  For Authors
This week: Edited by: archgargoyle
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| Welcome to the For Authors newsletter. I hope you find at least a little bit of enthusiasm to push your writing. Have a great time reading, and I hope to hear from you soon. |
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Thought Jotting
I'm going to first apologize to everyone for a short newsletter, however, life can sometimes get in the way of a well-thought-out article.
It amazes me that it's when we're at our busiest that we really realize that we want to write. Yet, when we sit down, there's nothing to come out, or ideas are born while in the midst of doing something else.
I know a lot of authors/writers who take along a notebook just about everywhere they go, or little journals scattered around the house and workplace so that one is accessible at any given moment. They jot down little comments about a person they met or passed wherever they may be at the time. I tried this method of keeping track of ideas, dreams, research notes, and thoughts. It didn't work. What ended up happening in my case is that I'd have several loose leaf sheets of paper scattered throughout a multitude of places with different things. I'm organized in some ways, note taking has never been a strong point for me. Therefore, with all these fleeting pieces of paper, I ended up more scatter-brained in my ideas and thoughts than I had started. Now, I do have to say, if the notebook, or journal idea works for you, I salute. You have a piece of awe from this Duck.
Now, what are some other methods that we could use to help keep our ideas on track and organized? Well, there's the whiteboard method. I have one, no wait, two. I haven't tried using it yet only because we recently purchased one and the other came with our desks. Plus, I don't really have any story ideas at the moment to keep track. Love is a Mommy (no foolin)  loves hers at work and wanted one to keep track of plot points and ideas for her novel that she started during NaNoWriMo. Sorry, I know that word is about like a curse in the household at the moment, but we'll all get over it and beat ourselves trying to win next year. (She won, by the way  ) Anyway, you get the drift. 
Something I have found to be somewhat useful is a digital voice recorder. They're not overly expensive and can store quite a few ideas. I usually keep it in the car because that's where I think creatively the most. With a busy life, there's not a whole lot of time to actually do much writing. But, being able to keep some of my thoughts in order and not lose them is important when something really hits home with a good thought.
This Christmas season has been especially busy for us here, and even though I haven't had many ideas for stories, I know that my digital recorder is close-by.
The cool thing about this device, especially during the family get-togethers during Christmas is that it easily fits into a pocket and one can voice some of the weird and hilarious things that that aunt or uncle did. Or maybe something that you can use as a dramatic climax in a story idea of your own. Family, unless they are utterly boring, can give a lot of ideas. And what better way to keep track of happenings than a recorder?
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday and I also hope to hear some of the ridiculous and entertaining things that happened during your holiday.
Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Your Challenge:
Refrain from the pie!
archgargoyle |
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Do you have a question for me?
So, if you would, humor me. Can you write a character profile or short piece about me, Duck? (There might be bribery involved here. )
What about your own online personality? Does it differ much from you in real life? What kind of characterization workup can you give yourself?
Hey, hello there. I cannot create your character but I can say that I am the real my online but in real life I am a character. I shut down some of my personality in real life most of all for fear and you know what? I create a lot of my characters with some people characteristics and each one have something of the real me.
By the way. You're timing is great. I created a group to help other authors (I'm not professional but I read a lot and offer my help) in their works and I wrote a kind of guide about characters and PUFS! your article arrive to my e-mail. It is great to have this kind of information available. ~ Loraine ~ will be back soon 
That's awesome Loraine. How about submitting the group. Might be able to find a plug for it here. 
You're pretty inscrutable Duck. To charaterize you would require more than the 1,000 characters allowed. As for me, my real life character changes so often that it depends on the time of day what I'm like. I agree that the life of a story lies in three dimensional characters that the reader can see. Nice work. ~ demor
Ummm...I'll take that as a compliment, LOL!
lol I think I'm slightly more polite as my virtual self. The literal me is more uncouth and I tend to be wackier literally. I'm not sure which of these mes my friends enjoy more, but if I had to take a choice, I'd say the literal me, because virtual me just cannot hold back emotions. It's like I type something and then-oops. Like this for example. I can't believe I'm sending this in. ~ Drima Waye
Well, glad you hit the submit button. It's interesting to read the responses from those who say they're the same online and offline, but even moreso from those like you who say you're completely different at home. I'm sure you can use yourself as a character, either way you turn. |
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For Authors: December 21, 2005 Issue [#785]
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