing weight, and relinquishing toxic relationships. I'm good on those!), I'm making Writing Resolutions for 2012. A friend of mine found this post and it is exactly like what I'm looking to do.

I like limebirdkate's 11 resolutions, especially #1,7, and 9. #1: Write gutsier. Everyone should do that. Stop being so careful that you sabotage your writing. Some things require taking chances. Writing is one of those things. #7: Take a writing workshop. No matter your place within the writer's food chain, you can and will benefit from taking a writing workshop. No one is perfect; everyone has room for improvement. Even the pros. #9: Build relationships within the writing community. I cannot communicate how important this is. I have a few friends that write... without them, I probably wouldn't write. I would go crazy from all the ideas and questions so I would block it all away like I used to do. As a writer in this day and age, you have to network with other writers. Not only will you make some amazing new friends, but you will improve your craft, learn some neat tips and tricks, and receive feedback that you wouldn't otherwise get. I know for a beta reader, I prefer writers and/or fantasy readers because those people can offer much better feedback.

So I have a few writing resolutions to share.

Homemade Holidays Part 4

I was supposed to be getting ready to go see friends when the girls begged to make more ornaments. I had several I needed to make anyways so here are more pictures!

Charlie Brown's Woodstock, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, and Snoopy! I still need to add their hangers but I need to get ready to go (only about 5 hours late).

Friday Five: My top 5 Writers

September is a crazy month apparently. There are so many month-long and daily holidays. Don't believe me? Check this list. And that is just a list of the weird ones. One that I liked was "Be Kind to Editors and Writers" Month. Sending a special shout-out and ILY message to my wonderful editor, Booksteve! Also, International Square Dance Month is just awesome, but that is a whole 'nother story that I'm just not going to get into.

In honor of BKEW month, today's Friday Five is my favorite writers. I made a list of my favorite series back in June. If you don't remember it, go here. My list of favorite authors is a little different.

1. Garth Nix. This is one of those "duh" things around here. I love this guy. He is fab. Everything he writes is fab. Also, he is Australian so he has an accent.

2. Neil Gaiman. I did not list Neil on my favorite series list because he doesn't really write in a series per say. However, he has written several books that I personally own and have read multiple times. Good Omens and Coraline come to mind. He is solely responsible for the awesomeness of Robert Di Nero dancing in a dress in Stardust. I say that because he wrote the book that the movie was based upon. He is very vocal on Twitter. I follow him on both my official Twitter and my celebristalking account. He also has an English accent.

3. Carolyn Keene. Yes, I realize that Carolyn Keene is a pseudonym for a revolving collective of ghostwriters but it still stands. I found my love of reading in Nancy Drew as a kid. There really isn't much more to say about that.

4. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis tie for 4^th place in my list. Some people might flame me for saying so, but in my opinion, they are very similar writers. They were good friends that worked together, wrote together (they were members of the Inklings), and achieved much notoriety within the fantasy genre. Tolkien is considered the "father" of modern high fantasy and was ranked #6 in Forbe's 2008 list of "50 Greatest British Writers since 1945." Lewis came in at #11 on the same list. The article "On Fairy-Stories" that I wrote about in my first Tuesday Tale is arguably my favorite Tolkien piece, although I do love the Middle-earth stories. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia is #2 on my favorite series list. As a standalone story, I really enjoyed Lewis's The Screwtape Letters as well.

5. I rated the two above me together so I could include George Orwell in my list. Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm are two of the best books ever. Seriously, the Modern Library ranked 1984 at 13 and Animal Farm at 31 out of the top 100 English-language Novels of the 20^th century. These books challenged modern thinking, showed the incredible pitfalls of ignorance, and coined some vernacular that is still used today (like the term Big Brother). The fact that 1984 has been banned or challenged many, many times speaks volumes of its influence. It is at the top of the list of Wikipedia's most commonly challenged books of 1990-1999. I'm not sure if that list is in order of the most challenges or not (it doesn't say).

Side note: I want to belong to an exclusive writing group that has an awesome name like the Inklings.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS