Practice Writing and Sharing like an Oreo

 I read a short article from TheWritePractice.com this morning by Joe Bunting. He and I and thousands of others swear by the practice of writing every day to become better and better. Writing itself is the best practice. We speak 125 words a minute so imagine what you could create in only 15 minutes a day if you don't filter yourself. That's right, just write creatively and honestly and don't waste time editing as you go. That can come later.

   Here are Joe's steps on practicing with my additions:

1. Find paper and pen, a PC/laptop/phone, a journal etc., to write in/on. If you can, find a quiet spot but not absolutely necessary.

2. Set a time limit. 

   If you are crunched for time set a 15-minute egg timer or your watch.

3. Write. 

   It could be a memory, a feeling, a story, idea, your novel, poem, or memoir. regardless, write. Let the words flow from your thoughts and feelings. But it's important to reset your eyes like the 20/20 rule says - write 20 minutes then break for 20 seconds. Get up and walk away, stretch, get coffee or tea etc. You don't want white-screen fatigue.

4. Share what you've written for feedback. 

   This is where I disagree with Joe a bit. To share is good advice, and for first time writers, just do it. Everyone knows drafts aren't perfect. Author Anne Lamott says they're "shitty." But for experienced writers, we like to at least edit and polish the piece a little before we share it. Up to you. Either way Share.

   Writing groups found online or locally are a great way to share if you don't have what Stephen King calls "a beta reader." This is someone you trust to give you honest feedback. His wife Tabitha and friends do it for his works. Writing, poetry, and writing critique groups can be searched for on MeetUp.com for example, or your library. All are generally helpful and supportive.

5. Give feedback to other writers or poets. 

   It's true that we don't see the log in our own eyes and rarely recognize all our mistakes or chances for improved writing. Oh, but when we hear others read theirs, Boy, what doesn't sound right stands out. More than that, hearing and reading others' pieces, like reading or listening to books themselves, helps us improve. Stephen King in his memoir and writing textbook On Writing says we should read more than we write. This is where a Creative Writers Group, Poetry Group, or similar group will help us. Plus we meet other writers and poets and learn their tips and advice, as well as what we shouldn't do. And, we make friends.

   A good way to give feedback is to follow, as Joe says, "the Oreo method." First give positive feedback - what you liked. Second, be constructive, what wasn't clear or could be improved, and always give specifics. Third, in closing, your comments should always be positive and encouraging. The Oreo mnemonic is - positive/ constructive/ positive. In this example the Oreo is icing/cookie/icing - even yummier.

   I've facilitated, shared, and listened in Creative Writers Groups almost every Monday and Tuesday afternoon for years and they have improved my writing 100% with more to achieve. Now we are on Zoom due to Covid restrictions and it has not hampered us. New members are welcome and you can contact me at 1950ablia@gmail.com if interested. Writing groups are non-threatening, supportive, and encouraging, or should be, and friendship is guaranteed.

   So write and share sooner rather than later.

Best and be safe,

Rodney

   

New book coming

 Hi There, I haven't been posting for months since devoting all my time to living around Covid and rewriting my bipolar memoir, Episodes. I'm almost done extensive revisions and improvements and expect to publish by February 2021 (actually July 2021). The new version is completely revised as you can tell by the new title, Coffee, Cigarettes, Death & Mania.

Cof, Cigs, Death & Mania will be shorter and more concise, more action and dialogue packed, but will still focus on main themes of Yes, millions of people are bipolar, There is help, and There is hope for normal life, family, and work between episodes. Also, how caregivers can weather the storms and be better prepared.

I've also been busy handling my editing, formatting, polishing, and publishing business, ABLiA Media, to help writers in any genre achieve their best work. Recently I helped writer Marion Pollack edit, format, and publish on Amazon her hilarious memoir Grandma Tell Us a Story. Other works I have similarly helped with are The Man Who Never Slept by Robert Quinn, Unbalanced Justice by Samuel L Naro, and two books by Dr.  Michael P. Riccards, A Hero of My Own Life and some of his Italian Grandpa stories. I have helped more than a dozen writers publish with tips, editing, format suggestions, grammar assistance, publishing, and critiques.

I am very active with both the Hamilton and Lawrence NJ Creative Writers Groups, critique and encouragement groups for writers who share their work and receive critical feedback. I started the Hamilton Group in 2011. Both groups meet weekly and both are listed on MeetUp.com. We meet on Zoom now, and if interested in joining for free, email me at rodwriter80@gmail.com and I will connect you up. Participating in both groups weekly since 2011, and others, I have listened to, critiqued, and offered suggestion and tips for improvement on over 3,000 pieces from over 100 writers and poets.

This Blog, Write with Authority, will focus on my observations, tips, and highlights from others on how to improve one's writings and poems, prose and poetry. As a State of New Jersey technical writer for 30 years, and an author since 2013, I have the experience and life knowledge to help you do your best, to publish, and to succeed. My second published book in 2018 was Solving the World's Titanic Struggles, a compendium of 100 short essays on current topics and questions, with a spiritual base of solutions. Solving is available on Amazon.

A poetry tip for example: Use enjambment. That is the way you end the line, with what word or words, and move to the next. Take "The deer came down from the mountain."  Boring.

What if it were:

The deer came

d

  o

    w

       n

from the mountain.

