Writers Gotta Write? Right?

by Catherine Giordano


Words, like a cascading waterfall.

Writers gotta Write? Right?

Absolutely. I mean that literally. The ideas are in my head like a classroom of unruly school children.  The ideas lean forward in their seats with their hands raised and waving wildly. “Pick Me! Pick Me,” they shout.  And I can pick only one.

Sometimes they can’t wait for me to pick one. A few of hen start shouting out at once.  The idea has begun to write itself and I am not at my computer  and I don’t even have pen and paper. And still I can pick only one. 

So I pick one and begin writing. I try to shut out the shouts from the other ideas and focus on just the one. The other ideas are jealous. “Quiet,” I shout. “You will get your turn. I have put you on my list. I will get to you.”

I have become obsessed with writing. I eat at my desk and I only stop when I am making so many typing errors, I know that I am too tired to continue.

Here are some links to my writings about writing. 

CLICK HERE

How to Write: Quotes from Famous Writers on Writing

 

How to Get Ideas for Writing: 30 Ideas in 30 Minutes | Writing Prompts

Tips for Writers: How to Write a Poem

Words: Why English is the World's Greatest Language

If you want to know a famous writer’s thoughts on writing, read Stephen King’s book: 

 

On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft

 

Here's my newest post for writers. It's all about how to get free writing lessons, coaching and pep talks.

Free Stuff for Writers: Advice on How to Write , Edit, and Get Published

 




Butter–Side-Down: Of Glitches and Newsletters

by Catherine Giordano

It's Murphy's Law:
 What can go wrong, will go wrong.

Bobbie Christmas is the owner of Zebra Communications and very well-respected editor. I’ve met her several times because she frequently lectures on “How to Edit.”  Every writer knows that it is next to impossible to edit your own work—it takes a trained editor to find all those pesky typos and inadvertent grammatical errors.   

(You can probably tell that my blog posts are not professionally edited. No matter how many times I proofread, errors remain.) 

Bobbie has a free monthly newsletter, The Writer’s Network News, that every writer will find useful. It’s two or three pages a month chock-full of editing tips and other information. Recently Bobbie wrote about the misuse and over use of the word “awesome.” She also did a little blurb about a form of wordplay called “lipograms.” I write for HubPages and I was inspired by her comments to write two pieces: The Naughty Grammarian: Literally Awesome Hyperbole and Word Play: What is a Lipogram.  

I emailed Bobbie to thank her for being an inspiration, and she emailed back to tell me that she liked my work and was going to link to it in her next newsletter. What a nice break for me. Lots of people would learn about my work. All month, I eagerly awaited the newsletter. Finally, it arrived in my in-box. I clicked on the links to my articles just for the pleasure of seeing my pages pop-up. The links didn’t work.   

I was beyond upset. I thought I had made an error. I hadn’t. It took a while, but I discovered that there was a glitch with the HubPages servers and some links wouldn’t work. Why does the bread always fall butter-side down? Why did the servers fail just on the same day the newsletter came out? Why were my links among the affected links? Murphy's Law. 

(By the way, the links work now. So if you tried to use them and got an error message, try again. The links above should work now. Also, Bobbie was nice enough to say she would reprint them next month.) 

You can learn more about Bobbie Christmas at www.zebraeditor.com or www.zebracommunications.com. You can also follow her blogs, Rx from the Book Doctor and Write in Style.  

I said a little prayer to Loki, the Norse god of mischief, and asked him not to mess with my links so I’m sure all the links work.

P.S: I have done a whole series of The Naughty Grammarian posts. Which of these issues do you need to brush up on?

 

The Naughty Grammarian: "Affect" or "Effect"?

 The Naughty Grammarian: Is it Fewer or Less?

The Naughty Grammarian: Are “Titled” and “Untitled” Synonyms?

The Naughty Grammarian: Literally Awesome Hyperbole

The Naughty Grammarian: To Spell or Not Spell Numbers

The Naughty Grammarian: Is it Drug or Dragged?

The Naughty Grammarian: Lie, Lay, or Laid 

The Naughty Librarian: How to Use Apostrophes

Sharecropping Words

I’m trying something new with my writing—sharecropping. 

It is called HubPages.  It works like this. I plant an article in the HubPages field and I get a percentage of the sales. 

Without the tortured metaphor, it means I write an article and post it on the HubPages website. HubPages gets advertising revenue and affiliate sales from the web page with my content and I get 60% of that revenue. 

I posted my first article yesterday. Today I saw I had earned one cent. 

Help me get this off to a good start. Click this link to see my article: Understanding Tarot. I think I did a nice job explaining the history and practice. 

At the end of the article, there is a little poll about whether or not you think psychics are real. Take the poll—it will improve my ranking.  

If you want to be really nice, leave a comment. Comments improve my ranking. But even if you do nothing but click, it will help my ranking. Please click.

 

If you are a writer and want to try this, contact me. I’ll be glad to help you can started. (There’s a lot to learn and it would have saved me a lot of time if I had had someone to explain it.) And you’ll be helping me earn by letting me make a referral.

Please tweet, like and share this post.

Fun with Words: The Daily Vocabula

I've been enjoying The Daily Vocabula, a free email newsletter to help build vocabulary and "learn you how" not to misuse words.  (Just a little joke.)

 

The publishers describe it thusly: "The Daily Vocabula" is a free Monday-through-Friday publication of Vocabula Communications Company. Unlike the many word-a-day emails, The Daily Vocabula offers sections on disagreeable English, elegant English, concise writing, scarcely used words, as well as other topics."

 

Sign up to receive The Daily Vocabula by sending your email address to TheDailyVocabula@vocabula.com.

 

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And remember to click the shopping cart above to order from amazon.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A New Twelve Chairs Program Starting

For about a year now, I have been part of the Twelve Chairs Project.  A new program is starting with seminar one scheduled to begin in November. Maybe you will want to take part also. 

Twelve Chairs is a comprehensive, practical, and innovative course for poets. The program is called the Twelve Chairs because only 12 hand-picked students/colleagues will be enrolled.

 

There will be 30 seminars in all. You will meet 15 times a year for six hours per session. Each session will be devoted to a single topic, such as sound, metaphor, rhetorical devices, technique, and more, including how to get published.
 

·        It is targeted for experienced poets seeking to broaden the scope, sound, and vision of their work; for poets who want to make use of all available resources in to advance their understanding and talents.

 

·         It is also targeted for writers of all kinds who want to improve their writing through an understanding of poetic techniques.
 

The Twelve Chairs seminars include lectures, lots of show-and-tell, freewheeling discussions, exercises, and elective at-home assignments to help you bring your writing to the next level. (I should say “next levels” because you will undoubtedly progress rapidly from level to level.)

 

Al Rocheleau, the author of on writing poetry: for poets made as well as born has developed the course and will be the instructor. He’s a charismatic teacher and  a widely published poet.

Twelve Chairs is like getting an MFA only it is a lot less expensive (you will be pleasantly surprised at how low the cost is), it gives you twice as much as you would get from university classes, and it is much more fun.  

There are a few chairs remaining.  Maybe one of them has your name on it.

If you want more information, contact Al Rocheleau via email at ARRO40@aol.com.

 

 

Click Here  to order a copy of Al's book

Postcard Perdu:The August Poetry Project



by Catherine Giordano

I took a photgraph of the postcards I received.

The August Poetry Project has concluded. I sent 30 postcards and received 20 postcards. The assignment was 31 postcards.  I guess some of my postcards got lost in the mail.  

 

I sent 30 instead of 31 postcards because one of the people on my list was in Ireland. At the beginning of this project I went to the post office and bought 35 34-cent stamps. I looked up the postage for a postcard to Ireland. It was $1.05. I would have had to make a special trip to the post office. I decided if I got a postcard from this person in Ireland, I would make that trip and send one in return. I didn’t get the post-card.   

Most of the post cards I got were regular picture postcards, often with photos depicticting  the state and city of the sender.  Three of them had a hand-drawn picture on them. I knew the sender went to a lot of trouble to do that—I really appreciated that.   

I went to quite a bit of trouble for my postcards. I bought card stock so I could make my own postcards. I used my printer to put a picture on the front on the left; the address was on the right. That left the entire reverse side for my poem. 

 

I had a little bit of an advantage because I used my daily news print poem that I post on my blog News Print Poetry 2012.  I also used the picture that I posted to my blog as the picture for the postcard.

 

No one could doubt that my poems were original poems composed on the day they were sent because they were “ripped from the headlines.” 

The poems were a varied lot on subject matter. Some were great poems that I read over several times to fully appreciate. Some were clever and funny. They were all interesting to read.

 

I hope we have another August Poetry Project next year. 

 

 

P.S.: The title of this piece is a pun on the title of Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost. In French, the title is Paridis Perdu.

 

9/10/12: I got one more postcard on Saturday. 

Wordstock Festival

Join the fun at Wordstock at DeLeon Springs in Florida.  Poets from around the world are planning individual events to take place simultaneously on September 29th in a celebration of poetry, art, and music to promote social, environmental, and political change.

At only $5 for the whole weekend, it’s the best deal ever. 

And you gotta love it, if only because of the clever pun in its name.

It is being held at the Bamboo Arts Center from September 29 -20.  The address is 4490 Cave Lake Road DeLeon Springs, FL 32130 The phone is 386-956-1329

More information availabable at www.facebook.com/wordstockpoetry

Twelve Chairs

I am planning to be part of the Twelve Chairs Project. Maybe you will want to take part also.

Twelve Chairs is a comprehensive, practical, and innovative course for poets. The program is called the Twelve Chairs because only 12 hand-picked students/colleagues will be enrolled.

There will be 30 seminars in all. We will meet 15 times a year for six hours per session. Each session will be devoted to a single topic, such as sound, metaphor, rhetorical devices, technique, and more, including how to get published.

·         It is targeted for experienced poets seeking to broaden the scope, sound, and vision of their work; for poets who want to make use of all available resources in to advance their understanding and talents.

 

·         It is also targeted for experienced writers of all kinds who want to develop as poets.

There will be 30 seminars in all. We will meet 15 times a year for six hours per session. Each session will be devoted to a single topic, such as sound, metaphor, rhetorical devices, technique, and more, including how to get published.

The Twelve Chairs seminars include lectures, lots of show-and-tell, freewheeling

discussions, exercises, and elective at-home assignments  to help you bring your writing to the next level. (I should say “next levels” because you will undoubtedly progress rapidly from level to level.)

Al Rocheleau, the author of on writing poetry: for poets made as well as born has developed the course and will be the instructor. He’s a charismatic teacher and  a widely published poet.

Twelve Chairs is like getting an MFA only it is a lot less expensive (you will be pleasantly surprised at how low the cost is), it gives you twice as much as you would get from university classes, and it is much more fun.  

There are a few chairs remaining.  Maybe one of them has your name on it.

If you want more information, contact Al Rocheleau via email at ARRO40@aol.com.