The Cuckleburr Times » writing

How to Improve Your Writing – Constructing Main Plots and Sub Plots

Merrill Heath — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 03:26:19 +0000

Have you ever considered how the plots were constructed in your favorite novels? Do you look for formulas or plot structure in the novels you read? If you’re a writer, do you diagram your plots so you know when to focus on the main plot (MP), character development (CD), or your subplots (SP1, SP2)?

I think most authors say they don’t use a formula or plan their plots out in too much detail. They say things like “It’s too restrictive, limits creativity, even takes the fun out of writing. If it becomes overly structured it’s too much like writing a term paper or a book report instead of a novel.”

Well, this may or may not be true. That probably depends on the writer’s personality, experience, talent, and so forth. One thing is for sure – the authors who churn out one novel after another have a structure they follow. It may be subconscious, but it’s there nonetheless. You can prove this by diagramming a couple of their novels. They follow a pattern that moves from main plot to subplots, back and forth, in such a way that you don’t get lost or forget what’s going on. As I said, the really experienced writers just kind of know to do this and don’t need to keep the structure in mind. But the beginner or novice generally needs help keeping everything running smoothly. The good news is that it’s really easy to do and can even help you avoid getting blocked. Let’s look at some numbers to illustrate the point.

By industry standards, a novel is 50,000 words or more. The word count varies tremendously but most popular fiction runs about 250 pages in print. That computes to roughly a 300 page manuscript. With an average word count of 250 per page in manuscript format this computes to 75,000 words. Obviously, these are rough estimates since these numbers can greatly vary depending on the amount of dialogue, descriptive content, paragraph length, etc. But these are good averages to work with. Plus, the math is easy.

Within all those words the writer has to develop his characters, throw them into some kind of situation or plot, and add some additional material which will be one or more subplots. A good rule of thumb for allocation is 65-25-10. 65% devoted to the main plot (MP). 25% devoted to subplot one (SP1). 10% devoted to subplot two (SP2). If we continue with our math this breaks down to 48,750 words (195 pages) devoted to MP; 18,750 words (75 pages) for SP1; and 7,500 words (30 pages) for SP2. Character development occurs throughout and is generally not included as a separate word/page count.

The key is to concentrate on MP while weaving SP1 and SP2 into the storyline without getting too sidetracked. You don’t want to be away from any of your plots so long that the reader forgets what’s going on. In creating the structure you can actually map it out, chapter by chapter. You want to loop back to your SPs every four or five chapters, depending on how long your chapters are. This not only gives you some direction on what you need to be working on next, it also helps you keep the action connected.

One more point about structure. You can work on each plot separately if that works for you. Then you simply go back and weave them all together. This is a great option if you find yourself with writer’s block. If you’re bogged down with MP, write for a few days on SP1 or SP2. This also helps you come up with twists and turns and foreshadowing and hooks that will keep your reader turning pages.

The next time you read a novel, or watch a movie for that matter, look for the MP and SPs. The MP will be the major conflict that drives the story. One SP will deal with a relationship, usually romantic, in which the main character is involved. The other SP will be a device for character development, typically it involves a little humor and levity, and may not be directly tied into the MP. It will be very evident if you look for it.

Merrill Heath is an author who has a strong desire to “pay it forward” by helping other authors improve their craft. For more information on his novels and current projects visit his blog at: http://merrillheath.wordpress.com

Once you finish writing your story, consider eBook publishing services to distribute your work worldwide.

How to Gather Information Like a Journalist

A Guest Article Writer — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:08:31 +0000

Journalists don’t just write. For feature writers, composing an article is just the car drive home from the airport after a complicated trip overseas. Before you can roll out a brilliant story, you must put more effort into gathering information than you ever thought necessary. That doesn’t just apply to journalistic feature writing, however. The journalistic techniques of gathering and organizing information can help any kind of writer.

PRECISE RESEARCH

When researching your topic, go straight to the source. The President of the company or the main character’s great-niece’s friend’s famous cousin may look fancy or make your piece seem more official, but they are usually not the ones most directly involved in the situation. You want accuracy and depth, not fancy titles. Find the guy who was out walking his dog when the escaped monkey ran past him, don’t just talk with the zoo owner.

Interview Lists

If you plan to write a feature story about a man who runs a doughnut shop, you might want to make an interview list that looks something like this:

· His family

· His employees

· His favorite customers

· Neighboring shop owners

· The postman who brings the mail into his store every day

· His colleagues in the chamber of commerce small business association

Once you start gathering information from these people, you can build out your interview list based on what they tell you and different angles you decide to pursue.

Rabbit Trails

Have you ever been searching for something on the Internet and saw something interesting on the side that you wanted to click? And once you clicked it, you saw something else interesting to click? Before you know it, you’re on a massive rabbit trail of related topics, and you don’t even know how to get back to your original page. That habit usually gets in the way of normal productivity, but use it to your advantage when researching information for your topic. I often find new angles and additional information this way, so click around and explore.

THOROUGH INTERVIEWS

Some people hate interviews so much that they ask the necessary questions and get out of there as soon as possible. This is rarely successful. Asking just the “necessary” questions can only result in a mediocre, lifeless article. It can be awkward to phone a complete stranger, ask to meet up and proceed to ask extremely personal questions, but if you really want good information, you can’t settle for the canned answers to a few questions. You have to draw out the human-interest side by getting beyond your question list.

Questions

My most successful interview strategy was to bring just a few questions with me to make sure I didn’t forget to clarify a few holes in the story I was working on. Beyond that, I just let the person talk, asking leading questions based on whatever they were telling me. That’s how you get relevant information. The person involved in the story knows more about the topic than you do as a writer, so what is significant to them should become significant to you.

An important thing to remember is to be patient. It never fails – I’m finished asking questions, I’m getting up to leave and the interviewee says the most poignant, relevant, helpful, clarifying comment of the entire conversation. Be listening for that. Don’t shut off the “interviewing mode” until you have officially packed up and left or you will miss those glittering gems. People sometimes clam up while they’re being interviewed, so when it looks like you are finished, the pressure goes away.

Scope

This technique can apply to literary writing as well, because you have to get information from people before you can write an excellent piece. If you rely solely on your own personal knowledge and some Internet or book research, your piece will lack depth and come across as one-dimensional. Never settle for simply gathering the necessary information. Find all the information you can possibly come across. Once you understand the broader scope, you can more accurately narrow the focus from there.

BUILD A BETTER STORY

Whether you’re working on a novel or you’re trying to improve your investigative political blog, every writer should know how to effectively gather information. Once you have more information than you think you need, you are far less likely to get trapped in a rut or hit writer’s block. With such a wide pool of information from which to draw, it will be much easier to form your story and write something colorful where readers can almost experience the drama themselves.

Article by Hannah Daniel. Hannah writes for a dental blog backed by 1Dental.com, which offers affordable dental plans nationwide. She enjoys keeping people up to date on dental news and helping them save money on dental care. She uses her background in journalism to influence her writing style.

Book Excerpt: Spilling the Beans on the Cat’s Pajamas: Popular Expressions — What They Mean and How We Got Them

A Book Excerpt Author — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:50:11 +0000

This book excerpt is entitled Snug as a Bug In A Rug and comes from Spilling the Beans on the Cat’s Pajamas: Popular Expressions — What They Mean and How We Got Them by Judy Parkinson.

Snug as a Bug in a Rug.

A whimsical and comfortable comparison dating from the eighteenth century, although a “snug” is a sixteenth-century word for a parlor in an inn.

The phrase is usually credited to Benjamin Franklin, who wrote it in 1772 as an epitaph for a pet squirrel that had belonged to Georgiana Shipley, the daughter of his friend, the Bishop of St. Asaph.

Franklin’s wife had sent the Shipleys the gray squirrel as a gift from Philadelphia, and they named him Skugg, a common nickname for squirrels at the time. Tragically, he escaped from his cage and was killed by a dog. Franklin wrote:

Here Skugg
Lies snug
As a bug
In a rug.

However, there are earlier uses, as in a celebration of David Garrick’s 1769 Shakespeare festival. Seen printed in the Stratford Jubilee:

If she [a rich widow] has the mopus’s [money], I’ll have her, as snug as a bug in a rug.

And there are several similar variations from which the phrase may have sprung. In 1706, Edward Ward wrote in The Wooden World Dissected:

He sits as snug as a bee in a box.

And in Thomas Heywood’s 1603 play A Woman Killed with Kindness, there is:

Let us sleep as snug as pigs in pease-straw.

The above is an excerpt from the book Spilling the Beans on the Cat’s Pajamas: Popular Expressions — What They Mean and How We Got Them by Judy Parkinson. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Judy Parkinson is a graduate of Bristol University. She is a producer of documentaries, music videos, and commercials, and won a Clio award for a Greenpeace ad. Parkinson has published four books and has contributed to a show of life drawings at the Salon des Arts, Kensington.

For more information, please visit www.rdtradepublishing.com or follow the series on Facebook.

Finding the Funny for Non-Comedians

A Guest Article Writer — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:24:51 +0000

“How do you FIND the humor?” is the question I’m asked a lot because I think most people would like to add humor to their communications – written and verbal – but they just don’t know where to look. As a comedian and comedy writer for the past 17 years, I’ve developed a whole arsenal of places I focus on when coming up with jokes. And the cool thing is, it’s not that hard.