See? Very different. Unique, impactful. Leaves an impression.

So hope to see you more often on these pages as I create more posts for your consideration.

Best,

Rodney Richards

Moving from CreateSpace to KDP?

KDP or Kindle Direct Publishing, has replaced CreateSpace. 

   It's better now (2020), and they have a side program to turn your manuscript into an ebook, good. But pay attention to the formatting issues very carefully, since ebooks can't contain embedded objects or pictures to the best of my knowledge, only text.

How easy CreateSpace use to make it in 2018! A few clicks and its done. But they tell you nothing about how KDP will function so you assume it will be as easy as CreateSpace (CS) was to use. But it's not, not nearly. The KDP Dashboard is scant, no buttons or links to do anything much.
   One of the things I liked about CS was how easy it was to make or upload manuscript changes and republish. No way to do that on KDP that I can see. Selecting my book doesn't take me to a menu of steps like CS did. In fact, it does nothing. About the only thing I can do related to my book on KDP is find out how many copies sold, which is necessary, but in an age of information availability, nothing much. 
   I guess they want everyone to only publish eBooks so they can eliminate the cost of paper and covers? But as the author I paid for that, so what's the big deal? Print books are now going thru a resurgence, so what were they thinking? I can tell you: Cut costs and increase profits. Cut the cost of equipment and people to print books. It's that simple. but this is not a future 100% electronic world yet. 
   Wake up KDP. Listen to us. You have a long way to go to be author-friendly.

What Does Sane Nationalism Look Like?

In a 29 December 1988 Universal House of Justice letter addressed to the Followers of Baha’u’llah in the United States of America, they wrote: The extraordinary capacities of the American nation, as well as the superb stewardship of the Bahá’í community within it, have repeatedly been extolled in the writings of our Faith. In His Tablets and utterances, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of the Covenant, projected a compelling vision of the world-embracing prospects of that richly endowed country. “The American nation,” He averred, “is equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world, and be blest in both the East and the West for the triumph of its people.” In another assertion addressed to the Bahá’í community itself, He uttered words of transcendent importance: “… your mission,” He affirmed, “is unspeakably glorious. Should success crown your enterprise, America will assuredly evolve into a center from which waves of spiritual power will emanate, and the throne of the Kingdom of God will, in the plenitude of its majesty and glory, be firmly established.”

   Any appearance of greatness in any nation devolves upon the abilities, talents and above all, the goals, of its peoples and leaders. Americans are hard workers, with some of the longest working hours of any developed nation. They are generous in the extreme to worthy causes and support other nations as well with aid. America has problems though, some deep like institutionalized prejudice, and a narrow view of world affairs outside its own borders. Yet American values of peace and prosperity are shared the world over, and traditionally America has upheld the rights of democracy and of freedom of expression in religion and speech to name a few. Americans are rightfully proud of those ideals.

   In America, civil leaders at all levels, local, state and federal, are democratically elected by secret ballot in a majority two-party system firmly entrenched. Those of us here just endured an election cycle full of name-calling, fact-bending, and some outright slurs on candidates of the other party. This occurred on both sides. It is debilitating for any rational person to watch or hear and not doubt the qualities of any would-be leader to govern effectively and justly. It is not acceptable and has to change.

   One hotly contested election was in 1960, between Republican candidate Richard Nixon and Democrat John F. Kennedy. I remember being 10-years-old watching their debate on our small-screen  black and white TV, live. As voting results poured in on Tuesday, November 8, I listened with my Mom to Walter Conkrite until the late hours when a narrow victory was accorded to JFK. It was the first time all 50 states had participated.

   President Kennedy was assassinated by a rifleman three years later in Dallas while riding in a motorcade with his wife Jackie and Texas Governor John Connolly and his wife. In some ways the country still mourns his untimely and cruel death.

   The following is an excerpt from the speech he planned to give the night he was fatally shot:

   Finally, I said in Lubbock [Texas] in 1960, as I said in every other speech in this State, that if Lyndon Johnson and I were elected, we would get this country moving again. That pledge has been fulfilled. In nearly every field of national activity, this country is moving again — and Texas is moving with it. From public works to public health, wherever Government programs operate, the past 3 years have seen a new burst of action and progress — in Texas and all over America. We have stepped up the fight against crime and slums and poverty in our cities, against the pollution of our streams, against unemployment in our industry, and against waste in the Federal Government. We have built hospitals and clinics and nursing homes. We have launched a broad new attack on mental illness and mental retardation. We have initiated the training of more physicians and dentists. We have provided 4 times as much housing for our elderly citizens, and we have increased benefits for those on social security.

   Almost everywhere we look, the story is the same. In Latin America, in Africa, in Asia, in the councils of the world and in the jungles of far-off nations, there is now renewed confidence in our country and our convictions.

   For this country is moving and it must not stop. It cannot stop. For this is a time for courage and a time for challenge. Neither conformity nor complacency will do. Neither the fanatics nor the faint-hearted are needed. And our duty as a party is not to our party alone, but to the Nation, and, indeed, to all mankind. Our duty is not merely the preservation of political power but the preservation of peace and freedom.

   So let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation’s future is at stake. Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause–united in our heritage of the past and our hopes for the future — and determined that this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance.

Transcript excerpt from John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum