Day 189 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author, Dane F. Baylis

IS THERE REAL VALUE IN WRITING TO CHALLENGES?

OR

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON A SEEMINGLY TOO FULL SCHEDULE

 

 

 

I'm not going to go on too much on this. Lately it has come to me that I have lost sight of a very important part of what being a writer is for me. That is the necessity of being selfish, or at least far more careful about who and what I give my time to.

 

I was afforded the opportunity to enter into a blogging challenge at the beginning of the year. What the heck, right? It seemed like a good chance to grow as a blogger and perhaps gain some audience share.

 

Other things have come along in the meantime. A call to complete a first draft of a novel over the summer as part of another challenge. A real time participation in a series of themed poetry readings. Offering to help a total stranger with what turned out to be a story in serious need of editing. All of this coming into a life that has a full time (plus) job. A commitment to a an extensive (for a layman) study of one of the major Buddhist sects in the world. Family and friends and all the myriad details of life.

 

Along the way I had forgotten that a large part of being a writer is that solitude to pursue what I want at the pace and concentration I need. Yes, it is a different world. The demands of getting your own name out there are incredible. Publishers and publicists want to know you have already established a ground swell of interest on your own before they lend their dwindling influence to your cause. It is because of this that I have had to draw back from some things.

 

I am a writer. If someone needs detailed and complicated help straightening out a story of their own, they need to locate an EDITOR. That is what they do. They enjoy it, they are paid for it ,and they will do a far better and more concise job then I will. The kind of effort I was putting into those things was draining too much from what was needed for my own work. So, as of today, ask for a quick critique and I'll be glad to help. Please do not ask me to read your novel, short story, or poetry unless we've developed some currency in the world and you've already done much of the heavy lifting expected of an author. If I do, remember you asked me and my opinion is given with little filtering, my time is important, and some appreciation would be nice.

 

As for challenges? They're a great place to learn how to drive yourself to meet deadlines, quotas, and other people's expectations, but this game isn't about what the crowd wants. It's about your personal vision and the achieving of that through your process. As the other participants faded and disappeared (including the organizers, in one case) I realized once again that there are always hard lessons to be learned. Mine was, and always has been, that my expectations of the world are far higher than its own expectations of itself. But, this is life.

 

I will complete my agreed to chores. Sometimes with a grunt, and other times with my more familiar sarcastic abrasiveness. But I do look forward to their completion so that I can close a couple of the doors into my time and sit and stare at the wall and wonder what the next word should be. That's being a writer, the rest is just stage acting.

 

 

Meanwhile...live, love, write.

 

 

Want to follow or subscribe to this blog? There are gadgets for that on the right side of the page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.

 

 

Tomorrow,

 

Dane F. Baylis

Author.

Page 188 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author, Dane F. Baylis

BROADEN YOUR CULTURAL VOCABULARY

OR

NO, THE WORLD WOULD NOT BE BETTER IF WE ALL SANG BRAD PAISLEY SONGS, DRANK BUDWEISER, AND ATE AT MICKEY D'S.

 

We all have a natural tendency to begin as writers by presenting things as we have experienced them. There's nothing wrong with this if all you ever want to show your readers is your own limited experience and reference. But what if you are looking to bring more intricacy, empathy, and realistic emotion to your work? What if you want to be able to reach out beyond your own comfort zone and, perhaps, touch people you might never come in contact with? What if you want to be able to express authentic detail when speaking from the viewpoint of another culture and people altogether? That's only possible if you drop the chauvinism we can all be guilty of and seek out meaningful contact with those of other racial, ethnic, class, or educational backgrounds.

 

There was a period of time in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when going abroad was seen as a rite of passage and a rounding out of an individual's knowledge and perception of the world around them. Unfortunately, The Grand Tour, as it was known, was mostly only available to those of wealthier means. The upper classes would send their children abroad to experience other places and peoples first hand. This resulted in a broadening of their appreciation of their own and other's places in the grand scheme of things.

 

Today, due to the ever more porous borders in the world and the greater mobility of larger and larger parts of the global population, it has become easier than ever to experience completely foreign perspectives and lifestyles within the confines of our mother countries. The isolationist approach to this intimacy is as archaic and inexcusable as the walled cities of middle age Europe or the closed boundaries of feudal Japan would be in modern times. We have become a world dependent on every one of its constituent parts for success and survival and denying this as writers would leave us in a position of creating one dimensional, unsympathetic, and unbelievable characters. Unless you are aiming for the homogenized beings of some far flung future, why not incorporate the diversity that exists in your town, state, or country?

