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 |  A running blog on a real newbies adventures with the WDC website |
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I became a newbie writer just starting to learn the tools of the trade. Silly me thinking, I could just jump right in, and start swimming, with what I remember of my six grade English. After all what use did a professional computer repair person need of grammar, to fill in blanks, dot “I’s”, or cross his “T’s” with. I was forced into early retirement. Because of Agent Orange encounters from Vietnam, and a bad hernia repair. You cannot learn anything being a mugwump. What is a mugwump you say? It is a person sitting on a fence; with their mug on one side of the fence, and their wump on the other side. One day I received this interesting email from the Newbie Academy Group. They recommend I engage in contest activities. I thought to myself why not! I went to the contest list and found the writer’s cramp contest. At the prompt: here's a new restaurant in town with an interesting theme. What's the theme, how is it expressed, and how's the food? I read this and get all excited. I started thinking of all the Chief Gordon Ramsey shows I had watch with my wife. Out of nowhere pops a memory of a silly menu I had in my funny joke collection. It was a road kill menu for Uncle Roberts fine cuisine dinning. I decided to use my hillbilly name. I and my wife had a moment in our newly married life, when we were teasing a neighbor friend. We started calling our redneck friend Deny-Bob. He called us JoVonna-Bob and Brett-Bob. I decided to call my contest entry “Brett-Bob’s Road Kill Express” to me the whole idea was a joke and after all what a great thing to write about. To me the trick was to keep it rated ‘E’ as this was a requirement of the contest. I had in my mind decided to keep it as a fake road kill diner they would serve real food as fake road kill using the out of season as the excuse to use their specialty dishes for them. When I wrote it as with all my writing I am becoming world famous for run-ons and miss spelling. Part of the problem is MSoffice I blame its terrible spell checker, and the horrible grammar checker, since it cannot even do second grade error correction. Like I told one of the Newbie Academy Ladies I’m a senior citizen writing as a first grader. And even a first grader has trouble reading my work let alone the poor teacher. Beside whom else can I blame? None of us want to point that finger at ourselves. We might get ashamed and do something about it. One of the funnier parts to my story is I didn’t read it had a thousand word limit. I just assumed that they wanted whatever you could produce in a short time. Just like Nanowrimo. It had a twenty four hour dead line. I figured you didn’t need to worry, if it was a rough draft, or a finished work. This was probably my misreading of the contest rules. I’m betting the judge expects to judge finished works by more experienced authors other than newbies. Basically I’m trying to say, I set myself up for failure. But the best part of the story, and funniest is the judge’s comment: “You met that goal with an interesting piece. However, since I'm a vegetarian, it was unhappily a bit unappetizing in both humor and description. Sigh.” I know I thrive on rejection. But my very first contest. When I am trying to fit in, and receive that comment. It was about the funniest thing to happen to me. Being a new writer I understand not everything I write is golden or is going to make me incredibly rich either. I did install the sense of shame. I went visiting my email and asked the kind judge for help with run-ons. She took pity on me and provided a link to myenglishteacher.net. She also recommended a class from WDC’s own recommended school. She also recommended asking for help in my groups forums. The truth is I really don’t see even the kindest writer here, having the time to teach me sixth grade again. Then I realized I don’t need the whole lessen. I just need to learn to recognize what I do in my writing, and fix that issue. As I write I can auto correct instead or totally relearning English. So I went to some of the forums in the Newbie Academy Group. Since I have no life anymore I sometimes expect the same of everyone else. But the sad truth is it’s the week end, and all the nice people are out being nice people. I am going to have to wait until Monday to get my help. My contest entry received eight reviews; of the eight, two actually showed me areas to improve it, and of course one judge’s review. I think the poor lady felt sorry for me and I got the newbie prize of 250 gp with the review or it won third place. I in my vanity like the third place idea; the truth is I’m just guessing. I hope I haven’t offended any one with this story. It is another attempt at a funny story. I don’t have any hard feelings with the judge she was honest, truthful, and even extremely helpful. Some points of interest; only one person didn’t find it funny, the judge. Only the judge and one retired teacher gave me a link. They both gave me really helpful reviews with writing style help. I am still holding on to three reviews of the eight. I still get a laugh every time I read the third email. I just love her closing line: This story is fun, and I still have a silly smirk on my face. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I'm building at "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  Great place to read.I'm docked at "Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"
, a safe port for bloggers to connect. |