I specialize in comedy shows and humor keynotes for corporations and associations, and for many of the groups I speak to, I’ve never even heard of them (Alfalfa Seed Growers comes to mind). But that doesn’t stop me from writing jokes about them and their industry. Whether you’re speaking AT the event or writing ABOUT the event, there’s humor everywhere! Here’s 5 things I focus on to find the funny wherever I am:

Decorations. Now you don’t want to slam the client who spent hours and big bucks decorating the room, but sometimes you can have a little TASTEFUL fun. I did a show for a hospital in which the centerpieces on the tables were dried flowers. It’s a hospital for crying out loud! So I got ‘em laughing by pointing out “how good can the hospital be if they can’t even keep their plants alive?” Even the CEO loved it! So look at the decorations and ask “why did they choose them?” and “what do they remind you of?” Make mention of it, or describe it in a written piece, and you’ll come up with some funny stuff.

The Agenda. Just because you aren’t familiar with the group or subject, doesn’t mean you can’t joke about it. In fact you have an advantage because you can look at it with a fresh set of eyes. I like to scan the agenda so that I can goof around with the sessions and what they’re learning at the conference. At some of the more technical (read boring) conferences, I kick off with, “I notice you all are wearing name tags. I’m thinking ‘why’. . .it’s not like anyone from the outside is going to try to sneak into these sessions!” It gets a great laugh because they realize just how weird their subject is to the rest of us! Look at the brochure and see what doesn’t make sense to you. . and then bring out that paradox. In addition, I also look for contradictions between sessions, such as the group I spoke to who were sitting in “50 Ways to be Frugal” followed by “Identity Theft”. . . hey, I think I know how to save a buck.

Awards. Sometimes the awards, or the reason they’re giving them, is hilarious – you just need to point out the obvious. At a recent chamber of commerce event, they gave out the “most valuable citizen of the year” award to Sam. I’m thinking ‘How does that make the rest of the audience feel?,’ which led to a fun opening line. . . “Don’t get stuck in a burning building with Sam, because you know who the fire department will rescue first!” I address awards humor more in depth in a recent blog post on my site, but in summary, you can usually have fun with the WHY and the HOW of the awards. Make up some funny reasons why they’re getting it, the weird qualifications they needed to be considered for it, or how it’ll affect their life now that they have it.

Vendors and Sponsors. I always love having fun with the vendors and sponsors because they’ve spent tons of money supporting the event, yet many times they’re just given a quick “thanks” by an unenthusiastic emcee, and maybe a 2 second power point slide acknowledgement. So walk through the exhibit hall to check out who’s represented and read the ads in the conference brochure. Then ask what the products remind you of and why would you use them. At a nursing conference, I noticed that many of the exhibitors were drug companies whose booths listed how their drugs worked on all sorts of private body parts. I realized what it reminded me of, and then had some fun by pointing out that all 7 of George Carlin’s famous “7-words you can’t say on TV” routine were listed on their exhibit booths. As long as you’re not slamming the product or the company, you can joke on them… trust me, the exhibitors and sponsors appreciate it!

Statistics. Are there any fun statistics you know or can find out about the group? I just did a show for an insurance agency in the midwest, and I read that the most stolen car in Wisconsin is the Dodge Caravan. Really? What do you conjure up when you think of owners of this vehicle? Soccer moms! No wonder these women are always in a hurry – I thought it was because they were late for picking up their kids; turns out they’re being chased by the cops! I had all sorts of fun with that one statistic, so find out some true stats and then make up funny reasons around them. If 65% of people like red koolaid, then what do the other 35% like? Or why do they like it or how do they like it. Humor on statistics works 100% of the time!

Using humor in your communications will instantly connect you with your audience and keep them engaged with you so they want to listen/read and come back. And you don’t have to be a comedian to be funny, you just have to pay ATTENTION. . . .and then you’ll keep theirs.

Jan McInnis is a comedian, professional speaker and comedy writer. She’s been featured in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post for her clean humor, and she’s the author of the book “Finding the Funny Fast: How to Create Quick Humor to Connect with Clients, Coworkers and Crowds“. Jan can be reached at www.ComedyWriterBlog.com

Having an Interest in the World

A Guest Article Writer — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:56:31 +0000

This is a guest post by Mike Carter of Artists Inlet Press.

Some stories carry a tightly wound plot which makes for interest. Others present a process. We watch events unfold with no grand design. The characters go about their business inextricably engaged in it. How can such a story hold our interest? Details and allusion and metaphor. Going on a sturdy but thin branch, Steinbeck’s East of Eden reads as a process. Compare Eden to Gone with the Wind to realize the difference. Either way, the source of ideas is generated by his interest in people, in his locale, in the way things work, including the mind. The writer has never lost his curiosity.

The writer is stimulated by thoughts, by observation, and the emotions these lead to. An emotion cannot occur without a first thought. The idea that we should write objectively doesn’t refer to getting the details straight. That’s the common sense of that phrase. But, the practical, and uncommon, meaning of objectivity is writing just what we think. Objectivity involves that transition from detail to the formation of an image, a swirl of them coalescing into an idea much in the same way the interstellar fragments form planets around a star. We are the star, and the fragments are the constant flow of the world’s details into our senses. Through the gravity of our determination, patience, and fortitude we create whole ideas, bodies of the thought, create life. Then comes the arduous process of thought-to-word transfer. And that is another story, non-figuratively speaking.

What we call inspiration, the fuel of the creative process, begins with interest. With “how?” questions, “what if” questions. We can paraphrase Socrates’ statement, “The unexamined life is not worth living” with “The unexamined life is not worth writing.” It is no accident that often writers are seen as quirky. They look beyond what most are content to see. By choice and necessity their views embrace a broader perspective than most. They not only think outside the box but look outside it.

The downside of being this writing person involves the ups-and-downs of translating thoughts into just-so words and then into sentences. The joy comes from that interest in nearly everything, from how ants carry ten times their weight to the way the setting sun flattens onto the horizon. The way Mozart develops five themes simultaneously in his last symphony and the look in a baby’s face at the sight of branches swaying in the wind. The writer lives a fuller life than most, and therefore a better life. We are travelers who enjoy the journey as well as, perhaps more than, the destination.

And it’s not only the details we find fascinating, but the way the myriad, the sparkle, the density of these flows together into our lives. This recognition of processes makes for ideas. We internalize and assimilate them, make them our own and in this way we come to know the world. Our relationship to what we experience develops meaning because we are connected to it. And this world includes the very close and the distant in the mind. It was not so strange that Emily Dickinson saw a universe while rarely leaving her upstairs room. A wide, open mind can embrace a world without traveling. As a photographer told me, if you can’t see a hundred pictures on the way to the mailbox, you just aren’t looking.

And it’s interest, intentional curiosity, that gives us inspiration. We can’t wait for inspiration. Life is too short to waste in such needless folly. It’s like playing a lottery, waiting for a winning number. With free thought and effort, we can reduce the odds. Wonder, childlike gaze, goes a long way to the first sentences of a story or an essay. When the thought of writing seems as promising as walking through an empty warehouse, a stroll through a neighborhood stand of trees with its ten million leaves and all the colors of every rainbow will remedy any writer’s block. At the least, the shimmer of leaves in the slightest wind is more stimulating than the uniformly gray and depressing blank screen of a word processor.

Mike lives in Florida as a retired high school English teacher. He devotes most of his time working on his websites and freelance writing. This becomes a marriage of productivity and convenience because Florida summers tend to keep people inside away from the heat. His writing output tends toward social criticism. Mike’s hero is Jack Kerouac. Visit Mike at Artists Inlet Press.

How to Improve Your Writing – Nobody’s That Perfect

Merrill Heath — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 02:06:44 +0000

Nothing bugs me more than when the hero or heroine in a novel is too perfect. This is a common mistake for novice writers. But it also plagues some writers who should know better. I recently started reading a best-seller by a novelist who has had a bevy of best-sellers and I quit on page 34. That was the point where it became evident that the two main characters were just too perfect. Mind you, these are characters in a series of books, so I must assume this has been going on for some time now. The man was handsome, smart, understanding and romantic, and yet he was a real tough guy who was an expert marksman and a martial arts black belt. The woman was drop-dead gorgeous, in peak physical fitness with the body of a goddess, sexy, sophisticated, brilliant, tough as nails, and also an expert in self-defense. Oh, yeah, and they both were the most ethical and moral people you’ve ever met. It was like the old British TV show The Avengers with Steed and Mrs. Peel. Only it wasn’t tongue-in-cheek like that show. This was a serious novel with main characters that belonged in a comic book.

There are many reasons to avoid making your hero or heroine too perfect but I’ll only touch on a couple – one from the reader’s perspective and one from the writer’s perspective. From the reader’s perspective…they’re boring! A character who has some flaws, is struggling with a personal problem or problems, and has a few wrinkles (both in his psyche as well as his appearance) has more depth, is more realistic, and therefore is much more interesting. We all know people who are too good or too perfect and, even though they may be someone you respect in some ways, I bet they aren’t the people you gravitate toward at a cocktail party. Why would you want to bore your reader with a whole novel about someone like that?

From the writer’s perspective, perfect characters are too restrictive. Why limit yourself? In Robert B. Parker’s series about Jesse Stone, he has a main character who is a recovering alcoholic with a checkered past and a co-dependent relationship with his ex-wife. That gives Parker a couple of ready-made subplots for every novel in this series and a ton of material for character development. You may not be a fan of Parker, but he is a master at character development. He’s able to create interesting characters that can support a series of books without becoming caricatures of themselves. That’s pretty remarkable when you consider he’s written 38 novels in the Spenser series alone.

Think about your favorite characters from the novels you’ve read, the movies you’ve seen, and even the TV shows you watch. I’m quite sure they are not perfect. We all have a tendency to make our main characters above average and someone we can respect and look up to. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t overdo it. Too much of a good thing is just simply that…too much. I love banana pudding. But if I eat too much I don’t want to go near the stuff again for a while. Don’t create characters that are too perfect or your readers will “pass on dessert” next time.

Writing, Values and You – The Mutual Impact

Elizabeth Gates — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 23:18:13 +0000

As a writer, the search for a value system may not seem relevant to you but it is – and not just ‘relevant’, ‘central’. Even if you’re surprised you have any values, the first step as always is to identify them. Let’s see what comes up.

Go with your first responses to the following questions:

1. Do you have a personal belief/philosophy about writing as a public service? What is this?

2. Who does the written word help? When is writing useful? Where can it help? Why does it help? In what forms can it help?

3. Is there any clash between your personal belief about writing and your writing up to this point? What is this?

4. If someone reads/hears what you’ve written, what do you think they would believe your personal writing belief to be?

5. What do you believe to be OK in writing? What do you believe to be not OK in writing? (NB Is this a matter of your taste or a matter of your values?)

6. How much meaning/significance does writing have in your life?

7. What is the value you attach to yourself as a writer?

8. What sort of writer are you? Commercial, Professional, Hobbyist, writing for personal or professional development?

9. Why do you want to engage with an audience in this way?

10. Do you have any spiritual/ethical guidelines or frameworks which influence the way you write?

By now, you will begin to understand what values currently form the building blocks of your own writing philosophy. None of this relates to technical matters. This is all about the essential ‘you’ as a writer.

Now for an exercise on some moral considerations. In the light of what you’ve just been thinking about:

1. Write down 10 values you know apply to your writing

2. Prioritise 5

3. Prioritise 3

4. Draw a coat of arms using symbols (animals, shapes, objects, anything which represents your three ‘values’ etc) identifying these three and providing yourself with a motto which over-arches your writing activity. (Search in a Book of Quotations or make up your own)

5. If you’d find it useful, look at this whenever you settle down to a writing session.

A word about fiction writing!

In non-fiction writing, your theme is explored through your knowledge, experience and your value system. But, even more apparent, in fiction, the way your characters explore the situation you have presented them with will reflect your values. Character is plot and your character’s reactions result in change but any change described in a story you are writing is the result of your character’s reactions within the thematic framework of your values. This is the true purpose of your writing. Even opposing value systems, as expressed by antagonists, serve this end. You are answering your own questions.

Lizzie Gates is a professional writer and writing coach. Her clients include everyone from novelists to experts who want to share their expertise with a lay public. For further information please see her website http://www.lonelyfurrowcompany.com and her blog, http://lizziegates.blogspot.com

Author Interview: Michael Stevens, Author of Fortuna

Kay Elizabeth — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:11:59 +0000

I’m delighted to share here an interview with author Michael R. Stevens about his new book, Fortuna. Michael began his writing career in high school as a music columnist for the Vallejo Times Herald, his hometown newspaper. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley as an English major, he served two years in the U.S. Army’s Berlin Brigade, then began a career in high-tech marketing, first as a writer and later as a creative director and Silicon Valley ad agency executive. Concurrently, he managed the technical development and marketing of two successful software products. At present, Michael is a contributing editor for several high-profile web sites in the technology arena.

In addition to writing, Michael Stevens is a serious amateur musician who has produced four CDs. He lives in Berkeley, California, and at an undisclosed location in Second Life.

Fortuna is his first novel. So on with the interview!

Start to finish, how long did it take to write Fortuna?

Eighteen months.

How did you get the idea?

I learned from NPR that online role-playing games have real economies, just like America or Japan, and I thought that was astonishing. That special sword you need in order to kill a particular dragon? It’s worth actual dollars. You can buy stuff like that on eBay. And if I steal your sword while we’re playing online, you can sue me in a real-world court. That’s already happening in Asia. I was also attracted by the anonymity of these games. How far will people go if no one knows who they are, and their actions have no consequences? Of course, in the book, there are consequences.

Which part of the writing process did you enjoy most? Why?

Like most professional writers, I have a sort of ritual. I write almost exclusively in cafés, usually in the morning. What could be better than to be in a place where there’s a lot of intellectual energy, you get these wonderful caffeinated drinks—maybe a croissant—and then you get to do the same thing Hemingway or Sartre did? By the way, I should say that drinking lots of coffee is arguably the only talent I share with those great writers.

What part of the writing process did you find most challenging? Why?

Dealing with editors! When I worked in advertising, my writing often got edited in ways that harmed the project, and over the years I came to hate that. So I have this automatic negative reaction to the editing process that’s not always fair to the editor.

Did you have to do any special research while writing Fortuna? If so, what did you research and how did you conduct the research?

I read a lot of books about Renaissance Italy and the major houses. Some of it was very detailed, like issues about coinage and interest rates and other business practices. I also studied the paintings. I didn’t have to research the technical stuff. I knew about that by working with dozens of high-tech companies over the years.

Do any of the characters in Fortuna have an autobiographical component? If so, which character, and how are you similar?

The autobiographical components are negligible. I did attend Stanford, and I was an executive in a rather large corporation, and I think that helps give Fortuna an authentic feel. But neither Jason nor his father are stand-ins for yours truly.

How did you get the ideas for the characters in Fortuna? Are any of the characters based on people you know?

I think every character in every novel is based on people the author knows or fragments of people pieced together in new ways. But as far as specific characters in Fortuna, what the lawyers so often recite is true: “any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.”

What do you think is your protagonist, Jason Lind’s, most admirable quality?

He questions things.

What do you think is Jason Lind’s least admirable quality?

Through much of the book, he can’t act with conviction, at least that’s how I see it. He has a little of Hamlet’s fatal hesitation, not that I’m comparing myself with Shakespeare. I think most readers would agree that he should commit more fully to his girlfriend in real life rather than chasing after an online heroine.

How do you think you are most like Jason Lind?

I have always had a question about how I fit into society. I still do.

How do you think you are least like Jason Lind?

Jason wants to plan things. I tend not to look before I leap.

What is your interest in online role-playing games?

For me, online role playing games are like an e-mail or instant messaging service that lets me conveniently connect with people. Second Life also helps me to keep my other languages sharp because, at different times of the day, there are people online from all over the world. The role-playing aspect for me is nil. I am not part of a Gorean clan or anything like that.

What do you think attracts Jason Lind to Fortuna—the escape, or the anonymity it affords him?

The English major in me has to point out that Jason Lind isn’t a person, but a literary creation. Having said that, I think the short answer is escape. In Fortuna, Jason is an adult. In real life—“RL” as gamers say—Jason plays a role that is subordinate to the adults who run things.

What do you think, in general, is the allure that draws people in to online role-playing games?

Romance, sexuality, adventure, and violence are the primary themes of most online role-playing games. It’s sad, but that’s why people play. We live in a lonely, angry society. And online role-playing games give us a chance to have what we feel is missing in our lives anonymously. That removes a lot of inhibitions. A third factor is the lack of consequences. If a woman walks on the wild side and finds herself about to be attacked in a dark alley, she can just press the delete button.

Do you think there’s a real danger in becoming compulsive, such as Jason does, when playing online games?

Yes. There are people who are online eight, ten, twelve hours a day, so yes, the danger is real. At the same time, this may be a good thing for some people, for example, those who are confined to a bed due to chronic illness.

How possible—and plausible—do you think a virtual community such as the one you present in Fortuna is?

There’s no issue of possibility or plausibility. Such virtual communities exist. For example, there is a large online “Gorean” community with villages, costumes, etc., based on the (notorious and trashy) “Gor” novels of John Norman. There are also several such communities revolving around vampire lore. It is amazing to me, I’ll say in passing, how many women seek out the role of virtual slavery in these communities.

As someone with a background in technology, how have you seen gaming evolve over the years? Do you think gaming has changed for the better? Why or why not?

The great leap forward in online gaming communities was the introduction of graphics, which are becoming increasingly realistic as time passes. The older virtual communities were based entirely on text, which combined dialog and what might be called stage directions. (He grasps her by the shoulders and pushes her down onto the bed. She whimpers, “No, please.”) Some say that the text approach has fewer limitations and is more imaginative.

You present a great deal of detail about Renaissance Florence in Fortuna. What is your interest in Renaissance Florence?

Renaissance Florence was the birthplace of the modern global economy. In many ways it was the Silicon Valley of its time. It was also the birthplace of Machiavelli. If our business leaders and politicians would study Renaissance Florence more carefully, we would be much better off as a nation.

Do you intentionally draw parallels between today’s Mafia families and the prominent families of the Renaissance?

Yes. They are quite similar. The style of execution, for example, hasn’t changed at all. Nor has the importance of execution itself as a tactic.

What made you want to write a novel?

Isn’t that the dream of every English major?

Which writers influence and inspire you?

Not very many, and they’re not politically correct. Frank Herbert, the seventies’ science fiction writer. John Updike. Lawrence Durrell and others, I’m sure.

If you could give an aspiring author one piece of advice, what would it be?

I think attending writers’ conferences is very, very helpful, especially when it comes to selling and marketing a novel. It’s really the only way to get a good understanding of what the players are like: the agents, the acquisition editors, even the other writers, who can be friends as well as competitors. Also, aspiring writers should read my blog at www.fortunathebook.com, where I tell all about what it’s like to actually get published.