 

It only requires that you take an open and inquisitive walk into a mosque, church, or temple. Or, instead of just going out for a little Japanese, Ethiopian, or Peruvian cuisine, make friends with someone from one of those communities and maybe experience what they actually eat on a daily basis. Perhaps you might find a course in a foreign language, then, instead of just working on the course material, you look up web sites from countries that speak that language and see what shows up on their news or blogs. Really take an interest in how someone else sees the world and you never know but that your own outlook might shift in interesting and stimulating ways. Then, when you sit down to incorporate these things in the characters you're developing for your next tale, you won't have to fake the dialect, customs, and inner workings of a person. Instead, you will have a richer, more sincere connection to the "why" that drives your character's what.

 

 

Another helpful hint from your Uncle Dane.

 

 

Meanwhile...live, love, write.

 

 

Want to follow or subscribe to this blog? There are gadgets for that on the right side of the page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.

 

 

Tomorrow,

Dane F. Baylis

Author.

Day 187 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author, Dane F. Baylis

WHY A BALANCED CHARACTER MAY APPEAR A TOUCH UNBALANCED

OR

WHY SOME OF MY FAVORITE HEROES AREN'T HEROES ALL THE TIME.

 

Most of us are familiar with the Batman of the Dark Knight Series. The hero who rises above his own selfish motivations but still has that dark side that makes him flawed but compelling. It's the same thing you get in cable TVs DEXTER or the character presented by Sheriff Bullock in the HBO DEADWOOD series. These are the good guys with the right motivation but the wrong methodology or morality at times. (Well, in Dexter's case, most of the time.)

 

Believe it or not, these unbalanced mentalities are categorized as 'balanced characters'. How is that? Simply, any character who is one hundred percent good or bad is a very one dimensional portrayal and, frankly, damned boring. Just as conflict in your plot results in a story that draws in your reader and not just invites but demands they strap in for the ride, so do complex characters who display a range of strengths and weaknesses.

 

You need to pay special attention to this when you are creating your protagonist and antagonist. There are just as many well developed and compelling bad guys who are the reading public's most memorable characters as there are compelling heroes. Even a well intentioned good guy will have to overcome some inner struggle before we accept and

embrace him as human. The most despicable villain may be acting out of perfectly understandable reasons and motivations.

 

It is up to you as the author to explore all your main character's good and bad attributes in order to make them as believable as you can. Just as the people who inhabit our real world have intermingled traits, so must those who inhabit our created settings. A person's strengths often inform their weaknesses. As a writer you have the advantage of being able to look into a character's heart and mind and show these complexities to your audience.

 

 

Meanwhile...live, love, write.

 

 

Want to follow or subscribe to this blog? There are gadgets for that on the right side of the page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.

 

 

Tomorrow,

 

Dane F. Baylis

Author.

 



Day 186 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author, Dane F. Baylis

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THE WORLD INVADES?

OR

IF YOU DON'T F***ING MIND I'M HAVING MY MELTDOWN AT THE MOMENT! YOURS CAN WAIT!

 

Yes, dear gentle readers it HAS been one of those days. I had a reaction to a shot I got yesterday, which bolstered a side effect to a medication I take. The day job was, well, more of a god damned JOB than usual. My secondary mode of transportation is back in the shop, I guess it was jealous that I was the one having a physical calamity. (Thank god for Harley-Davidson!)

 

Enough! There are times, aren't there, when that's the one word that comes to mind. Let me off the merry-go-round of mundane existence, please. You'd think it would be sufficient cause for an episode of staring into the WHITE ABYSS, but, if you keep your head on semi-straight, it can be the exact opposite.

 

I can hear it now, "Oh no! He's going guru on us!" Not hardly. See, when it all just piles up then these pages are where I flee to. This is the greatest escapist fare there is. I can hear the cries over this one, too: "But this requires work. Creativity. Calm. That Om beta wave mental state. I'd rather just watch TV."

 

Au contrere, mon frere! The tube is a mind stealer and it requires a seriously unplugged neuro-cortex to sit in front of it for more than five minutes. Before you know it you're channel surfing like a sea lion on crack, trying to find something, ANYTHING, with content. Leave it for the minions who actually do think that "Honey Boo-Boo" has even the least bit to do with reality.

 

True escapism is what can happen on the pages you write. The stories you craft, the characters you create, the worlds they inhabit, the loves, adventures, and tragedies. All of them stem from your own fertile imagination and can be seen and heard by no one but you until you give them life. Cue the country music, "Make the world go away. Take it off of my shoulders.", and poof, faster than Cinderella's fairly good-mama, you are done with the daily bullshit and back where you belong. With your ass in the chair and your fingers on the keys. Ah, blessed relief!

 

Just another helpful hint from your Uncle Dane.

 

 

Meanwhile...live, love, write.

 

 

Want to follow or subscribe to this blog? There are gadgets for that on the right side of the page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.

 

 

Tomorrow,

 

Dane F. Baylis

Author.

Day 185 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author, Dane F. Baylis

THEY KNOW MORE, CHANGE THINGS, EXPECT US TO BE PUNCTUAL, AND COST MONEY

AND, LIKE IT OR NOT,

WHY THEY JUST MIGHT SAVE OUR BOOK.

 

 

 

Last night I attended the regular, monthly meeting of the Ventura County Writer's Club, of which I am a member. The evening was special because there was a panel of four professional editors there to talk about their work and why a writer needs their help. The four were:

 

Greg Elliot of Agoura Hills, author, editor, screenwriter, and writing professor at UCLA; Tammy Ditmore of Newbury Park, professional editor who has held positions as an editor, proofreader, and indexer for newspapers, book publishers, authors, and scholars; Monica Faulkner of Los Angeles, an editor and publishing consultant for more than 20 years, and one of the founders of the Los Angeles Editors and Writers Group; and Southern California publishing legend, Shelly Lowenkopf of Santa Barbara, former executive editor for several California publishers, recipient of the “Life Time Achievement in Writing” award from USC for 30 years teaching masters writing classes, and author of over 35 books. Mr. Lowenkopf has personally seen over 700 books to publication as an editor.

 

To say there was a lot of horsepower at that table is an understatement, that it was accompanied by a healthy dose of reality should go without saying. As free as the Internet and self-publishing has made us, it has also created a burgeoning "vanity press". Like it's brick and mortar counterpart, this is an area of publication where authors are able to invest as little money, time, and effort as possible and still see their name on the cover of a book. The result is a stunning surge in the number of electronic books available and a not too surprising equivalent decline in the quality represented.

 

As authors we are not always our own best friends and, when it comes to self-editing and publication, we can be our own worst enemies! A good editor is the person who will take your baby and help you to turn it into a comely, well proportioned adult with a voice and manner intended to attract readers. We pay them to be brutally honest and, as this isn't a cheap deal, it would benefit us to listen.

 

These are people who have varying track records, but as a budding "author" you probably can't match their credits. They have shepherded untold tragedies through the process of becoming interesting, engaging, MARKETABLE stories. In a business where it takes exceeding a break point of five to eight thousand copies sold before you can begin to attract the attention of any major publishing house with all of its intrinsic scale and benefits, why would you not avail yourself of these services?

 

As a very minor author and blogger (Except for these daily posts, my credits are all in the traditional vein...you know, submit, wait, rewrite, resubmit, wait some more, contemplate going back to driving a cab.) I am asked now and then to edit or review something by another writer. Once in a while I am approached by someone from the old school who has put in a lot of effort before I see their work. More and more I am seeing rough drafts and an attitude like it's totally up to someone else to turn this thing into a work of literature.

 

Let me share with you what Tammy Ditmore says about working with an editor. It's something like a David Letterman top ten list:

 

The Top 10 Ways to Make Your Editor Love You

 

(Parenthesis added by me.)

 

     10. Submit the cleanest copy possible. (A no-brainer? Want to put money on that?)

     

      9. Learn to use Microsoft Word's Track Changes. (Yours truly is endeavoring)

 

      8. Stick to your original agreement or plan. (Delivery date? Stick to it. Length of piece? You change this and the editor changes the price.

 

      7. No surprises! (See previous)

 

      6. Be reasonable and polite. (You need them more than they need you.)

 

      5. Communicate clearly and fully. (None of us has a crystal ball)

 

      4. Trust your editor. (That's why your there. They know what you don't)

 

      3. Say thank you. (One professional to another. It should go without saying)

 

       2. Respect your editor as a professional. (Do your research. Make your choice. Then let them do the job you're paying for.)

 

 

And the Number 1 way to make your editor love you.

 

       1. Treat your editor as a team member. (Not an adversary, that's for your story.)

 

 

Meanwhile...live, love, write.

