Writing – Page 2 – Self Publishing Advisor

Conversations with a Self-Publishing Writer, research, Royalene Speaks, Writing

Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer: 11/13/2015

SEASONS Part II

Distractions plague every writer. I’ve heard authors bemoan the frustration of an unintentional interruption that threw their story-thoughts into chaos. When I attended the Estes Park writers’ conference this past May, I learned an excellent solution to resolve this problem. Here are a few tips to keep our imaginations focused INSIDE the story.

Research immersion:

Are you writing a memoir? THIS IS AN ADVENTURE that you’ll never regret! Whether looking through a box full of old photographs or reading an ancestor’s diary, researching the lives of family members who have walked this earth before us IS FUN and FACINATING. You become the investigative reporter of the people, places and events that occurred years before your birth, so when you see a photo of Great Uncle George dressed as if meeting royalty, research into his clothing (top-hat to spats) will fill in many of the details that imagination alone cannot. Follow the clues!
Have you become so intrigued by time period in that memoir that your imagination is flying with conjecture and answers to your “What if?” questions? There is a NOVEL brewing within.
Now the research will go deeper. START a new file and throw in all the data you can find about the lifestyle of each stratum of economics in that time period and place. Clip images—artist pieces and/or historical photos—and begin a visual imaginings
Look to other authors who have written about this period of history—and READ their books—whether they are fiction authors or historians.
Build your story as if you are living the life of your main character.
Wear his/her cloths (figuratively speaking—or literally, if you can find them in a costume shop).
Work IN their daily life career path.

From my high school and college days until I became serious about writing, even hearing the word “research” would send me in the opposite direction. However, being an only child, I loved to read and journey beyond my back yard to places I’d could only imagine. My favorite novels were historical fiction and science fiction. Both are steeped in research in order to provide the authenticity and the feeling of living in that time and place. Now, what I’d learned and appreciated in my youth became a vital part of my writing life.

So, DON’T FEAR THE “R” WORD. Embrace it! Research is a friend that will support your imagination and let it fly! It will build a solid foundation for any genre of writing you choose. Plus, research in extremely valuable in choosing the publishing process for your work—whether you attempt of find a mainstream publisher or make the decision to self-publish. ⚓︎

ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. This is a nice fit as she develops these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, is already receiving excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.

Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena.

Conversations with a Self-Publishing Writer, Royalene Speaks, Writing

Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer: 11/06/2015

SEASONS

November brings our attention to how quickly this year will come to a close and we’ll meet the New Year whether we’re prepared for it or not. The self-examination questions begin. Have you finished the last chapter of that novel yet? Have you outlined the sequel? Have you written your weekly blog to tweak readers’ interest in the characters and plot? Did you do enough research so that characters and their environment (setting-s) are believable? Did you select the right independent publisher? Is your best friend really the right person to do your marketing?

OR…are you sitting on your front porch watching neighbors collect the remaining Fall leaves and wondering if you should even begin that novel—that novella—that book of poetry—that collection of family recipes—that family legacy memoir?

NO MATTER what day of calendar year the decision is made to begin writing one or more of those projects, the seasons of creative development are the same.

SPRING. The ideas are fresh, flowing and fun. Your imagination holds every detail in high-definition clarity and the words begin rolling onto the pages.
SUMMER. Mornings bring bright new ideas, fresh-scented environments and intriguing dialogue for characters. The plot weaves together like intricate palm-leaf shade-hats casting shadows of intrigue and mystery or building your unique style of word-play.
WINTER. With snow falling and windows redesigned with ice-crystal art, the first draft is completed. The weather may hold us inside, yet now the manuscript reading Edits and additions, enhancements and deletions are made and the writer’s personal satisfaction grows.
FALL. As the leaves color themselves with reds and purples, gold, yellows and rusty crimson, that process of release is mirrored in the pages that fall to the floor and await a new story to be developed around them—the ideas held there already rooted and rich for nurturing—tomorrow.

DO you remember the quote: “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today?” There seems to be some controversy about the source of these wise words—Aaron Burr or Benjamin Franklin. However, Franklin added another sentence that strengthens his point. “You may delay, but time will not.”

