Platform

So I am on Twitter, I have this blog up and running, however I haven't been able to bring myself to open a new Facebook page for the purpose of writing. And I'm not sure want to overwhelm my private Facebook page.

Why load my schedule with more things to keep up with? Because we're talking platform. Advice from a recent book I read by an agent says that you need to build a platform while writing your book. Put yourself out there, join the community, talk to people, gain followers, interest people in what you're doing.

The author suggests writing out a schedule...doing certain activities on certain days to keep it up-to-date and not overwhelm yourself. Any other suggestions for platform building? Is this kind of premature or is it worth doing now, at the very beginning?

What I want from you is - your Voice.

Voice. It's really that important and yet it seems the most elusive part of writing. You can point it out if you see it, but it's hard to define exactly. And it's not something you can imitate easily, I don't think...well, if you imitate it, then it's not YOUR voice, is it?

Having just read a section on "voice" by agent Paula Balzer, I find myself wanting input from more experienced writers on this topic. Balzer says that if she is drawn by [the voice, among other things] in a query letter, she'll read the first paragraph of the manuscript. If it's as good, she'll read more. So voice is crucial.

I follow quite a few blogs of experienced writers. Their posts and comments are always so lyrical and well thought out. It sounds like they are writing poems and prose right on their blogs and comments of others' blogs! My writing, on the other hand, is very straight forward. Clangs in my ear when I read it next to theirs.

I took a number of classes with the same teacher for my grad degree in English. It was a smaller college and I went part time for two years becaue I was teaching too. My first class with her was about Memoirs. In my third class with this professor (Children's Lit), she had us write a memoir type piece and she said the beauty of my writing is that it is simple. She said not that it's simplistic, but that it's not a bunch of hootin' and hollerin'. That particular writing made points about my faith and events where it has played out in my life, as I was writing a piece of my story in correlation with the newest Newbery Medal winner (at the time - 2007), The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron. (But overall, it was the fourth or fifth memoir piece she'd read from me, not to mention my research work.) This professor, not really a "faith" person, was impressed with the way I presented my view.

The funny thing is that I had a co-worker reading my writings for classes as well and he made the exact same comment about it being "simple," and gave the same explanation.

So if it touched her so much, and more than one person has made the same statement, then is "simple" my voice? And will it happen naturally as I write and re-write? Is this just my inexperience talking here?

Any advice/opinions on Voice out there? Let me hear it!

Memoir Music to My Ears

Took a chance on a book about memoir writing and ends up it's a gem too. Writing & Selling Your Memoir, by agent Paula Balzer, was a whim. Honestly, picked it up because of the title and bought it because it was written by an agent.

I haven't finished the "selling" part, but I really bought it for the "writing" part. She breaks down the best selling NY Times memoirs so the reader can see structure, dialogue, and voice at work. She also gives realistic places to start with your memoir ideas. After feeling like I wasn't sure how I wanted to work my writing, I now feel like I have some ways to work that pesky point of view.

AND, my favorite part, she agrees with Stephen King's advice - you have to be reading as much as possible. She says if you're not, don't bother with the writing. Music to my ears! I bought 16 memoirs this week from recommendations of two friends and this book. I will have a happy month of August before the new school year starts :)

If you're interested, the memoirs I purchased for the rest of my summer are (minus subtitles, because some are quite long):

Traveling Mercies - Ann Lamott
Blackbird - Jennifer Lauck
Still Waters - Jennifer Lauck
Autobiography of a Face - Lucy Grealy
Girls of Tender Age - Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight - Alexandra Fuller
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress - Rhoda Janzen
A Stolen Life - Jaycee Dugard
Fairy Tale Interrupted - Rose Marie Terenzio
Monkey Mind - Daniel Smith
When Did I Get Like This? - Amy Wilson
A Three Dog Life - Abigail Thomas
What Remains - Carole Radziwell
Tender Bar - J.R. Moehringer
We Thought You Would Be Prettier - Laurie Notaro 
Escape - Carolyn Jessop


I am really a reader at heart and my love for reading is what causes me to write. I love words.

