Daily Practice Rules
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
The Precepts of blogging an entry a day from The Writing Life 2

This blog is an exercise in anti-perfectionism, discipline, and practice.

1)Write 250-1,000 words per night.
2)Post first drafts only.
3)Write it in under 30 mins.
4)Never blog about blogging.
5)Be nice, fair, and honest - without selling out.

Why Unpublished Writers Should Blog
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Sunday 9:07pm 30July06
Well, in one of my many blog entries yesterday, I said I would attempt the blog a day entry in honour of Katey. Here we go...

I think unpublished writers should blog and here's why:

We have these visions of what life will be like when we are published and to some extent blogging gives you a taste of what might happen. We think that all the people we've ever known will support us when we finally sell that novel but will they?

When you send out that first announcement to all your friends about how you now have a blog and you'd love it if they drop by and read some of your entries you will get the following:

Some of your friends will read it. Of those friends some will tell you what they think and some will never mention that they've even looked at it. That could be because they like it and don't know how to say that or they hate it and don't know how to tell you. Some people may think you are full of yourself or that you have absolutely no talent.

Some of your friends will ask, "What's the purpose of a blog anyway?" And that will be the only acknowledgment you ever get that they received your announcement of your new blog.

Some of your friends will say, "Oh yes, I keep meaning to check out your blog"

Those few examples are a good thing. It's a taste of what being published will be like. You want thousands of readers to buy your novel but maybe only a few will. You want those thousands of people to read your novel and love it. Maybe half those people that did buy it will get around to reading it all the way through. Most won't.
Critics will either get your work or hate it or worse yet, not get it.
Everyone will have an opinion one way or the other.

If you are lucky enough to have a book launch maybe two of your friends will show up to support you. Can you handle that?

If you can blog and handle the fact that your friends, people who care about you, have no interest in reading it, you are closer to handling what life will be like as a published writer. There are always going to be people that like your work and people that hate it and people that are indifferent to it. And some of those people you will know intimately.

I know, I've experienced all those blogging examples and when I got over realizing that only some of my friends had checked me out I realized that it actually doesn't hurt. The point of putting myself out there was to share with whoever wanted to read my stuff. And the benefit has been that people I don't know have also checked me out.
Maybe they'll buy my novel when it's published. Mind you, there's no guarantee in that either.

EY

Stick a fork in me
Now Playing: Luther Vandross - Make me A Believer
Topic: WC - Blogathon
Well this is my last entry for my Fake Blogathon. I lasted twelve hours. Far longer than I'd planned or expected.

It was fun, I'm sure it would be more fun if I did the real thing and raised a few dollars for my favorite charity.

But I did learn a few things. You certainly can't slow yourself down about worrying about what to write about. You think of a topic and go with it. Some of my topics were better than others but that's to be expected. This wasn't to be award winning writing or anything.

I wish I worked more on the piece I started but alas, I feel like I'd would have had to do more writing on it while I was waiting for the timer said it was 30 minutes again.

The other good thing is that my mind was in writing and then I was off doing other stuff and then in 30 minutes my mind had to be back into writing. That's something to take away. To Bracket my focus. Sit down and focus on what I'm doing here and then when I'm there focus on that... Ha Ha! Otherwise known as being in the now!

It's been a slice. I think I'll do it for real next year. Add that to my calendar...
Blogged out!

EY

P.S. notice all those grammatical errors? That's what 12 hours will get you! i'm not even going back to correct them.

IFOA Notes 8
Now Playing: Rahsaan Patterson
Topic: Writing Outings
More notes and quotes from the International Festival of Authors

Edmund White
- wrote to keep my head above the water - a life saving activity
- no distinction between work and play
- never wanting to give away my freedom as a writer
- began writing to make money.
- staging questions or issues to work your way around it until you figure it out or come up with your opinion on it.
- learned not to be word proud
- when you write for a living you can't afford to have writer's block
- real interest in the world, how things get done.
- writing is a total liberty to create
- archeology of sentiments

Nancy Huston
- people who perform the unthinkable in society
- the story of my life that I would rather have happened - the tragedies
- when paranoia becomes reality

These entries are from other sources like the newspaper or the Writing Life on Bravo.
Philip Marchand
from a review in the Toronto Star, I believe...
Hardy was an author who seemed to love unhappy endings for their own sake. In his novels, he made sure that hings turned out badly for his protagonists. the reason for this, apart from his personal temperament, was his belief that the world was inherently opposed to human beings. we humans, alone among creatures, possessed consciousness and therefore the faculty of hope, which was certain to be thwarted by a blind, indifferent universe.

Jackie Collins
main ingredient - feisty heroine
two men to choose - one good, one bad
exciting story - something that drives the story (stalker, kidnapper etc)
character changes throughout the novel
great sex!

- Live your life and if the great man comes along good. You can do whatever you want to before marriage but once you get married that's it - be faithful.

George P. Pelecanos
my method is simple: to present the world as it is, rather than the way readers want it to be.

Erica Jong
- the act of writing always made me feel centred and whole. It is my meditation, my medicine, my prayer, my solace. If you are relentlessly honest about what you feel and fear, you can become a mouthpiece for something more than your own feelings.

Writers in the News
I don't have the date of this!
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that Brazilian Ryoki Inoue had just written his 1,039th novel since he took up the craft 10 years ago. For the benefit of the reported, Inoue started the book around 10p.m., and by 5:30am had put the finishing touches on a 195 page story of drug traffickers and corrupt cops.

Switch Male to Female and Vice Versa
Now Playing: Rahsaan Patterson
Topic: WC - Blogathon
A writer instrcutor once told us that if you really wanted to write about your personal life to take the main person in your story and make him or her the opposite sex.

Then it would be easier to stray from the "real" story and make it fiction. You could still write the essence of the story. The auto biography of emotions, if you will. And people won't sue you...