 

 

Want to follow or subscribe to this blog? There are gadgets for that on the right side of the page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.

 

 

Tomorrow,

 

Dane F. Baylis

Author.

 

      

 



Day 184 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author, Dane F. Baylis

WHEN DO YOU JUST GIVE UP AND WALK AWAY?

OR

HOW NOT TO BE HELD HOSTAGE BY A REJECTION SLIP!

 

Okay, all you self-published darlings of the Amazon ninety-nine cent list or those of you who have posted absolutely everything you've ever written to your personal blog and consider that being published...You can flip over to some vampire-zombie-astro-fantasy page. Today is for those of us who have had someone other than our own ego-centric selves in mind as "publishers" for our work. I don't care if it's a local weekly newspaper, a quarterly poetry journal, some collegiate press with significant cache, a monthly hi-tone magazine or the big time of one of the major houses. If you're out there in the trenches, submitting and re-submitting, there are those days when you really wonder what made you think you were a damned writer.

 

Do you write? Do you send things out for others to pass judgement on? Do you sob into your pillow uncontrollably when the rejection notice bears no hint as to why you were turned down? Do you lick another stamp as faithfully as you do Madame Alexis shoe down at the house of pain? Then you are definitely a writer...and probably in need of a little therapy, too!

 

When is it time to retire your keyboard? The only answer I know is - Never! So maybe you should retire that particular story/poem/article? Uh-uh, don't even think about it or I'll let you take care of the muse cat for a week or two. You have no idea the agony in that task..."But you loved gourmet tuna yesterday."

 

If you've sent a piece out once or twice, and it wasn't so narrowly focused that you've exhausted the possibilities already, it's time to lick another stamp or hit "Send" yet again. Should you commit to a major rewrite after the first pass? No, you're dealing with editors and, no matter what image we have of them, (I'm thinking Anne Rice's novels), they are human. That means that they are subjective. In other words, you may just have run up against another person's tastes and you didn't mesh. Try someone else, right now.

 

Okay, so this happens three or four times, can you give up now? Nope, re-read your work. Have someone else read it. Not your bff, or your mom, or whoever it is your shagging this week. They will tend to be a bit prejudicial. Find someone who likes to read and seems to have a grip on the language you've written this masterpiece in. I have read my own things to death and had others pitch in and still sat down later with the, "Oh my dear lord! How did we all miss THAT!" reaction.

 

Check out a good tome on the craft of getting into an editors office, (Remember, your stuff is likely seen by an intern or subaltern first. Don't you love that word...subaltern...Sorry, I digress.) These minions have hundreds of manuscripts slammed into their in boxes and it is their job to slam dunk them straight into the out box. However, they are looking for certain failings and signals, if you can avoid making the typical mistakes, you have a chance. I highly recommend, "Editor-Proof Your Writing", by Don McNair. This is a step by step course in creating the style that will get you past the first glance and might just land you on the desk of the person who has the authority to transform you from a writer into a "published" writer.

 

Will this do the trick right away? Whoa there, Usain Bolt, you're still dealing with a human being. Maybe yes/maybe no, is my considered opinion.

 

So, if you're still not getting there, can you now chuck this one and move on! NO! I have one of my own stories out right now that was in "title v.5" before an editor said, "Rework this and send it back to me." So, after a week or so work and research, I made it "title v.6" and hit the send key.

 

Even if you decide you just don't think this one's going to fly, keep it on file. You put a lot of work into it already, it might not be a stand alone but it might be a good chapter in another tale. You may have developed a character with real, well, CHARACTER, why reinvent the wheel later. Create a better story for this unfortunate out of work actor.

 

My main point is, nothing you have written is dead. There is always a chance, hell, try resubmitting something you've rewritten three or nine times to the first possible editor you thought of. Remember, you're probably going to hit an overworked intern's desk. Unless it was just so achingly bad the first time they saw it, they probably won't remember. In that case, there is a chance they'll pass it on to the boss. Especially in a rewrite gen 5! I know, I've done it.

 

You've probably caught the gist by now. Never say never, outside of cliche ridden horror, your own desk and imagination is the only place where the seemingly dead can be reliably resurrected. All you need is the magic word. NEXT!

 

 

Meanwhile...live, love, write.

 

 

Want to follow or subscribe to this blog? There are gadgets for that on the right side of the page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.

 

 

Tomorrow,

 

Dane F. Baylis

Author.

Day 183 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author, Dane F. Baylis

ANNOUNCEMENT 1.

TODAY MARKS JUST OVER HALFWAY IN THE 365 DAYS OF BLOGGING, YEE-DAMNED-HAW!

(More on that in a moment)

 

ANNOUNCEMENT 2.

 

Four professional editors from the region will take part in a panel discussion “Working with a Professional Editor,” at the July 9 meeting of the Ventura County Writers Club. Club president, Kate Sexton, will moderate the session.

Joining the panel are: Greg Elliot of Agoura Hills, author, editor, screenwriter, and writing professor at UCLA; Tammy Ditmore of Newbury Park, professional editor who has held positions as an editor, proofreader, and indexer for newspapers, book publishers, authors, and scholars; Monica Faulkner of Los Angeles, an editor and publishing consultant for more than 20 years, and one of the founders of the Los Angeles Editors and Writers Group; and Southern California publishing legend, Shelly Lowenkopf of Santa Barbara, former executive editor for several California publishers, recipient of the “Life Time Achievement in Writing” award from USC for 30 years teaching masters writing classes, and author of over 35 books. Mr. Lowenkopf has personally seen over 700 books to publication as an editor.

Both fiction and nonfiction writing will be covered.

“Editing is a very gray area for most writers,” stated Sexton. “A properly edited book can make the difference of getting an agent and a deal, or not. This does NOT mean spell-checking or school teacher grammar. Publishing today has created its own standards that help American English evolve. Grammar taught in school lags behind the public discourse. To have a book that sells, the author must submit a top-quality manuscript.”

The panel will cover both copy/line editing and—what Sexton thinks is more important—content/concept editing. “Where does your story really start? Do you have real conversations by your characters, or do they sound stilted because of no contractions? Is there enough dialogue, or is the manuscript filled with narrative? And how to judge?”

The 90-minute panel will address these questions and more.

“When I programmed last November’s Ventura County Writers Weekend,” said Sexton, “the Editing Panel sold out faster than any other session, including meeting literary agents. To me this means writers are confused or have questions that need answering, and we hope to do so with this panel.”

Time will be set aside at the end of the formal panel for questions from the audience. There will be no opening act this evening so more time can be devoted to the panel topic.

CALENDAR INFORMATION July Meeting of the Ventura County Writers Club July 9, 7 PM Pleasant Valley Senior Center 1605 Burnley Street, Camarillo, CA Topic: Four Editors’ Panel on “How to Work with a Professional Editor” Open to Members and non-members. No fee For information on the Ventura County Writers Club, visit: http://www.venturacountywriters.com

 

 

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program. Let me see, where did I leave off? Oh yeah, YEE-DAMNED-HAW! Yes, today I officially crossed the halfway point in this blogging challenge I've been chasing. It feels pretty good, too. Why? Well, for one thing, when I first started on this journey I was seized by the reality thing. You know...Oh my god! What am I going to find to blog about EVERY day? What if I get hit with blogophobia or just good old fashioned writer's block? What if everyone who happens across this thing responds with a hail and hearty, "Piss-off, numbnuts!"?

 

Well, I believe that you don't really learn to swim until you hit the deep end. Sort of the, "Hey, Ma! Look, I'm saving my own life!", reaction. In I dove and for a while it was the opposite of what I was fantasizing. I had the pool all to myself. Nobody came around to tell me what an utter twit I was coming off as - Well, the truth is, at first, nobody came around, period. But, if you've ever seen me on my day job, you know talking to myself is a habit I embrace wholeheartedly.

 

After a while I did develop a small audience. No, the Editor and Wife wasn't the first follower, she was second. That audience has, from time to time, been nice enough to leave some very laudatory comments. For that I thank each of you more than you will ever know. That some of you have even said that the things I put up here have helped you in your own literary endeavors is just amazing. Your encouragement has been the engine that has kept this site up and running and has even challenged me to stretch my own understanding of the craft and art we share. Again, my sincerest thanks.

 

To those of you, around the globe, who take the time to visit, (I am amazed at where some of my traffic comes from!), please join the others who have left even just a hello. I love hearing from all of you and would welcome the opportunity to personally thank you or to have you contribute your own insights to this page.

 

Now, after having gone on like an Oscar recipient, I'll sign off for tonight. We'll pick back up with my normal (oh, alright, regular!) commentary tomorrow.

 

 

Meanwhile...live, love, write.

 

 

Want to follow or subscribe to this blog? There are gadgets for that on the right side of the page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.

 

 

Tomorrow,

 

Dane F. Baylis

Author.