What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

Somebody once told me that every short story should begin with something like, “Tom Smith glanced at his watch. Eleven thirty. If he didn’t get to the top of the mountain by noon, he’d be dead.” I think particularly today, in the era of short attention spans, each segment of a novel has to be like a short story that keeps people turning the pages. This approach, I should add, does not preclude the exploration of important, complex questions.

The worst?

“Writing is re-writing.” I say, get it right the first time. If your work needs a lot of editing, you’re not very good.

What do you hope readers will take away from Fortuna?

I hope readers are led to question some of their romantic visions of what human societies are like, and to take a new look at Machiavelli’s vision. I don’t mean that it’s a good idea to simply kill your enemies—it’s not!—but other aspects of his work have relevance, particularly in U.S. foreign policy and also in understanding the problems that plague inner cities.

What’s next for Michael Stevens? Any other books in the works?

My next project is a novel of industrial espionage set in Berlin, 1923, during the Weimar Republik and before the rise of Hitler. The working title is “U,” which is the chemical symbol for uranium.

Fortuna is available from all good bookstores, including Amazon, now.

Many thanks to Michael and also to Maryglenn at OceanView Publishing for allowing us to share this interview! – Ed.

10 Ways to Increase Your Writing Productivity

Lee Masterson — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:05:17 +0000

Have you ever wondered how some writers manage to churn out so much material in such a short amount of time?

It seems these amazingly prolific authors do nothing else with their lives but write. They would have to in order to produce the sheer volume of work that leaves their desks, wouldn’t they?

Not necessarily.

The key to increasing your productivity is to fully utilize your allotted writing time by writing your already-planned material first. You do have an allotted time scheduled for your writing, don’t you?

Maybe we’d better skip straight to the tips then.

Here are the top ten ways to increase your writing productivity today…

10 – Time Management
Create a weekly time-table for yourself. Be honest about how much time you can afford to set aside purely for writing without distraction. This time is NOT to be used for reading or researching. This is pure creative writing time. Stick to this time-table as rigorously as you can.

9 – Read
Read everything. Read books you’ve read before because you love them. Read really bad books. Read outside your usual genre. Read advertisements on cereal boxes. You’ll quickly learn what makes a story or article memorable and how to spot a lemon at 500 paces. Just read.

8 – Plan
Always have a basic idea of what you will write before you sit down to the task. Think about this in the car (or bus) on the way home. Create the upcoming conflict while you are in the shower. Talk over the impending scene at dinner (and if you are alone, tell the dog/cat/plant – it doesn’t matter!) However you arrange it, by the time you sit down to write it, the scene will be almost perfected in your mind. Writers block cannot exist if you’ve already planned what you are going to write.

7 – Deadline
Set yourself a realistic, yet strict deadline. If you are writing an article, set your deadline for the day after you anticipate finalizing the research. No excuses. If you are writing a longer piece, be aware of your own limitations, but don’t be so lenient on yourself that you procrastinate forever.

6 – Pressure
Put yourself under pressure. Nobody creates their best work under pressure, but it will be enough to get a completed draft finished. You can always revise and perfect it later, but get it done first. Set that deadline, then email your friends and call your family. Tell them what project you are working on. Tell them when you plan to have it ready. Then tell them they must call you (or email you) on that day to read your efforts. If you have not completed this task, they are allowed to tease/taunt/chide you until your ears burn. That’s pressure! And accountability, which is a key motivator.

5 – Ideas
Keep a file or notepad of ideas that strike you. Take it with you everywhere you go and write down every little thing that seems interesting. It might not fit into the story you are working on, but it just may inspire something else later on.

4 – Multi-Task
Never work on only one project at a time. This sounds like the easiest way to distract yourself, but it works. The mind is a strange creature. If you actively begin three projects at once, then anytime your mind refuses to cooperate with one storyline or character situation, switch to a short story or article instead.

3 – Edit
Be ruthless. Remember, you’re on a deadline here, so cut your beloved words to the bone, where the real story is hiding beneath all that flowery prose. Be sure your character’s eyes are the same color at the end as they were at the beginning. Check that your plot makes some kind of sense, and know when to throw out words you love. You can always put them into the ‘ideas file’ and re-use them later, so don’t panic.

2 – Submit
There is no point in writing if you are never going to submit it to the judgmental eyes of a complete stranger. So do a little homework, find a suitable market for your piece and send it out the door. Not tomorrow, but now. It’s written, edited and polished, so it’s no good to you sitting in the bottom drawer. If it is rejected, send it back out. A rejection is not personal. It’s an editor’s way of telling you they already spent their budget this month. Send it to someone with better money sense.

And The Number One way to Increase Your Productivity is…

1 – Write More
Silly isn’t it? But it is true. Switch off the television. Put the kids to bed a little earlier. Get out of bed an hour earlier. Take a pocket-recorder with you in the car. Jot things down in your lunch-break. Pretend to have a tummy-bug and lock yourself in the bathroom for an hour (this works!!) Take a notepad to bed with you instead of a book. Stop surfing the net and open a new word-processing file.

But write more.

Lee Masterson is a freelance writer from South Australia. She is also the editor of Fiction Factor – a free online magazine for writers, offering tips and advice on getting published, articles to improve your writing skills, heaps of writer’s resources and much more.

How an Agent or Publisher Evaluates a Manuscript

Robert L. Bacon — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:47:34 +0000

I contacted Kay Elizabeth recently about several issues, one of which was my desire to provide an article with exclusive content for The Cuckleburr Times, and another was to make a formal offer to her readers via my editorial service, The Perfect Write®, of a free first-chapter (up to 5000 words) manuscript critique, along with a line edit of the first three pages (if applicable). Should this interest anyone, I’ll explain where to send your material at the end of this article.

I asked Kay for suggestions on a topic. She mentioned that–once authors submit material–the ensuing wait during the evaluation process can often be almost too much to bear, and writers might appreciate learning what agents and publishers consider when making a determination whether or not to accept a manuscript. I thought this was a great subject to write about, and I hope the information that follows will be of some benefit.

While there are Many Vagaries in the Publishing Industry, Certain Writing Elements are Scrutinized in Similar Ways

We all are aware of the standard disclaimer that accompanies any rejection. It states that this was the agent or publisher’s opinion and should be regarded as highly subjective. And while this is 100% true, there are certain areas that are not speculative, and these encompass the physical appearance of the text, proper grammar, prudent use of punctuation, fluency of the prose, and the perceived viability of the project from a marketing perspective. Here is an explanation of each element in the order I listed, but the chronology should not be construed as indicative of the level of importance of each.

Appearance

Yes, this counts. And in a big way. Every agent or publisher or editor I know demands double-spaced material. Most also prefer two spaces after a period (and colon). In addition to being easier on the eyes, double line-spacing enables room for annotations, while also providing the needed area to make revisions. On a peripheral subject, I prefer reading text on the printed page, and I also initially edit a manuscript by manually making changes to the hard copy. This means that I routinely print out the drafts that are E-mailed to me, and I can assure everyone that I’m not alone with respect to how I work.

Now a word about the double space after a period, which seems to confuse many people. The reason for this is the same as the double line-space, since it enables more white space to facilitate a revision should this involve punctuation or moving a clause from one location to another. What seems to make the double space at the end of a period hard for many to accept is because of the way finished material is printed. Final copy is not treated in the same manner as submission material. A book always has justified margins, for example, yet no one should ever submit a draft laid out this way, since added spaces after words indicate a typing error.

There are numerous other issues regarding manuscript submission appearance, and you can click this link if you’d like to read a detailed article I wrote on effective manuscript formatting. The final issue I want to cover in this subsection involves page numbering. It’s a must! Yet I cannot tell you how many drafts I receive that are unnumbered. If anyone should ignore everything I’ve written in this article about how a text should appear, or what I cover in the full article on manuscript formatting, please pay attention to the way to lay out a template in the top-left corner of a manuscript.

Grammar

Someone asked me recently how much material I need to read to determine if a person can write. Believe it or not, sometimes it only requires a sentence or two. I read this line recently: The arm was tortuously bent and in great pain. First, the writer meant to use the word torturously, since a meaning for tortuously is bent, and the tautology of bent “bent” is certainly not what the author had intended. Second, an arm itself cannot be in great pain. It’s the person who is in pain. But even if I’m nitpicking and an arm can in fact be torturously bent, this was followed by telling me again in the same short sentence that the arm was in great pain. A short while ago I had a writer thank me for expediently getting to his material. He meant expeditiously, as in quickly, or at least I hope he did, since expediently means to reach an end result by whatever means necessary.

In taking a look at a draft, every agent, publisher or editor knows that no matter how careful a writer might be, mistakes occur. So I’m not ragging on a typo, which everyone makes, and we all get so close to our work that even the most obvious rudimentary error can often elude us. Yet all of these issues become mute when it comes to the use of the wrong words, improperly modified antecedents, dangling or misplaced participles, sentence fragments, repetition, and choppy prose. And these are just some of the bugbears that can cause a manuscript to be rejected.

Punctuation

Readability should be job number one for any writer. And nothing can inhibit fluent prose more acutely than the overuse of various punctuation elements. For me, in fiction writing there are three basic troublemakers: the exclamation point, the parentheses, and the semi-colon.

Exclamation points should be used sparingly, very sparingly. Click this link for an article I wrote on exclamation points. And click this link for an article I wrote on why a parentheses should never be used in fiction. Semi-colons are a wonderful tool, but for mainstream fiction they too should be kept to a minimum. They tend to slow the pace, since the reader inherently has to consider the reason the semi-colon was inserted in the text. What I just wrote may make no sense, but read a sentence with a semi-colon and then ask yourself if it didn’t stop you to consider why it was utilized.

