Issue 25
ISSN: 1554-0804
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In This Issue:
- This Week
- The Writer's bookshelf
- Feature Ariticle
- A Writer's Tidbit
- About The Fabulist Flash
- On the File menu, click Page Setup, and then click the Layout tab.
- In the Apply to box, click Whole document.
- Click Line Numbers.
- Select the Add line numbering check box, and then select the options you want.
- Select the text you want to number.
- On the File menu, click Page Setup, and then click the Layout tab.
- In the Apply to box, click Selected text.
Microsoft Word will add page breaks before and after the numbered lines. - Click Line Numbers.
- Select the Add line numbering check box, and then select the options you want.
In This Issue:
1. This Week
Welcome to Issue 25 of The Fabulist Flash. Forward it to all your writing friends.
I'm looking forward to attending The Henderson Writer's Group Writer's Conference this weekend. I've got both an agent and a publisher quickie appointment and I'm excited and scared to be pitching a new book idea to them. The three minute interview, the elevator speech as it's sometimes called, is an exciting, daunting exercise and it's great for keeping a writer on their toes. I'm also looking forward to a panel discussion on self-publishing. While taking the time away from my book might not be the best idea right now, I'm excited about rubbing elbows with fellow writers and feeling that wonderful burst of encouragement that conference experiences bring.
March arrived like a lamb here in the desert Southwest. While we're still getting frequent rain, the month began with a dry, balmy day. It's made me remember an elementary school class; each day in March we looked out the window and decided if the day was a lamb or a lion and then placed a construction-paper cutout of the day's respective animal on a big, bulletin board sized calendar. We learned about weather, motor skills, and even debating through that disguised activity. How many things do we still learn like that? How many times have you been through an experience and weeks or months later had that wonderful light bulb go on in your head letting you understand the lesson?
As I progress into the final phase of my current book project there are so many light bulbs going off for me that it feels like there's a strobe light in my office. I'm understanding that I've over analyzed and over researched everything for this book. I'm still sticking with the idea that it's good to over prepare, but at the same time I'm learning for future projects. I'm still afraid of the looming deadline, but I've been told that's a good thing. Being aware of our deadlines, even fearing them a little, keeps us motivated. I'll admit that I am motivated and my time and energy are focused. I'm enjoying the extended work days knowing that I'm working toward a positive result.
This week's feature article, The Arrogant Writer: Five Ways to Nurture and Defend your Muse by Jill Nagle, also draws on some childhood school memories to help us understand and find a positive level of arrogance every writer needs.
Until next week,
Gregory
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Gregory A. Kompes is a freelance writer and photographer. Learn more about Gregory and his work at www.kompes.com
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2. The Writer's bookshelf
The Week
A Review by Gregory A. Kompes
There are so many news and information sources it's hard to narrow it down where to look for news on a daily basis. There's so much that happens in our global village that it's difficult to keep track. That's where The Weekcomes in.
The Week, published by The Week Publications, LLC., is a weekly news magazine that covers the biggest news stories around the world. The editors collect snippets of news, commentary, events, both historic and interesting, books, entertainment, and photos and put them together in a short, easy to read, magazine format. This is the perfect design and layout for our instant gratification, blink society.
The Week can serve as a sign-post publication to simply keep you up to date in our busy times, or it can act as the jumping off point. If you find something interesting that you want to learn more about, it gives you a starting place to begin further research and discussion.
Whether you're looking to keep up with the world around you, want to digest an entire week's news in a few minutes, or need fodder for those water cooler or dinner conversations The Week is the perfect publication for you.
For this title and others of inspiration to writers visit The Writer's Bookshelf.
3. Feature Ariticle
The Arrogant Writer: Five Ways to Nurture and Defend your Muse
by Jill Nagle
Arrogance has a bad rap. We think of arrogant people as unpleasant to be around, full of themselves, and incapable of taking an interest in anyone else. However, when applied to one's own writing, a certain measure of well-placed arrogance can be a useful tool.
Writing can be a scary enterprise. The writer puts herself out for public scrutiny in a way most other artists and professionals do not. When the writer publishes, she commits herself to the words she's written for the rest of her life. Even if she changes her mind about what she's said, others may still react to the piece decades after it first appears in print. This can make even the act of putting pen to paper (or more likely, fingers to keyboard) an anxiety-producing ordeal.
Then there is the schooling most of us received, which treated writing as a chore rewarded when well done or punished when poorly done, as opposed to a pleasurable activity for ourselves and our readers. Very few of us had any audience for any the writing we did in classrooms, other than the teachers who instructed, criticized and graded us. It's no wonder most writers suffer from self-doubt rather than overconfidence. We tend to underestimate ourselves and our words, even when they come from the most powerful places inside us, even when we get accolades from the outside world, and even long after we finally get published.
Practicing selective arrogance can help disarm these nasty doubts. And, not to worry: If you are not arrogant to begin with, practicing the type of arrogance I suggest will not transform you into an insufferable braggart. Rather, it will help uplift you from the gutters of self-doubt onto the clean, dry road to getting published. Even if you do not feel in the least arrogant about your writing, you can still follow my simple instructions to act as if you do, with the same results: to get published, or to get published again.
Selective arrogance does not mean thinking of yourself as any better than anyone else, or as having reached the pinnacle of your skills. Rather, it means treating every word you write as a precious baby worthy of the greatest care and nurturance. Here's how to do that:
Never, ever throw anything away, period.
Carry with you at all times a means to record your creative thoughts.
Record your creative bursts, even if other voices inside you are dismissing them with negative judgments.
Trust your impulses and passions: if you feel drawn to write about something, write about it!
Eschew impatience-give your babies the time they need to gestate.
If you've read between the lines, you see that these instructions have you do nothing more than treat yourself and your writing with respect. However, because many people have a hard time doing even that, I counsel my clients to behave arrogantly. It gets them giggling and releasing the feelings they have about their writing, and makes it easier to find that respect.
Although you may have read elsewhere to be prepared to throw away your first writing attempts, to release attachment to your early work and the like, nuggets of wisdom and creativity appear throughout a writer's life from childhood through seniority. I advocate collecting and these and treating them with care, perhaps polishing them now and again. There is no magical moment when one suddenly becomes "a good writer." Thus, your most novice scribbling become diamond mines.
The one time I disobeyed my own advice and discarded what I believed was possibly the most poorly written sentence in history (or at least my own history), I rejoiced. Five minutes later, I needed the gem in a new sentence, and struggled to reconstruct the one I'd discarded. May you never make that mistake-do as I say, not as I've done.
These gems also shine through at unexpected times. This is why I advise my clients to carry at least some scrap paper and a pencil nub if not an electronic recording device. The times at night and in the mornings between wake and sleep often yield good raw material, so keep your recording device of choice bedside.
The idea behind saving every little scrap, writing everything down and cultivating the arrogance to believe these activities matter is that finished pieces often assert themselves over time, forming a coherent whole from little scraps, like a Rorschach, or getting that crucial letter right in the Wheel of Fortune. The key is to keep feeding the collage and trusting that something or things will emerge over time.
Not every sentence will necessarily lead to an essay, book or screenplay of its own. But some might add that missing piece to make a good piece great. Even tidbits that go nowhere for now still give your brain a chance to exercise itself and keep your creative pathways well-hacked.
When it comes to choosing which pathway you'll write your way down, trust your wild and wooly impulses. If you're drawn to something, chances are you will make the subject come alive. You'll seduce your readers by the very fact of your relationship to the material.
Finally, give your pieces the time they need to develop. Being an arrogant writer means honoring the gestation period your writings must pass through to be born into the world healthy and ready to engage readers. Honoring this gestation period may mean asking for help. Just as the dedicated gardener finds the right soil, fertilizer, seeds, watering schedule and equipment, so the arrogant writer finds her coach, buddy, copyeditor, ghostwriter, or colleague's expert eye. I have seen writers move from stagnation to publication with the right combination of assistance. I love being part of that process.
About the Author
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Author Jill Nagle is founder and principal of GetPublished, http://www.GetPublished.com, which provides coaching, consulting, ghostwriting, classes and do-it-yourself products to emerging and published authors. Her most recent book is How to Find An Agent Who Can Sell Your Book for Top Dollar http://www.FindTheRightAgent.com. Jill@getpublished.com
4. A Writer's Tidbit
Adding line numbers to a document can be helpful for editing, public reading, or workshop situations. And, they're pretty easy to manipulate.
Add line numbers to an entire document
Add line numbers to a selection of text
5. About the Fabulist Flash
ISSN: 1554-0804
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