Writing Tips - Articles - Zimbio

Missing: One Goat

Sat, 17 Aug 2008 19:09:00 GMT

posted by allanmayer
LOST

Has anybody seen this goat?

Works hard. Eats little. Sadly missed

I'm sure it can't be me, but since I started blogging it seems that every time I find a useful service it soon disappears. As chronicled in earlier episodes of this blog, I entrusted my work to Golgonooza then realised that the site had died. Earlier this year I submitted my novel to 'The Frontlist' to find that it was not accepting new submissions. It still isn't.
Now, that most useful of sites to the blogger, Pingoat, has been sending a message back for weeks that it is closed for maintenance.

Does this mean that it will return, a mega-strong, all powerful super-goat, sweeping away all that stand in its path...

In the meantime, there are alternatives: 'Ping my Blog,' 'Ping-o-Matic,' and 'Pingates.'
But there is still no sign of the goat. Any clues where it might be?

Back to Writing

Wed, 3 Jul 2008 13:34:36 GMT

posted by eristoddle

The books and web pages I read affect me a lot. I use them as tools sometimes. If I read a book on productivity, I become more productive while I am reading it. If I read a book on digital photography, I see pictures everywhere. If I read a book on design, I notice every logo and sign. The knowledge sticks with me afterwards, but the act of reading keeps it in the forefront of my mind.

And, if I read about programming and computers, I become a robot and start writing really shitty articles.

I had to call time. There is an idea I have been working on that I need to give a break, maybe a week, maybe a month. My head is a small cage to trap myself in. I like concepts that are incomplete and I know they like me, especially right before bed when I am just trying to get some sleep. It’s almost a dare from my subconscious. "Oh, you really are that dedicated when it comes to writing down ideas. Let’s try this."

I need a while to step back and trust my mind. It has almost always worked in the past. Throw a bunch of related information in, chase it as far as I can until I hit a wall, stop abruptly, ignore the idea and wait. One day something will bubble to the top.

But the balance is getting a little bit better. I just now know how strong the technical side of my brain is. It will take over without my knowledge and leave huge gaps in my posting schedule. I made the mistake of assuming that I could switch gears within an hours time. Wrong. Switching from writing to tech, easy. Switching back the other way sucks. It effects me like the video games I no longer play. Up 24 hours without coffee locked into the screen. Not exactly social or conductive to writing.

And for those of you that have similar issues, here is the post that inspired me to focus more on writing again. Mary mentions an "everything book", a book to write down anything and everything in. That was the switch. Strange, I know, but let me tell you why.

I like being able to say that no one influences me. I create my own rules. It’s a pride thing. My wife calls it an asshole thing. And what it really is is a lie I tell myself.

When I got into all the productivity books and blogs, everything I read said to use a Moleskine for lists. Up to that time, it had been my "everything book". But, oops, I guess I was doing something wrong. So to make room for lists, a lot less ideas started getting stored in the book. I was getting my ducks in a row. A much more valuable use of time than ideas, I thought.

So one post gave me the freedom to do what I was already doing before the productivity gods started chipping away at me. I still have lists of to do’s, but I realized I don’t have to tag everything around me. Priorities are good to know and review. A list for the day. And a few long term lists. But I found myself so categorized and detailed, I never even looked at my lists again because I was afraid of them.

So back to writing again. And, of course, promoting. But I am laying off chasing the dragon for a while. The complexity has to go for a while. I need some simplicity.

ShareThis

Making Ideas Real

Tue, 28 May 2008 11:45:01 GMT

posted by eristoddle

I never can tell when an idea is going to occur to me. One time it’s while I’m driving to work. The next, while I am mowing the lawn. But I can almost guarantee it will happen when I least expect it.

So I just started expecting it all the time and carrying a notebook along with me. Now it’s a Moleskine. I started with one of those 6 for a dollar cardboard flip notebook. But an idea written down in that notebook was responsible for the first thousand dollar month I had online. And it happened within a month after I started carrying the thing.

I am not quite sure how this works, but as soon as I start spending more attention to writing random ideas down, the more things happen. Almost if the act of writing them down gave them the initial spark to continue into reality. Most of the time, I never even look back at the ideas I have written down. Just getting them down on paper and out of the way was enough.

I am a very heavy daydreamer, but I learned to train it. As soon as I catch myself going into my head, I force myself to think of something useful. It started as a kid. I refused to accept the reality of sitting through church services, meetings and classes that bored me to tears. And I could escape, in my head. Then it was Transformer gocarts I was building in my head. Now, it’s articles and websites. Priorities change.

But I realized that I would follow the same thought pattern over and over until I had written something down. I had step one of a plan. Getting to step two was a bitch, because step one kept coming back into my head messing with my flow. And I would investigate step one from every angle, never even thinking of moving forward.

So when step one was complete, I started writing it down. The same with step two. And all the steps right up to the end.

Maybe I trick the ideas into thinking they are getting attention by writing them down. Maybe the act of writing is some magical spell. Who knows? But it’s not until they shut the hell up that I can get on to more complex ideas. And it’s not until I got to a step that required action that I started moving.

