The Writing Process Blog Hop

Thanks to a delightful blog I follow by Dallas Dyson, known as The Crazy Train to Tinky Town, I found out late yesterday that there was an opportunity for a blog hop. Ever since my attempt at NaNoWriMo for the first time this past year, I have had the pleasure of bonding over Twitter and Facebook with an incredible array of writers and people in the publishing industry to glean wisdom and insight from.  In the spirit of bonding and passing along positive spirit and sharing the  joy and pain of a writer's life, I couldn't help but participate. Without further ado, here are my answers to the fantastic blog hop questions, four in total: 

What are you working on?
Currently I have a few irons in the fire outside of this blog, which I have been writing about what interested me in the moment. Now I'm realizing with The Fat Fatwa series that my blogs about weight loss are really bonding and encouraging for my friends, so who knows where that will lead. I am also trying to figure out how to do all of this in such a way as to bring in income soon. Luckily I have a very supportive family but I could use some bacon on the table.

But outside of that I am working on the following:

1) I am working on a memoir/creative non-fiction book about my grandmother whose life we have unearthed mostly through her belongings.  She was one of those people who was so secretive that there were huge aspects of her life that we just simply have had no clue about until she started suffering from dementia and we had to start putting her in care facilities. She turned out to be a secret hoarder, with things jammed away in closets and attics that had value and history and have given us glimpses of her real life that she never ever told us. As we have gone through her things, I also realized that not only did we not only not know her well, but that my research of her life would yield good material for her eulogy when she passes away. And I know that I am the best one to do that eulogy. I'm about 40 pages in, and it's a slow process, but it's a story I'm telling because I believe it is a rather fascinating story. 

2) I have a back burner project about writing a Master's Thesis. After the myriad of books I read trying to muddle through the process of getting my Master of Arts in English Literature, I discovered a dearth of materials pertaining to the subject.  There were many books on writing a Doctorate, but I know many more people who have been going on for the mid-range Master's who don't really have any guidance. While I got some, I found no one really told the real story of what you go through as a writer during that process.

3) I have research to do on two different WWII stories that no one has told yet. And I aim to research and detail both of them. I shall refrain from talking about them however, because I don't want anyone stealing my thunder.  I have trust issues as a writer. 

How does your work differ from others in the genre?

1) The memoir/creative-nonfiction piece is different from many in that it's less purely my memoir, and more of a memoir and biographical piece. None of the guide books that I have read yet have really touched on the kind of book I'm writing, and I believe this may be a very good thing.

2) The MA book I feel will be broad and lighthearted.  The few books that I read were very very narrow how-to books that didn't apply to hardly anyone.  I am definitely not one who believes that writing should be that strictly regimented, and couldn't possibly work that way. So I felt like writing a book that made more general sense and offers different approaches and ways to not beat yourself up for not knowing what you are doing.  Because really no one who is completing their thesis knows what they are doing. I discovered that everyone is winging it.

3) I have found two aspects of WWII that are virtually untouched in books or cinema, and these true stories are begging, clawing, and scrapping their way to the surface. I feel that if I can tell these stories they will blow people away.  

Why do you write what you write?
I used to think that what I should be writing is novels. I have a very creative extended family including writers yet to be discovered, and thought that I would just be following in their footsteps.  However, as time goes on, I realized that my wheelhouse and my passion is for telling true stories.  The ones of real lives that otherwise would be lost to time and buried somewhere as generations are lost and people don't pass things down to the next generation telling family legends and stories the way they did in prior generations.  This is a tragic loss, and I want to do my best salvage some of these pieces of history before it's too late.

How does your writing process work?
You know how some people methodically plan out every aspect of their work in an outline and the meticulously work at the same hour from 6-8 a.m. every morning, always write in a journal, and follow all of the rules writing instruction has been dishing for decades? 

I'm not one of those people. And I struggled for years fighting against the extreme doubt as to my own ability to write simply because I couldn't follow it to the letter the way all of the experts told me I had to in order to be a success.

Successfully finishing my thesis actually helped me realize that my writing process didn't have to have the iron structure laid out for me. That, in fact, I could be as crazy, haphazard, and unstructured as I wanted to be.  The most important part was to write.  To get it all out of me, on paper, and thought out.  The writing process became another version of my thought process and allowing myself that freedom was a huge revelation to me. 

