Filed under Writing …

Apr 13 2012
4 Comments
censored opinions, Entertainment, The Writing Life, Writing

Automate Your Second Draft


If you’ve ever written a paper, story or speech, you’ll want to learn how to do this. Elsewhere I’ve ranted about the benefits of reading your words aloud or having someone read them back to you. Things sound different when spoken into the air, when you hear words exist as they were intended – audible symbols representing meaning. When we hear our own words, we discover otherwise invisible rewrites waiting to aid our work.

Yesterday, I was playing around with the new gestures on OS Lion. Doing the two-finger-click-look-up thing, I saw the Speech > start speaking menu and tried it out.

Now I’ve known about the Apple reading voice at least since the iMac days. Even still, it was nice to find I could hear audio versions of the blogs I was reading yesterday via one highlight and one click. But that wasn’t enough. That little automator bot with his lead pipe/RPG taunted me yet again, standing his ground on my dock. Continue reading →

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Apr 09 2012
9 Comments
Writing, The Writing Life, impulsive pastimes, Storyssentials, creativity, production

On May First, I Work For Free

What May Day means for me:

From Chicago to Paris to New York City, the History of May Day seasons our past with workers’ revolutions. This May first, millions of people worldwide will take part in a General Strike against a broken system, asking the question: what would a day be like without 99% of us? Those who suffer under economic injustice will refuse to work, go to school, do housework or even shop. Instead they’ll hit the streets.

Those who enjoy their work – freelancers like me – will still work all day, but for free. Consider it a one-day jubilee where everyone gets a holiday and a hall pass. On May Day I will offer my writing, editing and story consultation services but I won’t charge you a cent.

What May Day means for you:

Some of you have procrastinated hearing critique on your screenplays and stories. Others of you wanted my help, but because of life circumstances you couldn’t afford my rates. On May 1st, I remove the roadblocks of procrastination and price so that we can get your ball rolling together. You get what you need, but for free.

Here’s how it will work:

Continue reading →

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Mar 30 2012
9 Comments
book review, censored opinions, creativity, Entertainment, literature, production, Proper Usage, Storyssentials, The Writing Life, Writing

Twenty Three Reads for Writers

My writing journey continually morphs this list. At times it included books like this or this, while at others it held books like this and this. These twenty-three whip me back into shape more consistently than any others. I classified each into one of nine categories – story construction, literary symbolism, poetry, editing, writing & life, fear in writing, philosophy, literary agency or social media.

(I’ve also peppered minimalistic images throughout from great stories).

  1. The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (story construction) first clued me in to the basic arc within all stories – the voyage and return. The hero journeys out from the norm into the unknown, suffers trials and returns to society with some gift like enlightenment or a magic item that will somehow help society. Campbell can be best described either as a panentheistic transcendentalist or as a neo-western Hindu.
  2. The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker (story construction) takes Continue reading →
Mar 28 2012
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creativity, fantastic points of ignorance, literature, mythology, production, Writing

Concerning Fan Fiction

Dude or Dudette writes a book. Book takes off—international bestseller. Dude or Dudette who wrote book becomes King or Queen of their now crowded world as people flock there to wander around, watch their characters, witness their characters’ powers (be they wisdom, weapons or witchcraft and wizardry) and eat some of the local cuisine.

The patron of that world (King or Queen Storyteller) continues to guide this client (reader / viewer / listener) to follow characters as they make choices. In following the characters, a client chooses right along with them, for good or for bad. This continues until the tour ends and the patron refers the client to the waiting room. Either one of two things has happened. Either the writer must pause until he or she finishes the next volume in the series or there are no more books. The story is over. In both cases, the patron shows their clients the waiting room.

If they have no reasonable reality to return to or if they have no other world to hop into or if they find a particularly strong attachment to this patron’s world, those reader-clients will wait for a long time. Some might even leave the waiting room. They may try to explore dark corners of the map, eat more of the food, watch more characters. This is okay, I suppose, though it’d be creepy for the characters if they ever discovered these unsupervised peeping Toms. Curiosity’s good as long we temper it by truth and care for other people. However, if clients spend too much time there, they may try to revolt and grab the throne, break the rules, reverse gravity or change the themes and substance of the story.

They may try to rape some of the characters or even murder them. Continue reading →

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Mar 23 2012
11 Comments
book review, censored opinions, Critique the Critics, Entertainment, film, literary interpretation, Writing

Hunger Games Made a Better Movie (but I still liked the book)

The last time I stood outside in fifty-degree rainy weather for four hours to watch a midnight showing, I was in grade school. I never do it for the movie alone, I do it for the immersive experience of communal cinema viewing. [Insert rant on how the old world of cinema is dying and shameless plug for Hugo]. When you’re surrounded by a bunch of crazy people who dressed up to see the movie you’re after, it’s easier to justify spending $9 on a ticket and watch the rain soak through your $1 copy of A Storm of Swords while you pass the time until midnight — you know that all of them will shout, scream, laugh, cry and cheer at all the right parts. With a crowd like that, people could make Troll 2 an enjoyable experience (and often do).