ShareThis

Writing Every Day

Wed, 31 Jul 2008 11:53:42 GMT

posted by eristoddle

I do work in a lot of different areas on teh internets. And each job I do has different effects on my mind. I have to enter that job’s mind mode for a short or long period of time. I like writing mode but it is one of the hardest to come back to. Not sure why. It always has been.

When I was around 14, I picked up "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg. It’s a book on writing practice. A musician will play hundreds of songs in practice for every one he plays on stage. A boxer will spar with lots and lots of other boxers before he gets to fight for real. Writing is the same or should be.

Writing is not like programming. Ok, that’s wrong. I have read some books on programming that have disproved that statement and they were a treat, let me tell you. Time to restate it. Good writing is not like programming. It is not that straightforward. When a script doesn’t work, there is a black and white reason. That’s the bitch about it. You know there’s a bug. You just have to find it. Or someone else can. It really doesn’t matter. You may have to practice programming to get faster at it, but for the most part we call this learning, not practice.

Practice is something you do to train your body or mind to sort of fall into doing something right. There is no steps one, two and three. Practice is a process of absorbing something new. When I first rode a motorcycle, I knew all the concepts of riding, but I felt clumsy as hell. Three months later, you would not have known. There is nothing I really "learned" in that time period. And if I had read a book, it probably wouldn’t help much. I knew that the wheels acted a gyroscopes and that is what made leaning down to the ground possible. My body just would not let me do it for a few weeks.

My mind acts the same way when it comes to writing. But I think it forgets how to do things sooner. I could get on a motorcycle now and take off even though it’s been about two years. If I have written in a couple of days, words just do not work for a while, especially if I have been writing code. I try and then I give up some days.

The way I see it. I have tons of crap words to get through to get to the stuff that is good. After reading "Writing Down the Bones" at 14, I wrote every day for almost three years straight with a goal of filling a 3 subject notebook each month. I was not afraid of writing by the end. I could write about anything and use a lot of different tones, rhythms, and vocabulary sets. I was in some ways better at writing than I am now. Because I consistently wrote.

I am making the attempt to go back to that practice. I may not write a post every day, but I will write, if it means writing, "I can’t write. Who am I kidding?" over and over. That way I never have to come back to writing a stranger, scared of words.

ShareThis

Researching a Biography

Sun, 24 Mar 2008 22:14:33 GMT

posted by singerbiography

Faron Young died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1996, while I was stationed with the U.S. Navy in Japan. One of my favorite singers, he was also an acquaintance. After his death, he seemed to be almost forgotten, and I started thinking about writing his biography. I wanted to write books as a retirement career, and it would be great to meet famous country music singers and listen to their memories of Faron.

But I didn't know anyone in the music business, or the publishing business, or anyone who knew Faron. And I didn't know how to write a biography.

A. Scott Berg, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lindbergh," motivated me to commit myself to the project. At a 1999 writers' conference in San Francisco, he spoke about his attempts to meet Anne Morrow Lindbergh and his eventual success in getting permission to write her husband's biography.
When I told him I'd like to write Faron's biography, he encouraged me to start.

I made a list of possible contacts and flew to Nashville from Los Angeles one weekend to begin my research. Hundreds of phone calls and several trips later, along with numerous dead ends, I'd amassed enough information to write a book. I quickly learned the importance of this commitment. My
interview subjects frequently expressed pleasure that Faron's biography was being written. I couldn't let them down. Their comments provided additional incentive to keep going.

I transcribed every interview I conducted and every Faron interview or video I acquired. These electronic files helped tremendously when searching for a particular nugget of information or copying a quote. I also purchased record albums on eBay to build a complete collection. I detest making phone calls,
and that was my greatest hurdle. It never got any easier, but the telephone is essential for biography research.

The U.S. Census records helped me trace Faron's genealogy. Whereas I looked through microfiche reels in the National Archives building, these records can now be perused on-line.

No books had been written about Faron, and most of my material came from interviews, newspaper articles, and legal documents. I searched the newspaper files in the Nashville Public Library, visited the archives of the Country Music Hall of Fame and "Music City News," and collected magazines. Research at the Davidson County Courthouse provided me with records of Faron's land purchases, arrests, and court battles.

Such an enormous project can't be accomplished alone. My brother and sister joined me on research trips to help find documents and talk to people. Several individuals from Faron's band and family readily answered my questions whenever I called. I'm grateful for the assistance and proud of the result.

Diane Diekman
"Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story," the biography of Country Music Hall of Fame member Faron Young, was published in 2007 by the University of Illinois Press. Diane is currently working on her second CMHOF biography, "Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins." Her previous books are "Navy Greenshirt: A Leader Made, Not Born" (2001) and "A Farm in the Hidewood: My South Dakota Home" (2001). Diane is a retired U. S. Navy captain. To learn more about her books and to read articles about her Navy experiences, visit her Web site at http://dianediekman.com