Recommendations?

I've noticed that a good way to keep my goal in mind is to read books of a similar genre. I am having trouble settling on point of view for my story. So, I want to keep reading as much as I can to help settle this.

So I am looking for recommendations in the Narrative Nonfiction/Memoir genre. (Narrative nonfiction being a story that is factual, but reads like a fiction novel rather than presentation of facts in the newspaper.)

Another kind of recommendation I am looking for are books set in the 1950s and 60s. This will help me with setting and time frame.

Thanks Everyone!

And,..GO!

My parents' basement office, door shut

No phone, TV, or video games

Me, my seven-year-old laptop, a printer, a flashdrive, and a bag of M&Ms

1,000 words


GO!!!

Not love at first sight...that's how I know it's true

Remember that one book I didn't feel bad about buying a couple posts ago? Nice to know my reader's intuition was dead on. Stephen King's On Writing  is a gem. I have never been a King fan, only because I do not read or watch anything remotely horror related. However, I thoroughly enjoy his ventures in other genres, although a couple are somewhat related to the horror genre I guess. Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and 11/22/63 to name a few. And as I read 11/22/63 I noticed that King really is an excellent writer (yes, I'm way behind on noticing this...better late than never.)

So, having finally picked up King's book On Writing, I have fallen in love. He reaffirms so many things I have found to be true, things I have questioned myself about, and things I didn't think of when it comes to writing and being a writer. Look at these quotes (in bold):

          If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot....I'm a slow reader, but I usually get through seventy or eighty books a year, mostly fiction. Yea, okay, the story of my life (at the 50-60 count level)! Nice to know I've been doing something right the past 32 years!! 

          You have to read widely, constantly refining (and redefining) your own work as you do so. It's hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they've written, but I know it's true....Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.  THANK YOU! Finally, someone who gives support for why teaching writing isn't working so well in schools these days. Students do not really read (at all), so it is very hard for them to grasp the craft of writing when they have to. (Not saying we shouldn't teaching writing, but it is an uphill and slowly losing battle.)

Reading is the creative center of a writer's life. I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sort of opportunities to dip in (he names a few that I agree with :)....Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway. AWESOME!!! I love my friends and family, but there are so many times I'd just rather be with my book...and it seems at this point it was all for a reason. Is that harsh? I don't know that I care that it is. It's the truth, it's how I've really felt at times. And while I am all for balance, once a dream has been birthed and is obviously meant to be (remember, I'm not claiming anything about publication, just the act of writing), that really is all there is to it, if the person is willing to put in the work! I cannot remember a time when I didn't want to read or write. God has programmed this into me!

King goes on to name a bunch of places you can squeeze reading in. I have to add this one in just for my husband and TV lovers everywhere. Yes, he's talking especially to writers, but still: You must be prepared to do some serious turning inward...and that means, I'm afraid, that Geraldo, Keith Obermann, and Jay Leno must go. Reading takes time, and the glass teat takes too much of it.  Here's the part I love: I'd like to suggest that turning off that endlessly quacking box is apt to improve the quality of your life as well as the quality of your writing. Sounds like advice to the world at large (my italics). 

Anyway, you get the picture. Finding King so long after he's been a big deal was perfect timing for my writing life.

Opened Eyes

A Discovery:

Pen to paper and fingers to the keyboard
The words aren't so easy
Taking on this foreboding task
Now feels weary.

Heart heavy
Mind far gone
Too far in
Feeling withdrawn.

More than bargained
This task taken
Previously presumptuous
Or currently being shaken?

More depends upon it
Than is really known
Feels overwhelming
And alone

Who am I
To do what is asked?
To have what it takes
To finish this task.



A Prayer:

"Can You take me by the hand?
Can You use me as I am?
Break me into who You want me to be

When the time is finally right
Will You open my eyes
And show me everything you want me to see?
This life is not my own.

Everything I say and do
Let it be all for You
The glory is Yours alone." Aaron Shust