The Fight for Followers

One of my teachers said that blogging takes like zero effort and that if he could get paid a million dollars to sit at a computer all day he would totally do it. Now it’s obvious that he doesn’t “internet” much so I get that he thinks it would be easy. You post things and hope it gets noticed, but that doesn’t take into account all the planning that goes into it. It would be like assuming a teacher walks into the classroom without having made lesson plans, odds are that, if students could, they would walk out. 

Bloggers are like teachers, except we don’t get paid. We plan, have a specific subject, share our knowledge, look at the interests of our audience, get ignored, answer questions, and interact with people. It’s not easy and building up a following is extremely difficult, at least teachers are given followers.

Rules are Made to be Left Up to Style

It drives me nuts that we have unbreakable rules for such small things like:

• west as a direction, but West as a location
• If you want to shorten a word it's 'em and not 'em (of course no curly quotes here)
• How to properly use ellipsis 
• Three different types of dashes 

But when it comes to the bigger things like capitalization and when you want to use commas, errors in writing become "the author's style." 

Characters Are People Too

I think one thing that writer's forget sometimes is that their characters are people too. That's probably where we get the "Mary Sue" trope, it's with this idea that the person who is going on this amazing journey has to be perfect since they are the only one worthy of it. As much sense as that makes, it's also not true.
We never go and do something different with the expectation that we will be perfect at it (if you find any early writings you'll know this to be fact). Yet that doesn't mean that the character won't pick up on one skill faster than another, we all have our areas of expertise. Though just because we have areas we do well in doesn't mean that we don't still struggle, and isn't that why we read? To see the character struggle and come out stronger for it?
Characters are people too, they'll learn, mess things up, win and lose, excel at somethings and completely fail at others. Sometimes they'll be put in front of some hard decisions, make the wrong choice, and have to face the consequences. All of this is part of the journey that a reader wants to see, it's why they picked this story.

Onelook.com

This website is extremely helpful if you are look for the proper way to spell a word, since it depends on what dictionary you're looking at. The great thing about Onelook is that it will tell you how many and which dictionaries use which spellings.

There are two different ways you can spell goodbye and it shows that "goodbye" is the most accepted one. Most often I will trust the Merriam-Webster or the American Heritage dictionaries.

Does this count as a "Writing Process"?

When I start working on a writing project it starts slow. An idea here, a scene layout there, some fantastic lines that stick in my brain. All together it looks promising enough, so I get started in writing some of the pieces down so I can place the puzzle together later. Then comes the point when these vague ideas need to stop floating around so I can pinpoint order out of misty chaos.

This is where things get tricky.

As the dust starts to settle into hard set plot, I find that there are so many different paths I can walk down, and each path has smaller foot paths of variation. Some of these foot paths are clear and an easy hike to the end of the story. Other foot paths are more over grown and harder to maneuver through, but the views at the end are breathtaking. 

Plotting stories out is extremely difficult, but the confusion and frustration is so worth it when a piece comes together in the end. Sometimes what I have in mind at the beginning of a project is not where I find myself ending. 

So This Is How It Ends?

For an alternate ending go Here

So this is how it ends? Wind rushed through her hair, ripped at her clothes, pulled at her legs. Her footing wasn’t steady, the rocks under her shoes were all hard angles; the flat sides not aiding at all in her battle to stand tall. She wanted to hunch over, curl in on herself, but the cruel breezes kept her shoulders squared.

So this is how it ends? She didn’t want to cry, she wanted to stay strong, to prove a point to the crowd behind her, but with the wind making her eyes tear up she couldn’t hide her feelings close to her heart. It must have been facial recall, when you smile you feel happier, when the wind makes you cry, you just cry harder.

So this is how it ends? She felt as empty as the miles of sea before her. As heavy as the rocks she was standing on. As hopeless as trying to stop the salty tears streaming down her cheeks. Helpless and hopeless. Ready for what came ahead, but also praying that it never came. She could do this, she could do this. She couldn’t do this.

