Whoo-hoo, New book in the Works
About my Book
I’m in the throes of frustration.
I’m scared.
I’m nervous.
I’m procrastinating.
I just wrote the above four sentences perfectly says my grammar checker “Give yourself a pat on the back.”
Well, that’s a first.
A post by Jaq D Hawkings didn’t help my anxiety when she spoke of uploading her book to KDP (Kindle publishing). She checked everything, thinking she had corrected all the typos, had all punctuation correct, and the manuscript formatted correctly only to find she left out the page numbers. And so it goes, back to the file, correct, repeat. And Hawkings is a seasoned writer.
We have a saying in our house that I must paint a room three times to get the color I want. Well, I don’t paint the entire room, but this extrapolates into writing.
The brain is a marvelous mechanism, but sometimes with writing it can do you wrong. You make a mistake, and the brain fills in what it believes ought to be there. You go on your merry way. BUT THERE’S A MISTAKE. And someone will find it—but not you.
No matter how many times you’ve gone over, reread, proofread and edited a manuscript, there is always something that could use a tweak.
“When you finish a manuscript,” wrote somebody smarter than me, “go back to the beginning and rewrite it for then you will be a better writer.”
But I wonder how many times you can do that.
You see, I have worked (played with) this manuscript for over 40 years. I wrote, rewrote, changed the title about fifty times, then went back to the original one that motivated me in the first place.
Song of Africa, that’s it. And I’m going to publish it under jewell d, because I like the name. It’s more lyrical than Joyce Davis.
Miss Sara Rose, had a dream of riding a river in Africa.
In researching Africa in the San Diego Library, I stumbled upon Izak Dinesen’s book, Out of Africa. (Izak Dinesen is Karen Blixen’s nom d plume. It means, “to laugh.”) and from Out of Africa I read Dinesen’s beautiful prose:
“If I know a song of Africa, of the Giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back, of the ploughs in the fields, and the sweaty faces of the coffee-pickers, does Africa know a song of me?”
And fell in love.
This discovery happened long before the movie Out of Africa came out, and later after reading Dinesen’s short story Babette’s Feast, I waited eagerly for the movie, and yesterday, googling it, I found that it won the Academy award for the best International Feature Film in 1988. (Denmark). Last night I watched it again. If you love artists, watch this movie. When the Nobel prize went to Hemingway instead of Dinesen, Hemingway said, “It should have gone to that beautiful writer.)
My publishing company didn’t want another book about Africa, although mine isn’t really, it sort-of is, really it’s about the people who love it. The setting focuses on Africa, but the story spans three continents, includes four love stories, a Peace-corp worker turned peanut farmer, a River-boat Captain, an illustrious boat named Rocinante, a mystery, a lost painting, a spiritual quest, and the search that connects the people.
It’s my book, my story, and I believe in it.
However, my anxiety is that I can’t get my manuscript perfect enough to show it to the world.
And in thinking of Indie publishing, and putting it on Amazon has me in a stew.
Will I ever get it together? Time will tell.
But I can’t wait another 40 years. And it takes two years to get a book published with a conventional publisher.
So, it’s Indie for me.
The story is about three women, how they connect, and the ramification of one person having a dream and acting on it. Miss Sara Rose, who began it all, Sara Andrews, her name sake, and Patrice DeShane, Miss Rose’s inherited granddaughter, the child of Africa.
“And please,” to quote, Katharine E. Hamilton, “Do not make the mistake of assuming an Indie Author's work does not measure up to a traditionally measured book. Don't give us the small head tilt and the stink eye... when honestly, sometimes the opposite is quite true. Janet Evanovich, Colleen Hoover, E.L. James, Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe... all started out as Self/Indie Authors ... Mark Twain started his own printing company to put his books out!”
Song of Africa, soon to be a major motion picture.—in my dreams.
When J.R.R.Tolkien, released The Lord of the Rings, he said, “I have exposed my heart to be shot at.”
I'm about ready to set up my target.
Story
January 30, 2020
Story lifts us out of the ordinary into the sublime, and for a time to silences the chattering mind.