Simply stated, if an agent or publisher notices an abundance of exclamation points, semi-colons, or the use of a parentheses, this can signal a draft’s early grave.

Fluency of the Prose

I facilitate writer’s workshops sponsored by the local library system in the county in South Florida where I reside. And in my series overview I state that the purpose of my programs is to provide an understanding of what is required to write fluent prose at a level which would be appealing to a major royalty publisher.

The smoothness of a narrative is paramount if an agent or publisher is going to accept material. Should a draft read rough, it’s going to be put down, and the odds of it being resurrected are comparable with the numbers for getting hit by a meteorite.

The timeworn adage of reading material out loud is still the best way I know to determine the fluency of what we write. And to take this one step further, if a writer can get someone else to read a draft out loud the first time that person has seen the material, this is a fantastic way to get a true feeling for the fluency of the text. When the reader stumbles (and he or she will), make note of the problem areas–and revise them!

Viability of the Project

Here is perhaps the most difficult pill for any writer to swallow. A friend of mine who was published by a major imprint some years ago had a recent manuscript rejected because it was felt that it would be just another midlist work. Every publisher wants one thing: the next big book. For an author with an established readership that guarantees bankable numbers, this is not an issue, but for a previously unpublished writer, or someone like my friend who had been out of the mainstream for a while, this thinking presents serious problems.

Many other issues can affect a publisher’s decision, among them that one author’s plot might be too close to something recently published by the same house. Or the genre is not quite right. You can click this link for an article of mine that provides a detailed explanation on how important genre is to publishing decisions. In another critical area of contention, the publisher could feel that a book is just not a good platform, which means there might not be enough of a perceived market for a specific plot line. I can think of nothing more frustrating than writing a perfectly good story and having it rejected for any of the reasons I just cited, but these are factual examples of why some very fine manuscripts never make it into print.

There are Other Issues

This article is by no means inclusive of everything agents, publishers, and editors look at when evaluating a manuscript. All of the issues would result in a tome. And there are scores of books in print that discuss in much greater detail the various aspects of what I’ve truly just touched on. Two elements I didn’t cover in this piece were dialogue and dialogue punctuation. It would’ve made this article twice the size of what it is now.

But let me just mention that some publishers go right to the dialogue before reading the first line of exposition. If it’s good, they read on; if not, the draft is put down. And I get a lot of material with improperly punctuated dialogue. For a general overview of dialogue, a very good treatment can be found in the dialogue section of SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS, by Browne and King (I strongly suggest reading the “Easy Beats” subsection twice). And even though it’s a load in more ways than its sheer bulk, THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE is in my opinion the quintessential resource as a medium for illustrating how to punctuate dialogue.

Free Opening Chapter Critique and Three-Page Line Edit

As I stated in the opening, The Perfect Write® is expanding its service to authors by providing a free critique of a manuscript’s opening chapter (up to 5000 words) and, if applicable, a free line-edit of the first three pages. The material should be double spaced, with the pages numbered, and everything must be pasted to the body of an E-mail (no attachments will be opened) and sent to theperfectwrite@aol.com.

I’ll let each of you know about lead time when I see how much material I receive and where your material fits in the queue. I do all the work myself and I thankfully have a backlog of paying clients, so I ask that everyone be a little patient. I will get to you.

Also, if anyone would like to receive my free Newsletter from The Perfect Write® that focuses on writing prose at a publishable level, it is sent every-other-Tuesday, and you can subscribe by clicking this link, which will take you to the home page of my web site at theperfectwrite.com. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and fill out the simple two-step sign-up form. You will be sent an opt-in link, and when you click it, or paste it to your address bar and click enter, this completes the process.

Article by Robert L. Bacon.

This is the price you pay for perfection

A Guest Article Writer — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:32:35 +0000

“You are a strange man, Ludovico,” complained Alessandra Benucci. “You say that you love me, but you care as little for me as you do for your career.” Ludovico Ariosto looked out of the window and did not reply immediately.

His new job as governor of Lucca was difficult and his salary meagre, but the beauty of Tuscany never ceased to astonish him whenever he looked outside. “Sometimes, you have to slow down to prepare yourself for a long run,” answered Ludovico, shrugging his shoulders. “Anyway, at this moment, this was the only job I could get.”

“But you promised that we would get married soon,” went on Alessandra, walking up to him and setting her hand on his shoulder. It was June of 1516 and, in three months, Ludovico would be 42 years old. He turned around to face Alessandra and saw his promises reflected in her eyes.

“I am just asking you to have a little patience, my love,” he said, taking in a deep breath. “We will be married as soon as I have saved enough money to lead a proper life.” How often had he tried to explain that to her? A hundred or a thousand times, it didn’t matter.

Ludovico had changed jobs often, always moving forward, working endless days only to be able to devote his nights to his passion. After years of efforts, he had just completed his poem Orlando Furioso, although he was still planning to make some revisions.

“You should just let it go as it is now, Ludovico,” exhorted Alessandra. “Your poem is more than good, it is even more than wonderful! It is high time for you to forget about it and work on something else. Why don’t you write a Venetian comedy to please the Bishop? Or a song dedicated to the Duke?”

During the following eight years, Ludovico saved as much money as he could from his small salary. Shortly after his 50th birthday, he fulfilled his promise and married Alessandra. The couple purchased a small farm near Ferrara and retired to live there.

When Ludovico Ariosto’s poem Orlando Furioso was published, only eighty six copies were printed. During his retirement in the farm, his revisions of the poem never ceased. It is believed that he rewrote parts of it at least two hundred times.

Little by little, the reputation of Orlando Furioso began to grow. By the time Ludovico was 57 years old, his poem had been already reprinted many times and was already considered the work of a genius. Ludovico, nevertheless, continued to make new revisions one after the other. After his death, Alessandra Benucci published the final version. It was absolutely perfect.

Article by JOHN VESPASIAN. John writes about rational living and is the author of the books “When everything fails, try this” and “Rationality is the way to happiness.” He has resided in New York, Madrid, Paris and Munich. His stories reflect the values of entrepreneurship, tolerance and self-reliance. See http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com a blog about rational living.

P.S. Editor’s Note: you can read an English translation of this epic poem online here.

Finding Your Buffalo

A Be My Guest Author — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 05:22:33 +0000

This Be My Guest Author Article is by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, author of the book Rebel Buddha, which is scheduled for release in November 2010.

There is a story about a farmer who owns a buffalo. Not knowing that the buffalo is in its stable, the farmer goes off to search for it, thinking it has strayed from home. Starting off on his search, he sees many different buffalo footprints outside his yard. The footprints of buffalo are everywhere! The farmer then thinks, “Which way did my buffalo go?” He decides to follow one set of tracks and they lead him up into the high mountains, but he doesn’t find his buffalo there. Then he follows another set of footprints that lead way down to the ocean.

However, when he reaches the ocean, he still doesn’t find his buffalo. His buffalo is not in the mountains or at the beach. Why? Because it is back home in the stable in his yard.

Like the farmer, we search for happiness and peace of mind outside ourselves. We search for freedom from our troubles high up in the mountains, at pristine, beautiful beaches, and in the serenity of retreat settings. In all of these places, there are footprints everywhere, signs of like-minded seekers searching for happiness and a more enlightened existence. In the end, you might find traces of the contentment and illumination they realized. What you will not find, however, is the one thing you are looking for — your own happiness, peace of mind, and enlightened nature. You may find someone else’s version of it, but it is not the same as finding your own.

No matter how much you may admire and long for the happiness and freedom of mind you perceive in someone else, whether it’s a great spiritual master, a bestselling self-help guru, or a true, modern-day hero or heroine, finding your own wakefulness, your own enlightenment within, is much different. It is like finding your own buffalo. Your buffalo recognizes you and you recognize your buffalo. The moment you meet your own buffalo is a very emotional and joyful moment.

In order to make our own discoveries, we have to start right here where we are. We have to search inwardly rather than outwardly. From the Buddhist point of view, ultimate happiness — the state of freedom, or enlightenment — is within our minds and has been from beginningless time. Like our buffalo comfortably resting in its stable, ultimate happiness has never left us, although we have developed the idea that it has left home. We think it is somewhere outside and we have to find it. With so many footprints leading in different directions, so many possibilities for where it could be, we may start to imagine things. We could think that it was stolen by a neighbor and is gone forever. We start to have all kinds of misconceptions and mistaken beliefs.

From the Buddhist point of view, there is nothing within our ordinary life that we need to reject or leave behind, and the state of enlightenment is not a place we go to from here. It is not a place that is found outside of where we are right now. If you wanted to find a perfect get-away from all your stress and unhappiness, where and how far would you go? To the other side of the world, to the International Space Station, or just the nearest bar? Your body would be somewhere else, but still, you would be taking your stressed, unhappy mind with you. What we are actually trying to leave behind is the mind’s confusion, which keeps us from being happy. It is how our minds function when we are in those mountains, at the beach, at work or at home, that determines whether we are happy or unhappy, awake in our life or sleeping through it.

According to the Buddha, the actual point of all our efforts on the spiritual path is simply to return to the state of complete wakefulness, which is the true nature of our minds. Our minds are brilliantly clear and aware naturally, but that brilliant wakefulness is hidden from our view by clouds of confusion. These clouds are caused primarily by the turbulence of our thoughts and emotions. There is so much commotion going on in our minds that our view of who we are and what the world is like is distorted.