Unfortunately, this movie’s torn between two thieves – pretenders and despisers. Pretenders read the book, gush about it for hours and then act as if the thing could never in a centillion years turn into a better movie. Despisers say things like “Hunger Games was a terrible book” or “I hate it.” Though I can’t do much about hatred, the “terrible book” line is superlative and I reject it. Continue reading →

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Mar 23 2012
32 Comments
Critique the Critics, Entertainment, humor, literature, The Writing Life, Writing

Rejection Letter Fail

Therapeutic to watch a writer tweak this rejection email sent CC: by mistake from agent to 238 of us:#amwriting #fail pic.twitter.com/MRF2qhFf

(This email thread went on for hours as we all bantered back and forth about it. They call themselves “The 238″).

Mar 21 2012
6 Comments
creativity, fantastic points of ignorance, literature, Writing

Literate Yourself

These two pictures circulated around Pinterest awhile back:

Several years ago a friend of mine asked a minister what he was reading.
This minister said, “Nothing.”
My friend responded with, “Okay, well… what have you been up to?”
Hisses sounded out this minister’s mouth when he said, “Saving souls.”
My friend said nothing after that.

A few months after that episode, I read a little something by Mark Twain:

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot.

Last week, a buddy of mine apologized for taking so long to read something. He sent a text, his self-depreciation forcing me to respond differently than normal:

Josh: Sorry, so slow. I’m a terrible reader.
Me: No you’re not.
Josh: Sure I am. I’m slow and I don’t read much.
Me: Why’s that make you a bad reader? People might dislike what they read or the content may bore them, but that doesn’t make them a bad reader, just bored. When you find things you like, you read like crazy. I’ve seen you.
Josh: Thanks man.
Me: No prob.

Or something like that. I’ve thought about our conversation since, about language and our need as humans to communicate deep thought. Even in illiterate cultures, there’s this rich history of sages entrusted with the stories of the tribe. Only certain people can tell that story. It makes for reliable oral tradition and liberates our minds through reflection, memorization and story. When we liberate our mind with imagination, we dream up a better world. Those dreams become realities in time.

Go literate yourself this week – liberate the book side of your life. Read a story. Memorize a poem. Reflect on a song or a film.

Otherwise imagination disappears.

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Mar 14 2012
2 Comments
book review, fantastic points of ignorance, film, literature, Religion, Woship, Writing

Zombie Church by Tyler Edwards

When I first glanced at the title Zombie Church by my man Tyler, I immediately recalled the part of Resident Evil 4 where all the monk zombies come out of the abbey grumbling in Latin, chasing you around the graveyard. Or was it priest zombies running out of a cathedral? In any case, the imagery sustains the title and meta-metaphor for his book:

Zombies.

Church.

Yeah, that ain’t right.

Most of you know my deal with Christians – or anyone for that matter – riding the coattails of fads. People use fads to make money rather than masterpieces, so I groaned “not another zombie… whatever” louder than many of you groan “not another vampire… whatever.” However, I know Tyler, know his fascination with all things geekdom (including zombies). Tyler erected a giant retractable screen in his dorm room back in college and mounted a projector over the door. If you set out to watch a cheezy or action-packed or larger-than-life movie, you used Tyler’s room.

More importantly, I happened on the environment he and many of his friends ministered in over the last several years. If anyone has holed up in a little building on some side street, using it as a base from which to pull hit-and-runs with the antidote, it’s Tyler. Eugene Peterson talks about pastors like Tyler in Under the Unpredictable Plant. Tyler stays. He refuses to leave unless, at the last-minute, it might kill his family. Then he’ll move camp. But only then.

Continue reading →

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Mar 08 2012
7 Comments
news, Writing

International Women’s Day

According to Google, today’s the day we celebrate women. News to me, but I’m glad for such a day as this. I owe lots to the ladies. Here’s five quotes about women and a list of thank-yous:

Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery.

VICTOR HUGO Continue reading →

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Mar 05 2012
3 Comments
literature, book review, literary interpretation, Entertainment, movie review, C.S. Lewis, article review, Writing, The Writing Life, Cities, New York City, Religion, Tolkien, poetry, travel, impulsive pastimes, news, humor, film, Storyssentials

Small Demons Preview

Thanks to Yewknee for sharing Small Demons with me back in October. I refrained from sharing with all of you Literators back then because, frankly, there was so little to share. Sometimes beta-testing looks like questing with your half-orc across frozen wastelands until the game glitches and dies, sometimes it looks like stress-testing Google Wave.

At other times it looks like this:

…

…

…

So I’ve been waiting and waiting for Small Demons to put enough content up for me to share it with all of you. Today’s the day.