Wow, read novels.
Robert McKee wrote this: "A beautifully told story is a symphonic unity in which structure, setting, character, genre and idea blend seamlessly."
Yes, that's it, that's what I saw in novels and said, "Holy moley, how in the heck can I do that?"
But I jumped in, and worked on a novel for 40 years.
I would love to take Robert McKee's seminar, but it's in L.A., I'm in Oregon, and it costs over 1,000 dollars--so I bought a book instead.
Some tidbits from McKee:
Published wayback:
For you writers among us...
Have you noticed how hard it is to change something you’ve already written?
The sound of the words keep coming back, and you want to shake them loose, but somehow, they resist, like plastic you can’t crumble.
I’m heavy into a manuscript I began over 40 years ago. At the time, I could write in the first person, but using an omnipotent point of view escaped me. I noticed how language, conversation, description past and present were all mixed up, and in the hands of a master, beautiful. But, I’m not a master.
However, one day, it came to me. I felt that I got the rhythm of it. I had a story, but it was too short, so I continued on with it, and the second one wrote itself.
Can you relate to this?
Sometimes the best thing is to put the old aside and completely rewrite the entire chapter.
Way back post:
“Boy do I have an answer for you."
A comment from a fellow writer:
“I was interested in how you center yourself and clear your head prior to writing. I have had trouble clearing my mind in getting my ideas out. I truly do enjoy writing but it seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any suggestions or hints?”
Okay, here goes. This is one of my favorite writing techniques. For those who have heard me speak of it, sorry to repeat myself, for those who haven’t, come, get on board.
This technique was coined by Julia Cameron in her book, The Artist Way. It is writing your “Morning Pages.”
Your First Fifteen Minutes Are Not Wasted.
Writing Morning Pages is a mind dump.
Morning Pages are an exercise is to write out what’s on your mind, that junk that likes to cycle and recycle.
Morning Pages are those first pages writers used to crumple up and vigorously heave into the wastepaper basket. Now, with the keyboard, we are missing that satisfying crumbling and throwing, and I suppose ripping the paper out of the typewriter has a satisfying ring to it. Using the keyboard is the same sort of writing though, without the throwing or ripping.
Writing your thoughts instead of allowing them to circle allows you to put a period at the end of a sentence. Our fingers get tired of writing the same old thing over and over. That’s punishment, like sending a kid to the blackboard to write out the error of their ways.
So, write for those 15 minutes, all the junk you don’t want anyone to see. Keep them or delete them.
You’ll find that after writing those few minutes, that you have exhausted your mind’s ramble, and something of importance begins to worm its way in.
I look at those pages as a sort of meditation/cleansing. And it tells your muse you mean business.
After I heard that the simple act of writing longhand (cursive) brings forth creativity, I now think we ought to write our morning pages longhand, Probably compose that way as well. But, we probably won’t. It’s easier to type, as I am now doing.
Apparently, there is a mind/brain connection with the act of writing with a pencil or pen. The movement of the arm connects the brain somehow, it is a feedback system.
I believe so strongly in Morning Pages, that I think non-writers ought to use them.
I’m thinking specifically of those individuals who will tell a story, then retell it, then tell it again.
They have a mind loop.
I know they have a need to tell particular stories, for they have some latent emotional impact, often trauma. It’s a sort of Post Traumatic Syndrome. One psychologist commented, “Tell your stories as often as you want, but I think 10 times is enough.”
Put a period at the end of the sentence.
Stop.
About my Book
I’m in the throes of frustration.
I’m scared.
I’m nervous.
I’m procrastinating.
I just wrote the above four sentences perfectly says my grammar checker “Give yourself a pat on the back.”
Well, that’s a first.
A post by Jaq D Hawkings didn’t help my anxiety when she spoke of uploading her book to KDP (Kindle publishing). She checked everything, thinking she had corrected all the typos, had all punctuation correct, and the manuscript formatted correctly only to find she left out the page numbers. And so it goes, back to the file, correct, repeat. And Hawkings is a seasoned writer.
