It’s time again for another episode of Shagbottom Theater!
Can you believe it? By now, I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors and we have the exclusive video that proves them true. Tony Stark, star of Shagbottom Theater, has been caught on tape using a totally different voice than the one you’re used to. It’s simply shocking! Watch the video below to see for yourself!
Gossip Hounds is a celebrity gossip show.
How has your hobby made you a better writer?
Sample of what clothespin reindeer look like.
Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are always grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors will engage and impress you weekly, so be prepared to become a regular reader.
Alongside my desire to become a writer when I was a kid, I thoroughly enjoyed arts and crafts. Coloring in coloring books, drawing, painting and constructing clothes pin reindeer, among other things, was a wonderful outlet for all the energy and creativity I’m known for. Whether I am exhausted or not, I am still driven to complete the job, and do so efficiently and well. I think this came from literally learning to color between the lines. It taught me patience, which extended beyond the coloring page. The same with painting and drawing, even reindeer building.
In later years (post undergrad college, about 2005), I took up photography in earnest. I had dabbled when I could with my parent’s camera, which was a fancy Nikon with which they were nervous to let me play. I took this amazing shot of a pumpkin I had carved, but since photography was film photography then, it was a rather expensive hobby to take up, so I never pushed it. Digital had come into it’s own by 2005, and with film and digital cameras, plus a good job to now pay for the expense, I began the task of learning how to use those tools. You can see my gallery on deviantArt.com. You’ll see digital work to support my writing, photography and traditional art. The gallery is broken up by topics on the left hand side. I even have galleries where I’ve retired work, so you can see my growth from year to year. Yes, prints are available and inexpensive.
The creative arts require both patience and know how. First of all, you need to gather to you all the tools you’ll need to complete your project. You have to have a clear vision of the project, even outlining how you’ll do it. And then, you have to patiently, if not painstakingly, construct that project. While I was a kid, I had patience to do all these things in the moment that I wanted to. I never had the drive to want to sit patiently and construct stories. It was too much like homework. A bit odd I didn’t like that idea, because I did like to play school when I was little. It wasn’t all the time, but, again, when the moment drove me.
Steampunk Compass – Open 1
Years later, beside school being the obvious mold from which I take my research ethic and skills, it was those arts and crafts that really honed my patience and taught me the worthwhile nature of sitting down to a project and seeing it through. My years of writing conversely got me through my masters program, and, before that, teaching myself to write screenplays.
This blog is an offshoot of my years actively creating, and I hope that it shows the degree of skill I’ve garnered from my lifelong practice. From graphics to new books, I put in everything I’ve learned, whether self taught or having taken a course. (Forgive my typos and glaring mistakes, as I sometimes am in a rush to get things posted on time.)
Did you know I also craft jewelry? Or that I’m teaching myself German? You can check out more of my art on here and here. I also cook!
Let’s hop on over to see what the other authors have had to say about how their hobbies feed into their writing…
Behind the Scenes. How does this writing game get done?
Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are always grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors will engage and impress you weekly, so be prepared to become a regular reader..
I’ve written about my process a time or two, and always hope that a would be writer finds it and is put at ease by the things I divulge in the exploration of my process. Some of us are always looking to validate how we work, and that alleviates a lot of the anxiety around writing. We can get our work done.
Instead of rehashing a lot of what I assume other authors will say, and to avoid rehashing my own work – here is a short list of the steps I take with no details (see K Around the Web for articles and interviews about my writing):
Write some notes on that idea (let it rot on my desk for a few weeks to a few years).
Wait! What was that last one? Pass through the e-reader software for last final touches/typos…
Yup, I have downloaded an e-reader (Natural Reader) to help me do my final proof on my manuscript. It’s a relatively cheap software, under $100 and it bypasses the usual proofreading snares.
How so? We all know that our eyes ignore mistakes and misses because our brain fills in the correct information. If you’re reading along at your normal speed, then you tend to miss a lot of typos or gloss over rough patches.
Our brains are very good at filling things in, when it is our information being filled. Our readers will struggle, their eyes trip up on the typo or wrong word choice. It’s frustrating all around. We authors want to give our work the best attention we can, but we can’t catch everything. You need another set of eyes. That said, another pair of eyes to proof your work before submission isn’t always available. The editor sends back your work, leaving it up to you to make the corrections they suggest (or not). Typos often occur here. And, our editors, no matter how good they are, are not computers. They miss things too.
So what the Natural Reader software does is allow me to sit back and listen to my book. The voices are awkward at first, but they have made vast improvements on the electronic voices. I try them both out for the first couple chapters to see who’s voice appeals to me more in the narrative. I use headphones to complete the isolation necessary to concentrate on what I am hearing. You can turn on music from a radio or another computer if you wish to help drown out reality. I do that as well. Now, settle back and let the computer read the book to you, while you read along with the computer. This instant double-check catches almost all typos. You’re simultaneously hearing and seeing the word, so if it is wrong, you’ll know it (unless it’s affect and effect, which sound the same and are easily confused).
When that process is done, I’ve usually read and reread the manuscript so many times I am almost sick of it. Still, I make sure to let it sit for another few days at least, weeks is better, a month, even better. Give yourself time to come away from the work and be sure that you’ve done everything you can and want to from A to Z. There will be no turning back once you send it to your publisher. It is now in stone, so to speak. Of course, you can always fix some things in a later edition, but you can’t do much, or the book won’t be the same. Learning to let go is one of the crisis points for every author. We know that six months into publication we start thinking about all the neat things we could have done on the book, but failed to think of at the time. Tuck those ideas away for a sequel or for a new book and stop worrying.
I recommend the e-reader to everyone. It’s a great tool you don’t think of using, and it is available to everyone, not just people with visual impairment.
Let’s hop on over to go behind the scenes with our other authors. Before you go, check out author Stephany Tullis…
Stephany Tullis‘s life changed dramatically in the fall of 2008. When her oldest son asked, ‘why don’t you just write a book? Do what you love to do?’, after a few weeks of thought, she decided to give it a shot.
Master’s Plan, A Novel About Purpose. When thinking about how much she continually enjoys reading her debut novel, she writes, “I still laugh at all my favorite chapters and have yet to decide who is my favorite or least liked character. It’s amazing! I was able to spin a tail around two frameworks that have had a major influence on my life: church and government politics. In writing The Master Plan, I was reminded of what a blessed life I have had and that despite what appeared to be very dismal circumstances, I was able to use my creativity and love of writing in a different way. Truly, I can see and believe, it was all part of a master plan.”