The illustration (by artsoni) that I selected for today’s blog on this topic suggests that the root of our ideas is available in all seasons of our lives. So the encouragement I’d like to leave with you today is: START NOW and DON’T QUIT until you’ve completed the writing project that is resting in your heart and mind. ⚓︎

Advocacy in Self-Publishing, Conversations with a Self-Publishing Writer, Royalene Speaks, Writing

Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer: 10/30/2015

THE NOAH WEBSTER LEGACY – PART V

THE LOVE OF WORDS led Noah Webster, Jr. into a life of writing and authorship. While he is known as possibly the most important lexicographer of his time, who author S.C. Roberts (The Story of Doctor Johnson) defined as “a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge,” Webster is also an example of confident tenacity. His passion for developing word definitions and pronunciations that FIT the New World—our United States of America—went beyond “the common passions” to an absolute need to complete his work and be part of something bigger than himself…the birth of a nation. It is my belief that you would not be reading this blog today unless you, too, held that love, that passion, that wakes you up—or doesn’t let you sleep—in order to write one more sentence and make a difference.

Are you re-creating words? Are you developing extended definitions for the words you’re using in the dialogue of your characters? Most writers I know would say, “Certainly not.” “Specific words and their specific definitions are the only way to clearly communicate what writers want to say.” However, I challenge you keep this question in the margins of your thoughts as you write. Words and additional definitions are being added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary every year and no one else would be happier about that that Noah Webster who deeply understood the concept of language as a living thing. Just a few examples of his work include transforming such words as:

defence to defense: “Anything that opposes an attack; The Almighty is the defense of the righteous.”
gaol to jail: “A prison; place for confinement; also, something written very improperly and as improperly pronounced.”
musick to music: “Melody or harmony; entertainment; the science of harmonic sounds;”
nabor to neighbor: “One who lives near another; an intimate or confidant; a fellow being;”

In the Preface of Webster’s 1828 Dictionary he writes: “It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English Language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is the expression of ideas; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language.” Webster’s two-volume work of more than 70,000 entries became the first truly American dictionary. He eliminated Old English words that were not useful to Americans and included words specifically used in the U.S. such as squash and skunk.

Building and enhancing the world of words is now in our hands and the editors of the Merriam-Webster dictionary invites our participation. Their website www.merriam-webster.com tells us that they “scour books, newspapers, magazines, electronic publications [and more] in search of new words, new usages of existing words, variant spellings, and inflected forms–in short, anything that might help in deciding if a word belongs in the dictionary, understanding what it means, and determining typical usage. Any word of interest is marked, along with surrounding context that offers insight into its form and use.” It is also made clear that for a word “to be included in a Merriam-Webster dictionary, a word must be used in a substantial number of citations that come from a wide range of publications over a considerable period of time. Specifically, the word must have enough citations to allow accurate judgments about its establishment, currency, and meaning.”

SO, Dear Author, write your book, your articles, your blogs and tweets and BE CREATIVE. Who knows, one of your uniquely developed terms may just be added to the next edition of The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Just think of the publicity you could glean from that in the promotion of your work! And, don’t hesitate to self-publish. Make Noah Webster, Jr. proud! ⚓︎

Advocacy in Self-Publishing, Royalene Speaks, Writing

Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer: 10/23/2015

THE NOAH WEBSTER LEGACY – PART IV

Following Webster’s legacy path, we discover that ESSAY and ARTICLE writing are a great way to exercise your creative muscles while dropping bread crumbs that will encourage Readers to discover the books you’ll write. Noah Webster wrote many such pieces which he says (in the preface of his Collected Essays) will naturally allow the writer to “give himself up to his feelings and his manner of writing will flow from his manner of thinking.” How might that translate into today’s world?

Webster took a season of his life to edit periodicals—the American Magazine for one year (1788–1789) and the pro-federalist American Minerva (1793–1798). Is this a skill you have, a natural talent that could build your portfolio? Seek out both paper and Internet magazine formats that interest you and begin submitting articles (400-700 words in length) to them. Follow their guidelines to a “T” while maintaining your natural and unique manner of writing and thinking to flow.
Webster continued to write and publish (self-publish) pieces that he knew to be valuable to the general public. Between 1802 and 1806 he issued the first three volumes of Elements of Useful Knowledge, schoolbooks to enlighten and educate the growing population of the United States of America. What subject matter interests you to the level of being passionate about it? Have you accumulated a level of knowledge about it that you could be labeled an “expert?” Too many people shy away from writing on a topic because they cannot see or accept themselves as a knowledgeable person in that subject matter when, in fact, their unique perspective is needed to advance deeper understanding.