If that’s the case, then how can we recognize the wakeful nature of our minds? The Buddha taught many methods of meditation, which bring stability, peace, and clarity to our agitated minds. Through the practice of meditation, we begin to relax; we feel like we’re waking up and coming to our senses. It’s a very ordinary, but profound, experience that deepens over time and transforms our view of life. When we start to work with our mind in meditation, there’s a sense of effort, but as we go along, it becomes more effortless. A good example of this is a bird taking off from the ground. When the bird wants to fly, it first has to run a little bit and then push down against the ground, so it can leap up into the space of the sky.

So long as we are looking outside of ourselves, there is no place to go, no end of the road, where we will one day find perfect happiness. Ultimately, the awake and peaceful mind that we are looking for is with us right now, in this very moment. We don’t have to pack our bags or follow someone else’s trail to discover the true nature of our mind — the buddha within us. That buddha is always within our reach.

Do you see it? Where are you looking for your buffalo?

© 2010 Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is a widely celebrated teacher known for his skill in making the full richness of Buddhist wisdom accessible to modern minds. A lover of urban culture, Rinpoche enjoys writing poetry and creating art of various kinds in his leisure time. Based in the United States for the past 20 years, he devotes much of his energy to his vision of a genuine American, and Western, Buddhism, free from the cultural trappings that sometimes distort the Buddha’s essential message of wakefulness. Born in 1965 in northeast India, Rinpoche received comprehensive training in the meditative and intellectual disciplines of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism under the guidance of many of the greatest masters from Tibet’s final pre-exile generation. Among the many organizational roles he juggles, he is the founder and principal teacher of Nalandabodhi, an international network of Buddhist practice centers. His latest book is Rebel Buddha (Shambhala Publications) forthcoming in November 2010. For more information please visit Rinpoche on Facebook, Twitter and his Website.

What Makes a Book a Best-Seller?

Melinda Copp — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:45:36 +0000

Everyone has at least one book in them-I firmly believe that. But bookstore shelves are packed with titles, all competing for readers’ attention. So how can you tell if your book idea is ready for the competitive publishing business? The key is to target your market and zero in on an unfilled need. Because, yes, the shelves are packed with books-but trust me, there’s plenty of room for you and your book, as long as you can shape your idea into a winning concept. You can use the following strategies to help hone your book idea.

Define Your Book’s Purpose in One Concise Statement You’ve probably heard of an elevator speech-an intriguing statement about what you do that can be delivered in about a minute. Your book needs one of those, too-a brief, one-sentence statement of the book topic and big-picture benefit readers will gain from it.

Consider your book’s topic. What is your book really about? How will your book benefit your readers? What problems will it solve? If you want to write a creative work, what impact will your story have on your readers?

Be as specific as possible, such as, “My book will help people live within their means and eliminate credit card debt for good.” Distilling your book topic and benefits into one concise statement will give your book the direction it needs to stand out.

Define Your Target Audience As a writer, the most important person in your professional life is your reader. You have to know your audience, their concerns, their challenges, and their needs. So think about who you’re writing your book for. Who needs/wants the information in your book?

Keep in mind that you can’t be all things to all people, so “everyone” is not an appropriate audience. You need to target a specific market with a specific need that you know how to fill. Going back to the previous example, if you’re writing a book about how to live within your means, your audience is people who are carrying significant credit card or “bad” debt. This is still a huge audience, but it isn’t “everyone.”

Regardless of what topic you plan to write about, you should take time to get a sense of the market. Consider how well books on topics similar to yours have sold in the past, and talk to your clients about whether or not they would buy the book you’re thinking about writing. Writing according to market demands will only help your book sell.

Know Your Competition, and Say Something New If you know what’s been written about your topic, then you’ll know how to write it better. To find out what books yours will be competing with, go to Amazon.com and search your book topic. What titles come up? Have your read these titles? What will make your book different? How is your book better? What gives your book an edge over the others? Also consider reading a few of the titles-if not all-just to see how the other authors handled the material.

Melinda Copp helps aspiring self-help, business, and nonfiction authors write and publish books that establish expertise, attract clients and opportunities, and share their message in a compelling way. Visit http://www.writerssherpaprograms.com/writeabook.html for a free copy of her Write Your Book Quick-Start Mini E-course.

Book Review: The Shimmer by David Morrell

Kay Elizabeth — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:19:57 +0000

The Shimmer (Vanguard Press, ISBN 9781593155377, Hardcover, 352pp) is an engrossing and suspense packed thriller from the pen of Rambo creator, David Morrell. Set in and around the fictional Rostov, Texas, The Shimmer‘s about mysterious lights in the sky near the small town. Are they so much more than they appear to be or just some geological anomaly as some think? An out of town policeman’s search to discover their source unveils centuries old sightings, hidden government projects and that his marriage is suddenly in turmoil.

There’s action from the story’s outset. Dan Page, our Santa Fe cop, witnesses from the air the fatal end to a disastrous car chase he’s involved in. After the debriefing, he quits for the day. Upon arrival home, he finds his wife Tori has disappeared. Page finds her eventually outside the small town of Rostov, sitting almost catatonic at an observation deck in the middle of nowhere. Tori tells Page she’s watching for the mysterious Rostov Lights she remembers from childhood. Page, understandably upset and confused about what’s going on with his wife and her reasons for her sudden departure, is even more so when he sees the impact these lights have upon her.

Crowds come from miles around hoping to catch a glimpse of the unexplained phenomena. What’s unusual about these stunningly beautiful lights is that not everyone sees them, even when standing shoulder to shoulder. Those who do experience different reactions to the sighting. Some may feel a euphoria, while others can feel a rage. What is it about these lights that creates such a wide spectrum of emotion and this overriding compulsion to always be close to their mystical luminosity? No one has ever come close to solving their existence. But when a deranged man fires a rifle into the lights as the crowd gathered at the viewing platform one night, Page becomes more deeply embroiled in finding out.

I enjoyed The Shimmer very much and this fast-paced mystery’s intricacies. Thanks to the presence of comprehensively developed characters, the lights shine in more ways than one for the reader and from many perspectives. There’s Brent Loft, a small station TV reporter who sees the slaughter not as a tragedy but as his ticket to the big networks; the secretive and callous Colonel Raleigh who protects his long forgotten research base and its workings at any cost; and the Rostov townsfolk with tales of the lights that span decades.

No matter which one of Morrell’s characters you are reading about at any given moment, the light’s power over its uninformed witnesses grows and matures in your mind just as they do. Some smaller character roles are played in The Shimmer but none are insignificant, each weaving another thread in the mysterious lights’ history and their wide reaching effects. This attention to detail, a hallmark of David Morrell’s writing, adds a three-dimensional vividness and depth to the lights that slimmer descriptions could never have achieved.

David Morrell has hit the New York Times bestseller list more times than I’ve had hot dinners and his success is well deserved. Incredible as it sounds, Morrell’s first novel, First Blood, was published way back in 1972. Many of my generation will remember this as the thriller that introduced us to John Rambo, the movie of which starred Sylvester Stallone. Morrell’s skills as a master craftsman of mystery and thrillers certainly haven’t diminished over time. With excellent characterization, an unusual plot line and a believable setting that’s based loosely on real life happenings in a real small Texas town, Morrell has created in The Shimmer a thriller that’s intense, thought provoking and exciting all at once.

I don’t want to give too much away. Suffice to say that The Shimmer makes you wonder upon completion of this book how those lights would have affected you and that thought doesn’t fade easily from your mind.

With eighteen million copies of his books in print and in twenty six languages, David Morrell reigns supreme as a thriller writer extraordinaire. The Shimmer is a cracking good read and Morrell is quite simply a phenomenally good writer. I guarantee you that The Shimmer‘s suspense laden pages will grab you by the throat and not let go until the very end. You won’t be disappointed in this glittering prize of a thriller. Don’t miss it!

Visit David Morrell’s website here.

Kay Elizabeth is the Editor and Co-Owner of The Cuckleburr Times. She always loves to hear from visitors here and especially the authors of books she reviews!

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Punctuating Appositives

David Bowman — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 01:42:47 +0000

Punctuation isn’t complicated once you know what you’re looking at. I see many writers making errors when punctuating appositives. This may be a new term for many folks, so we’ll take a look at what I mean by “appositive,” and then we’ll figure out how to punctuate them correctly.

WHAT’S AN APPOSITIVE?

An appositive is a word or phrase that:

renames something you have written and

can serve the same grammatical function as the word or phrase it renames.

If the word or phrase passes these two tests, it is an appositive.

FIRST EXAMPLE OF AN APPOSITIVE

Here’s a sentence with an appositive. Let’s take a look at the phrase “a harsh and stubborn woman.” Is this an appositive?

The committee chairwoman, a harsh and stubborn woman, scorned the director’s request.

First test: In this sample, the phrase “a harsh and stubborn woman” renames “The committee chairwoman.” It means the same thing. This satisfies the first test.

Second test: “The committee chairwoman” is the subject of this sentence. However, if we leave out this subject, then “a harsh and stubborn woman” will serve as the subject (minus the commas around it). In this way, “a harsh and stubborn woman” can serve the same grammatical function as “the committee chairwoman.” This satisfies the second test.

Another way to perform this test is to leave out one phrase and then the other, resulting in two sentences. If they are both grammatically correct, then the phrase passes the second test. Using this example, we have the following two grammatically correct sentences.

The committee chairwoman scorned the director’s request.

A harsh and stubborn woman scorned the director’s request.

Based on these two tests, the phrase “a harsh and stubborn woman” is an appositive. We say that this phrase is in apposition to “the committee chairwoman.”

SECOND EXAMPLE OF AN APPOSITVE

Here is another sentence with an appositive:

My brother, a violin player, is coming home.

The phrase “a violin player” is an appositive. It is in apposition to “My brother,” and it passes the two tests: 1) it renames “my brother;” 2) it can serve the same grammatical function.

THIRD EXAMPLE OF AN APPOSITIVE

Most appositives follow the word or phrase they rename. Here’s a sentence in which the appositive is before the word it renames.

A streak in the sky, the eagle raced overhead.

The appositive is “a streak in the sky.” It renames “eagle” and can serve the same grammatical function. We can write “The eagle raced overhead” or “A streak in the sky raced overhead.”

HOW DO I PUNCTUATE AN APPOSITIVE?

Now, what are the rules for punctuating appositives? How do you punctuate an appositive? Now that we know what appositives are, let’s figure out how to punctuate them. To answer this question, we first have to decide what type of appositive we are using: non-restrictive or restrictive.

Non-restrictive appositives: By non-restrictive, we mean they are simply renaming something. We are only referring to one thing, a category with only one thing in it. When appositives are non-restrictive, they are set off with commas. The examples above are all non-restrictive.

In the first example above, only one woman is the committee chairwoman. We don’t need to restrict the category to indicate which woman because it only has one woman in it; we’re just providing additional information about that woman. As such, the appositive is set off with commas.

Restrictive appositives: By restrictive, we mean that we have used a name for a broad category with many things in it. We want the reader to know which thing we’re writing about, so we need to restrict the broad category to a narrow category that only contains one thing. When appositives are restrictive, they are not set off with commas.

Here is a sentence with a restrictive appositive:

The belief that he was alone led him to depression.

The restrictive appositive is “that he was alone.” This phrase renames “the belief,” and, as a noun phrase, it can also serve as the subject (though this will sound awkward to native English speakers).

Why is this restrictive? The category “belief” has many things in it (i.e., contains many individual beliefs), and we want to indicate the one belief to which we are referring. We are restricting the broad category to a very narrow category, the broad category of beliefs to the narrow category of belief that he was alone. As such, this appositive is not set off with commas.

EXAMPLES FROM ONLINE REFERENCE SITES

Let’s look at two examples of appositives taken from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue ( http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/596/1 ).

My brother’s car, a sporty red convertible with bucket seats, is the envy of my friends.

The appositive is “a sporty red convertible with bucket seats.” This is in apposition to “car.” It is renaming “car” inasmuch as it means the same thing. “Car” = “a sporty red convertible with bucket seats” (first test). Also, it can serve the same grammatical function as “car.” In this sentence, “My brother’s car” is the subject. However, if we remove the subject (and fix the punctuation), “A sporty red convertible with bucket seats” becomes the subject (second test).

[This one is non-restrictive. My brother has only one car. As such, the appositive is set off with commas.]

Your friend Bill is in trouble.

“Bill” is in apposition to “friend.” “Bill” is renaming “friend” inasmuch as it means the same thing (first test). “Friend” = “Bill” (first test). Second, the appositive can serve the same grammatical function. The sentence “Your friend is in trouble” has the same grammatical structure as “Bill is in trouble” (second test).

[This one is restrictive, assuming you have more than one friend. We are narrowing the broad category of "friend" to a narrow category called "friends named Bill." As such, the appositive is not set off with commas. The broad category has many things in it, i.e., many friends, so we need to restrict it to point out the one we're writing about.]

The Center for Writing Studies (CWS) at the University of Illinois ( http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/appositives/ ) provides a decent definition: “Appositives are two words or word groups which MEAN THE SAME THING and are placed together. Appositives identify or explain the nouns or pronouns which they modify.” Here is one of their examples:

Our teacher, Professor Lamanna, loves grammar.

The appositive they identify is “Professor Lamanna.” This appositive renames “our teacher” and can serve the same grammatical function if “our teacher” (and the pair of commas) is removed.

WHAT DO I DO?

Find your appositives. To determine whether or not a word or words are appositives, look at what they mean and how they are used.

Decide whether the appositive is restrictive or non-restrictive.

Once you have done these two tasks, use the punctuation rules above to determine whether or not to set them off with commas.

David Bowman is the Owner and Chief Editor of Precise Edit, a comprehensive editing, proofreading, and document analysis service for authors, students, and businesses. Precise Edit also offers a variety of other services, such as translation, transcription, and website development.

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Effective Dialogue – No expostulating allowed

Merrill Heath — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:50:20 +0000

In this article I’m going to touch on three very simple rules for writing dialogue that anyone can follow:
1. Avoid too many identifiers
2. Leave out odd descriptors
3. Use proper phrasing

A common mistake many novice writers make is to put in too many identifiers, or tags, to let us know who is talking. When only two people are having a conversation you can almost avoid tags altogether. The conversation naturally flows back and forth and it is evident who is speaking by the formatting. But often writers put in too many he saids and she saids or they will do a lot of name calling to “help the reader keep up.” For example…

“Carol, can I talk with you for a minute?” Bob asked.
“Sure, Bob. What’s on your mind?”
“Well, Carol, you know I have this big proposal due tomorrow,” Bob said. “I could sure use your help.”
“No problem, Bob,” Carol replied, looking at her watch. “I have a meeting in a few minutes. Can we get together after that?” she asked.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Bob responded.
“Okay” Carol said. “I’ll come by your office as soon as I get out of this meeting.”

This dialogue can be cleaned up and will read much better by eliminating most of the tags and all the name-calling.

Bob stopped Carol as she came down the hall.
“Hey, can I talk with you for a minute?” he asked.
“Sure. What’s up?”
“Well I got this big proposal due tomorrow and I could use your help.”
“Okay.” She glanced at her watch. “But I have a meeting in a few minutes. I’ll come by your office when I’m done with that.”
Bob nodded and Carol hurried off to her meeting.

Of course, the best approach would be to strike this whole scene and start with them talking in Bob’s office. As it is you have an unnecessary discussion that ends because Carol has a meeting. Unless her meeting has something to do with what Bob wants to talk to her about then you should cut it out altogether.

Another problem writers run into is using odd descriptors. They’re concerned the reader will get bored or distracted by all the saids so they start using descriptors like he exclaimed, she sighed, he intoned, she breathed… I’m currently reading Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Her characters do a lot of sighing and breathing words in their conversations. I find this distracting. People sigh and they breathe and they speak. But they rarely do those things at the same time. But my all-time favorite odd descriptor is something that you used to see a lot in the Saturday Evening Post years ago: he chortled. I don’t even know what that means. I’ve never heard anyone chortle in my life. Thank goodness that descriptor has gone out of style.

The fact of the matter is that readers breeze over all the saids without much thought. But they get distracted when someone intones or chides or expostulates. Stick with the same old boring descriptors – he said, she asked, he replied, she shouted… There are plenty that you can use that will not distract the reader or break up the flow of the conversation. Just use them sparingly.

The third rule is to use the proper phrasing. Robert Parker tends to follow a question with the tag he said. I found this very distracting when I first started reading his books. Then I noticed that I was mentally reading he asked even though he said was printed on the page. But you don’t want to distract the reader. If someone asks a question and you follow it with a descriptor, simply say he asked. That’s no more effort than he said, and it’s the correct phrasing. No distraction. You read right over it and keep going.

In review, when writing dialogue avoid using too many identifiers. When only two people are talking you can leave out most of the tags. When three or more people are involved in a conversation then you have to use more tags. But you still want to keep them to a minimum. Don’t use odd descriptors. People say things, they ask questions, they may argue with each other from time to time, but don’t let them expostulate. And be careful to use the proper phrasing. Improper phrasing distracts the reader and breaks up the flow. You want your dialogue to flow and sound natural.

Merrill Heath is an author who has a strong desire to help other writers improve their craft. For more writing tips and techniques go to: http://mlheath.wordpress.com. For information on his novels and current projects visit his blog at: http://merrillheath.wordpress.com.

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How to Sell More Copies of Your Book – Simple Marketing Tip For Writers & Authors

Stephanie J. Hale — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:55:55 +0000

Rich writers understand that writing a book is only the beginning, not an end in itself. They are often marketers first and writers second.

Marketing may sound like a dirty word especially to literary or academic writers. I understand that. I used to feel the same.

But let me ask you this. What’s the point writing a book if you can’t sell the darn thing?

If you really want to make a successful career as a writer, you can’t afford to ignore marketing.

What I recommend – if you haven’t done it already – is to think about ‘joint ventures’ to sell or promote your book. Don’t be put off by the business jargon – this just means looking for other people who can help sell and publicize your book for you.

So, for example, if you’ve written a book about childcare, are there any professionals who could promote you to their list of clients? If you’ve written a book about dogs, are there online vets or dog schools who could promote your book to their customers?

Why would they do it, you might ask? Simple. If your book aligns with their service, they are adding value to their clients by telling them about you.

Now listen up – some businesses have ‘lists’ running into hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions. Most mainstream publishers on the other hand are happy if they sell five thousand books – this is considered a ‘successful’ print run!

Do it today. Right now. Write a list of 50 potential joint venture partners.

Feeling nervous or a little intimidated? Yes, we all do. Even with 20 years experience, I still get butterflies at times. But if your goals aren’t making you even a little scared, you’re probably not setting yourself big enough goals!

Breaking through that ‘fear barrier’ is what separates out bestselling authors and millionaire writers from the rest. Even if 40 business owners say ‘no’, and 10 say ‘yes’ this could make a massive difference to your book sales.

Is this book your passion? Does it make your heart sing? If so, can you afford not to take this step today. Try it – what have you got to lose?

Stephanie J Hale is a leading writers’ coach and publishing scout. She’s worked with bestselling authors and top literary agents for over 20 years. She specializes in helping writers get the publishing deal and readership they deserve. More FREE publishing tips at: http://www.richwriterpoorwriter.com

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Writing a Publishable Novel – The Art of Tying up Story Threads

Robert L. Bacon — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:05:14 +0000

Story Threads can be a Huge Problem if Not Resolved, and even Some of the Most Respected Writers are Not Sacrosanct

A thread is a plot element, nothing more, nothing less, but a problem for authors if they do not reconcile their threads for the reader. The obvious rationale for an exception is to purposely leave the plot point unresolved to engender interest in reading a sequel to the story. But when the aforementioned is not relevant, the problem can be excruciating for the reader. And some of the most respected writers in literary history have been derelict by not tying up their threads acceptably.

One of the Most Flagrant Examples of Not Tying up a Thread is in INDEPENDENCE DAY

In Richard Ford’s INDEPENDENCE DAY, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1996, he provides great detail in describing the circumstances surrounding the brutal murder of a real estate agent. Then, later in the novel, he brings up her death once more, heightening the reader’s enthusiasm for an answer to who did it. But the thread is never developed and the culprit not identified. The murder therefore has no relevance to the story line, and by not providing a “reveal,” an awkward hole is left, although apparently not egregious enough for the Pulitzer committee to find fault.

WAR AND PEACE and THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE were also Not Immune to Dangling Threads

I call this lack of resolution a dangling thread, and a wonderful bad example (ugh, I know) can be read in the two novels cited in this subtitle.

Anatol is a profound early character in WAR AND PEACE (he’s the guy who ties Pierre to the bear, should anyone have forgotten). Tolstoy relates much later in the tale that Anatol lost a leg in battle, but there is not one single mention of him in any other section of the book.

In THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE, Captain Vye is a fabulous character for which a rich fabric is knitted by Hardy. But after Eustacia meets her end, there is no further reference to Vye–and his feelings–thus leaving the story and the reader with a huge void.

Can there be a Happy Medium?

Perhaps an expedient way to view threads is via Dos Passos’ USA. Eventually he had to leave some threads to their own devices or he’d have been writing ad infinitum because of the type of historical chronicle the story happened to be. However, USA demonstrates in abundant terms how threads can be expanded to reach a satisfactory conclusion in the mind of the reader–yet sans “finality” in each and every scenario.

Shouldn’t the Writer be Cut some Slack

Some can argue, and most justifiably, that it’s not a literary transgression to defer providing a detailed chronology for the life of every character in a book the size of WAR AND PEACE. This is certainly not disputable, but it does beg reconciliation by the author when, in my opinion, a character is prominent enough to drive a significant segment of a story. This is my contention in the Tolstoy example, and for me it’s even more acute in Hardy’s work because the captain is such a viable character in so much of the narrative.

It could be nothing more than an issue of degree, but if readers were to parse stories they didn’t enjoy, there might be a legitimate question as to how often their disappointment was due to dangling threads.

Robert L. Bacon, Founder

The Perfect Write®

FREE! ReceiveThe Perfect Write® NEWSLETTERS that feature articles on writing and editing, along with tips for having your manuscript published by a major royalty publisher. Visit the lower section of our Home Page at http://www.theperfectwrite.com for simple two-step sign-up instructions.

Also For authors, The Perfect Write® is now providing FREE QUERY LETTER REVIEW AND ANALYSIS. Visit our Sample Letters Page at http://theperfectwrite.com/sample-letters/ for examples of Successful Query Letters, and E-mail your query to theperfectwrite@aol.com (no attachments).

Enjoy that? You can read more of Robert’s articles at The Cuckleburr Times right here.

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Should I Disguise Characters in My Book Or Memoir? Is it Ok to Write About People I Know?

Stephanie J. Hale — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:36:15 +0000

Writers often ask me if it’s ok to write about people they know. Sometimes they’re writing a memoir or autobiography. Or perhaps they’re writing a novel with a hero or villain based on someone they know.

There are various little tricks you can use to make sure that people don’t recognize themselves. You can change physical appearance – stature, hair length, eye colour, etc. You can also change gender, profession, or location. Or you can blend two or more different people together to create a different character.

Believe it or not, the chances are most people won’t recognize themselves. I say this as someone who has both written about other people and been written about as a character.

When I have created characters based on people I know, they have never spotted themselves! Never. Not once. Similarly, I failed to recognize a thinly disguised portrait of myself in a Booker-shortlisted novel. Thankfully, the portrait was a flattering one. Though I won’t tell you the name of the book – that’s a little secret between me and the author!

Another alternative is to use a nom de plume to obscure everyone’s identity including your own. The creative advantage is that this may allow you the emotional freedom to write your book in an uninhibited way. Belle de Jour is a high profile example of a writer who did this. However, I wouldn’t recommend this in all but the most extreme cases – as it makes it extremely difficult to do marketing and publicity.

How will you promote your book if you can’t speak to the media, for example? How will you manage your website or build a relationship with your readers? People also relate better to book reviews when they see a photo of the author.

If you’re on good terms with the people you’re writing about, and you don’t intend to disguise them, I’d advise asking what their feelings are. As a child, my mother was a newspaper editor who used to pen a weekly column poking fun at our home life. It was trivial domestic stuff, nothing to shake the earth. But as a teenager, let me tell you, it was excruciating.

A lot of this will come down to the personalities of the people you are writing about and what your relationship with them is like. Only you will know the answer to this.

Finally, we come to the issue of libel. Now, libel laws are complex – I can easily write a whole new article on the subject. However, the main question to ask is: can the person be identified by themselves or anyone else? If so, is what you’ve written damaging to them either professionally or personally?

Rest assured that libel is extremely hard to prove, very expensive, and rarely embarked upon by anyone but the rich and famous. This said, get expert advice if you think you may be writing anything that’s likely to end up with a law suit.

Stephanie J Hale is a leading writers’ coach and publishing scout. She’s worked with bestselling authors and top literary agents for over 20 years. She specializes in helping writers get the publishing deal and readership they deserve. More FREE publishing tips at: http://www.richwriterpoorwriter.com

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Technology and the Changing Language

Tom Aaron — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:11:42 +0000

New vocabulary accompanies the march of the technological development of computers, mobile phones, and more. The sheer size and volume of our technological vocabulary, new and old, is notable. As the impact of computers on our lives is tremendous, computers naturally impact on our language too.

But lest we forget, access to the Internet varies from country to country and within each country. Only 2.5 percent of the population in Uganda have access to the Internet; in Nigeria the figure is 11 percent; in Brazil the figure is 50 percent; in Ecuador 1.1 percent; in South Korea the figure is 77.3 percent; in Nepal those with access is 1.4 percent; in Germany 67.7 percent of the population has access; the figure is 45.9 percent in Greece; in Yemen 1.4 percent of the population has access while 72.8 percent in Israel have access (Figures from Internetworldstats on the Web). People traveling in cyberspace remain the few in some places, while in others, they are the many. Given that only some of the global population has access, it is unlikely that those without access use the same vocabulary that those with access do.

In the United States, approximately three quarters of the population has access to the Internet at home. Only 38 percent of Americans in rural areas have broadband. That is compared to 57 percent in cities and 60 percent in suburbs (Figures from Cetfund on the Web), and this distinction between those with and those without access has generated a new term, the digital divide. The digital divide may be a specific term relating to the gap between those who have computer and Internet access and those who do not, but the term is only one in a series of terms that has been used for describing the haves and the havenots and the insured and the uninsured.

A significant number of technical terms, such as digital divide, are not newly coined words. These terms are words with new meanings such as spam, download, vaporware, surfing, zip and virus. Spam, for example, is the name of a canned Hormel meat product, which I suspect many avoid as if it carried the plague. According to Wikipedia, Spam is made of chopped port shoulder meat with ham, salt, water, sugar and sodium nitrite, and sales of Spam have increased in the current economy. The bottom line for computer spam is something you do not want, junk, something to trash.

Technical language can be subdivided into term categories. We could talk about Internet, hardware, software, and technical terms. We could also have a list of technical acronyms and the non technical acronyms that abound in email messages. I imagine that many of the Internet, hardware and software terms would be familiar to computer users.

Suppose we look at the term multitasking. The term originally referred to a computer that could perform several tasks at the same time. As words are apt to do, multitasking soon morphed from one meaning to another. From a computer term, multitasking became a general term that was applicable to individuals performing more than one task at a time. The ability to multitask is generally a prerequisite for getting an office job in today’s offices.

One of my favorite terms is motherboard, which is the main circuit of your computer. From what I know about technical terminology, using either the word mother or father is not the norm. Motherboard first appeared in a 1971 British article with the term daughterboards, which were secondary boards. These daughterboards have disappeared from technology, and fatherboards, sonboards and auntboards have not been generated. What I find intriguing is that the that the term has stayed and remained central to the computer. This “mother” functions well and is in command of our systems.

Technological terminology is a gold mine of words and language change, and we hope to present more ideas in the near future.

Tom is the owner of Aaron Language Services. “We provide Japanese to English and other translation, proofreading, and online English coaching to a primarily Japanese client base. Our site also offers many resources to ESL students, including Japanese language support and our sushi pages with many pictures of different kinds of sushi and explanations. If you are interested in editing texts in medicine and the hard sciences and have expertise, please click the link above to find out about working with us.”

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