Here goes:

Continue reading →

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Mar 02 2012
2 Comments
censored opinions, Entertainment, Storyssentials, The Writing Life, Writing

Storyssentials: Inciting Incident

Pull the trigger. Boy meets girl. Light the fuse. Revolution. A specific baby is born. Car wreck. Card turns face up: Ace of Spades.

All of these start something. They jar the reader or viewer or listener by radically upsetting the equilibrium in the world of the protagonist, turning over tables, shifting everything over the top of a fault line. We might call the inciting incident an “exciting event” or a “kindling circumstance” or even an “arousing affair.” I choose these three combinations for more than just synonymous relationship. The inciting incident must excite, kindle and arouse. Continue reading →

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Feb 25 2012
14 Comments
censored opinions, Entertainment, Writing

An Open Letter to WordPress

Dear WordPress,

In short, you rock.
The longer version goes like this:

I used to write on blogger and other sub par blogging platforms. One of my friends started a blog on WordPress back in ’08 and called out “red rover, red rover” but I refused to come over.

Then I started this little site (at that time under www.literating.wordpress.com) and over the course of a few months you courted me over to your side of the playground with your customizable dashboards, your superior statistics and your content-oriented approach to blogging. Good content ranks above anything and everything else here.

I thought it couldn’t get any better. Man I was wrong…

These last eighteen months you have continued to tweak our experience. You added the top bar for easy navigation. You added an insta-stat button (soon to redirect to the dashboard!), the follow button up top for registered users, down low for unregistered and in dashboard for blog authors and administrators. In addition, you created the notification flash in the top righthand corner. At first this only meant we’d know when someone commented or what have you, but NOW we can both see via icon what type of notification we’re receiving AND we can respond to comments on our blog or to those elusive follow-up comments on other blogs. You know the type: those comments that get lost on the threshing floor of content consumption.

Over all, you’re taking your already fantastic content-focus and adding the perks of social media sites. You keep integrating, networking and streamlining our production-oriented culture here, and I think that’s just grand. Short story long, these subtle tweaks have made WordPress an even better place to write, which, in my humble opinion, is truly saying something. Keep tweaking.

With love, kudos, hugs and kisses,

Lancey

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Feb 24 2012
10 Comments
censored opinions, literature, The Writing Life, Writing

The Short Film and Serial Novel Comeback?

In the latter part of 1837, Charles Dickens published the first portion of a book that he would finish piece-by-piece in a magazine. He was twenty-five the year he ended each successive part on a cliffhanger. His audience waited, often jittery through half-contained excitement for the next issue. Bit-by-bit he orchestrated a novel whose last words greeted public eyes in 1838. They later compiled the book into the single volume we know as Oliver Twist. Commoners could afford the weekly installments while the aristocracy enjoyed complete volumes.

Sixty-four years after Oliver, Georges Méliès complimented his career as an illusionist with Le Voyage Dans La Lune. The innovation of Trip to the Moon shattered the time-boundary of two-minute shorts with its then stunning fourteen-minute runtime and later inspired Selznick to sketch Hugo. Granted, moving pictures eventually added enough film to keep an audience seated for a couple of hours plus intermission but there was enough room on the screen for short films all the way through Chaplin’s era. People paid a cheap price for several shorter films and then talked about them over ice-cream at the nearest diner. With the rise of the television, however, short films tapered off. Rising ticket prices made it unfeasible to go to short films. The industry exiled small-budget directors to festivals and college film classes. Feature films made the money. Good news for the average joe, bad for the struggling screenwriter.

In the late fifties, the paperback revolution made it cheap and easy to buy a full novel. Why pay for shorts or serials when you can get the whole thing for a dollar? Book production skyrocketed, despite the hollow warning from Publisher’s Weekly. The serial novel fell into… well… novelty. No, more than a novelty. Serials became a thing for antique road shows and pawn stars to get their grubby paws on. Good for the common man, bad for the struggling author.

Continue reading →

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Feb 22 2012
2 Comments
book review, Entertainment, fantastic points of ignorance, literature, The Writing Life, Writing

The Thinker’s Thesaurus

We like words here, don’t we?

Chuh-huh… yeah! That’s why today’s fantastic point of ignorance goes out to all of you wordsmiths, literators, storyweavers and spelling bee champions out there. I asked for free stuff this Christmas, things like carols and cider and snow cones and oral stories involving hearts five sizes too small but my Grandma’s a gift giver like most of my family. She bought me a copy of The Thinker’s Thesaurus.

Touché, granny. Touché.

Here’s the thing, I’m a recovering academic. I root out ivory tower talk when it rears it’s out-of-touch head. I also doubt I’ll be publishing a story, a non-fiction feature or even a poem in the New Yorker any time soon. Though I’m an avid reader, they’d scoff at my work if it ever managed (against all odds) to land a manuscript on their desks. Because of these disqualifications, I find little practical use for such a book as The Thinker’s Thesaurus.

Don’t even care.

Continue reading →

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