We have a saying in our house that I must paint a room three times to get the color I want. Well, I don’t paint the entire room, but this extrapolates into writing.
The brain is a marvelous mechanism, but sometimes with writing it can do you wrong. You make a mistake, and the brain fills in what it believes ought to be there. You go on your merry way. BUT THERE’S A MISTAKE. And someone will find it—but not you.
No matter how many times you’ve gone over, reread, proofread and edited a manuscript, there is always something that could use a tweak.
“When you finish a manuscript,” wrote somebody smarter than me, “go back to the beginning and rewrite it for then you will be a better writer.”
But I wonder how many times you can do that.
You see, I have worked (played with) this manuscript for over 40 years. I wrote, rewrote, changed the title about fifty times, then went back to the original one that motivated me in the first place.
Song of Africa, that’s it. And I’m going to publish it under jewell d, because I like the name. It’s more lyrical than Joyce Davis.
Miss Sara Rose, had a dream of riding a river in Africa.
In researching Africa in the San Diego Library, I stumbled upon Izak Dinesen’s book, Out of Africa. (Izak Dinesen is Karen Blixen’s nom d plume. It means, “to laugh.”) and from Out of Africa I read Dinesen’s beautiful prose:
“If I know a song of Africa, of the Giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back, of the ploughs in the fields, and the sweaty faces of the coffee-pickers, does Africa know a song of me?”
And fell in love.
This discovery happened long before the movie Out of Africa came out, and later after reading Dinesen’s short story Babette’s Feast, I waited eagerly for the movie, and yesterday, googling it, I found that it won the Academy award for the best International Feature Film in 1988. (Denmark). Last night I watched it again. If you love artists, watch this movie. When the Nobel prize went to Hemingway instead of Dinesen, Hemingway said, “It should have gone to that beautiful writer.)
My publishing company didn’t want another book about Africa, although mine isn’t really, it sort-of is, really it’s about the people who love it. The setting focuses on Africa, but the story spans three continents, includes four love stories, a Peace-corp worker turned peanut farmer, a River-boat Captain, an illustrious boat named Rocinante, a mystery, a lost painting, a spiritual quest, and the search that connects the people.
It’s my book, my story, and I believe in it.
However, my anxiety is that I can’t get my manuscript perfect enough to show it to the world.
And in thinking of Indie publishing, and putting it on Amazon has me in a stew.
Will I ever get it together? Time will tell.
But I can’t wait another 40 years. And it takes two years to get a book published with a conventional publisher.
So, it’s Indie for me.
The story is about three women, how they connect, and the ramification of one person having a dream and acting on it. Miss Sara Rose, who began it all, Sara Andrews, her name sake, and Patrice DeShane, Miss Rose’s inherited granddaughter, the child of Africa.
“And please,” to quote, Katharine E. Hamilton, “Do not make the mistake of assuming an Indie Author's work does not measure up to a traditionally measured book. Don't give us the small head tilt and the stink eye... when honestly, sometimes the opposite is quite true. Janet Evanovich, Colleen Hoover, E.L. James, Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe... all started out as Self/Indie Authors ... Mark Twain started his own printing company to put his books out!”
Song of Africa, soon to be a major motion picture.—in my dreams.
When J.R.R.Tolkien, released The Lord of the Rings, he said, “I have exposed my heart to be shot at.”
I'm about ready to set up my target.
Story
January 30, 2020
Story lifts us out of the ordinary into the sublime, and for a time to silences the chattering mind.
Wow, read novels.
Robert McKee wrote this: "A beautifully told story is a symphonic unity in which structure, setting, character, genre and idea blend seamlessly."
Yes, that's it, that's what I saw in novels and said, "Holy moley, how in the heck can I do that?"
But I jumped in, and worked on a novel for 40 years.
I would love to take Robert McKee's seminar, but it's in L.A., I'm in Oregon, and it costs over 1,000 dollars--so I bought a book instead.
Some tidbits from McKee:
- "All notions of paradigms and foolproof story models for commercial success are nonsense."