Also, Webster wholeheartedly believed that writers—and the ideas presented in their work—needed protection from “theft.” He had experienced firsthand, and witnessed the works of other writers become plagiarized, misrepresented, and “hacked to bits” too often. In the fledgling United States “national copyright protection” for Webster’s SPELLER was limited to a period of fourteen (14) years. Although that seems like a very short time, it worked out well for him because at the end of that interval he sold the entire rights to the American Spelling Book (for its third copyright period 1818 to 1832) to Hudson and Company of Hartford, Connecticut. Those finances allowed him to focus on his major work: An American Dictionary of the English Language, which was published in New York in 1828.

ALL AUTHORS need to keep themselves informed about current copyright law. Best source: www.copyright.gov. Copyrights DO expire after the death of the author (—plus 70, 95 or 120 years), so our heirs need to be aware that when that time comes, they may be able to sell that copyright as income to support our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Our friend, Noah Webster, Jr. continues to teach us about this challenging author/writer career. His persevering work ethic not only kept him and his family fed and housed, it has sent ripples into all future generations. Your work is just as valuable! Whether you’re creating textbooks or books of poetry—cookbooks or photography books—car manuals or political speeches—the words that you are placing together in concise structures of communication are necessary elements of life. Keep writing! Then…PUBLISH! ⚓︎

Advocacy in Self-Publishing, Royalene Speaks, Writing

Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer: 10/16/2015

THE NOAH WEBSTER LEGACY – PART III

WHEN we publish our books we are wisely advised to promote them in every venue we can access—to even pre-promote to the Readers we know will be interested in our topic and/or genre. When Noah Webster was writing his book A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Writings on Moral, Historical, Political and Literary Subjects, he promoted it right into the office of President of the United States.

First he talked to his friends and acquaintances about his soon-to-be-published book and enlisted them in “subscribing” to it. It is understood that many of these people financially supported (subscribed) the work.
Secondly, he published their names on the first several pages of the book—in alphabetical order. These scribers included: Vice President John Adams (indicating that he received two copies of the book), as well as many Senators, Representatives, Aldermen, Attorneys, Physicians, Merchants, Judges and ordinary folks from every location he’d visited.
Then, following the list of “subscribers,” Webster addressed this book as if he were writing a personal letter to: “The President, The Vice President, The Senators, and The Representatives of the United States of America, The following PUBLICATION, designed to Aid the Principles of the Revolution, to Suppress Political Discord and to Diffuse a Spirit of Enquiry, Favorable to Morals, to Science, and Truth, Is most humbly inscribed as a Tribute of Respect for their Characters, of Gratitude for their Public Services, and a Pledge of Attachment to the Present Constitution of the American Republic, by their most obedient and most humble servant, The Author.”

Now THAT is marketing—book promotion with flare! Certainly everyone was talking about this book and the boldness of the author. For Webster, the reality was that his often abrasive and know-it-all attitude kept him from being IN the “in-crowd.” However, it is widely accepted that Webster’s passionate nationalism was a major influence on the Founding Fathers. Reading his essays, newspaper articles, and dictionary word definitions gave them much food-for-thought in their daily lives and formation of our country.

So, where are you in pre-production planning for the book(s) you are writing? In today’s publishing world the group of supporters (subscribers) that Webster had would be called a Tribe. These are the folks who know you are writing—know a little about the story—and could be Tweeting about it or posting Facebook comments about how much they are anticipating the book’s arrival in their hands.

And, if you need financial support I know of several self-publishing presses who offer GIFT CARDS that family and friends can purchase to be applied to the publishing process and marketing of your book. The teams of marketing experts in these self-publishing houses can be a great help in connecting with Readers through the Internet and other media which takes the burden off your shoulders giving you the time to write your next book.

May the writing legacy left to us by authors such as Noah Webster give you encouragement and inspire you to accomplish great things with your writings. ⚓︎

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