Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

In my apartment building there lives a delightful woman with a classic and unique sense of self, style, and dress.  She has two friendly and squishy cats, one black and one orange.  She’s done a lot of things in her life and one of them is write.  This week she blessed me with a signed copy of her latest book of poetry, left by my door like a pert little present. As I have had her first book of poetry (Cobwebs on the Dublin Bus) in my Amazon Shopping Cart for a while (WALL NUTS is her second book of poetry, but her sixth book thus far), I found this to be a very welcome treat. Since I was blue this morning on the way to work, I decided to take it along with me and read it and see where her poetry took me. It took me on a wild ride.

Wall Nuts (2007), by Wendy Elliot Hyland, is a term Wendy coined which means: “a two-legged being having a tough outer shell with a brain speckled with magic and madness.  Some WALL NUTS may be difficult to decipher from their mental and physical manner while others are easily recognized” (Hyland, 2007, Frontispiece).    Oh, the delightful trip through madness she takes us on! And it is a journey.  The first poem is titled “train schedule, please,” while the last is called, “long day’s journey.”  So you know you’re in for one helluva ride. Quite mercurial – and it really takes you to outer space, too! 

The poems range from zany and spirited to loving to bitter to magical to contemplative, but each is marked by a certain wit, like she is constantly laughing at herself and the world around her.  But don’t be fooled.  These poems aren’t all about “her.”  Like Emily Dickinson, Wendy may be using the first person in writing something, but she could be playing another character completely.  She is simply the filter for presenting that character’s voice to the world, and it’s a filter that makes one laugh and think at the same time.  Even her most serious poems about love or loss have a fillip somewhere that shows that here again is something that could be laughable (even if bitterly) when taken another way.  One of my favorites is ”visitation rights”: “it’s strange that the people/now visiting me in the psycho ward/bringing me pretty bunches of flowers/are the same people who put me/there in the first place!”

Because she also illustrated each poem with simple line drawings, it adds to the fun of the read as the line drawings are, again, illustrative of her tweak on life.  The line drawing for “visitation rights” is the same as that on the front cover to give you an idea (http://www.amazon.com/Wall-Nuts-Wendy-Elliott-Hyland/dp/0931761166/sr=8-1/qid=1169847322/ref=sr_1_1/002-6464611-3190466?ie=UTF8&s=books).

I know poetry books are not best sellers these days, but I do believe that this collection of poetry is worth the read.  Reading it took me from being glum to being carefully optimistic – even oddly cheerful.  As they say in the musical, it’s like being a fiddler on the roof – playing and dancing while being careful that you don’t fall off or fly away.  But then again, that could be just the beginning.

Tonight I’m working on the type of writing I DON’T like to do.

Sometimes I freelance for the company I work for writing papers, resumes, cover letters, personal essays (“why do you want to attend this university?”). I wouldn’t mind finding other freelance work, but that always peters out somehow. Which, is probably for the best because resumes, cover letters, and personal essays are so boring. I mean really. How many times can one write, for a vapid 19 year old, how much they did in high school (or community college) and how much they’re willing to do in college. Oh, and the vapid 19 year old didn’t even provide any of their info. It’s an exercise in creative writing. But don’t be too creative, cuz they wouldn’t like that.

Actually, this essay I’m currently working on isn’t too bad. Not too long and I actually have some information and a good topic. It’s refreshing. Like getting a resume from someone who actually has done something with their lives (besides live off their parents). But just as some people don’t give you enough information, others flood you with it. Usually it’s information you don’t need. About a month ago I did a resume for someone who wants to start working in executive positions in talent management in the entertainment industry. He only wanted one page, not a CV, but a resume, with a cover letter. He wanted it catered to the industry and gave a company and certain positions as examples of where he was applying. He paid for 3 pages. So, okay. Here I go.
I researched the company. I found out what they were looking for. I found the buz words and the type of people they looked like they wanted to hire. I took the 10 pages of dross he gave me (all the way from where he went to high school and what student films he had made to actual work he had done and education he had up to the present, most of it NOT in the industry). I trimmed and manipulated, wrote and edited and revised, and pared and easily, after shifting everything to single space Times New Roman, and doing thing creative things with spacing and bullet points so it wouldn’t look too crowded, ended up doing at least 6 pages worth of work, if not more.

He wasn’t happy. It wasn’t “professional.” I’ve been doing this for 6 years, but it wasn’t “professional.” He wouldn’t say what was wrong other than that he didn’t like his education at the top (yet, it was the MOST RECENT relevant experience and it was easily changeable by anyone, including himself). But, just in case, I consulted with a friend in the recruiting business who also does this for a living and I was right; I had done this correctly. But according to the future Hollywood mover and shaker, it still wasn’t right. The client couldn’t say what wasn’t right, but it wasn’t what was in his head. And he expected me to read his mind. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This is Los Angeles. Land of the Megalomaniacs.
This is why I like writing my own essays and fiction and poetry SO much better. Then I’m only dealing with trying to get what’s in my own head down on the page so others might enjoy reading it in their heads.

Well, back to writing for 19 year olds.

It’s a living.

Writing is a trade, a craft, just like any other profession. And, like any other profession, one of the best ways to get better is to study what other people have done before and are doing currently in your line of work. For the writer, this means reading, analyzing, and possibly writing (sometimes reviews or sometimes in a journal or blog) about what one has learned or gleaned from the reading and analyzing.

In school, the classes that demand this type of practice are typically the ones that everyone dislikes. First, they ask us to read something, then they ask us to think about it (God forbid), and THEN we gotta write something meaningful (or something that sounds meaningful) about it. Nobody likes these classes, except for the would-be writers that are in those classes. However, writers, and others, know that this practice is one way to hold up a mirror to our awareness of the world. Writers write to tell tales, but those tales are often reflective of society or philosophy or other things going on in the world. They’re a mirror that we hold up to the world, a filter we see the world through. Even tales of seemingly vapid romances or adventures can have lessons in them to learn about oneself.

For the writer, there are the additional lessons of plot, grammar, dialogue, characterization, etc. It is our job to study what other people are writing. We really need to read other books or watch tv and movies, whether in our genre or not, to research trends and areas that are bogged down. We need to be able to read a story and go, “huh, I wouldn’t do it that way,” or “wow, I would never think to do it that way, but it really works,” or even, “yikes, that sucks. Make a note, never do it that way.”

Writing reviews is one way to accomplish this type of study. I write for a review company call TCM Reviews. I don’t get paid, but they send me reading material FOR FREE. Then, when I get a chance, I read it, think about it and write about it. This helps me improve my craft, trade, profession. Being in critique groups or workshops is another way to accomplish this piece of work for the writer.

Today, I read SNAP! by Shelley Munro (Triskelion Publishing, 2007) and besides the normal release from reality that reading fiction gives me, the analyzing and writing will help me along in my own writing. Then, when I write my review and upload it to TCM Reviews tomorrow, it will add to the body of work that I have that represents me online. As discussed earlier, developing an online presence is very important these days. If a someone I have submitted to Google’s my name, they will have something to read of mine to gain a greater idea of my body of work.

So, it’s not fiction, my chosen field, or my poetry or anything else near and dear to my heart.  But it is good practice and it does show whether or not I can be a wordsmith, which is half the challenge of being a storyteller.

Well, figured out that part of me feeling bad yesterday really was me being sick yesterday (i.e. it wasn’t all in my head). So, not on writing target today as I’ve slept most of it with the cats when I wasn’t busy being sick. But as Scarlett said, Tomorrow will be another day…..

Today I’m sad. Sad, sad, sad. A friend who decided to desert our friendship is moving away. He already deserted the friendship months ago so I’m not sure why this is all hitting me hard now. I guess it’s because he’s not going to say goodbye. He’s just going to go. No reconciliation, no nothin’ and I hate it. I hate losing friends, especially when I don’t understand why.

So, all I want to do is write self-pitying dirges, which only belong in my journal for my private angst moments, not for public viewing. But I need to write. My goal this year is to write at least 1/2 hour a day or 3-4 hours a week. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but the only time I have to write these days is sometime between 7pm and 10pm after I get home from work and do home stuff. So, for me, it’s a commitment. And writing a blog doesn’t count towards that goal either, in case you were wondering. I came up with that commitment when I did a SWOT analysis on myself to see where I could improve.

Remember I mentioned what a SWOT analysis was yesterday? Well, today, I’m going to copy and paste my notes from my presentation in case anyone out there is interested. Cuz when I did a SWOT analysis on myself, I found it was very helpful. Hopefully it will help other writers or creatives out there as well. Here it is, below:

SWOT Analysis for Writers: The Business of Creativity

While writing may still happen in isolation, publishing does not. As writers, we are used to playing the role of the creative and the editor, but we also need to be comfortable playing the entrepreneur. We need to sell and market our product in order for our art to be seen and heard. We need to think like business-people. SWOT is a tool, similar to the Pro/Con list tool, that is commonly used in business to assess where a business stands and where it needs improvement. This tool can easily be used by writers to help them see where they are now and how they can improve their chances to be published and noticed.

No, you’re not in the wrong place, I just couldn’t find an easy blog template that matched my easy webpage template, so this is what you get.

So, I’m not too sure how this particular blog tool works. I’m learning as I go along. It’s not like the other “point and shoot” set ups that I’ve had on Tribe.net or MySpace.com so bare with me as I learn how to use it. For now, it may look a little barren. Haven’t figured out how to get the pictures to load, for example.

Pictures, however, are not the emphasis of this particular blog. No, the gist of this blog will be to track my journey on the way to becoming, eventually, hopefully, trepidatiously (is that a word?) published some how or some way in several different genres (I guess I dream big).

I suppose I should let you know what I’m working on. Right now, I’m between stories. I have two or three short stories (fantasy) I’m revising, a couple of short stories (fantasy and science fiction) on hold since they seem to be growing into novel length, and about three new short stories (also fantasy) I’m working on. There are novels (fantasy and chicklit) in the works but they seem to be permanently stalled in my head, so I’m working on the short stories instead to see if I can improve my craft while waiting for the novels to decide to get back to work.

I also belong to the California Writer’s Club, the Mid-Wilshire Chapter (though we’re not officially a chapter yet). We meet monthly and discuss the business of writing and sometimes discuss our own writing. But the club is more of a support group to help writers with getting published than a critique group or a workshop. I find it interesting. January’s meeting focused on three topics: 1) how to create a web presence and use it in your writing and publishing (hence my setting up this blog, which I’ve been meaning to do for a long time), 2) etiquette and the need for attending writing workshops and conferences, and 3) how to do a SWOT analysis on yourself as a writer/author.

For those of you not familiar with the term, a SWOT analysis is a tool that examines a business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to see where they are doing well and where they need to improve. Artists and writers rarely think of themselves as businesses, but in a sense we are entrepreneurs. We want to create our art, our magic, and then we want others to see it, be moved by it, and maybe even buy it. So, it’s important then to be objective and honestly look yourself and see where you need to work on your writing or what opportunities you need to take advantage of to improve or get published. I was the person to present on the SWOT analysis, so maybe, when I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll blog my presentation so you can see what mean.

February’s meeting of the CWC will be about character development and maybe copyrights. I’m going to do a little research on copyrights for the writers and how it may work. If you know of any good resources, I’d love to hear about them.

By the way, if you’re in the Los Angeles area and are interested in trying out our writer’s club (there’s both a Mid-Wilshire branch and a Venice branch), then let me know. We want more members. We aren’t chartered yet, so it’s free (for now). If you are a fellow writer then you’re probably as introverted as the rest of us and need the outside stimulation anyway. So, let me know! If you want to check out the club’s website, then go to www.calwriters.org. (Yeah, I don’t know how to do that fancy thing with the links yet, either).

A few of us from the writers club formed a critique group specializing in paranormal writing that limps along meeting occasionally to read and comment on one anothers work, either online or in person. It’s fairly interesting. Always good to read what other people are working on. Again, if you’re interested in joining us, let me know. Other than that, I suppose I’m due for a workshop or conference, but I think my bank account needs to recover first.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll write more later.