- "Story is far to rick in mystery to be reduced to a formula. Only a fool would try."
- "There is no writing recipe that guarantees your cake will rise."
- "Story is about principles not rules."
- "Story is about archetypes not stereotypes."
- "Story is about eternal, universal forms, not formula."
- "Story is about thoroughness, not shortcuts."
- "Story is about realities, not the mystery of writing."
- "Story is not about second-guessing the marketplace."
- "Story is about mastering the art."
- Story is about respect, not disdain for the audience."
- "Story is original, not duplication."
Published wayback:
For you writers among us...
Have you noticed how hard it is to change something you’ve already written?
The sound of the words keep coming back, and you want to shake them loose, but somehow, they resist, like plastic you can’t crumble.
I’m heavy into a manuscript I began over 40 years ago. At the time, I could write in the first person, but using an omnipotent point of view escaped me. I noticed how language, conversation, description past and present were all mixed up, and in the hands of a master, beautiful. But, I’m not a master.
However, one day, it came to me. I felt that I got the rhythm of it. I had a story, but it was too short, so I continued on with it, and the second one wrote itself.
Can you relate to this?
Sometimes the best thing is to put the old aside and completely rewrite the entire chapter.
Way back post:
“Boy do I have an answer for you."
A comment from a fellow writer:
“I was interested in how you center yourself and clear your head prior to writing. I have had trouble clearing my mind in getting my ideas out. I truly do enjoy writing but it seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any suggestions or hints?”
Okay, here goes. This is one of my favorite writing techniques. For those who have heard me speak of it, sorry to repeat myself, for those who haven’t, come, get on board.
This technique was coined by Julia Cameron in her book, The Artist Way. It is writing your “Morning Pages.”
Your First Fifteen Minutes Are Not Wasted.
Writing Morning Pages is a mind dump.
Morning Pages are an exercise is to write out what’s on your mind, that junk that likes to cycle and recycle.
Morning Pages are those first pages writers used to crumple up and vigorously heave into the wastepaper basket. Now, with the keyboard, we are missing that satisfying crumbling and throwing, and I suppose ripping the paper out of the typewriter has a satisfying ring to it. Using the keyboard is the same sort of writing though, without the throwing or ripping.
Writing your thoughts instead of allowing them to circle allows you to put a period at the end of a sentence. Our fingers get tired of writing the same old thing over and over. That’s punishment, like sending a kid to the blackboard to write out the error of their ways.
So, write for those 15 minutes, all the junk you don’t want anyone to see. Keep them or delete them.
You’ll find that after writing those few minutes, that you have exhausted your mind’s ramble, and something of importance begins to worm its way in.
I look at those pages as a sort of meditation/cleansing. And it tells your muse you mean business.
After I heard that the simple act of writing longhand (cursive) brings forth creativity, I now think we ought to write our morning pages longhand, Probably compose that way as well. But, we probably won’t. It’s easier to type, as I am now doing.
Apparently, there is a mind/brain connection with the act of writing with a pencil or pen. The movement of the arm connects the brain somehow, it is a feedback system.
I believe so strongly in Morning Pages, that I think non-writers ought to use them.
I’m thinking specifically of those individuals who will tell a story, then retell it, then tell it again.
They have a mind loop.
I know they have a need to tell particular stories, for they have some latent emotional impact, often trauma. It’s a sort of Post Traumatic Syndrome. One psychologist commented, “Tell your stories as often as you want, but I think 10 times is enough.”
Put a period at the end of the sentence.
Stop.
Write for the joy of it whether the muse visits or not. Some wait for inspiration, nope, write anyway.
If someone tells you your dream is unrealistic, that's a sure-fire reason you should go for it.
"Your life doesn't get more sensational with more followers on twitter."--Seth Godin.
"Your life doesn't get more sensational with more followers on twitter."--Seth Godin.
Concerned about marketing?
Listen to this:
One woudn't think that Coca Cola, the originator of that flavored carbonated drink, the first in its field, would ever need to advertise, but they didn't for one month and Pepsi beat them out by 12%.
Unbelievable.