So this was how it ends? As much as she wanted to stay strong she couldn’t, she was scared. The cliff she stood on seemed to drop down for miles before meeting with the ocean floating off to the horizon. The tips of her shoes teased the edge, causing some more pebbles to fall endlessly into the water so far below.

So this is how it ends? With one foot in the air, with one foot still on the ground, she lets go. If the wind before was bad, this was worse, this was blinding. Scared, she wanted to curl in on herself, but the wind held her strong. The wind traced against her with its fingers, wordlessly teaching her more than she could ever have learned on solid ground.

So this is how it ends? For a moment she learned freedom. For a moment she could fly. For a moment she gained the wisdom of what it meant to pick and choose her battles. For a moment she understood that she wasn’t weak for being afraid, but brave for going through with it anyway. Her tears fell slower than she did, trailing across her temples as she sank through the air. She would never be able to use her new found wisdom.

This was how it ends.

Myths of America

I have to write a 5-6 page analysis on an American character written by an American and how they relate to the “Myths America Lives By” (myth of the Chosen Nation, of the Christian Nation, etc.) and I now know that there has been a reason I’ve been listening to Hamilton on repeat for weeks. It doesn’t get more American than Alexander Hamilton. 

What I’ve learned so far in my editing class:

• Selling 100,000 books in a year makes you a New York Times Best Selling Author
• If you want to work with the Big Publishing Houses you need a Literary Agent
• Do Not become attached to the title you come up with
• Always get veto rights on you cover art
• Cover Art can make or break a book
• Always avoid Vanity Presses
• Keep a reference list on hand of all the words you have trouble spelling
• Keep a story specific list of words or phrases to save time on double checking

How to Write Numbers:

The most important thing is that you keep what you do consistent.

  Also use your best judgement when writing numbers in dialogue. 

Years

• Spell out centuries
• twenty-first century
• Use apostrophes to show missing numbers
• always angled to the left ′70
• Use numerals for dates
• September 17, 2012
• Don’t use apostrophes for plural years
• 1920s

Spell Out

• If followed by hundred, thousand, hundred thousand
• Any number that comes at the beginning of a sentence
• work it so years don’t end up here
• Always write out centuries
• Measurements
• unless it’s normally seen as a numeral, 50 gallons
• Simple Fractions
• unless mixed with whole numbers
• Monetary Values
• unless it’s complicated or a lot of values in one paragraph
• Times followed by o’clock and half-hour or quarter times
• unless it’s specific: 4:18
• don’t use numerals for midnight or noon
• Spell out numbered streets up to 100

Use Numerals

If followed by million, billion, etc

If a complicated number

• 54,321 instead of spelled out

If there are a lot of numbers in one paragraph

Abbreviated unit of measurement

• 50 mph
• no numeral then spell out the measurement

Percentages

• if using % no space between numerals and symbol

For pages, chapters, volumes, verse numbers, illustrations, and tables

The Value of Fanfiction

A couple of topics that come up often are: what is the value behind fanfiction, and which is harder to write fanfiction or original works. I don't think this conversation is relevant because as long as you are writing and getting that practice then GOOD FOR YOU! I would encourage original works over fanfiction since you can't make money from fan works, but that is a different, much more legal conversation.
The media looks at fanfiction as though it is some sex polluted, character manipulating treat that they get to wave in front of celebrity faces whenever they get the chance. Yes, we have smut, but so do original content writers (but ours tends to be written better-just saying). Yes, we are putting the character through our own story idea, but we never claim it as our own.
No one expects artists to start drawing complex sketches without first practicing with references, so the viewer knows what it is suppose to be and help the artist improve. If you just want to mindlessly draw you are free to use whatever you see in front of you.
Fanfiction is the writer using the original content as a reference so they can practice their writing before jumping into original work. And even if you aren't planning on ever creating your own world, this is you mindlessly sketching what you see before you.
So use the references you read to get an idea of your style of writing before outlining longer original projects. No one would ever ask a brain surgeon to only practice on living patients. They use the outline of a person to learn where to cut, where things can go wrong, and how to compensate for those errors before they are ever able to operate on a real human.
Writing is the exact same way.
If anyone tries to tell you any differently, kindly point them in the direction of the Renaissance Era.