| After watching "Jupiter Rising," I was impressed with both the story line and the creativity of it. Now for the rest of the story. The reason we were out watching movies was because the people who moved out of our new house. Left us such a mess and the carpets filthy. We were forced to hire a cleaning crew and were kicked out of the house for eight hours. We had to take everything out of the house we had moved in. Good thing I still had the pod we rented. We quickly loaded the stuff out of the house and allowed the cleaners in. They cleaned it up pretty fast and did the deep cleaning on all the carpets. We had a leak somewhere in the kitchen and it left us a large puddle of water both in the kitchen and in the basement. We now had our own lake down there in the storage room. I have heard of water storage, but that I believe is a bit much. After the two movies we did some shopping. We did quite a bit of running around in three stores. I needed bedding for the new hospital bed the VA gave me. I believe the hardest part of all this was, we still didn't get what we set out for. We bought the home using my VA Loan. The people were supposed to be out of the house on the 23rd. They said they wouldn't sign the VA papers unless we gave them until March first and they would clean it up. (They lied.) We had from 5:30pm on March 2nd until Wednesday morning the 4th to move from our rented house. (We got the keys to the new house at 5:30 pm on Monday.) This really sucked. We managed to get it done and be out of the other place on Tuesday evening. Now the new house smells a lot better and the carpets are really clean. It was worth the $300.00 we paid them to clean it. The good news is I don't have anymore stairs that I have to climb up to get to my bedroom. I am so thankful for that. Now I can wheelchair myself around the upstairs and do my laundry. Fix my meals, and not be stuck up a bunch of stairs in my bed room all the time. |
 BLOG CITY"I love the phrase why is that" says David Feldman, the author of the "Imponderables" series of books. David believes there is no question too obscure or too broad to answer. For me, I am basing the prompt question more in the terms of the intersection between your creativity and your knowledge. What do you understand about this universe of ours that few others realize? What I realized is it is filled with endless possibilities.It is too big for most minds to get a grip on. When I started world building on my space opera. I wanted unlimited playing space. If we were to try and control something as big as this. How would intelligent races do it. First you need to set up patrol areas. I called my smaller areas for patrolling a sector. In my sector of space it could hold a whole galaxy of stars. In the galaxy you will need a sector capitol solar system. A system for the military bases you need to patrol the area inside the galaxy. There will be some life as well large deposits of resources that need gathering and protection. You keep breaking down bases to every solar system. this will take time especially with millions of solar systems in a single galaxy. The good part is not every system will have life. Also not all patrols and system guardians need to be living robotics can do the job as well. The next fact is the true number of life sustaining planets in a galaxy is a large number. The number of planets with life is about half the number of life supporting planets. The next point is The majority of life supporting planets will not support human life. These are just my thoughts on space. There are so many wonders out there. I still believe that man kind needs to get of this world and explore, colonize, and use the resources in our solar system. |
| BLOG CITY It wasn't going to be easy but some one has to tell her/him... Make it your own... It wasn't going to be easy, but some one had to tell her why he couldn't ever come home again. My human commander is stuck saving the universe. I know how much he misses his family. I read his mind all the time. I also know that he knows that should he give up and quit. He may or may not have a world left coming home too. I know that his wife will never understand what he is doing. She has no real imagination to see past her own selfish wants and desires. His children would if I made it known to them. But I will not. The human race isn't ready for what is going on all around them. He wants it to stay that way. It is better that he disappear. The note I left her will break her heart, but the gold should help with her grieving. The human race doesn't need to find out the universe is out to get them. It is time to start the battle to save the solar system. If we win the human race will continue to survive. If we loose it will not matter to him any more. They will all be eaten. "Attention Fleet! This is Command Ship Admiral Grace speaking. The human says shields up, start your defensive runs, and don't hold back!" |
| BLOG CITY Let's talk about those lovely ellipsis points. Do you think they suggest faltered or fragmented speech? Should they be save for confusion, distress or the big reveal. Do you use them when you write? How about with dialogue, are they best used when one speaker interrupts another? You know I really don't know much about them to be honest so I will only tell you what i know of them. I always thought they had to follow excreta example: ect... Then I see them in dialog as a break like when they get interrupted or action happens during dialog. One of the best uses was Jack and Jill were walking on an iced over pond. Jill turns to Jack and says, "Jack I love you so..." Crack! Splash! Jill disappears out of sight. The best usage is as a break between paragraphs where we leave Jack and Jill and tell about what happened or continue the story at a different spot. Like we are now at Jill's funeral. For those People like to use other graphics then ellipsis, but normally it will be three of them. Now you know my limited knowledge on them and their uses. I do like the fact they exist and I can use them if I like. Since I never did learn proper use of them just yet I tend not to use them as a rule. One doesn't use what one doesn't quite understand. To me that way I don't get foot stuck in mouth and have to chew hard to get it out. Looking forward to everyone else's discussion on their uses. You never know I might come out of it with better knowledge then I started. |