Now I work in a way that works for me.  I recently acquired Scrivener which admittedly I don't totally have the hang of yet.  But what I like about it as a program, is that it very much parallels the kind of writing-in-chunks process that I do in a word processing program.  And it makes it really easy to move whole sections around and see your writing in blocks.  Also, it's fairly easy to export into MSWord when I'm done with each draft, so it's really a winning program.

Honestly, when I get really stuck, I often return to writing segments with a good stack of college-ruled notebook paper, and a soft-rolling, fine point, ballpoint pen.

Obviously the editing process isn't skipping merrily through tulips, but is actually considerably better than when I was trying to confine myself to the straight-jacket of regimented writing.

So anyone else that wants to follow along this blog hop, feel free to comment here with a link to yours, and if you want to, leave a link over at the Crazy Train... to get all sorts of hopping going.

Taking the NaNoWriMo Challenge

I have been thinking a lot lately about my future self.  My present self is in desperate need of upgrade and change and breaking free.  This means I've been really trying to get my health in a better place, make my energy levels better, and hopefully be able to increase my overall productivity.

After all, ambition without energy goes nowhere.

So one thing that I have been wanting to do for a very long time is finish writing a book.  I have already written a multitude of essays, short fiction, poetry, articles, and a one-hundred page thesis. What I haven't done is written an entire book.  So, since I have had a goal of writing one particular non-fiction book, I thought I would join the masses, bite the bullet, and become part of NaNoWriMo.

So at midnight tonight I will join some 200,000 people and begin writing 50,000 words in one month.

I had tried this with a novel a few years ago, but had my whole life take over in November, so about two days of writing happened and that was it.

This time, I feel it.

I feel this memoir in me, and I'm going to write it.

And today is the first day toward becoming a professional author.  You know.  That makes money.

That is something I think my future self is going to thank me for.

A New Era

Fall usually ushers in our love for scarves, hats, and crunching leaves. For me it always ushers in that sense of renewal.

While I could go into the many reasons why fall is the season of choice for me, one big and quite fantastic reason is that the last day of September is the illustrious day of my nativity.

Enjoying my birthday with a  Guinness.
 "They come in pints??!!"

This year's celebration of my birth marked a rather grand passing from one decade into the next.  Now I get to check out and try to prove correct the adage that 40 is the new 30.  I'll just have to see about that. What I do know is that just a couple days prior I was carded, did my little happy dance, and was given the "No way!" reaction when she looked at my I.D. and I told her I was about to turn 40.

And frankly, my last week of being 30-something was perhaps one of the most interesting yet and has absolutely added perhaps the most spectacular LML (Love My Life) blog entry yet. While I have yet to find a teaching position that works for me, that I would be qualified for, I realized that my roll-with-it mentality doesn't confine me to that particular job pursuit.  As some other doors have been opening up that, granted, don't make me large amounts of cash quickly, they seem to indicate what could possibly be a plausible career direction.

Case in point: Film Series Planning.

A good friend of mine is a professor at my grad school Alma Mater and was kind enough to offer me the job of helping him plan a film series.  This has proven to me that I am pretty darn good at publicity, public relations, planning events, and may possibly lead to an income doing grant writing for various non-profits. I love the idea of finding funding for worthy causes and utilizing my writing skills for making a difference!

As part of a discussion of the various mythologies of Greek and Early American Literature, my good professor friend has a fantastic way of including pop culture in ways that are different and creative.  The first in the film series was Meredith Willson's The Music Man starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones.  I spent a good chunk of hours helping publicize and negotiate between departments, draw up a personal appearance contract, and schedule with talent management the appearance of Shirley Jones.

Sara's Shirley Jones Nirvana

In the end, I got to sit back and watch The Music Man on a large screen, and listen to Shirley Jones answer questions about the making of this classic film.  It was fantastic!

Having such moments at the end of my thirties has thrown down a gauntlet for my forties. What could top this? Why, just watch and see.

Ushering in my new era this way makes me all the more convinced that I have amazing things yet ahead of me in my life.