| BLOG CITY "My story was a complete success. The audience was a failure." ~ Ashleigh Brilliant Prompt: When you sit down to blog or write a short story do you consider what the audience expectations are? How important are each word, sentence when it comes to your target audience? If not, who are you writing for? You know, I got a surprise one day when trying to convince the Story Master that I should be allowed to use road kill in my title. What I learned was: One when it comes to ratings I'm not ever going to win so watch out what you put in titles. Two who am I really writing for on this site. What I found out is the site is 10% young adult and 90% adult. Most adults don't want to read 18+ or higher. They do however like 18+ and lower. Most of them don't search for E rated stories they do the 18+ or 13+ stories so if you want the broadest audience you will put your rating to your market. Even if it is an E story using a 13+ directs it to your majority of adults. Why not use the rating system to your advantage or market. Now you all know the old saying writer know your market. Right now you have two markets here your WDC market and the real market you are writing for. My real market is online role playing gamers. Since I'm writing a game and game lore. It really is a broad market, from 8 year olds and up to over 80 years old. So I have to keep my writing at 6th grade level period. But make it readable to adults as well. I have a lot of challenges to over come. Since I wrote it in newbie lol. It works out great for kids but bores the adults to sleep. The other real problem is plots since it is game lore you have four plots going on it each book. Plot number 1: The mystery of the enemy you have to fight in the end game you have to give out clues to them. They never get tied up in a single book because you never fight them there. Plot number 2: The starting world plot with the secondary enemy all starting worlds fight. Plot number 3: The strength each starting world has to offer in people, equipment, and upgrades. That you will need to figure out to advance in the end game. Plot number 4: The story line that the game is based on. When you read something like this you begin to see how my first book could drive a reviewer nuts, and bore the heck out of them too. I have eight starting worlds and the ninth book does the tying of the other eight books together on both the one enemy and on giving more clues to real enemy and getting the story line to main game and end game starting points. I was trying to make each book stand alone as well as show the different quests you will have to do to gain that race's features for your main player character. Now again for a reviewer that will get boring especially if I didn't build in read attraction since being a newbie I was, "Huh, what's that, never heard of it." Needless to say I have a lot of work ahead of me. Now that I have a full set of chapter reviews done. Even as bad as the first book was my reviewer pointed out a lot to that is crucial to getting it readable to both a reader and for my market. As reviewers how many of us are ready to review game lore? The truth is this is not a normal novel because it has elements in it that are not part of a small story, but that of a larger story yet to be played, You can imagine my dismay when someone tells me I have a week plot. Yea, right, which one is weak? The next problem is how do I fix it lol. Most gamers don't care about weak plots they play weak plotted games all the time. What they want are the tips and clues to advance over other players and also how to pvp the other players to win or ganking them. I have done eight years of research on online gaming. I have been a clan leader in a few. Play in quite a lot of different types even did a few children's games. Just to learn my markets. I want you to know at the time, I started developing my worlds, and what I was going to write about. I did know my market, but what I didn't know was what a difficult task I set for myself with writing game lore. I have plotted out every starting world, even written twenty, or more chapters in them. I even have the ninth book thought out and the plot lines on how to tie them all up. But the end game enemy plot that has to stay a mystery that I leave clues to until the the true game ending. I found that doing background short stories on specific events or on creations can be used to help out on unclear points in your novels. Never underestimate the power of short background stories to pave a way to your books success also you can use then to test your market on what your book is about. I know several authors who used this path to pave the way for their full novels and we readers couldn't get enough. With ever sentence and with your word smithing you aim your work for your chosen audience. The best and truest advice anyone can give you is "Writer, Know Your Audience." You need to know it whether you have goals, no goals, or just for fun. |
| BLOG CITY Prompt: What do you think “compassion” is? Can one show compassion even for one’s worst enemy? First question's answer. To have compassion means you can feel sorry for that person and understand why they are the way they are. You can forgive them and move on. The real trick here is to forgive and forget. Most of us can forgive, but we all have really long memories. Second Question's answer. Can we forgive our worst enemy. Now that depends on the person and the circumstances on how they became my worst enemy. To be my worst enemy you would have to do physical harm to a family member. Most things like words or expressions of anger don't phase me. We all are human and we always have some nerve close to our shin that gets trampled on by unsuspecting people. If you choose not to get upset then they are not an enemy nor do you ever have to forgive them nor they forgive you. I really hate to eat humble pie. I try very hard not to be upset by little things like fly by raters, people who rate a good story a really low rating with no real explanation other then trying to get fast gps. The best one yet is people who annon rate your graphics you use for contests or activities. I know the Story Master once got a review on a place holder, I read it, and it was pretty funny. Sometimes I know we are doing our best, but we still put our foot in it, me included. It is best sometimes to just ignore the thing that stomped on your nerves and drop it. Because a few e-mails later and newsfeeds you will see them help out a good friend with a big act of kindness. Then you feel bad about being upset with them, and the good thing is since you ignore the slight, you can cheer them on. Now, you don't have angry words to eat. |
| BLOG CITY Give me an example of great openings that appeal to you from one of your favorite authors. If you could erase just one day from your life,would you know the day? From the "Mistletoe Promise," by Richard Paul Evans. What qualities do you notice as you think about your favorite openings? I like them to be interesting and different. One gets tired of 'once upon a time.' I found that opening with action, pets, and other things make a better hook to attract readers. Who really wants to read about the mundane: "My name is Bob and I pass gas a lot." |
| You know some days I run around in a happy daze thinking all is great. Then get slapped in the face with a huge wake up call that all is not write right in Denmark. I have been thinking of trying the Dear Me contest probably only to be laughed at again. Which is fine I enjoy making people laugh at me or my writing. Now back to my wake up call. This all ties together just is going to take a few more steps is all. One of my good friends on WDC remarked it took my book reviewer 39 chapters to tell me I had a weak plot. It was a complement to her but quite a slam to me. The only reason it was a slam was because now that I know I had a weak plot. (I wasn't upset over a weak plot by the way.) I was upset because I had no clue how to fix it. I wasn't up set with anyone but myself. How could I let this happen to a 108,000 word novel. I needed a way to fix it without deleting it and starting all over again. My friend referred me to an article in the Art of Criticism on how to run this in a scene and chapter by chapter using tell, show, and dialog. I sat down and figured out a plan to expose this weak plot chapter by chapter. I developed my new years resolution plan as I call it. (Now you see the dear me part in this rambling.) Step one: Since I have all the ideas and four plot going in this 108,000 word novel. It would be stupid to try and recreate it. The solution is to first go through it, fix up all grammar, spelling, punctuation, run-on, and starting every sentence with an I. You get the picture. The other part of this first run through is to bust up several long chapters. Instead of 39 chapters it now has 42 chapters. Step two: I really need to know what is going on in each chapter. My reviewer is telling me, I have way to many characters, and I need cliff hangers at every chapter ending. The chapters don't have reader attraction, and are slow paced. My solution is start with the first chapter now that I have repaired all the grammar and punctuation. I need to diagram it all out. I want to show plot pieces for my four plots. I need character lists of who is in each chapter. I need a scene list. I need to look for areas to do show. I need now to see why my plot components don't work, and make notes on editing points. Step three: Using the chapter review for each chapter and my diagram I want to start making notes on changes needed to strengthen the plots, add show, generate more reader attraction. I need to figure out cliff hangers to pull the reader into the next chapter. Step four: Edit each chapter as needed by my notes. Do a read through correct errors and read it out loud looking for flow issues or left out words. Step five: Take a break from it for at least a month then reread it for common mistakes. Try and get another Pencil review of it, and re-edit it again. By this time I just might have something worth reading and selling. My goal to myself is have at least one rejection slip before December. I may have to set a whole new set of goals once I start trying to sell it. I am flexible there I will do whatever it takes to get this book done so it is a professional work and not a newbie pipe dream. |
| BLOG CITY Prompt: What is your formula of sticking to New Year's resolutions or any other promises to yourself, after making them? My secret of new years resolutions is: 1. Never make long lists of things you want to change for the new year to work on.. (It overloads you and sets you up to fail. You can make the list to work from, but follow the rest of the steps below.) 2. Only work on one thing you really want to change. 3. Just work on that one item until you finish it to your satisfaction, not someone else's satisfaction. 4. If you finish early, pick another one from your long list and start working on it. 5. If you follow this set of rules you will always be successful. Even if it takes you two or more years to complete the change you need. My goal last year was to get published, and finish my first book by December. Now I have been published in a few newsletters. I am not ready to start trying to sell my work yet. I had to learn grammar first. I took the Grammar Garden twice to get my grammar better so I could loose the run-on king title. Next I have this massive editing job of rewriting my book from Mia's reviews on the whole book. I am still working on this project. I now have two chapters that I feel like stand a better chance of getting published. Next I have to take the comma sense class. I am hoping to finish my edit and have something worth attracting a publisher to print. |
| BLOG CITY Prompt: Have you ever visited a place that remains in your consciousness, long after you left? Was it the people? The architecture? Since you had to ask this you may not like my answer. This is one question most servicemen don't answer. The reason is in war or my case a 'police action' you will always have a mind picture that haunts you the rest of your life. Here is my image I just hope I can write it correctly. My platoon was patrolling through our assigned section of the jungle. There were loud explosions going around us, through us, next to us. I felt the ground shake under me and woke up in a horror movie. I had minor cuts and bruises. I began to crawl through the blood and body parts of my friends. The smell of fresh death was everywhere. My ears were numb from the explosions. All I could see was blood and broken bodies. Those were my friends and buddies laying there staring at me to help them. |
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