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And to usher in this inaugural era of life, I'm joining the Ultimate Blog Challenge again.  This time, hopefully I will succeed!

Since I mentioned LML--> Blog Hop

5 mistakes that are driving readers bonkers

I admittedly make my fair share of grammatical errors.  It comes with the territory when you are fighting dyslexia that sometimes things get a little bungled.  However, being an English major I do have my limits to allowable errors. I am only one person and I have no personal editor at my disposal.  In particular, if I am reading a large and fairly well-endorsed blog or published article, I have certain expectations that lines will not be crossed.  The occasional error is okay, but frequent errors will turn me off.  And blatant misuse may soon drive me out of my mind.

1. Literally

I am pleased to report that AAA has finally stopped running the most irritating commercial ever.  They ran this commercial for a long time, and I made a personal promise to myself that no matter what the savings, I will refuse to patronize any company that would run an ad whose first testimonial included a woman looking wide-eyed into the camera and saying "I literally fell out of my chair it was such a big savings."

Literally has lost all meaning and is now used for emphasis, where as before literally means not figuratively.  So, this actually happened.  In the case of this woman, if she literally fell out of the chair, I want to see the bruises, the hospital bill, etc.

Using literally in this fashion is going to literally make you look like a fool.

Literally is not, repeat, NOT to be used for emphasis.  It is used to separate figurative from literal.  To separate fantasy from reality.

2.  I could care less.

Aww, well shucks.  Then you do care!  That's so sweet. Here I thought you were trying to break up with me. Wait? What is this you are trying to say?

Oh.  You're saying, you don't care.  In fact, you are at the bottom of your barrel of caring.

So really, what you meant to say was, "I couldn't care less."  In other words, I REALLY do not care.  So much so that it is impossible to care any less than I already do.  And I obviously do not care.

In other words, stick that little phrase, "than I already do", on the end.  See if it still makes sense.  If it doesn't, then change it.

Let's go over that again.  Ready? I couldn't care less.


3.  Quotation marks.
The collective population at some point decided that "quotation marks" should be used for "emphasis" on "signage" and eventually on "blogs."

However, a large portion of us know that if you use them this way, you are actually indicating that you are being facetious.

And if you are making this error, you probably don't know the definition of facetious which is:

Treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor; flippant.

So, if you mark on your menu that you are serving succulent "chicken", it indicates that it is merely some other substance that may taste like chicken which you would prefer to call chicken but certainly is not chicken.
My point?  Don't randomly use quotation marks for emphasis.  Underline.  Circle.   Underline and circle.  Place in all caps.  I don't care. Just stop.
If you want to see fine examples of misuse, feel free to visit this blog later:


http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/

4.  Penultimate.


When this word is used it so often misused that you may not even realize you are misusing it.

The pen of penultimate doesn't mean super, ultra, or beyond.  Penultimate actually means next to the top.  Poor penultimate is actually the silver medal.  It's not quite ultimate.  If you reach the penultimate stage of the race, it is next to the last.

Sorry to burst your bubble.  This may be your Pluto, and if so I'm truly sorry.  But you really have been using this wrong.

5.  Addicting
Back in olden times, say twenty years ago, no one said this.  Now, it is gaining acceptance and I hear people use this all the time.

Yet really, I'm pretty sure the word you are looking for is addictive.

Addictive is an adjective.  It is best suited for descriptions, to describe things.

That television program is addictive.

The "ing" on the end indicates a verb.  By some accounts a transitive verb, meaning that you need something more on the end. This is why many of us feel it is wrong usage and it doesn't sound right to our ears.  We need something that is missing. Example:

This chocolate cake is such a powerful narcotic, it is addicting me to it.

I'm sure part of our problem is the way we continually try to streamline and shorten.  Saying addicting instead of addictive, while helping you sound urban and cool, in written form makes it seem as though you don't know the difference between a verb and an adjective.


Best to be safe, and not make your readers want to throw tomatoes at your blog.

In fact, that is a great motto.  Don't make your readers want to throw tomatoes at your blog.  It's just common sense.

And if you avoid these errors, I'll keep my own produce in the fridge.  I promise.